Chris Chilton

Hull City legend Chris Chilton at 70: 'Today's centre-halves look a bit more gentle'

AS HIS 70th birthday loomed large last week, Chris Chilton attempted to boast of his Hull City goalscoring record to grandson Harvey.

"Your Gramps, you know, he was a real goalscorer," said Chilton.
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"It was 222 goals I scored for City. That's a lot isn't it?' He just shrugged and said 'It's not bad.' Well, what a way to come crashing back down to earth."

Forty two years after netting his 222nd and final goal for the Tigers, it seems Chilton is now left struggling to find legendary status in his own living room. Yet, on the day of his 70th birthday celebrations, there remains something very special about the Tigers' iconic number nine. It is only a matter of time, you suspect, before Harvey grows to appreciate it. During 11 magnificent years as Boothferry Park's goalscorer extraordinaire, Chilton dug deep foundations in the hearts and minds of every City supporter.

Between his debut in 1960 and his final appearance in 1971, the local boy from Sproatley returned 222 goals from 477 appearances wearing black and amber. Only his devilish contemporary and strike partner, Ken Wagstaff, has ever come close to bettering his tally, finishing up 25 goals shy. Records stand to be broken but Chilton's has more than a tinge of immortality.

"I'm very proud of it," he said, on the eve of his landmark birthday celebrations at his Thorgumbald home. I don't think the record will ever be beaten simply because the modern player doesn't stay with one club long enough. It's going to take an awful lot for that to be beaten that's for sure."

City will surely never see Chilton's like again. Reared up through the club's youth ranks, the powerful centre-forward was the local poster boy of the Tigers' fabled generation for over a decade. In only two of his 11 complete seasons at Boothferry Park did Chilton fail to score 15 goals or more and the tally would go as high as 29 in the Division Three title winning year of 1965-66. Along the way there were 11 hat-tricks, not to mention the untold assists for appreciative team-mates such as Wagstaff. It is those achievements that ensure not even life in a sleepy corner of Thorngumbald offers Chilton complete solitude.

"You still get people coming up to you all the time and I try to be good with them," he explained, complying with his famously affable reputation. "I made a decision in life where if anyone approaches you or wants to speak with you, always make the effort with them. There are great memories for people of my age. We were all in it together as working men. "Even after the games we would walk away from Boothferry Park and into the local pubs like Silver Cod. It wasn't just two or three of us, it was pretty much the whole team win or lose. "The same bloke that said you had been fantastic the week before when you'd won would say 'What the hell are you doing in here? You were bloody awful out there!' if you'd lost. That's how it was, they were great times."
Chilton belongs to a wholesome footballing era.

Raised a "country bumpkin" (the words of long-time wife Margaret) in the East Yorkshire village of Sproatley, the 16-year-old turned down a place on a design course at Hull Art College in favour of initially joining the groundstaff at Boothferry Park. Chilton was, instead, soon splashing his creative brushstrokes all around the Tigers first team and, scoring on his home debut in a 5-1 win over Newport County, the 17-year-old began a journey towards becoming master of a very different art.

Imperious in the air and unselfish to a fault, Chilton was the darling of Boothferry Park right up until his exit to join Coventry City in 1971 for £92,000. He joked: "I was brave and that's why I've ended up looking like this. I'd throw myself at any ball if it meant it went in the net. Goodness knows how many stitches I've had over the years. "I wasn't technically the best player there's been but I played with a lot of heart. That was important.

"Aerially I was a good player too. That was a great feeling when you'd got up highest and you had the centre-half's head in your chest. "I knew the best time to either score or lay it off for a team-mate. That's where Waggy came in so often but we both had our success."

It was not just as a goalscorer that Chilton served City with distinction, either. After an injury-hit season with Coventry and four years with South African side Highlands Park, he returned to Boothferry Park to start a seven-year spell as a coach in 1978. Working under Ken Houghton, Mike Smith and Colin Appleton, there was also a period spent working as caretaker boss during City's dark period of receivership in 1982. Chilton wanted a crack at management two years later but was cruelly overlooked by chairman Don Robinson.

Only when crossing swords with Brian Horton, the man favoured at the start of the 1984-85 season, did his love affair with the Tigers finally turn sour. Although Chilton remains an ardent City fan, ill-health limits his trips to the KC Stadium. Two hip operations and, more recently, surgery on his knee provide a telling insight to the brutality of 1960s football and give understandable reason for his absence.

"If I had a regret, I played 40 years too early," he said. "To get the financial rewards now is colossal. The centre-halves look a bit more gentle too! "Those were frightening times really. The opposition centre halves would remind you before kick-off what they were going to do to you. Some of it wasn't very nice but that's why I became a player that was always moving. I never stopped running because of a fear factor. The minute you stood still you were going to be in trouble. It was absolutely vicious."

And Chilton has proof. "I've just been through a knee operation so that's two metal hips and a metal knee now," he said. "They're just about keeping me together thankfully.
"Waggy, on the other hand, has barely got a scratch on him. That must tell you something about how we played the game!"

For Chilton it was forever with heart and with desire. And on this, the day of his 70th birthday, City fans will salute him for it.

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