Brian Wood RIP

[Pete’s Picture Palace]

Again, no Indy obit for this 60's & 70's stopper centre half but what a fine servant he was and a real gent when I met him a few years back.

Started out at WBA, came to Palace and played 143 games for us in Div 3 and Div 2, before breaking his leg horrifically in a cup tie v Bury. A year or so later off he went to the Orient (58 games), Colchester (71) and finally Workington (204) where he was really happy and enjoyed some bruising local derbies v Barrow.

The undoubted highlight of his career was playing for Palace in the floodlit friendly v Real Madrid in 1962, in which he was marking Di Stefano and Puskas. He showed me his prized possession - the Madrid No 5 shirt (unwashed!) - belonging to Santamaria. I asked him why not the 9 or 10 shirt? "Because I was a centre half so I wanted the No 5". Fair enough!

In later years he moved back to Colchester where he lived near to his old coach Dick Graham and who he looked after a lot during Dick's slow decline in the 1990's.

RIP Woody, great bloke and top player.