Wally Odell

Life and career Odell was born in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, He was a member of the Hitchin team that won the Herts Senior Cup in 1934, and made 38 appearances in all competitions as Hitchin won the Spartan League title in 1934–35. He was also selected for the Hertfordshire County side that won the Southern Counties Amateur Championship. for whose reserves he appeared, Odell never appeared in Tottenham's first team. He spent one season with their nursery club, Northfleet, and one with Tottenham's reserve team for whom he was a regular at left half in his first season, during which he made 40 league appearances. He appeared less frequently in the 1938–39 campaign, and was used at inside left and outside left as well as at left half. during which he made 21 league appearances. He was not retained, and moved on to another Northern Section club, Darlington.

Odell scored twice in Darlington's three Northern Section matches before the Football League was suspended for the duration of the Second World War, During the war he worked in a factory in Letchworth, until a back injury put an end to his playing career. He remained in post until May 1950, when he resigned to concentrate on his business as licensee of a pub in nearby Ickleford. His wife Phyllis (née Bygrave), whom he married in 1937, had recently given birth to their second child. In November 1954, Odell and his wife took over the management of the Craufurd Arms pub in Wolverton, and remained there for more than ten years. After a brief spell running a grocery shop, they returned to the licensed trade at the Embankment Hotel in Bedford.

Odell died in Bedford in 1971 at the age of 59.