Ray Clemence: My Admiral Hero
In the summer of 1978, like many youngsters of the time, I was football mad. Playing on the streets at every opportunity, dreaming of replicating my heroes decked out in resplendent Admiral kits. On 27th August that year, as a 11 year old, my life changed as the result of a serious car accident, which resulted in numerous hospital visits for operations and physiotherapy, seriously hampering my dreams of becoming a budding future goal scorer.
Goalkeeping had never interested me but on one of the hospital stays I was allowed to watch England play Denmark on BBC Television’s SportsNight and I was hooked! The goalkeeper that night for England was Ray Clemence of the all conquering Liverpool FC and watching the great man move so gracefully in the fantastic Admiral England kit of yellow shirt with twin black stripes, black shorts with twin yellow stripes plus black socks had a profound impact on me and my introduction to goalkeeping was complete.
Following one of my numerous operations I returned to my hospital bed to find a simple brown bag on my bed with a note from my parents, ‘Love from Mum & Dad‘. Inside was the Admiral England Goalkeeper full kit and to say I was delighted was an understatement. I can still smell the polyester shirt as I hastily removed it from the bag.
It turned out that goalkeeping came natural to me and watching my hero Ray Clemence allowed me in the following years to earn International honours, playing for Wales as a schoolboy and becoming a goalkeeping coach for Newport County and Swansea City so Clem and that Admiral kit genuinely changed my life.
Fast forward 46 years I’m still involved in football as a Goalkeeper Coach.
The Shirt Collection
The Admiral kits were simply a revelation to me as a child, which led to me to embark on my quest to obtain every England Shirt that Ray Clemence wore. I’m pleased to say I managed to complete my collection earlier this year. In order to complete the collection I had to reach out to collectors and ex-players as far afield as New Zealand and Hungary, picking up match items that were swapped with Ray Clemence at the time.
The first shirt in my collection is from 1974, worn by Clemence during a 0-0 draw at Wembley against Portugal. This yellow shirt features a heat-transferred Admiral logo, with black and yellow taping running down the sleeves. The next piece in the collection is from the 1976 U.S.A. Bicentennial Cup Tournament. England opted for a blue goalkeeper shirt in the US, accented with white and red stripe taping on the sleeves. In a match against an All-Star 'Team America' squad, an Admiral yellow shirt was notably worn by outfield players, while Ray sported his blue goalkeeper shirt paired with yellow shorts and socks.
In 1981, England took on the formidable Brazil at Wembley in a friendly match, a game remembered as the only occasion when Clemence captained the national team. By the 1980s, the shirt material had transitioned to a shinier polyester, but the iconic three-stripe taping on the sleeves remained, this time in yellow and black on a royal blue main body. Later that year, England faced Switzerland in Basel for a World Cup Qualifier, where Ray wore a yellow shirt with an embroidered red Admiral logo during a surprising 2-1 defeat.
While the home shirt was updated for the 1980 European Championships, the goalkeeper’s kit remained unchanged. However, leading up to the 1982 World Cup, England introduced a new goalkeeper shirt that echoed the horizontal stripe design found on the home and away kits. This shirt was worn in a Friendly against Finland in 1982, just before the trip to Spain. The final piece in my Ray Clemence Admiral collection is the remarkable England walk-out jacket. A classic white track top featuring blue and red stripes wherever possible. It’s one of the standout items in the Admiral England range.
They say never meet your heroes but it was a privilege to meet Ray on a number of occasions. He was kind enough to sign some of my shirt collection which was a dream come true. He was a wonderful man, so humble and unassuming for such a legend.
by Lee Herring
