By Brian Knight* in Cheltenham on 30/06/2014 ...

Len Boyd has a special place in Plymouth Argyle’s history as the first player to be transferred out of Home Park for a five-figure fee, when Birmingham City paid £17,500 for his services in January 1949. It was a measure of the rapid advance made by the young player who, only 18 months earlier, had been regarded as a promising inside-forward but not ready to hold down a place in Argyle’s first team.

This view of his abilities changed at the start of the 1947-8 season when team reshuffling cast him in the role of a right-half. From that point Boyd’s confidence and performance improved rapidly and the big clubs were soon beginning to take notice. Birmingham City were impressed by his display in a match at St Andrew’s at the beginning of 1948 but waited another year before making their offer to Argyle in negotiations which were kept secret from the Press and the public until the transfer had been completed. As if to underline Argyle’s folly in releasing Boyd, Argyle lost their very ...  More

By Brian Knight* in Cheltenham on 30/06/2014 ...

Len Boyd has a special place in Plymouth Argyle’s history as the first player to be transferred out of Home Park for a five-figure fee, when Birmingham City paid £17,500 for his services in January 1949. It was a measure of the rapid advance made by the young player who, only 18 months earlier, had been regarded as a promising inside-forward but not ready to hold down a place in Argyle’s first team.

This view of his abilities changed at the start of the 1947-8 season when team reshuffling cast him in the role of a right-half. From that point Boyd’s confidence and performance improved rapidly and the big clubs were soon beginning to take notice. Birmingham City were impressed by his display in a match at St Andrew’s at the beginning of 1948 but waited another year before making their offer to Argyle in negotiations which were kept secret from the Press and the public until the transfer had been completed. As if to underline Argyle’s folly in releasing Boyd, Argyle lost their very next match, 6-1 at Fulham.

Birmingham, meanwhile, were to prosper. Boyd was eventually appointed captain and led the Blues to the Second Division championship in 1955 and an FA Cup Final at Wembley the following year. While with Birmingham, Boyd won an England ‘B’ cap although he never graduated to full international honours.

A Londoner, born in Plaistow on 11 November 1923, Boyd had played in the same West Ham Schools team as Ken Green, later to be a team-mate at Birmingham, but the outbreak of war seemed to have ended his dreams of becoming a professional. Then an Argyle supporter spotted him playing in Naval football in Malta towards the end of the war and recommended him to the Home Park club.

A tall, well-built player with a long stride, Boyd liked nothing better than bringing the ball out of defence into attack, driving the forwards before him with one of those imperious waves which were to become his trademark. Defensive duties sometimes had to take second place when Boyd was on one of those forays but he was always a player who sought to impose himself on a game rather than simply be carried along by the flow of a match.

*Extracted from Plymouth Argyle - A Complete Record 1903-1989 by Brian Knight [ISBN 0 907969 40 2] and reproduced with his kind permission.

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