After many a trial and false start, Tom Ruddy had a successful spell in the Football League with Darlington, who won the Third North in his first season with them – although they had come back down again by the time he scored a hat-trick in their best-ever League win (9-2 v Lincoln City) in January 1928.

His goal-scoring feats earned him a spell with First Division Derby, which ended with a move to Second Division Chesterfield. That had lasted only half-a-season, when Southampton’s Supporters Club helped to fund his transfer, within that division, to The Dell (see scrapbook section).

A forward who had relied upon his pace and a hard shot, Tom was by now 30 and slowing down.

Even so, he finished the 1932-33 season looking settled at inside-left and started the next in possession. But he was soon out of contention and a move back to the north-east, for non-league football, was swiftly followed by a swansong in the Irish League. By 1939 he had become a steel furnaceman in Stockton.