270 Les Dodds

Biography

Outside left Les Dodds joined City in March 1934 and made his Tigers debut on the last day of the 1933/34 season. He was a regular starter at the start of the following season, scoring three goals in the first seven league games. However in the second half of the season Dodds was used only sporadically, though in his penultimate start for City he did score his fourth and final goal against Barnsley. He was released in the 1935 close season.

Leslie Smith “Les” Dodds was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne and was raised in the Heaton Road area by his father John Dodds, a Scottish-born clerk who worked for the Guinness brewing company and as a younger man had played football for Airdrieonians. Les played junior football for Newcastle Swifts before joining Division One side Grimsby Town in June 1930 at the age of seventeen. He served the Mariners’ Reserves side for two seasons before making his senior debut against Everton in April 1932. Weeks later he won a Midland League champions medal thanks to his regular starts for Grimsby Town’s Reserves. Over the next two seasons he made occasional starts for Grimsby Town’s first team and scored his only senior goal for the side in September 1933 against Bolton Wanderers. When he left Grimsby in March 1934 to join Hull City he had scored one goal in 14 appearances for the Mariners.

On leaving the Tigers in 1935 Dodds embarked on a journeyman adventure that took him to the West Country, London and the Teesside coast before the advent of World War Two drew a close to his playing career. In June 1935 he joined Division Three South side Torquay United and made an August 1935 debut against Brighton & Hove Albion before scoring his first goal for the Gulls a week later against Swindon Town – he was a regular starter throughout the 1935/36 season, scoring five goals in 37 appearances. Despite this good form Dodds dropped down the Birmingham Combination league in June 1936, signing for Wellington Town for a wage seemingly superior to the remuneration offered by Torquay.

A year later in August 1937 Les returned to the Football League, signing for Division Three South side Clapton Orient. He waited three months before making his Orient senior debut against Swindon Town in November 1937 and was a regular starter in the second half of the 1937/38 season. Retained for the 1938/39 season, Dodds kept his first team place for most of the season and took his tally for the club to four goals in 58 appearances. In July 1939 he returned to his native North East and signed for Division Three North side Hartlepools United, but the commencement of World War Two prevented him from playing for Pools. By the end of September 1939 he had returned to Cleethorpes near Grimsby and during the war years he played wartime football for Peterborough United.

After the War Dodds remained in Cleethorpes where he was landlord at the Havelock Hotel in Grimsby and active in the local snooker scene. He died in November 1967 while on a visit to Scotland with a fellow Grimsby licensee, and was interred in Cleethorpes.

Details

Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 20 September 1912, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Hull City First Game: 5 May 1934, Burnley H (Division Two), 21 years, 227 days old
Hull City Final Game: 19 April 1935, Norwich City A (Division Two), 22 years, 211 days old

Clubs

Newcastle Swifts, Grimsby Town (1930-1934), Hull City (1934-1935), Torquay United (1935-1936), Wellington Town (1936-1937), Clapton Orient (1937-1939), Hartlepools United (1939)

Hull City Record

Career: 20 apps, 4 goals