Richard Peter Le Flem (born 12 July 1942) is an English retired 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 as a

left winger 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 boundarie ...

. He played 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

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

and

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a professio ...

, and made one appearances for the England U23 national team at international level.

Early life

Dick Le Flem was born in

Bradford on Avon Bradford-on-Avon (sometimes Bradford on Avon or Bradford upon Avon) is a town and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England, near the border with Somerset, which had a population of 9,402 at the 2011 census. The town's canal, historic buildings, s ...

, Wiltshire, on 12 July 1942. His parents were from

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

, but had evacuated to England due to the

German occupation of the Channel Islands The military occupation of the Channel Islands by Nazi Germany lasted for most of the Second World War, from 30 June 1940 until liberation on 9 May 1945. The Bailiwick of Jersey and Bailiwick of Guernsey are two island countries and British ...

during the Second World War. He grew up on Guernsey after the war.

Club career

Le Flem was one of a number of young footballers from the Channel Islands recruited by

in the 1950s. He joined the club as an apprentice in 1959 before signing as a professional in May 1960. He made his debut in a 3–1 win away to

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

on 10 September 1960 and went on to play 132

games for Forest, scoring 18 goals. He was transferred to

in January 1964, in a swap for

Alan Hinton Alan Thomas Hinton (born 6 October 1942) is an English former footballer who played at the top level of English football from 1961 to 1975. He famously wore white football boots. Playing career Wolverhampton Wanderers Hinton started his career ...

. His spell at Wolves was disrupted by serious illness, when he contracted jaundice on a visit home to Guernsey. He later had short spells with

and

before retiring from football in 1967.

International career

Le Flem played once for the England under-23 team on 23 November 1961, in 1 5–2 win over the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

. He made another representative appearance in 1965, when he played for an FA XI that beat

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

10–0.

After football

Le Flem returned to Guernsey after retirement, working as an export specialist for an electronics company. He later worked for Guernsey Water as a mains and service executive.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Flem, Dick Living people 1942 births People from Bradford-on-Avon English men's footballers Guernsey men's footballers Men's association football wingers Nottingham Forest F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players England men's under-23 international footballers English Football League players Footballers from Wiltshire