NORMAN PENGELLY

Full Name: Richard Norman Woodrow Pengelly

Born: 06 October 1919

Came from: Looe Town   Went to: Retired

First game: 10 September 1947   Last game: 03 September 1949

Appearances: 9 (9/0)   Goals: 0

Born in Looe, though with his birth registered in Liskeard (which was common for Looe births). He was born into a well-known Looe family, the Woodrow Pengellys and grew up in West Looe. He was a versatile centre-half, who joined Argyle comparatively late in years, due to WWII, from Looe Town, where he had captained the team and the Cornwall County side. There had also been initial interest from then top-flight Cardiff City prior to him signing on at Home Park.

Arriving as a Jimmy Rae signing, he earned a place in the Argyle team just weeks later, and looked set for a decent professional career even though he made his debut just weeks short of his 28th birthday. He would have potentially started his career as a professional far earlier, were it not for the war. His debut was a baptism of fire: a 5-0 Wednesday night defeat at Elland Road, against Leeds United in September 1947. That was however followed by two 1-0 wins in a week against Barnsley at home, and then Leeds United when they played the return fixture at Home Park ten days later.

Sadly, he soon lost his place because of a cartilage injury, a problem that persistently kept him out of the team over the following two years and restricted him to just nine appearances over three seasons. The injury would eventually force his retirement on a specialist's advice.

He returned to Cornwall where he was a renowned boatman and dinghy sailor, a penchant he had possessed before joining Argyle. He was from a family of eleven and five of his six brothers were also talented fisherman. Such were his sailing skills, that it even led to Rae refusing his player time off away from the club to indulge. He won the National Redwing (dinghy) title four times in 1948, 1949, 1950 and in 1953, over-lapping his time at Argyle and the 1949 campaign was the one in which Rae refused to release him for a vital race, meaning a local boat builder, Roy Dann had to stand in for him. He also won numerous local Fisherman's Cup titles.

Retiring from sailing, a bit like football, perhaps a little too early, he lived out his later years in his native Looe and was also accomplished at both table tennis and cricket.

Norman passed away in October 2005, five days after his 86th birthday, at Plymouth's Derriford Hospital.