The Dav is a worthy recipient of the Cork AUL Soccer Legends award for 2023

IN March 2022, new football club Macclesfield FC were confirmed as champions of the North West Counties Football League Premier Division.

Their 4-0 win was watched by a Macclesfield footballing legend, Carl Davenport,who used to play for the old Macclesfield Town.

After the public address interrupted the music to introduce him to the packed terraces he was paraded, all smiles with his hand in the air in appreciation, around the ground.

Carl was born in Farnworth, Bolton in the northwest of England in 1944 to Hilda and father Jim, a midfielder with Blackburn during the war years.

This youngsters life unfolded under gas lamps on a cobbled Charles Street in the Lancashire town, where he honed his talent and love for football.

Back in the day, 57 years ago, the then 21 year olds scored a remarkable 38 goals from 45 games in their Championship winning season.

He had been signed from Wigan having spent his teen years with Bolton, Preston and Stockport.

He had his own tailoring business in Derby which was doing quite well.

Before signing for Cork Celtic in 1967, on the recommendation of Alan Ball Snr, he was a local legend around Macclesfield.

The only thing that changed after his transfer to Cork was the scenery as he continued to score goals and became a legend on and off the field.

He was simply Box Office.

He scored on his debut against Hibs and despite only signing in January ended the season as leading scorer.

The following season he became the youngest player coach in the country and demonstrated the art of goal scoring by netting 27 times.

Them he fell out with Celtic and transferred to Cork Hibs who snapped him up for £1,300 in 1967.

Hibs, with this man combining well with Wiggy, moved up to the challenging positions for the first time.

He continued to hit the net regularly and in 1971 Hibs quartet of Tony Marsden, Dav, Wiggy and Miah Dennehy netted 17, 16, 15 and 14 goals respectively as they won the Championship for the first time.

Fans were a privileged generation to have lived through the Hibs/Celtic era when this flamboyant striker and Wiggy, too, strutted their stuff in the Lodge and the Cross.

I suppose to appreciate it all properly, you simply had to be there.

Our winner and the other young Anglos certainly contributed to the attendance boom in Cork where there was also a tenfold jump in the number of women spectating.

He was full of surprises and after falling out with Bacuzzi he left Hibs for the 1971-’72 season to take on the player managers job with Cork Celtic.

After winning minor honours, the Dublin City and Munster Cups, he was sacked by the board.

He had now entered a very uncertain time in his career and after brief spells with Limerick and St Pats he played in the local leagues with Wembley and Crosshaven.

High-flying Cork Celtic re-signed him again in February of their 1974 Championship winning season.

Very few Cork players of his era (Jackie Morley excluded) could equal his two League Championship medals and a Blaxnit All-Ireland winners medal.

The League of Ireland selectors also recognised his talent and picked him for a game against the North.

Even in retirement he was still the “Cock of the Walk.''

He certainly left the Cork soccer public with very fond memories of those halcyon days.

Thirty years after his retirement Bolton Wanderers played Cork in a testimonial for him and Turner’s Cross was packed to capacity a reflection on the esteem in which he was still held.

He was still Box office then.

He even published his autobiography, “Anecdotes and stories from inside and outside the Box.” A good friend and talented singer John O’Neill also released a record, ‘Sat Nav Dav’ and to cap it all the wily veteran starred in the TV series ‘Love in the Countryside’ on BBC 2 in which singles from across the UK take the bull by the horns to search for true love.

We are not here to present Golden Globes or Emmy’s for best actor; we are here to present The Dav with a Legend Award for his contribution to football entertainment on Leeside.

For older football fans he is the provider of evocative memories of times gone by.

Local heroes and the English game, Unknown in their homeland, here they found fame.

The Dav was the star, he’d take you to hell, And later that night, take your wife as well.

(verse Tony Tobin).