FORMER Weymouth winger William Cliff Nugent has passed away at the age of 88 it has been announced.
He was 88 years old, and played for the Terras for five years between 1960 – 1965 and in that time he picked up 181 appearances and scored 37 goals.
At this time Weymouth played at the Recreation ground where the current ASDA store sits in town and played under Arthur Coles and Frank O’Farrell, both managers who left Weymouth with win rates of 50 per cent.
After his Weymouth playing days ended in late 1964, following the 2-0 home win over Cheltenham Town, he went to Portland United as a player coach, before returning to the Terras as a first team coach in 1968 and also had a spell managing the reserves.
After his playing days were over him and his family stayed on in Weymouth and still live there today and played at Weymouth golf club until three years ago.
He had a fantastic career as a footballer, including stints at Headington United (now Oxford United) and when he was sold to Cardiff for what was a record fee for a Southern League player at the time, the money saved the club, despite protests by fans against him leaving.
At Cardiff who were in the First Division (the Premier League equivalent), he played the Busby Babes three weeks before the Munich Air Disaster and scored against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge during the 1954/55 season where Chelsea were named champions and during his career he played against Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney and Duncan Edwards.
He had a transfer from Cardiff to Arsenal lined up but unfortunately suffered a knee injury that kept him at the Welsh side and he eventually joined Weymouth from Mansfield Town and moved down, making his first league appearance in August 20 1960.
He was there when Weymouth travelled up to Preston for the FA Cup tie that was infamously abandoned due to fog so thick goalkeeper Billy Bly was left out on the pitch when the referee called the players in.
