It’s now 120 years since the great Steve Bloomer made his debut for Derby County - and Rams fans will again celebrate his legacy in the town of his birth, at the 2012 Cradley Day event.

Saturday, 6th October 2012 marks the date of the 8th Cradley Day heritage event, which is held every two years in West Midlands B63. Active Derby County supporters will be there (for their 5th successive Cradley Day) to display Bloomer facts, figures and archive pictures in celebration of his great legacy as part of the day’s attractions.

Cradley Day takes place from 10am to 4pm, at Caslon Primary School, Beeches View Avenue, Cradley, Halesowen B63 2ES. You can see details of the event on the Cradley Links site here: http://www.cradleylinks.co.uk/news.htm

It is doubtful that there are many - if any - Rams fans alive today to cherish memories of seeing the great Steve Bloomer play and who are able to celebrate his greatness from direct recall, as they would have to add another 70 years onto their age for remembrance of Bloomer’s exploits.

The prodigy who once scored 14 goals in a game for Derby Swifts as a teenager was signed up by Derby County on a contract worth 7s 6d a week; he made his debut at 18, 120 years ago on 3rd September against Stoke City in the first game of the 1892-3 season.

On 24th September 1892, Bloomer scored the very first of his 332 goals for Derby County in giving them the lead from the penalty spot at West Bromwich Albion, thereby also becoming the first player to score a goal at the Baggies’ new Hawthorns stadium. He didn’t stop scoring for over two decades.

The distance of years makes it harder to pass on his legacy and share the astounding achievements of the ‘Destroying Angel’ with young fans. The imposing bust of Steve that surveys the current DCFC team from his position close to the home team dug-out at the edge of the Pride Park Stadium pitch does remind young and old alike of his prime place in the club’s history.

There’s enjoyable nostalgia in current BBC programming celebrating the 50th anniversary of the emergence of the Beatles, the greatest pop group in history.

We can hear, see and enjoy most of the Fab Fours’ legacy via high-technology media and reproduction today - but sadly, that facility does not extend back to the earliest decades of League and international football when great strikers like Bloomer were setting football records to last for all time.

Steve was born in poverty in Cradley (in 1874, the year of his birth; Cradley was then within the Worcestershire boundary) and a quarter of a century before then, the Bloomer, Dunn and Harper families from which he sprang had laid down links with Derby through the trades of Steve’s forefathers. Edward Bloomer, Steve’s grandfather and his wife Jemima (nee Harper) laid the trail.

With unrest in the nail and iron-processing trades in Cradley town, nailers and puddlers struggled to support their families and took off by rail, venturing further afield to find similar work elsewhere.

In 1850, Edward Bloomer secured work in Belper, Derbyshire, and it was not uncommon for the head of the household to find lodgings near his new employment and to leave the children to be ‘Granny-reared’ until there were sufficient funds to move the family to Derbyshire.

Edward’s son, Caleb, later followed the same route to find better working circumstances in Derby, and Caleb’s young son, Steve, was fatefully moved from Cradley to his new life in the East Midlands at the age of five.

Look through any other club’s statistics to read up on their all-time record goal scorer and you won’t need many fingers to count those who exceed Bloomer’s incredible tally of 332 goals for Derby County. He is the third highest top-flight English League goalscorer of all time with 309 goals; only Jimmy Greaves (357) and Dixie Dean (310) exceed his tally.

He remains in the top ten all-time England international goalscorers - with 28 goals in 23 games - 105 years after his last international appearance. He has the 2nd highest England strike-rate (goals per game) of all time, scoring over 1.2 goals per game. Only Bobby Charlton, Steve Bloomer and Tom Finney in the striker charts have had England international careers spanning over 12 years.

His ability, technique, personality and leadership qualities would today make him the world-record transfer fee target of the elite clubs. He would be Rooney, van Persie, Greaves and Shearer rolled into one.

Steve remained down to earth despite being the most celebrated and prolific player of his generation. He gave much to the game as a coach and journalist when his playing days were over. Early in his career, he was also a formidable baseball player. His brave and exemplary leadership inspired fellow captives in a German civilian prisoner camp during the First World War.

He kept close links with his West Midlands roots, and played cricket for Colley Gate - a stone’s throw from where he was born - in the close seasons of the early 1900s.

From the 1920s, there are local accounts of Steve visiting the town of his birth regularly to maintain friendships and to watch junior or non-league games, taking young players aside to teach them his deadly corner-taking and shooting techniques.

Goalkeepers were regularly bemused by him; fellow players were awed by him, and Derby County’s record books were mostly written by him. Remember Steve Bloomer - football’s first superstar!

Photo: Action Images

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