Fallaize: Reginald Albert (Reg)

WW2 Guest: 1942-1943 (Leeds United War-time Guest Player Details)

Centre Forward

Born: Rocquaine, St Pierre du Bois (St Peter In The Wood), Guernsey, Channel Islands: 22-03-1921

Debut: v Halifax Town (a): 12-12-1942

5'7 1/2" 11st 6lb (1940)

Initially, little was known about Reg Fallaize, but he was thought to have been on the Halifax Town staff in the War years. "Fallaize is thought to have been a refugee from Guernsey, and said to have been a trialist with Southampton. He played six games for Halifax Town in 1940-41, scoring two goals, but it is believed that he then had been playing in local football. He came to Leeds in September 1942 where he became a prolific scorer in the Reserve side. He continued in 1943-44 until mid-December, when he simply disappeared from view."(Information kindly supplied by Neil Roche). He only played five games for Leeds and scored twice. The first came in the 1-5 defeat in the 1942-43 Football League Northern Section (First Championship) game with Halifax Town at the Shay, when he played at Centre Forward. His second and third games came on consecutive Saturdays in the 1942-43 Football League Northern Section (Second Championship) in a 2-2 draw with Bradford Park Avenue at Elland Road and a 0-1 defeat at Valley Parade against Bradford City, in which he was again at Centre Forward. The other two games were in the 1943-44 Football League Northern Section (First Championship) at Outside Right in a 3-3 draw with Bradford City at Valley Parade in September 1943 and at Inside Right in a 2-2 home draw with Doncaster Rovers in October 1943, in which he scored. He also guested with Middlesbrough where he made two appearances in the League North Competition in the 1943-44 season. It is thought that one of those games was at Elland Road, on 25th September 1943, when he turned out for them, when they did not have a full team. It is not thought that Fallaize played professionally in the Football League, "but did play in the Leeds local League after the War, playing for Carlton United in April 1946 in the Leeds District Senior Cup final according to the Yorkshire Evening Post." (Information kindly supplied by Neil Roche). Thanks to Reg's son Ron Fallaize we are now able to give a much broader picture of his early life and also his career before and after Leeds United as well as more exact personal details. Thanks to Ron Fallaize for the following: Reg was born Reginald Albert Fallaize in Rocquaine, St Pierre du Bois (St Peter In The Wood), Guernsey, in the Channel Islands on 22nd March 1921. Educated at St Peter In The Wood School (St Peter's), he represented Guernsey as an Outside Right in the Inter Isles games with Jersey. He joined St Martin's AC and prior to the outbreak of war had a trial with English League club Southampton. However, he remained with St Martin's until he was nineteen and was one of the many who were evacuated to England to avoid the German occupation of the Channel Islands. Fallaize played in the last senior match against Jersey before the German Occupation and the press report said "the stars of the Guernsey team were Finn and Fallaize". Jersey won the game 4-2 on New Years Day 1940. His parents, Albert and Elsie Fallaize evacuated to England with their six youngest children and on arrival were allocated to Leeds. Reg and his fourteen year-old younger brother, Harold, were settled in Halifax where he quickly started playing for Boothtown in the local League. It was not long before he came to the attention of Halifax Town and on 25th September 1940 a newspaper report had this to say prior to his first-team debut. "Halifax Town are making one change in their team to meet Huddersfield Town at The Shay on Saturday. This is at centre forward where there is a prospect that a trial will be given to a young evacuee from Guernsey, who has been training at The Shay and has recently assisted the Boothtown club. This player, Fallaize, is nineteen years old, five foot seven and a half inches tall and weighs eleven and a half stones. He has had trials with Southampton. Huddersfield will have eight of their First Division side playing, including centre half Alf Young, who played nine times for England between 1932 and 1938, including the infamous 6-3 win v Germany in Berlin in 1938." Indeed, a baptism of fire, but he came through impressively in a 1-1 draw. Then, after appearing in the 2-4 away loss to Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough, where he scored his first goal, he followed this up by scoring his second goal in a 2-1 win over York City at the Shay. The following weekend, the Oldham Evening Chronicle had this to say before he played his next game against Oldham Athletic at Boundary Park on 16th November 1940. "HITLER PROVIDED A CENTRE FORWARD FOR HALIFAX TOWN. That man did not know when he hustled folk out of the Channel Islands that he was providing Halifax Town with a centre forward but it has turned out as part of Town's fortunes of War that they have discovered a dashing young player in Fallaize, an evacuee. Fallaize has been playing regularly this season and excelled himself against York City at the Shay. He will be on view at Boundary Park tomorrow. York had Burgh, the former Preston player, Stockill the Arsenal centre, and Patrick of Cowdenbeath in the side, but Fallaize played his best game since he first turned out for Halifax and took all the honours, which included scoring the winning goal. As if Fallaize were not enough for defences to watch Widdowfield has struck his best form. Widdowfield is not one of those forwards who scores in every match, but when he starts he likes to make it three, as he has done this season against Bradford City and Hull City." Under the headline "REFUGEES GOAL" another local newspaper continued: "A Guernsey refugee called Fallaize, playing at centre-forward, put pep into the play of Halifax Town with a first-minute goal, and thereby contributed a lot to the 2-1 defeat suffered by York City." Between the victory over York City and the game at Oldham he had played for Halifax in a 1-1 home draw with Blackburn Rovers on 2nd November 1940 and under the headline "CLOSE STRUGGLE AT SHAY", a local newspaper had this to say: "Scorers: Halifax Town: Barkas. Blackburn Rovers: Pryde. In normal times Halifax Town would have counted it a good performance to hold Blackburn Rovers to a draw and, today, the same satisfaction should apply since the Rovers' team included several of the First Division side. It was a close struggle throughout with little to choose between the teams. Town were in a strong position when the interval arrived without loss, and slightly the better of the second half play, taking the lead after 62 minutes, when Barkas got up splendidly to a centre from Wardle, to head into the net." After the game at Oldham, Reg played his final game for Halifax in a 0-1 loss at home to Oldham Athletic on 23rd November 1940. He scored twice in six games while with Halifax Town. By then Reg had found out that his parents and the rest of the family had been evacuated to Stourton, a village to the South-East of Leeds, and so he moved in with them and started playing for a local team, Carlton United. Carlton United were a very successful club in the local Leagues and on 25th April 1942 they won the West Riding County F.A. Cup Final at Elland Road when they beat Yorkshire Amateurs 3-2, after extra-time. Then on 2nd May 1946 they won the Leeds and District Senior Cup after beating Victoria Old Boys 4-2 in a Replay at the Leeds U.Y.M.I. Ground in York Road Leeds. On 6th April 1946 they had won their Semi-Final Replay against Smith's Sports by 7-4, a semi-final in which Fallaize scored a hat-trick in the first game and a brace in the replay, but on 23rd April 1946 had been held to a 2-2 draw in the Final at Elland Road. While with Carlton United he did score twice in five appearances in late 1942-43 and early 1943-44 seasons for Leeds United but he also played twice for Middlesbrough and the Middlesbrough Gazette of 27th September 1943 describes the circumstances of his appearance on 25th September 1943, as Leeds beat Middlesbrough 3-0 at Elland Road. "To add to the long list of wartime difficulties which have overtaken Middlesbrough F.C. there came to the Ayresome Park club something totally unexpected and, of course, most inconvenient on the occasion of Saturday's visit to Leeds United. Stobbart, recalled by his club after two successful outings with Darlington, and Lyon, hat-trick marksman one week ago, had the irritating experience of missing their respective trains, and so were unavailable for the game at Elland Road. The total number of players in the Borough party totalled ten so Leeds United, sporting as ever, offered the services of a local amateur centre forward named Fallaize." He must have made a good showing as the club called him up on a second occasion for the visit to Roker Park, Sunderland, on 18th December 1943, but that game was remembered for a far different reason as Raich Carter ran riot and the Sunderland Echo had this to say with the headline "Carter Converts Sunderland Attack Into Scoring Force" and continuing "Ninety minutes of Raich Carter and the Sunderland team became a menace. The England and R.A.F. star can cover more ground without showing any physical fatigue than any player I know and he has to be so well looked after by the opposition that someone else in the front rank is bound to have some scope. Though beaten by 6-1 Middlesbrough were not a bad side and could show good football without the requisite punch to produce goals, but Carter was too good for them most of the time and was even once seen in our own goalmouth robbing Stobbart of a scoring chance. Would that we had him for the cup-ties which begin on Monday next, but he returns to duty today." Reg Fallaize remained in West Yorkshire until returning to Guernsey in 1946 after the liberation of the Channel Islands, where he resumed playing local amateur football with Guernsey Rangers and regularly representing Guernsey. He remained in Guernsey until he returned with his family to Leeds in 1960 and worked as a foreman with a construction company and lived there until his death on 19th November 1979 aged fifty-eight.