Peter Baker (10 December 1931 – 27 January 2016) was an English

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 lea ...

. Educated at Southgate County School in North London, he played

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

and was part of the

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

-winning side of 1960-61 and won the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

with Spurs in

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

. He played 299 league games for Tottenham scoring three goals.

Playing career

Baker joined Tottenham Hotspur from

non-League Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

club Enfield in October 1952. After a slow start at Spurs he gained a place in the first team and quickly improved and went on to play a key role in the Spurs

Double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

-winning side of 1960–61. He stayed with them until the end of the 1964-65 season, keeping a regular place in the team from the 1960–61 season until the end of the 1963-64 season, when he was replaced by

Cyril Knowles Cyril Barry Knowles (13 July 1944 – 30 August 1991) was a footballer who played left-back for Tottenham Hotspur and England. He was the son of the rugby league footballer Cyril Knowles, and the older brother of fellow professional football ...

. After leaving

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...

Baker emigrated to South Africa, where he joined Durban United and later became the club's manager.

Post-football career

After retiring from the game he settled in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

, South Africa, where he ran an office and stationery business. He has been included in the Tottenham Hotspur Hall of Fame. He died in 2016 following an illness, aged 84.

Honours

Tottenham Hotspur *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

: 1960–61 *

: 1960–61, 1961–62 *

European Cup Winners Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renamed the UEFA Cup Winne ...

: 1962–63

References

1931 births 2016 deaths Footballers from the London Borough of Camden People from Hampstead English men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Enfield F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Durban United F.C. players Romford F.C. players English Football League players People educated at Southgate School English emigrants to South Africa 20th-century English sportsmen {{England-footy-defender-1930s-stub