Bill Parry

DOB: 18th February 1933

Position: Full-back

Season of first appearance: 1961/62

Season of last appearance: 1964/65

Full Appearances: 204

Substitute: 0

Goals: 2

Also played for:

Portmadoc (Wales), Tottenham Hotspur (0), Gillingham (220,4), Sittingbourne.

Player Profile:

5' 10" tall tough-tackling, burly defender born in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales, who started his career with Portmadoc. Bill was then signed by Tottenham in September 1953 but never made the first-team there and moved to Gillingham in July 1955.

Bill made his debut for the Gills in a 2-1 win at Reading in September 1955 and he went on to make 220 first-team appearances for the club during six seasons with them before joining Margate in the summer of 1961.

He became the club's captain and made his debut in a 1-0 defeat against Wisbech in the Southern League at Hartsdown Park on 19.8.61. It was the opening day of the 1961/62 season. Bill went on to make 62 appearances without scoring and missed just four games, some due to a slashed arm sustained in work accident. He formed a solid full-back partnership with the long-serving Terry Joyce and Bill's aggressive tackling was "strictly for the non-squeamish" according to the local paper.

On 4.11.61, he was part of the Margate side that pulled off a famous 3-0 win at Bournemouth & Boscombe in the 1st Round of the FA Cup and Bill also featured in the 2nd Round tie against Notts County at Hartsdown Park on 25.11.61 which ended in a 1-1 draw. He then played in the replay at Notts County on 30.11.61 which the home side won 3-1. On 12.5.62, Bob captained Margate to a 4-0 win over visitors Folkestone in the Kent Senior Shield Final.

Bob Harrop was given the captaincy for the 1962/63 season but Bill was still "a model of efficiency" during the campaign according to the press. He played in all but one of Margate's fixtures, making a total of 65 appearances as Margate won the Southern League Division One title. On 3.11.62, Bill was in the side that lost 3-1 at Millwall in the FA Cup 1st Round.

On 20.3.63, he scored his first goal for Margate and fittingly it came in a 2-1 win over his former club Gillingham in a Kent Senior Cup tie at Hartsdown Park on 20.3.63. On 7.5.63, Bill played as Margate won 2-0 at Maidstone in the 1st Leg of the Kent Floodlight Cup Final and he also featured in the 2nd Leg at Hartsdown Park on 13.5.63 which Margate won 3-0 to claim the trophy. On 1.6.63, he was in the team that beat visitors Bexleyheath & Welling 1-0 in the Kent Senior Shield Final.

Ankle and knee injuries restricted Bill to only 39 appearances during the 1963/64 season but, on 16.11.63, he played as Margate drew 2-2 at Brentford in the FA Cup 1st Round and also featured in the replay at Hartsdown Park on 20.11.63 that the Bees won 2-0. Bill scored once - with a penalty in a 1-1 home draw with Nuneaton on 8.2.64 - during the campaign and, in January 1964, his false teeth ended up in Cyril Simpson's kit bag after a mix-up. That led to Bill having to survive on soft foods for a few days. On 22.2.64, he had a spot kick saved by former Margate keeper Alf Bentley in a 3-0 defeat at Hastings and, on 9.3.64, Bill was sent off in a home game against Dover and had to serve a 14-day suspension.

The 1964/65 season turned out to be Bill's last with Margate and he was in and out of the side during the campaign. He made a total of 38 appearances to take his overall tally past 200 but was no longer an automatic choice. At the end of the season, Bill was released and he joined Sittingbourne for the 1965/66 campaign.

In later years Bill did some scouting for Norwich and Oxford as well as managing an amateur side called Breech Rovers for about 18 years. They were based near Gillingham and, in 1990, Bill made an emergency appearance for them at the age of 57.

In 2001, Bill was living in Rochester and at that time he still watched Gillingham occasionally.

On his 75th birthday in February 2008, he was a guest of Gills' chairman Paul Scally for a home game with Bournemouth and Bill died in Rochester on 20.5.09 at the age of 76.

In 2012, his son David was one of Gillingham's matchday announcers.