FORMER Ipswich player Tom Garneys has died in a Basildon nursing home after illness. He was 83.Garneys averaged more than a goal every two games for Town, netting 143 times in his 274 appearances between 1951 and 1959.

By Mel Henderson

FORMER Ipswich player Tom Garneys has died in a Basildon nursing home after illness. He was 83.

Garneys averaged more than a goal every two games for Town, netting 143 times in his 274 appearances between 1951 and 1959.

He celebrated his debut with a goal in the 4-1 home defeat of Southend United in August 1951 and went on to finish top scorer in his first season, with 20 goals, after joining from Brentford.

He was also the club's leading marksman for the following three campaigns, winning Third Division (South) Championship medals in 1954 and 1957.

A huge favourite with the Portman Road crowd, they used to chant 'Give it to Garneys' and he invariably obliged with a goal.

Garneys, renowned for his aerial prowess, was again the club's top scorer in the 1957-58 campaign, when his 19 goals in 33 games helped Town to finish eighth in the Second Division, at that point the highest position in the club's history.

His tally puts him fourth in the list of all-time Ipswich goalscorers behind Ray Crawford, Ted Phillips - who was a team-mate for several years - and John Wark.

One of the many highlights of Garneys' career was in October, 1954, when he became the first Ipswich player to score four goals in a Football League fixture, the 5-1 home win over Doncaster Rovers.

Born in Leyton, he started out with Notts County, and after he announced his retirement in January 1959 he took over the running of the Mulberry Tree public house, now the Milestone, in Ipswich.

He later relocated to Billericay in Essex and was still living there before being admitted to a nursing home at nearby Basildon where he spent his final days.