Billy Liddell: A Family Portrait of a Liverpool Icon by Peter Jones

Billy Liddell: A Family Portrait of a Liverpool Icon by Peter Jones

Author:Peter Jones [Jones, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Sports, Sports & Recreation, Soccer
ISBN: 9781785318764
Google: K414zgEACAAJ
Publisher: PITCH PUB
Published: 2022-02-15T23:29:15.041800+00:00


Just after the war, we had a commissionaire at Anfield by the name of Paddy Walsh. He used to always clean the manager’s car and this particular day he had done a terrific job. It was really immaculate, the car, after what he had done and he was in the process of finishing the car off. He went to get a new bucket of water. Bob nipped in, opened the car doors and wound down the window. So, Paddy came along and not thinking threw the bucket of water right in through the car!

No doubt a great story and, of course, one example of many years of friendship. Billy and Bob lived opposite each other, would get the 61 bus to training and matches together and no doubt had a great deal of mutual respect. However, Billy left his football at Anfield, so his best friends were his family and those in the very inner circles of his life. He spent time with his fellow Westfield Avenue inhabitants Bob Paisley and Eddie Spicer, and their young families enjoyed growing up together.

With Billy being an abstainer from drinking and smoking, the players would play tricks on him. Billy enjoyed telling a tale of the players pouring alcohol in his orange juice, which he had to spit out. The fact he took it as comical shows how he could take a joke, but it also explains why he may not have wanted to spend much time with team-mates off the pitch.

This did not mean Billy had no time for others. Despite being so busy he would always be on hand to help, exemplified by the boys’ clubs and the fact that he would do the books for the Scottish Dancing Society as well as any friends that would need help. He was the treasurer of one of the Sunday schools and he used to count the money out on his kitchen table at home. As thanks for his services, Billy was presented with a budgerigar. As kind as the gift was, the combination of a budgie and stacks of coins did not work too well. The bird would hop along the table before taking flight, so the piles of pennies would be fired around the room and Billy would have to start all over again. He loved being busy and was at his best with a hectic schedule, which is what kept him playing and working for so long.

All this was alongside Billy continuing to work with Simon Jude and West as an accountant. He would travel, auditing different businesses and continued his training to earn as many qualifications within accountancy as he could. His Liverpool team-mates would often comment on their jealously of Billy being able to lead another life off the pitch, something he was also fond of. He was clearly an intelligent man, the skills developed from his youth meaning he became a competent accountant and went on to enjoy the many newspaper articles he wrote religiously in later life.



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