My favourite ever Claret would have been 88 today. What a player he was for us with better than 1 in 2 goal return plus so many assists and his harrying of defenders won us the ball back on a regular basis. A broken leg was the beginning of the end with us but at Bury he was almost 1 goal a game and at Coventry he still reached 1 in 2. As he did in his far too short England career.
RIP Ray and thank you.

What a player .The Blonde Bombshell was my favourite .

What a player. One of my Dad’s favourites. Wonder what his record was in cups ?

Scored in my first ever burnley match early sixties - remember it to this day.

What we'd give to have those 3 in our team right now - I have assumed that's Brian Miller with Tommy Cummins by the way!

Stonehouse wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 10, 2024 4:11 pm

What a player .The Blonde Bombshell was my favourite .

The crop of blonde hair always made a player stand out. I recall a player from the same era, Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, who always drew the attention when playing for Germany.

One of my boyhood heroes was Ray. A great player with a knack of knowing how to put the ball in the net..

One of my favourite Burnley players .
I have a scrapbook full of photos of players from the late fifties, the bulk of them signed.
Ray Pointer was my favourite of that era and he walked down Brunshaw Road to the ground and signed some for me before every home game as did the other players.

Boss Hogg wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 10, 2024 4:25 pm

What a player. One of my Dad’s favourites. Wonder what his record was in cups ?

His Burnley apps/goals record is at this link

https://www.uptheclarets.com/players/ap ... als-n-to-r

When you look at all the positions in the team, we seemed to have "best in class" throughout. Pointer in particular

Lip wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 10, 2024 4:47 pm

...A great player with a knack of knowing how to put the ball in the net..

Exactly that; as has been mentioned earlier... Oh to have his like on the pitch for us now.

Ray Pointer was playing for the Clarets 3-4 years before I started watching Burnley on a regular basis although I saw them a few times when my elder brother would take me to a match.
One of my brother's bug bears from that era was the blatant bias towards London clubs and when you see Pointer's record of 2 in 3 for England and then to never be picked again kind of backs up his thoughts.

He’s was probably about 10 stone wet through but he still gave the likes of Swan,Norman and some of the big tough centre halves a hell of a rough ride.

My dad used to tell me that Pointer was a black belt in judo and when he was fouled he would always know how to land, often in a forward roll. Not sure if this is true, but you always believe your dad don't you.

Certainly was a southern bias in those days towards England selection.
Bobby Smith of Spurs kept him out of the England side

Juan Tanamera wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 10, 2024 6:37 pm

Ray Pointer was playing for the Clarets 3-4 years before I started watching Burnley on a regular basis although I saw them a few times when my elder brother would take me to a match.
One of my brother's bug bears from that era was the blatant bias towards London clubs and when you see Pointer's record of 2 in 3 for England and then to never be picked again kind of backs up his thoughts.

We beat Portugal 2-0 at Wembley to qualify for the 1962 World Cup Finals in Chile. The goal scorers were John Connelly & Ray Pointer in the first 9 minutes. Pointer was never selected again.

I’ve found the goals on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/_PNuoip3bqI

Great finish from the Blonde Bombshell vs Portugal.

It was the beginning of the end when he got injured vs Forest.

That was a very good finish.

my all time favourite Claret!
Sir Raymond Pointer

when my dad came home and just said "Pointer"

If I’m not mistaken I attended my first game against Fulham in the very early sixties. Ray Pointer was fouled by George Cohen literally inches from where I and my dad were standing. He was carried off and perhaps that was the broken leg. He was never the same again and was shunted off to Coventry. I saw him play but that happened.

Along with Willie irvine, the best Burnley strikers ever, with Willie maybe being slightly better. RIP, Ray.

Sang in st Stephens choir at his
Wedding. We got double payment five shillings!! (we would have sang for nothing)

Just been chatting to my father in law about him. He apparently knew him when working doing deliveries at one stage. I didn't know that until I sent him Tony's YouTube link from above, thinking he would like to see it as I noticed Jimmy Armfield was also playing (big Blackpool fan).

He said he was really lovely bloke, living over Bispham way, but apparently had his house broken into late in life and loads of his football memorabilia stolen.

DAVETHEVICAR wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 10, 2024 8:13 pm

Certainly was a southern bias in those days towards England selection.
Bobby Smith of Spurs kept him out of the England side

Throughout 60’s we had numerous players worthy of England selection. Despite being a top club for a period of time the bias was, as it still is, the ‘little old Burnley’ syndrome. Pointer, Angus, Gordon Harris, Adamson, Brian O’Neill, Waldron, Fletcher, Doug Collins, Casper were probably worthy of regular national team selection. After leaving us Dobbo, Coates and Connelly were not selected as often as they should have been IMO.

Still spoken about where I now live, 15 minutes from Cramlington, whenever I'm out in a Burnley shirt.

One little story about Ray Pointer.

Back in the 1980s I was working in Preston and there was a work colleague who was one of the better footballers in our department. He played in an amateur league in Blackpool and came in one Monday and told me that they'd signed a new player who said he'd played for Burnley. He didn't know his name so I sent him off to find out when they played again the following week. He did say he was a good player though.

When he told me a week later, the name he gave me was Ray Pointer. "Are you sure?" I said, explaining that Ray was about 50 by then. He assumed someone had been taking the mick because he reckoned this player was in his 30s. It proved to be Ray and he couldn't speak more highly of him as a player or as a person. He was quietly well pleased to be honest when I told him he was now in the same team as a former England player.

The last time I saw him was when he was walking down Harry Potts Way behind John Connelly's funeral cortege. He was suffering then with dementia sadly.