A 35-YEAR mystery surrounding a letter inviting a young man to have trials for Bolton Wanderers has been solved.

Neil and Lesley Turton approached the Bolton News for help in tracing the recipient of the type-written letter, dated 1948.

Neil found it on the floor of the Wood Bar, his father’s Chorley Old Road shop, in the late 1970s.

Over the years the couple made attempts to try and find out more about JG Vause, to whom the letter was addressed, without success.

But after their appeal was published recently the couple were delighted when Geoffrey Vause’s son, Nigel, came forward to shed light on the puzzle.

His father died 10 years ago aged 75, but Mr Vause remembers his dad talking occasionally about his footballing days.

His footballing trial was successful and he was taken on by Wanderers, playing for their B team and then for Bury, before a career as a mill manager and then owning a series of shops in the Halliwell Road area.

Mr Vause did not know about the letter’s existence, but believes his dad may have had it folded up in his wallet and dropped it when he was a customer at the Wood Bar.

“He did talk about his footballing days and he loved going to the park to play with us when he we were children,” said Mr Vause.

The aspiring footballer even played for the Army during National Service in Sudan in the late 1940s, but he soon gave up his professional career, working as a manager at Eagley Mills and then Oswaldtwistle Mills instead, where he lost part of his left hand in a machine accident.

Mr Vause, of Moss Lane, Smithills, went on to run a pram and toy shop with his wife, Barbara and then an off-licence and a chip shop before helping his son, Nigel, operate a car sales business.

The father-of-two and grandfather-of-three is well remembered for his footballing prowess in his younger days.

Pal Jack Rutledge, aged 84, played against the winger in the Bolton Combination League and they remained friends until his death.

“He was a really good footballer and a nice looking lad,” said Mr Rutledge.

Many of Mr Vause’s footballing trophies are believed to have been stolen in a burglary and so his son says he is pleased that Mr and Mrs Turton are returning the Wanderers’ letter to him.

“It is a shame it is not going to the man himself, but it feels really good that I can give it to someone after all these years,” said Mrs Turton.

“It is going to be nice to find out more about him and I am really delighted the letter is going to where it should be and not just stuck in my handbag.”