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Jack Lewis
Born in Bloxwich, 26/8/1919
Died in Walsall, 25/12/2002
Reading first team career: 1951-1953 (81 games, 17 goals)
Jack Lewis joined Reading in July 1951 and played at half-back. His first season was one of the best the club ever had, spent mostly near the top of Division 3 South and ending with a club record 112 League goals scored. Reading finished second in the League but only one club was promoted during this period. Lewis himself scored 15 goals from midfield, a League record at the time. Nine of the goals were penalties and he also took free-kicks, but 15 goals is still very impressive. Manager Ted Drake left in the summer and his replacement Jack Smith chose Lewis as the new captain of the side. Things did not go so well, though, with Reading finishing mid-table and Lewis managing only two goals, both penalties in the last game of the season. In the summer of 1953, Lewis left Reading.
He had started his footballing life with West Bromwich Albion as a schoolboy before moving to Crystal Palace in 1938. He spent 11 years there, although his career was interrupted by World War 2 and he played some wartime football for Walsall. Crystal Palace granted him a benefit match against Sunderland before he left for Bournemouth. He was club captain there and stayed for three seasons before moving to Elm Park.
He left Reading for Kettering Town and then Worcester City where he had a spell as caretaker player-manager. He then stopped playing football and became a publican in the West Midlands as well as managing non-league Blakenall. His next move was to buy a hotel in Aberdyfi on the West Wales coast but he moved back to the Midlands where he returned to managing pubs. His last work was as licensee of a pub in Wednesbury until he retired at the age of 73. He remained living in Wednesbury until he died in hospital in Walsall at the end of 2002.
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