Stanley John Trafford (21 December 1945 – 19 November 2020) 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 le ...

and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. He played his football for

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

and

Macclesfield Town Macclesfield Town Football Club was an English professional association football, football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that was liquidation, wound-up after a High Court of Justice, High Court ruling on 16 September 2020. Initially kno ...

, and his cricket for

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

Early life

Trafford was born in

Leek, Staffordshire Leek is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the county of Staffordshire, England, on the River Churnet. It is situated about north east of Stoke-on-Trent. It is an ancient borough and was granted its royal charter in 1 ...

on 21 December 1945. He was a keen football and cricket player in his youth and once took four wickets in four balls when playing for his school side. Trafford also played for the

youth team In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

Football career

Trafford signed for Port Vale as a professional under

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Freddie Steele Freddie Steele (December 18, 1912 – August 22, 1984) was a boxer and film actor born Frederick Earle Burgett in Seattle, Washington. He was recognized as the National Boxing Association (NBA) Middleweight Champion of the World between 1936 ...

in October 1964. He made 12 Third Division appearances. He scored one goal in a 2–1 win over

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic ...

during the 1964–65 season. Making his first-team debut at

Vale Park Vale Park is a football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It has been the home ground of Port Vale F.C. since 1950. The ground has seen its capacity go up and down, its peak being 42,000 in 1954 against Blackpool, although a club record 49, ...

on 17 October, in a 2–1 defeat to

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

, it was reported that "the loud mouths on the terraces certainly did a good job fhindering Stan Trafford". He scored his only goal in the

English 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 Engl ...

in a 2–1 win over

on 15 March. He was handed a free transfer by new boss

Jackie Mudie John Knight Mudie (10 April 1930 – 2 March 1992) was a Scottish international footballer who played as a forward. He won seventeen caps for his country, helping the Scotland national team to qualify for the 1958 FIFA World Cup. Startin ...

in April 1965. He signed with

of the

Cheshire County League The Cheshire County League was a football league founded in the north west of England in 1919, drawing its teams largely from Cheshire, surrounding English counties and North Wales. Initially the league was dominated by the reserve teams of Footba ...

in January 1966. He made ten appearances before leaving

Moss Rose Moss Rose, known as The Leasing.com Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, which is the home ground of Macclesfield F.C., and the former home of Macclesfield Town F.C., Macclesfield Town, a clu ...

in the summer. Trafford was a Port Vale's ex-players association member and attended a game at the club in the 2019–20 season. He remained close friends with former team-mate Terry Lowe.

Cricket career

In cricket, Trafford made his debut for

in 1963, playing two matches that season against

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

and

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

in the

Minor Counties Cricket Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

. Trafford next appeared for Staffordshire in 1976, playing two further Minor Counties Championship matches against

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

and

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

. It was in 1976 that Trafford played his only

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

match, which came against

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

in the Gillette Cup. In this match, he was dismissed for a single run by

John Lever John Kenneth Lever (born 24 February 1949) is an English former international cricketer who played Test and One Day International cricket for England. Lever was a left-arm fast-medium bowler who predominantly swung the ball into right-handed ...

. He retired as a player in 1984. Trafford was associated with Leek Cricket Club for 60 years as a junior cricketer and later as a committee member and club secretary. Leek won the NSSCL Premier Division, Talbot Cup and Staffordshire Cup whilst Trafford was club secretary in 2001. He also spent 25 years coaching Staffordshire Under-19s. Port Vale announced Trafford's death on 19 November 2020 at the age of 74.

Career statistics

Source:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trafford, Stan 1945 births 2020 deaths Sportspeople from Leek, Staffordshire Footballers from Staffordshire English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Port Vale F.C. players Macclesfield Town F.C. players English Football League players English cricketers Staffordshire cricketers