Steve Bradley talks to club President Harry Peakman In the year when the Allied Forces made inroads into Mussolini's Italy, Harry Peakman joined Boldmere St Michael's Football Club as a player. Sixty-five years on, he's still there, as club president. To call the Midland Football Alliance club Harry's life would probably be an understatement. The 87-year-old still opens up the club on match days and makes half-time drinks for home and away teams, as well as testing the pressure of the match balls. Only ill-health has led the bachelor, who still lives in the Witton house where he was born, to miss games, but he has been back at the helm to see the team finish fourth in the league, which is eight down from the Premiership in the Football Association pyramid. The former wing-half, who also turned out as a full-back and centre-half, enjoyed a lengthy yet only moderately successful playing career with the Mikes, never scoring a goal. He appeared for the first team, but mostly played for the second string, and captained the side. "I used to like stopping other people, rather than scoring," he said. "I tackled properly and was never booked - they don't know how to tackle nowadays. And if the referee said black was white, nobody argued." Harry took on the role of first-team trainer in 1951 and became a club director seven years later. He took the role of secretary in the 60s and served on the committee for 21 years, later as chairman. The then FA secretary Ted Croker made a special award to Harry in 1986 for his long service. in 1991 he became president. The man who introduced Harry to the Mikes was Harry Parkes, a fellow apprentice toolmaker at GEC in Witton. Parkes later enjoyed a successful career with Aston Villa and opened a renowned sports shop in Birmingham's Corporation Street, but Peakman stuck it out in Boldmere, never becoming disenchanted with the club. "When I first came here there was a solid brick fire station building where the car park is now," he said. "Players used to change in a little hut and there was an air-raid shelter next to the pitch. All round the back, where houses are now, it used to be just woods." He missed Boldmere's finest moment, when the first team played in front of 27,000 people at Arsenal's Highbury Stadium in 1948, in the semi-final of the FA Vase against Barnet. "They lost 2-0, but I wasn't there because we had a reserve side and we wouldn't go and watch - we wanted to play football!" Harry's highlight at the club, apart from "just playing for Boldmere", was an off-the-field one. "It was when we won both the Midland Football Alliance's Hospitality Cup and the league's best discipline award in 2002-03. We've now won the hospitality award three times on the trot." The award judges clubs on their treatment of match officials and members of opposing clubs, looking at the welcome they extend, the food and the general ambience. Dignified Harry, a life-long socialist, said he believed in treating everyone the same and did not look down at anyone. He recalled a time when play-ers used to travel to away games in the back of builder Harold Spencer's lorry, sheltered by a tarpaulin. Later they would go by bus. These days, of course, footballers get to opponents' grounds in their own cars. Harry said: "I try to lead by example. I'm all for Boldmere and I'm trying to make it everyone's club. I like players to respect the club, but if they don't want to play for the club any more and want to leave, they can. "They leave to better themselves which I'm in full agreement with, but I don't then like them to come back again, for the simple reason that they are pushing other fellows out. "We can't afford to pay them what other clubs pay, so we try to develop our own players, which has stood us in good stead. This year is the best we've ever had - the youths can win the league and won the Staffordshire County Cup, beating Burton Albion, the reserves are second in the league, won a cup and are in another semi-final, and the first team finished fourth in the league. We won the Walsall Senior Cup in the last two years and are in the final again, at Bescot Stadium." The low-point of Harry's time at the Mikes was a fire which destroyed the clubhouse in June 1971, but he was impressed with the resilience and fighting spirit shown by members in the aftermath, and the support shown by the club's peers. "The players and the committee members came up and put up two temporary prefab huts in time for the start of the next season. We sent letters round to all the pro clubs asking for money, but the only one that helped us was Aston Villa, who sent us £100. The biggest help was from the clubs in the Worcester Combination (the league the team was playing in). They sent £350." To some extent the Mikes have involved Harry's whole family. His own sister Maisie Dawson used to work at the club, serving tea from a little hatch, while her husband Harold was a general committee member. Harry's brother Leonard helped behind the bar. Harry was made redundant at GEC in the late 60s but got another job straight away as an unemployment officer at Aston Labour Exchange. He retired aged 64 when he needed a quadruple heart bypass. He has had further heart and vascular problems, but the teetotal nonsmoker still drives himself to home games. A social club, built in 1979 at the ground, included The Peakman Room in recognition of Harry's amazing contribution to the club. "Being single, I've always thought that I'm my own boss," said Harry, who has no intention of retiring. "I can go where and when I like. "It's my life and I've enjoyed it. I have made a lot of good friends and I like people to think they are going to be treated fair-ly." | 
