Simply Topping

Chris Topping with children from Cliffe Primary School where he coaches

Breathless is the list of his City glory days.

He was the first apprentice professional at the club, the man who has made the third most appearances in City history, the holder of an ever-present first-team run that spanned an astonishing seven years and seven months, and an integral component of the team that reached the highest point in club legend. Phew.

Yet Topping has another distinction to his credit.

He was the Clubman of the Year in that debut season in the old Second Division, where he rubbed 'Y'-fronted shoulders with the likes of Steve Coppell, Ted McDougall, Phil Boyer, and Mick Channon - internationals all.

But to meet Topping few would credit he had attained that sublime supporters' award.

There's no trumpeting of past glories. Indeed he eschewed his own City days by saying that 'people must get fed up hearing about the 1973-74 title-winning side' in which he was a major player.

If anything he bubbles more with enthusiasm for the present than of the past, though he admits he and York City and its fortunes are indivisibly intermingled.

These days Topping performs with no little resilience and tenacity as a dreadnought defender with York Sunday Afternoon League side Real Cliffe alongside his eldest son Mark.

They are through to a final and are also in the running for championship success, he confirms with an undeniable pride that his 48-year-old bones enable him to keep playing the game he has loved since a young child in his home of Bubwith near Selby.

Even now though there is no chance of taking himself too seriously. "It's not REAL Cliffe, it's just Cliffe really," he said, spurning any thought of pretension.

For the elegant centre-back it's the plain, unconfined joy of playing that most occupies his leisure time. He enthused: "I do enjoy it, no doubt. And as long as I can do it I will do it.

"We would all love to continue playing. I certainly don't want to give up as long as the legs hold out."

Those limbs did that, and more besides, during Topping's extensive Football League career that included more than a decade as a Minsterman in their halcyon days, and subsequently at Huddersfield Town and Scarborough.

Yet he freely admitted he was not from a footballing hotbed and his first school in Bubwith was overseen by a headmaster not particularly enamoured with sport, let alone football.

That did not deter toddler Topping, nor his brother, who was 18 months younger.

"I was crazy on football. My brother and myself just played and played, and played.

Across the fields behind our back door we'd go to kick a ball about."

Topping senior was rather more adept than kicking the ball hither an thither.

Now at Barlby School he blossomed to recognition for East Riding boys. Transport however was not exactly slick.

"I remember biking in the dark and also a teacher taking us to a game in a three-wheeler car up Staxton Hill.

Then I would have to get the train by myself to Hull for trials and training. It was all a bit daunting for a country lad," he recalled.

But his focus was narrowing on the game to a dedicated degree, his enthusiasm also fired by then City star Alan Woods, father of current player Neil.

"He used to come along and do some coaching at school. I remember him teaching us to do sprints such as 'doggies'. He probably doesn't know it, but he was a big influence."

Topping was attracting attention and soon he was representing York City aided by the fact that his father, Albert, knew then City secretary George Teasdale.

"City started a team in the then Sunday morning league. It was literally a case of men against boys," said Topping.

"We were known as Bootham United. And we were teenagers in the game up against men, who sometimes came into the matches nursing a hangover. It was an education.

"But we had a squad of about 13 good lads, plus Ron Spence as an old head to guide us. He was singled out for some treatment. He used to get kicked to death."

Another tough breeding-ground was the West Yorkshire League, where City fielded a reserves side against several colliery teams on a Saturday afternoon.

Those tussles continued Topping's tough tutelage so that by the time he was 17 he was honed for his senior debut in a basement clash against Newport County in December 1968.

It was a richly-cherished ambition.

He explained; "Because we lived out in the country and my father was an insuranceman, who worked Friday nights, we only got to see City a few times. But they were always my team.

"I used to admire players like Billy Rudd and Denis Walker at the age of 14. Just two or three years later I was in the same dressing-room."

Maybe it was also pre-ordained that Topping would link up with the Minstermen as his grandfather had been instrumental in the running of the club back when it operated at Fulfordgate.

However, Topping's father sensibly ensured his son maintained his day release studies in horticulture at Askham Bryan College before finally signing for the Bootham Crescent club.

Not surprisingly Topping helped to guide City to a clean sheet on his debut.

That was to be more commonplace over the next nine years when the word Topping became synonymous with resolve and reassurance at the core of the City defence.

Reliability also came into play, never more sharply illustrated than the centre-back's uninterrupted hold on a senior berth from September 1970 through to April 1978. He held his place in the side for an amazing 368 successive games, 355 of which were in league encounters.

Topping is almost dismissive of the achievement, rather paying tribute to the work ethic he believes he inherited from his parents Albert and Joyce.

"They always believed you had to work hard and my father never had a day off work. He was a Japanese prisoner of war, yet he still never missed a day's work on his return to Britain," explained Topping.

He added that he was blessed with a natural stamina, strengthened by cross-country appearances for East Riding Schools.

"I was always fit. I could run all day. I was also extremely lucky with injuries. I remember one game having a lot of stitches in an eyebrow. But there was no midweek match so by the following Saturday I was fit again."

He remembered how he would challenge Great Britain middle-distance runner Walter Wilkinson, who used to train City in the 1970s. "He used to have us running back to the ground from Sim Balk Lane and I would do my best to try to keep up with him."

Few could keep up with Topping and his contribution in two promotion campaigns, capped by that 1973-74 title success, was rounded off by that Clubman of the Year award the season after.

"I had a really good year in that first season in the Second Division. I was fast. I could run everywhere. I could cover ground. York were doing well. I was doing well."

Topping to this day does not class himself in the same skill stakes as some of his City contemporaries, such as Barry Lyons and Ian Butler. But it was precisely the mix of styles and strengths that made the team what it was, he added.

"There were a lot of complete opposites within that framework. But it was such a great team unit. The pity was it was probably broken up too soon."

Even he broke away from football after his professional days were followed by spells at Rowntree's and then Northallerton Town. But the fires were re-kindled while watching son Mark play for Cliffe. He was soon back in his trusty boots.

"I have to be very grateful to Joan. She's been a very understanding wife to put up with me playing football again," said Topping, whose youngest son James is now starring for Cliffe juniors.

Their daughter Joanne was also successful as a pony-rider until the recent onset of asthma.

Topping senior, a former manager of a mushroom farm, now combines tending the land he and his family have in Cliffe with postman's duties in Selby.

That also affords him the time to train youngsters at Cliffe Primary school, where he tries to get across the joy of playing the game.

A cultivated man, a cultured man, a gentle man, that's Topping. If ever the phrase 'City gent' was applicable it is here in spades, forks, rotovators and tractors.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.