GEORGE BAKER

Full Name: Thomas George Baker (also known as Tom)

Born: 06 April 1936

Came from: Maerdy   Went to: Shrewsbury Town

First game: 23 October 1954   Last game: 24 October 1959

Appearances: 83 (83/0)   Goals: 17

Born in Maerdy, a village in Rhondda, Baker was playing for Maerdy and working at the Rest Assured mattress factory in the town when he asked his boss for some time off in 1952 after being invited for a trial with Plymouth Argyle. He was never to return.

Baker was signed as a teenager and developed in the Plymouth & District, Devon Wednesday and Football Combination Leagues. His big break came on Christmas Day 1957, when he was selected by Jimmy Rae for the game at Newport County. His inclusion brought together the successful forward line of Anderson, Carter, Baker, Gauld and Penk.

Originally a winger, Baker was converted into a deep-lying centre-forward, a role pioneered by the great Hungarian side of the mid-fifties. Never a prolific scorer, he had an important role that was perhaps appreciated more by his colleagues than supporters, and later played under Jack Rowley after Jimmy Rae.

His career highlight came in April 1958 at Wrexham, when Wales under-23s beat an England side spearheaded by Brian Clough and Jimmy Greaves. It was the start of his prime, and he won a Third Division championship medal for the 1958-59 season, playing 32 times and scoring six goals. However, troubled by a knee injury, he was to play only twice more for Argyle after the 1958-59 promotion.

Baker is also celebrated as the first Argyle player to be included in a FIFA World Cup squad. He was listed as 'Number 22, George Baker (Plymouth Argyle)', and was included as a member of the Wales squad for the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden, where Wales progressed to the quarter-finals before being knocked out by Brazil.

Incredibly, however, Baker was one of four members of the 22-man squad who never made the trip to Sweden. Along with Graham Vearncombe, John Elsworthy and Len Allchurch, he was left behind because there were not enough seats on the aeroplane. Consequently, he was listed as an 'unused substitute' for all five of Wales' matches in the tournament.

Astonishingly, in a later interview, Baker revealed: "Four of the Welsh FA officials decided to take their wives. That meant there were not enough seats on the plane and me and three others were left at home. We were told to 'stay fit' in case we were needed, but the call never came." One can only imagine the reaction of the press if such a thing happened today.

Unperturbed, in 1960 he moved to Shrewsbury Town under player-manager Arthur Rowley, the younger brother of Argyle's Jack, playing 52 times and scoring five goals between 1960 and 1962. He was also in the Shrewsbury side against Walsall when Arthur Rowley broke Dixie Dean's record for Football League goals. His record of 434 goals stands to this day as the Football League record.

After leaving Gay Meadow, George eventually returned to his native South Wales, playing for Barry Town, where he wound down his playing career. After retiring from football, he became an executive for an opencast mining company in south Wales.

He had settled in Tylorstown, in Rhondda, by 2008. In September 2008, as part of a 50th anniversary reunion of the 1958-59 Third Division championship team, the surviving members of the squad came together at Home Park for a home game. Argyle author Steve Rhodes, who wrote Thanks for the Memory, a book on that season, took many photographs on the day, including one of George proudly holding a 'Baker, 9' shirt produced by the club from that season's kit for the returning heroes of 1958-59.

George passed away in April 2024, aged 88, in Tylorstown.