Peter Baker obituary
By Julie Welch, The Guardian.The footballer Peter Baker, who has died aged 84, was part of Tottenham Hotspur’s Double-winning side of 1960-61, playing right-back in every game of that season bar one. In a side containing world class talents such as Dave Mackay, Danny Blanchflower, Cliff Jones and John White, the name of this cool and unruffled defender was never the first to be reeled off when the Double side was discussed. He was, rather, an essential component of a solid, conventional rearguard in the days when defenders seemed bolted together like table footballers and there were no sprints upfield to provide crosses.
Baker was a tall, quiet, genial man, hugely strong, with great pace and positional sense. As a footballer he just looked the part. “He was bronzed and debonair, like the actor Ron Ely, who played Tarzan in the television series,” recalled Rob White, a long term family friend. “He was a good-looking sporty guy, a man’s man, everything a footballer should be.”
Born in Hampstead, north London, to Edith and George, a commercial traveller, Baker went to Southgate County grammar school and was a schoolboy athletic prodigy at the quarter-mile, javelin and cross country. A keen cricketer, he was also talented enough to play tennis at junior Wimbledon and squash for Middlesex. Later his enthusiasm for taking part in other sports in his free time was such that in the early days of marriage his wife, Linda (nee Burles), threw all his kit and equipment into their driveway after the ruination of one too many Sunday roasts.
As one of only three players in the Double-winning side who were home-produced (the others were his full-back partner Ron Henry and Terry Dyson), Baker cost the club nothing. He joined Spurs as an amateur in 1949 while playing for Enfield, turned professional in late 1952, and made his First Division debut in a 1-1 draw with Sunderland in April 1953. He was no instant success, though. First-choice right back at the time was Alf Ramsey, and even when Ramsey left to manage Ipswich Town the old-stager Charlie Withers was preferred to him. The signing of the giant Maurice Norman, initially to replace Withers, meant Baker had to carry on waiting it out in the reserves. Then an injury to Norman brought Baker into the first team and by the time Norman was fit again Baker had made the position his own. Norman had to switch to centre-half to get back into the side.
When Blanchflower signed for Tottenham in 1954, Baker had already achieved the status of being the club’s longest-serving player. Blanchflower took him to Enfield’s most upmarket restaurant, the Granville, and subjected him to an inquisition about how the club was run.
Baker was to be of further use to the Spurs captain. Blanchflower, nominally a right-sided wing-half but notorious for never doing what anyone expected, would head off upfield, leaving Baker on his own to deal with marauding attackers. Fortunately Baker was up to the task, and it was a familiar sight to see him efficiently shepherding forwards out of the danger zone towards the touchline. He was versatile enough, too, to play in goal once, at Birmingham City in 1959, and even scored a goal in the Double season, at Turf Moor in Tottenham’s 2-4 league defeat by Burnley in April 1961. He then played in the 2-0 win against Leicester City in the 1961 FA Cup final, allowing Spurs to complete what was the first league and cup double of the 20th century. Spurs won the FA Cup the next season too, with Baker in the winning XI that defeated Burnley 3-1, and he was also in the side that won the 1963 European Cup Winners’ Cup in a final in Rotterdam against Atlético Madrid, who were thumped 5-1.
Even into his 30s Baker looked good enough to go on for several years, but the arrival of Cyril Knowles in 1964, followed by an injury, meant an end to his top-flight career. In May 1965, after 342 senior games for Spurs, he left to play for and then coach the South African side Durban United. After retirement he set up a furnishing business in Durban.
Baker and Spurs remained on affectionate terms. After he and his wife eventually returned to England, even in his final years he was a regular traveller to matches at White Hart Lane from his home in nearby Enfield.
He is survived by Linda and by three daughters, Sara, Susan and Diane.