Player Database - Fred Tapping

Debut game
v Teversall Colliery (h) 18th August 1951

Final game for Gresley Rovers first team
v Retford Town (h) 2nd May 1953

1951-1952 Top scorer with 22 league & 1 cup goals

Fred made 13 wartime appearances for Derby County 1943-1944 and 1944-1945 seasons scoring 10 goals.

Some Blackpool FC info sent to us by his Grandson Ben.

In 1943-1944 Fred played at right half and outside right in the team that went on to lose the War Time Northern Cup Final against Aston Villa. Although he did not play in the Final itself, Stanley Matthews returned to take his outside right spot, he did score one goal in the 2-1 second leg win over Manchester City that took Blackpool through to the Final, 3-2 on aggregate.

In 1943-1944 he made seven appearances and scored one goal. In 1944-1945, he played 10 times, scoring once. In 1945-1946 he played 11 games and scored once in a 5-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday, when the great Stan Mortensen scored a hat-trick.

With Leicester City he played at right-half or inside-right between March and May 1945, and he also had wartime outings for Derby, Chesterfield, Mansfield and Notts County.

He left Bloomfield Road (still without a first-team game) for Chesterfield in November 1947, and in 1949 found himself in the initial Southern League line-up of the newly-professionalised Headington United (now Oxford United).

Working at Rolls Royce from 1936 to 1983 (latterly as works manager), he was awarded an MBE in 1980 for services to the company and its welfare department.
(LCFC WW2: 7 apps; 2 goals)

Sadly Fred died on 22nd February 2007 at a nursing home in Bretby, at the age of 85.

Further notes by Paul Taylor.

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