By Brian Bennett
Mourners said a fond farewell to former Sunderland AFC footballer Cecil Irwin last week.
The Ellington-born defender passed away last month at the age of 83 and the chapel at the Northumberland Woodland Burial & Crematorium at Felton was full to capacity when a service to remember and celebrate his life was held on Friday.
When Irwin made his debut against Ipswich Town in 1958, he was only 16 years and 166 days old and became the youngest ever to play for the Wearsiders. He is now the fourth youngest.
A right back, he went on to make over 350 appearances for the club and in 2023 was inducted into their Hall of Fame
After his playing career, Cecil moved to Yeovil Town where he was player manager before he came back home and took over a similar role at Ashington FC.
He returned to the Colliers as manager on another two occasions and in the 2000/01 season, led the club to promotion to the first division of the Northern League. Cecil’s team went up as champions after a memorable night when they beat Alnwick Town 1-0 with the goal scored by his nephew Marc Irwin.
Former Colliers chairman Ronnie Routledge who was a goalkeeper with Sunderland then Bradford, recalls that he provided the transport to take Cecil to Sunderland in those early years: “I took him to the club for training when he was only 16,” said Routledge, who lives in Ashington and is now 87 years old, “He was a nice lad and I had a lot of time for him.”
Alf Marchetti was on the committee during the days when the club played at its former home at Portland Park when Cecil came in as manager. He said: “Cecil was a lovely bloke. He was good to work with, was very approachable and you could ask him anything.”
Stephen Williams was handed his first team debut at Ashington by Cecil and recalls: “I played for the reserves and then I got a call up on a Wednesday night to play at West Auckland – and that was my debut. Cecil was player/managerand I think we won the game. We were also the victors in a pre-season tournament at The Stanks at Berwick when I’m pretty sure that Cecil played for us.”
Williams, who will be 69 in a couple of weeks’ time, added: “Cecil was very, very honest and very likeable. He was great with the younger lads, was very humble and was just a very nice person. Even when you saw him on the street or in the newsagent’s shop in Ashington which he ran with his wife Margaret, he always had time for a chat. There was no edge about him and he was really bothered about the community.”
In their final game of the season just ended away to Bradford Park Avenue, the players of Ashington FC wore black armbands and a minutes’ applause was held before kick-off as a tribute to Cecil Irwin – who was a true legend.