Former Muratti player enjoys 100th birthday

Full-back Ernie Sauvage spent most of his playing career with Northerners but he also played for Rangers.

He made his Muratti debut aged 20 in the last pre-war game in 1939 and his last appearance came in 1955. He captained the Guernsey side in 1948. He played in a total of eight finals. A replay was required in his last final and his record was three wins and five defeats.

He said he was still interested in football but thought that the game had changed.

‘It was more of a sporting kind of game in my day,’ he said.

Ernie’s son, George, said his father had a reputation as being a bit of a hard player.

‘They said if Ernie couldn’t get the ball he got the man but he helped opponents up with a smile on his face,’ he said.

His father would often come home with marks on his forehead from catching the laces when he headed the ball.

Mr Sauvage did not limit his sporting interests to football.

He was a keen athlete too and held the local seven-mile record for many years.

He also played table tennis and softball and did a bit of boxing.

He worked as a greenhouse hand for most of his life. Wife Doris died in 2009 after more than 60 years of marriage.

The two married in Halifax during the war as Mrs Sauvage had been evacuated there.

Ernie was a despatch rider with the 15th Scottish Division. He went to France four days after the D-Day Landings and stayed in Europe until the surrender.

The card he received from The Queen yesterday was his second one as he and his wife received one for their Diamond Wedding Anniversary.

Mr Sauvage thought the fact that he was non-smoker who had only ever drunk alcohol occasionally with a meal had helped him to live a long life.

He celebrated his birthday with friends and family but said he wanted to say something about the people at the care home where he has lived for the past year.

‘The people at Gardenia Lodge are lovely,’ he said.

‘They have made my life worthwhile.’