Derek Stokes (13 September 1939 – 24 May 2022) was an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played for

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

and Huddersfield Town during the 1950s and 1960s, as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

Early life

Born in Snydale near Normanton, Stokes was the youngest of 11 children, 10 boys and 1 girl.

Career

Stokes began his career with

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

and Snydale Road Athletic, before moving from Snydale to

in May 1956. He had two spells with the club which saw him score 55 goals in 126 league games. He scored in 8 consecutive matches between 26 December 1959 and 6 February 1960, scoring a total of 14 goals; the record was later matched by

Nahki Wells Nahki Michael Wells (born 1 June 1990) is a Bermudian professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Bristol City and the Bermuda national team. Wells began his career in his native Bermuda, playing for Dandy Town Hornets and Bermu ...

. His time at Bradford City was split by a spell with Huddersfield Town. In total, he scored 120 goals in 279 Football League appearances for the two clubs. He scored on both of his debuts for Bradford City and on his debut for Huddersfield. He later played in Ireland with Dundalk, scoring 58 goals in 122 goals in all competitions for the club, before finishing his career with

Drogheda United Drogheda United Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Dhroichead Átha Aontaithe) is a semi-professional Irish association football club based in Drogheda, County Louth playing in the League of Ireland Premier Division. They play their home matches ...

. He also played for England under-23s.

Later life and death

After retiring in 1970, Stokes worked as a golf steward and publican. Following his retirement, Stokes moved down to Charmouth in Dorset where he lived until 2016 before moving back to

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

. Stokes had dementia, which he was diagnosed with in 2018. He died on the evening of 24 May 2022 at the age of 82.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stokes, Derek 1939 births 2022 deaths Sportspeople from Normanton, West Yorkshire Footballers from West Yorkshire English men's footballers Men's association football forwards England men's under-23 international footballers English Football League players League of Ireland players Bradford City A.F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Dundalk F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Drogheda United F.C. players