Coordinates: 53°41′49″N 2°41′24″W / 53.697°N 2.690°W / 53.697; -2.690

Borough of South Ribble
—  Borough  —
Shown within non-metropolitan Lancashire
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	North West England
Ceremonial county	Lancashire
Founded
Admin. HQ	Leyland
Government
• Type	South Ribble Borough Council
• Leadership:	Leader & Cabinet
• Executive:	Conservative
• MPs:	Nigel Evans, Lorraine Fullbrook, Mark Hendrick
Area
• Total	43.6 sq mi (113.0 km2)
Area rank	206th
Population (2010 est.)
• Total	108,300
• Rank	Ranked 208th
• Density	2,500/sq mi (960/km2)
Time zone	Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0)
• Summer (DST)	British Summer Time (UTC+1)
Postcode
ISO 3166-2
ONS code	30UN
OS grid reference
NUTS 3
Ethnicity	98.0% White 1.5 S. Asian [1]
Website	southribble.gov.uk

South Ribble is a non-metropolitan district and borough of Lancashire, England. Its council is based in Leyland. In May 2007, the council was officially declared "Excellent" by the Audit Commission, gaining its place among the best 5 district councils in the country,

Overview[link]

On 4 October 2007, a team from South Ribble won the LGC Challenge, defeating over 40 other authorities, including larger metropolitan and unitary councils.

South Ribble Borough Council is working in partnership with Chorley Borough Council (a neighbouring authority) on Finance, Procurement, Audit and other centralised functions.

Other notable population areas within South Ribble are Penwortham, Longton, Hutton (headquarters of the Lancashire Police), Walton-le-Dale, Bamber Bridge, Lostock Hall, a significant part of Buckshaw Village and Moss Side.

The district was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, from Leyland and Walton-le-Dale urban districts, along with part of Preston Rural District.

The Parliamentary Constituency of South Ribble includes the West Lancashire communities of Tarleton, Hesketh Bank and Meols.

Council affiliation[link]

In the 2007 local elections, South Ribble witnessed a landslide Conservative victory, gaining 24 seats to hold 44 of 55 on the borough council.^[2]

As of April 2011, the council stood as a Conservative majority run borough.^[3], and the Conservatives, despite losing a handful of seats, were relatively comfortably re-elected in May of that year.

Parishes[link]

The former urban district areas of Leyland, Lostock Hall, Bamber Bridge and Walton-le-Dale are unparished areas. The rest of the district is divided into the following civil parishes:

• Cuerdale
• Farington
• Hutton
• Little Hoole
• Longton
• Much Hoole
• Penwortham (town)
• Samlesbury

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

• South Ribble Borough Council
• South Ribble Neighbourhood Watch Association
• Leyland Lancashire - A Community website

v t e Districts of North West England Cheshire Cheshire East • Cheshire West and Chester • Halton • Warrington Cumbria Allerdale • Barrow-in-Furness • Carlisle • Copeland • Eden • South Lakeland Greater Manchester Bolton • Bury • Manchester • Oldham • Rochdale • Salford • Stockport • Tameside • Trafford • Wigan Lancashire Blackburn with Darwen • Blackpool • Burnley • Chorley • Fylde • Hyndburn • Lancaster • Pendle • Preston • Ribble Valley • Rossendale • South Ribble • West Lancashire • Wyre Merseyside Knowsley • Liverpool • St Helens • Sefton • Wirral

Sir Tom Finney

The "Splash" statue outside the new National Football Museum, Preston, UK
Personal information
Full name	Sir Thomas Finney
Date of birth	(1922-04-05) 5 April 1922 (age 90)
Place of birth	Preston, Lancashire, England
Playing position	Striker, Outside Right
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1946–1960	Preston North End	433	(187)
National team
1946–1958	England	76	(30)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Sir Thomas Finney, OBE (born 5 April 1922, Preston, Lancashire) is a former English footballer, famous for his loyalty to his league club, Preston North End, and for his performances in the English national side. Finney is also the current President of Kendal Town.^[1] He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1961 Queen's New Year Honours and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 Queen's New Year Honours and was knighted in the 1998 Queen's New Year Honours.^[2]

Early life[link]

Finney was born at home in Preston on a street next to the Deepdale stadium to parents Alfred Finney (b.1894) and Margaret Mitchell (b.1896). He was frail and somewhat sickly in his youth and stood only 4 ft 9 in (1.45 m) at the age of fourteen. When he was offered the opportunity to sign for Preston North End (PNE), his father insisted that he complete his apprenticeship in the family's plumbing business before signing as a professional. This led to one of his nicknames, the 'Preston Plumber'. Finney's mother Margaret died in 1927, at the age of 32, when Tom was only four years old. He was married to Elsie Noblett from 1945^[3] until her death from Alzheimer's disease in 2004.^[4] They had two children; a son Brian (born 1947) and a daughter Barbara (born 1950).^[5]

Second World War[link]

Soon after he signed, however, World War II began and normal football was suspended, though Finney started to achieve some recognition during war-time tournaments. In December 1942, he made a guest appearance for Southampton in a 3–1 defeat by Arsenal at The Dell.^[6][7]

Called up to the Royal Armoured Corps in 1942, he fought in Montgomery's Eighth Army in Egypt and later in Italy in the final offensive to capture Argenta in April 1945 as a Stuart tank driver in 9th Lancers. Local leave in North Africa allowed him to play in army teams against local opposition and on one occasion he played against the future actor Omar Sharif.^[8]

Post-war career and England debut[link]

Once normal competition was restored, he made his debut for the club in August 1946 and soon established himself as an agile forward. Post-war demand for plumbers ensured that he had a second income to supplement the £14 he received as a footballer and he became famous as the "Preston Plumber". Such was his influence on the team that Preston were, rather unfairly, known to some as "the Plumber and his 10 drips".^[9] Twenty eight days after his first league appearance for Preston, Finney made his England debut, going on to win 76 caps and score 30 goals.

He played against Italy in 1948, he is the only player for either side that played that game who is still alive.

Tom Finney was Footballer of the Year in 1953–54, the year of his only appearance in the FA Cup Final (losing 2–3 to West Bromwich Albion), and again in 1956–57, becoming the first player to win this award more than once. Sir Tom has recently revealed in his autobiography confessed that he wasn't fully match fit for the FA Cup final of 1954, and therefore didn't give his best performance.^[10]

In June 1958, he scored his 29th international goal, against the Soviet Union to become joint England all-time top-scorer, sharing the record with Vivian Woodward and Nat Lofthouse. In October the same year, he netted his 30th goal, against Northern Ireland, to become the sole holder of the record. Two weeks later, Lofthouse equalled his tally. Both were surpassed by Bobby Charlton in October 1963.

Retirement[link]

He retired from Preston North End in 1960, only when forced out with a persistent groin injury. He had played his entire career for his local club, appearing 433 times and scoring 187 goals. The balance of Preston's team hardly matched Finney's brilliance, the young Bill Shankly notwithstanding, and he never won the championship (in 1953 and 1958 Preston North End came close to completing the feat, but each time they had to settle for runners-up) or any other trophy. His loyalty is remarkable, though even he considered a 1952 offer from Italian club Palermo that included a £10,000 personal signing-on fee and high pay and perquisites, but Preston asked for the then record fee of £50,000. He did, however, come out of retirement in 1963 to play for Northern Irish outfit Distillery against Benfica in the European Cup.^[11]

The Splash[link]

On 31 July 2004, Sir Tom unveiled the water feature sculpture "The Splash", by sculptor Peter Hodgkinson, which stands outside The National Football Museum. The sculpture was inspired by the 1956 Sports Photograph of the Year which features Tom Finney beating two defenders at a waterlogged Stamford Bridge.^[12]

Now aged 90, Finney is one of England's oldest living former international footballers.^[13] As of February 2011, he is also one of only three surviving players from England's 1950 World Cup squad. The others are Bert Williams and Roy Bentley.

Continuing links with Preston North End[link]

As of 2007, Sir Tom maintains his links with Preston North End as the club's president. 2006 marked 60 years since his first league debut for PNE. To mark this occasion the National Football Museum, an organisation which he has championed and has close links with, invited football fans to sign a specially commissioned flag which was presented to Sir Tom at the beginning of the 2006–07 season to mark his 60 years with PNE.^[14]

Ability[link]

His total mastery of all the techniques triumphed over the lack of medals. He was versatile, playing in all the orthodox five forward positions of the day for Preston and appearing for England at right-wing, left-wing and centre-forward. He was a genuine two-footed player, packing an explosive shot in either his right or his left. He had speed, balance, was a pin-point passer and, for a man of no great height, could head with awesome power. Whilst Finney's ability was great many will remember him for his gentlemanly conduct on the game which ensured he never received a booking throughout his entire career.

Quotes about Finney[link]

• "Tom Finney would have been great in any team, in any match and in any age ... even if he had been wearing an overcoat."^[15] (Bill Shankly)
• Shankly was also once asked about how a top star of the day compared to Finney: "Aye, he's as good as Tommy – but then Tommy's nearly 60 now."^[16]
• "Tom Finney should claim income tax relief ... for his 10 dependents." (Satirical observation on the weakness of the Preston team in his absence)^{[citation needed]}
• "If all the brains in the game sat in committee to design the perfect player, they would come up with a reincarnation of Tom Finney." (Anonymous newspaper feature)^{[citation needed]}
• "To dictate the pace and course of a game, a player has to be blessed with awesome qualities. Those who have accomplished it on a regular basis can be counted on the fingers of one hand – Pelé, Maradona, Best, Di Stefano, and Tom Finney."^[17] (Stanley Matthews)
• "If I were to take, and I've been asked that many times, if I were to take the choice between [Finney and Stanley Matthews], it would be Tom Finney for me" (George Young, former Scotland captain).^{[citation needed]}
• "Lionel Messi is an immature Tom Finney. He reminds me of him with his attitude, an approach he plays. You never see him concerned in any tasteless things, we never hear him criticising anyone, and that was Finney. To me Messi is Finney reborn."^[18] (Tommy Docherty)

Career statistics[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Finney, T. (2004) Tom Finney My Autobiography ISBN 0-7553-1106-X
• Finney, T. (1982) Tom Finney's Preston North End Scrapbook ISBN 0-285-62554-3
• Finney, T. (1958) Finney on Football ISBN B0000CK63X
• Finney, T. (1955) Instructions to Young Footballers ISBN B0000CJABP
• Finney, T. (1953) Football Round the world ISBN B0000CIMPY
• Agnew, P. (2002) Tom Finney: A Football Legend ISBN 0-9530847-9-5
• Booth, J. (ed.) (1998) Tom Finney: A Pictorial Tribute ISBN 1-901966-00-3

External links[link]

• Full list of Finney's international goals
• Tom Finney at the International Football Hall of Fame
• Tom Finney at the English Football Hall of Fame
• Football fans are asked to raise the standard for North End's greatest player
• Tom Finney Profile at Football England
• Interview with Sir Tom Finney at Shankly.com

References[link]

v t e England squad – 1950 FIFA World Cup GK Ditchburn GK Williams DF Aston DF Eckersley DF Ramsey DF Scott DF Taylor DF Wright MF Baily MF Cockburn MF Dickinson MF Hughes MF Nicholson MF Watson FW Bentley FW Finney FW Mannion FW Matthews FW Milburn FW Mortensen FW Mullen Coach: Winterbottom

v t e England squad – 1954 FIFA World Cup 1 Merrick 2 Staniforth 3 Byrne 4 Wright 5 Owen 6 Dickinson 7 Matthews 8 Broadis 9 Lofthouse 10 Taylor 11 Finney 12 Burgin 13 Green 14 McGarry 15 Wilshaw 16 Quixall 17 Mullen 18 Chilton 19 Armstrong 20 Jezzard 21 Haynes 22 Hooper Coach: Winterbottom

v t e England squad – 1958 FIFA World Cup 1 McDonald 2 Howe 3 Banks 4 Clamp 5 Wright 6 Slater 7 Douglas 8 Robson 9 Kevan 10 Haynes 11 Finney 12 Hopkinson 13 Hodgkinson 14 Sillett 15 Clayton 16 Norman 17 Brabrook 18 Broadbent 19 Smith 20 Charlton 21 A'Court 22 Setters Coach: Winterbottom