Guernsey Sporting Heroes - Richard Le Flem

In his formative years at the Grammar School, Richard was a fine runner at anything from 100 yards to cross country. In fact in 1957 he won all the under 15’s events and in the seniors became the schools senior champion.

Richard began his local football career with Northerners in 1956 and won numerous medals before joining Nottingham Forest in 1959. He became the youngest player ever to play for Nottingham Forest making his debut against Cardiff City at Ninian Park. Richard went on to make 149 appearances for the club scoring 21 goals.

During his time at Nottingham Forest, Richard made one appearance for the England Under 23 side, a victory over Holland in Rotterdam, in an England side managed by Walter Winterbottom, captained by Bobby Moore, which also included Alan Mullery.

He moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers (also then a First Division Club) in January 1964, in a swap deal with Alan Hinton. Richard went on to make a total of 19 Football League appearances for them, scoring 5 goals. Regrettably, his time at Molineux was blighted by a bout of jaundice contracted whilst in Guernsey prior to the 1964-65 season. This meant that he was only able to make 13 appearances during that season – the highlights of which were scoring against Chelsea, West Bromwich Albion, Birmingham City, and Fulham.