GORDON Peaper was one of the youngest footballers to turn out for Oxford City’s first team.

The Cheney School boy was just 14 when he pulled on the blue and white hooped shirt to play against Sutton United at the White House ground in April, 1964.

It was thought originally that he was the youngest, but it was later found that that distinction was held by an earlier player, Jimmy Smith.

He played outside left for City against Dulwich Hamlet at the White House when he was just 13½.

Young Peaper was called up 15 minutes before kick-off to make his debut for City in the Saturday evening match against Sutton when a player cried off through injury.

It was his second match of the day – in the morning, he had played for Oxfordshire Youth in a Schools Week match against a Public Schools’ team.

We were reminded of Peaper’s outstanding talent as a sportsman – and that of his brother Brian – when reader David Brown, of Jordan Hill, Oxford, sent in extracts from the Cheney School magazine.

The 1965 edition congratulated Gordon on becoming the first Cheney boy to represent England in an international football match.

It also recalled that brother Brian, also a pupil at Cheney, had won a cricket cap when he played for England against a public schools’ side at Lord’s.

Gordon, a fine all-round sportsman, was the Oxford city schools’ 220 yards sprint champion and represented Oxford schools at basketball. But it was at football that he excelled. He was right back and captain of Oxford Boys for two seasons, leading them on a history-making English Schools Trophy run that ended when they were beaten by Chester-le Street in the semi-final at Oxford United’s Manor Ground before a crowd of 6,000.

He won his first gold braided and tasselled cap when he played for England Schoolboys against Eire at Northampton in March 1965, a game that England won 4-0.

He went on to win six more caps against home nations, including one against Scotland at Wembley before a crowd of 90,000. England won 3-0.

The school magazine reported: “Gordon tells us that the players were told to keep in step as they walked on to the Wembley pitch before the match against Scotland.”

Gordon’s progress attracted the interest of Queen’s Park Rangers and Portsmouth, but he turned down the chance to join either of them.

Instead, he switched from Oxford City to Oxford United and in 1968, won an international youth cap playing for England against Wales at Watford. But then the trail goes cold and it appears there was no further mention in our newspapers of the sporting brothers who showed such promise.

Can they or anyone else tell us what happened to them?