Ralph Calland was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 professional footballer, playing at full-back. He was born in Lanchester

Lanchester, County Durham

Lanchester is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England, and was in the former district of Derwentside . It is to the west of the city of Durham and from the former steel town of Consett, and has a population of slightly over 4,000 people.Although there was a small drift mine on the...

, County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

.

Ralph 'Scrumpy' Calland began his career at Charlton Athletic

Charlton Athletic F.C.

Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...

 who he joined in May 1937. He spent 2 seasons with Charlton, failing to make a league appearance. In May 1939 he moved to Torquay United

Torquay United F.C.

Torquay United Football Club, nicknamed the Gulls, are an English association football club based in the tourist resort town of Torquay, Devon. They played in the Conference National in 2008–09, but were promoted to Football League Two after a 2–0 win over Cambridge United on 17 May 2009 at Wembley...

, but the second world war intervened, and Calland had to wait until 1946 for his league debut.

Over the next 8 seasons Calland saw many changes at Plainmoor, including his brothers Ted

Ted Calland

Edward Calland was an English professional footballer, he played at centre-forward.-Playing career:Ted Calland joined Fulham in April 1952 from Durham City. He was unable to break into the Fulham first-team and left in September 1952, joining Torquay on a free transfer, linking up with his older...

 and Albert

Albert Calland (footballer)

Albert Calland is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre forward in the Football League for Torquay United. He was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham....

 arriving. He finally left Plainmoor

Plainmoor

Plainmoor is a suburb of Torquay, Devon, but is best known as the name of the stadium in which Torquay United Football Club currently play.-History:...

 after making 207 league appearances, in which he scored 14 times.

In January 2000, aged 83, Calland was back at Plainmoor for the match with Carlisle United

Carlisle United F.C.

Carlisle United F.C. is an English football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, where they play at Brunton Park. Formed in 1904, the club currently compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system....

 as a guest of the match day sponsor Helen Chamberlain

Helen Chamberlain

Helen Marie Chamberlain is an English television presenter.She previously worked as a holiday camp entertainer and Disc Jockey before working on a variety of radio and television programmes...

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