John Batley

DOB: 1st January 1970

Position: Defender

Season of first appearance: 1970/71

Season of last appearance: 1972/73

Full Appearances: 3

Substitute: 1

Goals: 0

Also played for:

Ramsgate Athletic, Ramsgate and Deal Town.

Player Profile:

Local player who started his career with Ramsgate Athletic where he made a one-off appearance for the first team during 1967/68. John then played for Margate A (Under-18's) under Terry Morris and progressed into Margate's reserves. He first featured for them during the 1968/69 season and on the last day of the 1970/71 campaign he made his first team debut, playing at left-back in a 3-1 defeat at Dover in a Kent Floodlight Cup tie on 5.5.71. John also won the Banks Cup awarded to the club's best young player for the season.

He continued playing for the reserves during the 1971/72 campaign and remained with the club for the following season too. John made three further first team appearances (one as sub) during 1972/73, the first of them in a Kent Floodlight Cup tie at Hastings on 15.11.72 that Margate lost 6-0.

He left the club at the end of the season and rejoined Ramsgate where he was a regular in the reserves during the 1973/74 campaign.

John then moved to Deal for the 1974/75 season before dropping into local football and in August 1976 he emigrated to Canada.

In 2003 John was back in the UK and living in Chislehurst, Kent. His sister was married to former Margate goalkeeper Paul Thomas.