Derek Ufton

Derek Gilbert Ufton (31 May 1928 – 27 March 2021) was an English professional cricketer and footballer, and later a football manager. Playing professionally for Kent County Cricket Club as a wicket-keeper and Charlton Athletic Football Club, Ufton won a single international cap for the England national football team in 1953. He went on to manage Plymouth Argyle. At the time of his death, in March 2021 at the age of 92, he was England's oldest living international footballer.

Early life Ufton was born at Crayford in Kent in 1928. After winning a scholarship, he was educated at Dartford Grammar School where his PE teacher was Joe Jagger, the father of future rock star Mick Jagger. Growing up during World War II, Ufton worked in a shipping office in London during the later part of the war. His mother was killed in an air raid in 1944.

Cricket career A keen sportsman, Ufton played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club between 1949 and 1962 as a wicket-keeper batsman. He had first played for the county's Second XI in 1945 and was awarded his Second XI cap in 1946, but his period of national service meant he did not make his First XI debut until 1949. He scored almost 4,000 runs for the team, keeping wicket as a replacement for England international wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans. In 1961, his most successful season statistically, he scored 668 runs for Kent and took 90 dismissals

Ufton was awarded his Kent county cap in 1956 and continued playing for he county's Second XI after he dropped out of the First XI during 1962, often captaining the team until 1966.

Football career Ufton made 277 appearances, primarily as a centre half, for Charlton Athletic between 1949 and 1960. At that point, Johnny Summers began a passage of play in which he scored five goals and assisted with two others to allow Charlton to win 7–6. Huddersfield become the first, and still the only, team to score six goals in an English Football League match – or any other professional football match – and still be on the losing team. He served as a director of Charlton between 1984 and 2009.

In later life he lived at Elham between Canterbury and Folkestone. Ufton died at the age of 92 in March 2021.