Just seen this, RIP

https://www.theshots.co.uk/club-statement-ron-rafferty/

RIP

Before my time but a GTFC great.

RIP.

Wow, 145 goals in 263 appearances for Town.

No wonder my Dad used to go on about him!

RIP.

Way before my time but still read a lot about him on here and other places decades after he was playing for Town. Hopefully his relatives can take some comfort in the knowledge he’a fondly remembered here. RIP.

RIP Ron

RIP Ron.... one of my first heroes at BP... started watching him in 1960... what a magnificent striker  !!! Met him and Johnny Scott in Keelby.... bloody marvellous players.... 😢

RIP Ron

Quality player , RIP Ron. :'( and thank you.

A sad day indeed. My boyhood hero gone.
I used to watch him practice his heading using a football suspended on a string
behind the Osmond stand. The greatest header of a football I have ever seen!
RIP Ron "Chips" Rafferty .A true Town Legend.

One of the best. A pleasure to have watched him in action. RIP

RIP
As legendary GTFC names go he is up there

RIP Ron

Before my time, but heard so much about him.

One from my grandads day, one of the players he spoke highly of when we chatted about the Mariners and seemed to look back fondly on the seasons he was with us. Was scoring for fun by the early 60's which got the attention from across the river.

Kind of makes me wonder what I'll have to remember when I reach that age, makes me glad I wasn't born too late and got to witness the likes of Clive Mendonca as a kid.

Knew him well. One of Town's all time greats. So sad

Sad day.
Brilliant header of a ball.
Johnny Scott could cross a ball from the halfway line to the far post and Ron just outjumped the defence to head home.
Promotion side of the early 1960s he was unstoppable

That promotion year was when I started to follow town. Great player. I didn’t know he carried on playing much after that year, because I thought he had cartilage problems, which was a career ending injury in those days. Pleased I got it wrong.
RIP.

RIP Ron,

You may guess I was saddened by this news. Ron was my first GTFC hero, right from seeing him in a Christmas game against Liverpool in the 1950s. He had a brilliant partnership with Ralph Hunt in the 1959-60 season and another with Cliff Portwood in 1961-2. He was up there with Matt Tees in my estimation as a header of the ball and he was no mug at playing it on the floor either.

Scott, Cullen, Rafferty, Hunt and Fell were as good a forward line as I ever saw at BP. Seeing them as a kid I was spoilt for life. Such a pity not to have seen them in action on film.

As I say, very sad. But I shall continue to keep the name of my childhood idol alive on the Fishy.

My dad used to mention Ron Rafferty quite a lot when talking about the good old times. RIP Ron.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

Scott, Cullen, Rafferty, Hunt and Fell were as good a forward line as I ever saw at BP. Seeing them as a kid I was spoilt for life. Such a pity not to have seen them in action on film.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think Jimmy Fell ended up a business owner in Gilbey Road later in life around the 1970s - early 80s? My mum and dad knew him by then. The newsagents is still there.....

Jimmy Bloomer snr I guess must have lived close by, as two of his kids lived around there for many years, my dad worked building bungalows in Cleethorpes with him after his playing career. I know a couple of the grand kids quite well.

Billy Cairns I think ran a pub somewhere, I've got a pic of my dad having a pint in there, not sure if it's actually with Billy Cairns himself he's with.  I'll ask my dads brother....

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

Scott, Cullen, Rafferty, Hunt and Fell were as good a forward line as I ever saw at BP. Seeing them as a kid I was spoilt for life. Such a pity not to have seen them in action on film.

Same, used to stand on the corner between the Pontoon and the Main stand with my dad watching those great players, although for some reason my Dad was always on Cullens back!

Quoted from Nelly GTFC

My dad used to mention Ron Rafferty quite a lot when talking about the good old times. RIP Ron.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think Jimmy Fell ended up a business owner in Gilbey Road later in life around the 1970s - early 80s? My mum and dad knew him by then. The newsagents is still there.....

Jimmy Bloomer snr I guess must have lived close by, as two of his kids lived around there for many years, my dad worked building bungalows in Cleethorpes with him after his playing career. I know a couple of the grand kids quite well.

Billy Cairns I think ran a pub somewhere, I've got a pic of my dad having a pint in there, not sure if it's actually with Billy Cairns himself he's with.  I'll ask my dads brother....

Cairns was the common name for the pub on Freemo that he ran for years.

Not sure what Jim Fell did when he came back from his travels but his wife Alberta was a secretary at the old Education Centre on Victoria Street.

Quoted from 123614

Same, used to stand on the corner between the Pontoon and the Main stand with my dad watching those great players, although for some reason my Dad was always on Cullens back!

Mick Cullen was never a hit with the older fans was he? Funny really but many of them would be comparing him with little Jackie Bestall I suppose. Cullen, Don Donovan and Johnny Scott were almost telepathic and technically as good as you could get. All Hunt and Rafferty had to do was time a run in the box and the ball would be there. As I said, in the words of a later manager we was spoilt!

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

Mick Cullen was never a hit with the older fans was he? Funny really but many of them would be comparing him with little Jackie Bestall I suppose. Cullen, Don Donovan and Johnny Scott were almost telepathic and technically as good as you could get. All Hunt and Rafferty had to do was time a run in the box and the ball would be there. As I said, in the words of a later manager we was spoilt!

I can't think of any two better wingers we have had than Scott and Fell.

Quoted from 123614

I can't think of any two better wingers we have had than Scott and Fell.

I played in Lincs League for Market Rasen back in the seventies and we played Ross Sports, they had Jimmy Fell we had Brian Hill, so two of the best wingers in the last 60 years on view that day. Have to say Jimmy was probably in his final season and was carrying just a little excess weight but Brian was as fit as a fiddle.

My old man’s boyhood hero, I wonder how many kids of today call a town player their idol? Rest in peace Ron.

RIP Ron
My first legend as a boy supporting the Town
Johnny Scott crosses the ball and Ron Rafferty meets it with a bullet header. Another goal for the mariners.
The good ol' days.

RIP

Quoted from 123614

I can't think of any two better wingers we have had than Scott and Fell.

For quite a  few games in the 1959-60 season me and my mate used to walk to the match from where we lived in Duncombe Street to save the bus fare so we could get chips from the Pea Bung and boiled sweets from the stall on the market, then go in the boys paddock which gave us a great view of Johnny Scott for half the game.

I don’t know which games but several times he would beat a full back then stand still and wait for him to catch up then beat him again. He seemed to mesmerise them.and he could bend a cross so the GK would start to come for an easy catch and the ball would swerve away from him onto the head of Hunt or Rafferty.

On a good day we won the toss and attacked the Osmond first half. We would see the half in the boys paddock then climb over the gate into the Barrett and walk down to the other end, climb that gate to the open corner and watch Jimmy Fell in the second half. Jim was more direct, he had a fast step over and then away either into the box or a far post cross.

My first hero when he got into the team.

I used to argue with my dad that Ron was better than Tommy Briggs.

What we could do with someone like him now.

RIP Ron you gave me the love of football and of Town.

You will never be forgotten .

By far the best header of a balI i have ever seen...
Scott and Fell in the wings delivering the crosses and big
Ron with his bullet headers...  A simple game really played by tougher men...
RIP. Ron...


  

Like many posters I think Rafferty was the best header of a ball I have ever seen.  Anywhere in the box he could ram it home (the ball) harder than some could kick it. Perhaps not so good with the ball at his feet.  Certainly my first hero.

R.I.P.  Ron

He can be called a Grimsby Town legend.

I met him in the 'little club' once, after he had left the Town.
Such a nice and unassuming man.

Ahh - my boyhood hero, RIP Ron.
Think Mike Cullen is now the only survivor of that iconic forward line.

Ron was my boyhood hero, also. I am honoured that I saw him play. As a kid in Burgh, I used to wait eagerly for the Saturday Football Telegraph to arrive to see how Town had got on. Ron's name leapt out of the reports as he scored so many goals.
We have lost Matt Tees and now Ron in the past few months. RIP both. Town legends and thank you for all the entertainment.