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Author Topic: Bill Leivers  (Read 2939 times)

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AlonzoDrake

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Bill Leivers
« on April 09, 2018, 04:40:21 am by AlonzoDrake »
Our recent relegations from the Championship and L1, after appearing to be perfectly safe, have really scarred and scared all of us! Thus a Rovers history post to take our minds off what constitutes L1 safety. I didn't know until recently that two of my heroes, one a Rovers player/manager and one a politician, attended the same school during World War Two.

Big Bill Leivers was Rovers manager when I first started attending BV regularly. He succeeded Oscar Hold as manager in the summer of 1964, and assembled the team that would win, with some skill and much elan, the 1965/66 D4 Championship. He had brought Coleman, Gilfillan, Sheffield, Nicholson, Watton, Kelly, Ricketts and Wylie to the club -- and one of those players, Bobby Gilfillan (what a lovely bloke) told me in the 80s that Leivers had been a great leader, manager, and a no-nonsense character. Unfortunately those attributes caused Big Bill to clash fiercely with the Rovers Board on many issues, but particularly when two Board members told him what players to pick -- so in February, 1966 Leivers quit the club in disgust -- just as his talented team started to challenge for promotion.

I think Big Bill shared the same kind of bloody-mindedness (and high morals) demonstrated by one of my other heroes -- Dennis Skinner. Leivers and Skinner were born within a month of each other in Bolsover, Derbyshire in 1932. They were in the same year at Tupton Hall school in Clay Cross, which of course has long been the Beast of Bolsover's seat. I still love to see Dennis speak in the Commons -- at 86 a remarkable man in many ways.

Dennis's old schoolmate, Big Bill, is also 86 and doing well, now living in Cornwall.

PS -- we won't go down this season!




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richtherover

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Re: Bill Leivers
« Reply #1 on April 09, 2018, 06:51:36 am by richtherover »
Lovely bloke. Bill used to live next door to me in Bessacarr, a house owned by Rovers. When he left John Flowers moved in, (whose wife became World Ladies Darts Champion). I read somewhere recently that their son was the ex keeper Tim Flowers - can anyone confirm this?

The Red Baron

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Re: Bill Leivers
« Reply #2 on April 09, 2018, 07:36:17 am by The Red Baron »
Lovely bloke. Bill used to live next door to me in Bessacarr, a house owned by Rovers. When he left John Flowers moved in, (whose wife became World Ladies Darts Champion). I read somewhere recently that their son was the ex keeper Tim Flowers - can anyone confirm this?

John Flowers was indeed married to Maureen but neither is related to Tim Flowers. Maureen later had a long term relationship with Eric Bristow, who died recently.

Tim Flowers is currently assistant manager to former Rovers midfielder Mark Yates at Solihull Moors. I saw both of them last night.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2018, 11:11:21 am by The Red Baron »

The Red Baron

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Re: Bill Leivers
« Reply #3 on April 09, 2018, 07:47:07 am by The Red Baron »
Our recent relegations from the Championship and L1, after appearing to be perfectly safe, have really scarred and scared all of us! Thus a Rovers history post to take our minds off what constitutes L1 safety. I didn't know until recently that two of my heroes, one a Rovers player/manager and one a politician, attended the same school during World War Two.

Big Bill Leivers was Rovers manager when I first started attending BV regularly. He succeeded Oscar Hold as manager in the summer of 1964, and assembled the team that would win, with some skill and much elan, the 1965/66 D4 Championship. He had brought Coleman, Gilfillan, Sheffield, Nicholson, Watton, Kelly, Ricketts and Wylie to the club -- and one of those players, Bobby Gilfillan (what a lovely bloke) told me in the 80s that Leivers had been a great leader, manager, and a no-nonsense character. Unfortunately those attributes caused Big Bill to clash fiercely with the Rovers Board on many issues, but particularly when two Board members told him what players to pick -- so in February, 1966 Leivers quit the club in disgust -- just as his talented team started to challenge for promotion.

I think Big Bill shared the same kind of bloody-mindedness (and high morals) demonstrated by one of my other heroes -- Dennis Skinner. Leivers and Skinner were born within a month of each other in Bolsover, Derbyshire in 1932. They were in the same year at Tupton Hall school in Clay Cross, which of course has long been the Beast of Bolsover's seat. I still love to see Dennis speak in the Commons -- at 86 a remarkable man in many ways.

Dennis's old schoolmate, Big Bill, is also 86 and doing well, now living in Cornwall.

PS -- we won't go down this season!



Alonzo

I'm guessing one of the directors involved was the ghastly Hubert Bates, who was also responsible for forcing Peter Doherty out of the club. It's fair to say that Bill was the best manager we had had since Doherty. I believe another player-manager, Norman Curtis who was in charge in 1960-61, also resigned due to interference from above.

Bill Leivers' next job was at Workington and when he went there their chairman made a promise in the media that he Bill wouldn't experience the sort of interference he'd had at Rovers. Before he went to Workington Bill worked as a car salesman for Fred Cross. (My dad bought cars from there, though not from Bill!)

After Bill left Jackie Bestall and coach Frank Marshall were put in charge of team affairs. In a manner that foreshadowed the Flynn / Jones partnership in 2012-13 they steered Rovers to the Fourth Division title in 1965-66. Rovers persisted with that management team, with oversight from General Manager Tom Garnett, until they hired Keith Kettleborough to be player-manager in December 1966.
« Last Edit: April 09, 2018, 10:49:39 am by The Red Baron »

acacia94

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Re: Bill Leivers
« Reply #4 on April 09, 2018, 06:59:58 pm by acacia94 »
Went to school at partridge primary with Bills son Glen Leivers. He was a right nice lad and had an uncanny resemblance to Darren from Bewitched. Not sure this was a good thing for 7-8 year old but he had a cracking haircut as I remember.

Bezza

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Re: Bill Leivers
« Reply #5 on April 09, 2018, 07:13:37 pm by Bezza »
built a great side at Rovers did Bill, big disappointment when he left, didn`t he play for Man City in his day.

idler

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Re: Bill Leivers
« Reply #6 on April 09, 2018, 09:37:25 pm by idler »
He was captain at Man City at one time.

scawsby steve

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Re: Bill Leivers
« Reply #7 on April 09, 2018, 10:10:00 pm by scawsby steve »
He was captain at Man City at one time.

He was in the City team that won the 1956 FA Cup, Idler; he may have been the captain that day, but I'm not sure.

RedRover45

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Re: Bill Leivers
« Reply #8 on April 09, 2018, 10:18:20 pm by RedRover45 »
He was captain at Man City at one time.

He was in the City team that won the 1956 FA Cup, Idler; he may have been the captain that day, but I'm not sure.

The captain that day was the Welshman Roy Paul. Interesting to note that Don Revie played up front for Man City that day.

The Red Baron

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Re: Bill Leivers
« Reply #9 on April 10, 2018, 09:45:24 am by The Red Baron »
I'm sure I read somewhere that Don Revie was interested in the player-manager job at Rovers in 1960. It would be at the time time that Norman Curtis was appointed. How might history have been different, although I doubt Revie would have enjoyed working with the Rovers Board at that time.

drfchound

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Re: Bill Leivers
« Reply #10 on April 10, 2018, 03:21:40 pm by drfchound »
Yep, and Leeds might never have been Champions of Europe.

 

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