HARRY Wait was a fine club man who spent 37 years with Walsall FC, firstly as a player, then as trainer and finally as groundsman. He was signed as a 31-year-old by Walsall's secretary-manager Joe Burchell in August 1923, having played in goal for Darlaston in the Birmingham and District League, the Birmingham Combination and the Birmingham League for 15 years before that and had helped Darlaston win the Keys Cup.
Many doubted the wisdom of such an ageing goalkeeper moving into Fellows Park, especially one whose experience was limited to non-League football, but Wait, who succeeded Dick Mann and Cyril Houghton, quickly made his mark after his debut at Rotherham County on August 25th 1923 in a third division (north) match.
He missed only one game in his first five seasons and at one stage had a run of exactly 200 consecutive appearances in League and Cup competition, a fantastic achievement considering his age. When he was forced to miss a match it was because of a boil which put him out of a Cup replay at Middlesbrough in January 1929. His long run came to an end following the emergence of the up-and-coming Roy John and the arrival of Fred Biddlestone. After a handful of games as a stand-in he announced his retirement in May 1932 to take over as assistant trainer.
Amazingly, almost four years later - on April 14th 1936 - at the age of 44, he was recalled for first-team duty in an emergency, and his displays proved that the intervening years had not impaired his judgement. Thus he became the oldest player ever to don a Walsall jersey and so was made up his grand total of 264 League and 11 FA Cup appearances in The Saddlers' goal. He remained the club's trainer right through the War years, up to 1950 when he took over the job of groundsman with the former Wolves defender Jack Nelson assuming Wait's duties as senior trainer. He was groundsman until 1960 and even after that was still a prominent figure at the club, coming along to watch Walsall teams in action at various levels, in fact, he lived almost opposite the ground in Wallows Lane. On May 2nd 1957 a testimonial match was staged at Fellows Park between Walsall and a Select Midlands XI which included several internationals. The Saddlers lost 7-0 but those present were there to pay tribute to a truly wonderful man.
During the latter stages of his playing career, his son, Harry junior, registered as a goalkeeper with Walsall and appeared in several reserve team matches under the watchful eye of his father. It was Harry Wait who forecast that one day a young lad called Bert Williams would 'go places'. He certainly did, winning glory with both Wolves and England. Wait sadly passed away sometime around 1975.
