Maurice Cook

A hard-running, no-frills centre-forward or winger who was Watford’s major player of the mid-1950s and left for a club- record fee after prolonged transfer rumours. Maurice Cook is the only Hertfordshire-born player to have scored 20 or more Watford goals in a season, and was the only Vicarage Road man to represent Division 3 (South) against its northern counterpart. He also scored the Football League Cup’s first-ever goal, for Fulham against Bristol Rovers. At the end of his Football League career he joined one of his former Watford managers, Len Goulden, at Banbury United, and soon afterwards took over the first of a succession of public houses which he ran in the Berkhamsted/Hemel Hempstead area. He was later employed as an organizer of stewarding at major sporting venues. He and Jack Harrop, who played football together for Watford and cricket for Watford Town, were each other’s best man.

West Herts / Watford Career