Chew: John (Jackie)

WW2 Guest: 1944-1945 (Leeds United War-time Guest Player Details)

Outside Right

Born: Blackburn: 13-05-1920

Debut: v Everton (a): 22-09-1945

Height & Weight: Unknown

Chew started with his hometown team Blackburn Rovers in 1939. An all-round sportsman, he also had a distinguished cricketing career. At eighteen he played football with Blackburn Rovers, as a youth, as well as cricket for the East Lancashire Cricket Club and Rishton Cricket Club where he was captain and star batsman for many years. He had actually been registered as a nineteen-year-old amateur with Blackburn Rovers in 1939, before serving in the RAF throughout the Second World War. During the war he guested for several teams including his hometown, Leeds United and Burnley. He made six appearances for Leeds scoring one goal, but never played for them in his acknowledged position of Outside Right. He played twice at Outside Left, then once at Inside Right before playing three times at Inside Left in six consecutive fixtures. He scored once, at Deepdale, in a 2-8 drubbing by Preston North End in his final game on 27th October 1945. Apart from his games with Leeds, Chew played eight games for Blackburn Rovers in the 1939-40 season and then scored once in fifteen appearances in 1940-41. He also had one game for Rochdale in the 1940-41 season, without scoring. He scored twice in twenty-five games for Burnley in the 1945-46 season after he signed for them at the end of the war in May 1945. When peacetime football resumed he made his Football League debut for Burnley on 31st August 1946, in the 1-1 home draw with Coventry City. He was a member of their 1946-47 Second Division promotion team which also reached the F.A. Cup Final only to lose to Charlton Athletic with the last kick of extra time. He played his last game for Burnley on 3rd October 1953, at Old Trafford in a 2-1 win over Manchester United. He made two hundred and twenty-five League appearances for the Lancashire side, scoring thirty-nine goals and added to those two goals in twenty-three F.A. Cup ties. Chew was dubbed to have the hardest shot in League football and had one of the most feared left foot ever. He was a key figure for the Clarets in the post-war era, having signed as a professional in March 1946, after having made guest appearances the previous year. He was part of the team that rose from the Second Division to be one of the most feared teams in the First Division. He had earned the nickname 'Cowboy' by the Burnley fans because of his bandy legs and soon became a very popular player in the right wing. He had pace and could deliver accurate crosses, and was not afraid to make the most of his reknowned powerful shot. He linked up brilliantly on the right hand side of the attack with inside forward Billy Morris as Burnley won promotion and established themselves in the First Division and when Morris retired he found a new partner for a season in a young Irishman by the name of Jimmy McIlroy. However, by the end of the 1952-53 season, time was catching up with Chew. By the start of the following season he was thirty-three, well past the usual age when professional footballers hung up their boots in the 1950's. Towards the end of that season he'd been replaced by Roy Stephenson and by the time the 1953-54 season kicked off Burnley had signed Billy Gray from Chelsea and it was he who was first choice in the ensuing season. Chew played just three more times for Burnley, all of them at inside-left, and in June 1954 he left Turf Moor and signed for Bradford City. He was immediately a regular there, scoring four goals, including one from the spot, in thirty-six League appearances and also one goal in five F.A. Cup ties in the 1954-55 season, but was released at the end of the season and he retired from League football. He played for a time in Non-League with Darwen before hanging up his boots for good and swapping his kit for his whites on a permanent basis. It was at Rishton Cricket Club that he enjoyed one of his best days. At the age of Forty-four he lined up for Rishton against Burnley in the 1964 final of the Worsley Cup in the Lancashire Cricket League. Burnley, who had only lost one game all season, mainly due to having the fearsome West Indian fast bowler Charlie Griffith in their attack, were unbackable favourites. But his marathon fifty-two not out helped his own side Rishton to a shock seven wicket victory. He died on 25th October 2002.