TIVVY ARCHIVE

Hedley Steele

03/02/1954

Born in Barnsley, Hedley caught the football bug at an early age as he was brought up within spitting distance of Oakwell, and it was no surprise that, after his family had relocated to Devon, he would begin to fulfil his ambitions in the game. He was just a few days past his seventeenth birthday when he made his senior debut for Tiverton and he marked that milestone by netting a hat-trick, even though it was as a cultured centre-half that he became more renowned.

Steele spent a short time at Exeter City in 1974 before moving on to Dorchester Town in what was the beginning of a long spell in the Southern League. He also played for Weymouth and later Gloucester City before returning to Ladysmead on a permanent basis in 1987 where he became a crucial part of the team that gained promotion to the Western League Premier Division and went on to reach the FA Vase final in 1993. Hedley captained that side and also helped the club into the FA Cup First Round proper three times in five seasons. Having managed Tivvy's Reserves for a year he then closed out his playing career with Cullompton Rangers and Willand Rovers before taking over as manager at local side Bickleigh, eventually answering the Tiverton call again and taking up the Assistant Manager role in 2010.

He left the club in March 2013 along with manager Mark Saunders after a catastrophic run of poor results and has since returned to Silver Street as part of the Willand coaching staff, and late in the 2013/14 season even made a brief substitute appearance for Rovers at the age of 60, becoming possibly the oldest player ever to make an appearance in the Western League!