Football's Hardest Man: The Billy Whitehurst Story Hardcover – 2005 by Rob Finch (Author) Out of stock on amazon I'll have. Alook in greenwood library on satdee
It’s not available. He was having it ghost written and only completed about a quarter of it. Would love him to finish it though.
Shame it never came out (although this gives an ISBN number I have never been able to locate it) - great title though!
Wasn't it Peter Beardsley who cited big Billy as the forward he most enjoyed playing with while at Newcastle together ? .. i seem to recall PB recalling that Big Billy was his personal minder on the pitch so whenever he would be getting a rough time Billy would whisper to leave it with him and the offender was often 'duly sorted out' I also recall a bit of a story flying round during his first stint here which involved a players day at Springfield Golf Club .. apparently Billy loved his golf but just wasnt very good at it .. but the story goes that he actually managed to hit a decent shot close to one of the holes during this day while a greenkeeper was stood watching greenside. As the players aporoached the green the greenkeeper decided it would be a good idea to recut the hole to a different part of the green making Billy's shot less then average .. this prompted Billy to charge onto the green and fill the greenkeeper in !!! Now how much truth was in that i have no idea but it makes for a good story. Chillo did a hell of a job with him turning him from a thug into a half decent forward and his partnership with Keith Edwards was one i recall with fond memories .. especially the game we played against Liverpool in the cup and gave then a fright and a half with both scoring.
From a Daily Mail interview a few years back: "He once played golf with team-mates during his time at Hull. ‘I had never played before and I had to borrow clubs,’ he says. ‘We were on the 17th green and this big greenkeeper started spraying it with water. The bags were soaked. I thought that was bad etiquette. ‘I said something and he came walking over to me and said, “What are you going to do about it?”. I put my club down and knocked him out with one punch. The other two lads were running to the clubhouse. ‘The headline in the Hull Daily Mail said: “Irate golfer attacks greenkeeper with club”. Absolute b******s. I didn’t need a club!’"
He did a night at Blackies in Brough a few years ago. Great stories and very colourful use of the English language
I read once that Billy holds the record for the player mentioned most in others biography's as the opposition player they most feared. I think it was Alan Hansen that was one of them, and Billy said, something like, I must have had quite an impact, as I've never played against him.
Told my story more than once but as a side line,our kid also supported City all his life and knew several local players over the years through his business including Andy Saville and especially Pete Skipper. Over the years he secured lots of memorabilia back then including one of Rambo’s socks after the Liverpool cup tie,several shirts from big games etc most of which he auctioned with the proceeds going to Brian Little to help pay players wages when City almost went bust during a very dark time in the clubs history.
