Derek Alan Leck (8 February 1937 – 11 July 2011) was an English professional footballer who played as a

right half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

centre forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for Millwall, Northampton Town and Brighton & Hove Albion.

Life and career

Leck was born in 1937 in

Deal, Kent Deal is a coastal town in Kent, England, which lies where the North Sea and the English Channel meet, north-east of Dover and south of Ramsgate. It is a former fishing, mining and garrison town whose history is closely linked to the anchora ...

. He joined Millwall from Leyton Youth Club and turned professional in 1955, but played little, and moved on to

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

club Northampton Town in 1958. Converted from

to wing half, he became a regular in the Northampton side that gained three promotions in the next six seasons to reach the First Division for the

1965–66 Football League The 1965–66 season was the 67th completed season of the Football League. This season is notable for Liverpool winning the title – their seventh overall – with only 14 squad players. The Second, Third and Fourth Divisions were won by Manches ...

season. After 268 appearances in all competitions, he left the club in November 1965 for Brighton & Hove Albion where his league career ended prematurely because of injury. He played on for non-league clubs Hastings United and Crawley Town, and worked as a baker in the

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

area, where he remained until his death from cancer in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

in 2011 at the age of 74.

References

1937 births 2011 deaths People from Deal, Kent English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Men's association football wing halves Millwall F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Hastings United F.C. (1948) players Crawley Town F.C. players English Football League players Footballers from Kent {{England-footy-forward-1930s-stub