Joe Rayment (footballer, born 1934)
{{Short description|English footballer (1934–2019)}}
{{for|this player's father|Joe Rayment (footballer, born 1906)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox football biography
|name = Joe Rayment
|image =
|image_size =
|caption =
|fullname = Joseph Watson Rayment
|birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1934|9|25}}
|birth_place = West Hartlepool, England
|death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2019|7|15|1934|9|25}}
|death_place = Stockton-on-Tees, England
|height = {{height|ft=5|in=4+1/2}}
|position = Right winger
|youthyears1 = |youthclubs1 = Middlesbrough
|years1 = 1952–1955 |clubs1 = Middlesbrough |caps1 = 24 |goals1 = 4
|years2 = 1955–1958 |clubs2 = Hartlepools United |caps2 = 63 |goals2 = 17
|years3 = 1958–1965 |clubs3 = Darlington |caps3 = 173 |goals3 = 28
|years4 = 1965–1966 |clubs4 = Gateshead |caps4 = |goals4 =
}}
Joseph Watson Rayment (25 September 1934 – 15 July 2019) was an English footballer who scored 49 goals from 260 appearances in the Football League playing as a right winger for Middlesbrough, Hartlepools United and Darlington in the 1950s and 1960s.{{cite web |url=http://www.neilbrown.newcastlefans.com/player2/joerayment.html |title=Joe Rayment |work=Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Players Database |publisher=Neil Brown |accessdate=28 March 2014}}
Life and career
Rayment was born in West Hartlepool, County Durham. His father, also called Joe, had played football for Hartlepools United in the 1920s.{{cite news |url=https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/opinion/columnists/mikeamos/backtrack/8807405.diminutive-joe-looks-back-at-a-packed-night-at-feethams/ |title=Diminutive Joe looks back at a packed night at Feethams |first=Mike |last=Amos |newspaper=The Northern Echo |location=Darlington |date=22 January 2011 |accessdate=29 July 2019}} Rayment began his football career as a youngster with First Division club Middlesbrough, while doing an electrical engineering apprenticeship at a local company. Having spent the 1951–52 season in the fourth team, and beginning the 1952–53 in the third eleven, Rayment made his first-team debut on 20 September 1952, at the age of 17, in a 4–1 defeat away to Liverpool.{{cite news |title=Boy from the club's fourth team gets a big game |first=Frank |last=McGhee |newspaper=Daily Mirror |location=London |date=20 September 1952 |page=11}}{{cite web |url=http://www.11v11.com/matches/liverpool-v-middlesbrough-20-september-1952-72476/ |title=Liverpool v Middlesbrough, 20 September 1952 |website=11v11.com |publisher=AFS Enterprises |accessdate=31 March 2014}} Middlesbrough's manager suggested the club would be abandoning their policy of paying big transfer fees to concentrate instead on producing home-grown players,{{cite news |title=The big-money days of Middlesbrough are over now |newspaper=Daily Mirror |location=London |date=29 December 1953 |page=11}} and wanted Rayment to commit to the club as a full-time player, but his reluctance to abandon his apprenticeship prevented him from so doing.
By the start of the 1954–55 season, new manager Bob Dennison reportedly had "great hopes" of the club's youngsters, Rayment included,{{cite news |title='Wake up and play' orders Dennison |first=Henry |last=Rose |newspaper=Daily Express |location=London |date=12 August 1954 |page=8}} but his engineering employer sacked him for losing too much time to his football commitments. A company spokesman said that although staff participation in sport was encouraged, "there is a limit and he must make up his mind whether he wants to be one thing or another."{{cite news |title=He can't have football – AND his job |first=George |last=Taylor |newspaper=Daily Mirror |location=London |date=4 September 1954 |page=13}} Rayment himself said he had tried to do his best for both parties, but because the apprenticeship was important to him, he left Middlesbrough and joined Hartlepools United, where he was able to complete his final year with a local firm.
His Hartlepools career was also interrupted by the requirement for National Service. Rayment served with a Royal Engineers bomb disposal squad based in Sussex, more than {{convert|300|mi}} distant. He was able to appear for the club when military duties permitted.{{cite news |title=1,000 will get 'pay as you watch' holiday |first=Bob |last=Ferrier |newspaper=Daily Mirror |location=London |date=6 January 1956 |page=13 |quote=Rayment, outside right, tumbled out of a train yesterday, clutching his Cup passport – a seven-day pass from his Army unit in Sussex.}} Over three years with Hartlepools, he scored 17 goals from 65 matches in League and FA Cup,{{cite web |url=http://www.inthemadcrowd.co.uk/ui/Person.aspx?oid=644 |title=Joe Rayment |website=In The Mad Crowd |publisher=John Phillips |accessdate=30 March 2014}} and signed as a full-time professional for local rivals Darlington in 1958.
In the inaugural season of the League Cup competition, Rayment made a significant contribution to Darlington reaching the third round, and coming close to taking First Division Bolton Wanderers to a replay. In the first round, Rayment scored the only goal of the first-round match against Crystal Palace after missing several chances.{{cite news |title=Rayment the flop laughs |newspaper=Daily Express |location=London |date=13 October 1960 |page=20 |quote=Slim Joe Rayment, Darlington's nippy right-winger, hadn't much to smile about for the first 56 minutes of this one-way League Cup clash. In that time Rayment flopped four scoring chances and almost convinced himself there was only one goal net – at the other end. But persistent Rayment still laughed last. Just after half-time Rayment slammed lively Darlington into a belated lead after John Swannnell finger-tipped the ball his way.}} In the next round they beat First Division club West Ham United 3–2: Rayment scored the second and debutant Lance Robson, then a dental student, the winner.{{cite news |title=The Darlington dentist yanks Woosnam men out of Cup |newspaper=Daily Express |location=London |date=25 October 1960 |page=20}} In front of a club record attendance of 21,023,{{cite news |url=https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/opinion/columnists/mikeamos/backtrack/3754625.legion-comes-up-for-air/ |title=Legion comes up for air |first=Mike |last=Amos |newspaper=The Northern Echo |location=Darlington |date=14 October 2008 |accessdate=29 July 2019}} Rayment opened the scoring after 16 minutes of the third round, against Bolton, with what the Guardian's reporter called "a terrific shot", but the First Division side, with England international Nat Lofthouse at centre forward, came back to win 2–1 in the last seconds of the match.{{cite news |title=Bolton leave it late |newspaper=The Guardian |location=Manchester |date=15 November 1960 |page=4}}
Rayment remained with Darlington for seven seasons. He scored 28 goals from 173 league appearances, all in the Fourth Division. He finished his football career with a season at Gateshead, then playing in the North Regional League. He helped the club reach the second round proper of the 1965–66 FA Cup, in which they lost 4–0 at home to Hull City.{{cite news |title='Reluctant' Hull win |first=Charlie |last=Summerbell |newspaper=Daily Mirror |location=London |date=9 December 1965 |page=30}}
After leaving football, Rayment spent eight years as an engineer in the Merchant Navy. He was married three times. He died in North Tees Hospital, Stockton, in July 2019 at the age of 84.{{cite news |url=https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/darlington/17776461.joe-rayment-1934-2019/ |title=Joe Rayment 1934–2019 |first=Craig |last=Stoddart |newspaper=The Northern Echo |location=Darlington |date=19 July 2019 |accessdate=29 July 2019}}{{cite news |url=https://announcements.johnstonpress.co.uk/obituaries/hartlepoolmail-uk/obituary.aspx?n=joseph-rayment&pid=193438963&fhid=35193 |title=Joseph Rayment |newspaper=Hartlepool Mail |date=20 July 2019 |accessdate=29 July 2019 |via=Legacy.com}}
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rayment, Joe}}
Category:Footballers from West Hartlepool
Category:English men's footballers
Category:Men's association football wingers
Category:Middlesbrough F.C. players
Category:Hartlepool United F.C. players
Category:Darlington F.C. players
Category:Gateshead A.F.C. players