Bill Summerscales
Footballer (born 1949)
William Charles Summerscales (born 4 January 1949) is an English former footballer who played in central defence for Leek Town, Rochdale, Stafford Rangers, and Newcastle KB United (Australia). He helped Port Vale to win promotion out of the Fourth Division in 1969–70.
Career
Summerscales played for North Staffordshire College of Technology and Leek Town before joining Port Vale for a £400 fee in February 1970. He played four times in the Fourth Division in the 1969–70 promotion campaign. He played seven Third Division games in the 1970–71 season and scored his first senior goal on 19 December, in a 3–0 win over Rochdale at Spotland. He went on to score one goal (against Wrexham) in 28 games in the 1971–72 campaign. He scored three goals in 50 matches in the 1972–73 campaign, including Vale's consolation goal in a 3–1 defeat to Newcastle United in the League Cup. He came second to Ray Williams in that year's vote for the Port Vale Player of the Year award.
He scored once in 27 games in the 1973–74 season, before his run in the first-team was brought abruptly to a halt on 12 January 1974, when he broke his neck during a 2–2 draw with York City at Vale Park. After he returned to fitness, he had a new manager, as Gordon Lee left the club, and "Valiants" legend Roy Sproson took his place at Vale Park.
The public source identifies “Bill Summerscales” as footballer (born 1949). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bill, Summerscales and Footballer.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4911062. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1969, 1970 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bill Summerscales” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.