THE achievements of footballers George and Ted Robledo are about to be recognised with a blue plaque on their former home but George also had another skill.

Upon leaving Barnsley FC for Newcastle United, George turned his hand to writing and documented a pre-season trip to Canada and the USA exclusively for the Chronicle.

George, who was born in Chile but raised in West Melton, was with the Magpies as they went on a lengthy trip around North America in the summer of 1949.

In the first instalment George talks of his awe-inspiring experiences in New York of seeing Broadway, Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building after voyaging from Southampton on board the Queen Mary.

The plentiful food and cigarettes on board the ship seemed to also impress George who also tells of his pride of reaching the on-board table tennis competition’s semi-final.

From there the squad travelled on an overnight sleeper to Montreal, Canada, where George netted in a win over Montreal All Stars. Despite scoring, George was eager to point out to Chronicle readers that he had had a goal wrongly chalked off for offside.

Another cause for complaint came from their allowance of just four dollars a day which according to George made a scheduled shopping trip pointless.

A trip to Niagara Falls proved much more exciting to George and he referred to it as the highlight of his trip which lasted a total of six weeks and also saw him travel through the Rocky Mountains, experience dust storms and play against a native American side (where George scored four), and experience ‘the one mad rush’ that is New York city. George was keen to get home come the end of the tour but said ‘pleasant memories’ were made over the Atlantic.

Remembered fondly in the North East, and in his homeland, George made his name at Oakwell as a prolific striker, netting almost a goal in every other game before earning a £26,000 move to Newcastle, who also signed younger brother Ted as part of the deal.

George’s form for the Magpies earned him a call-up to the 1950 World Cup where he played for Chile against England. He also scored in their match against the USA.

George starred in back-to-back FA Cup final wins for Newcastle. He supplied legendary striker Jackie Milburn in the 1951 final and then netted the winner himself in the 1952 final a game in which Ted also started.

He moved back to his homeland in 1953 with a legacy also secured as a two-time FA Cup winner and also the leading foreign-born striker in England - a record he held right up until the 1990s when it was broken by Dwight Yorke.

At Chilean side Colo-Colo with Ted he won the domestic league title twice and the Copa Chile. Both men continued to represent their country of birth on a regular basis.

George retired from football in 1960 and became the leader of a sports programme. He died of a heart attack in 1989.

Mystery surrounded Ted’s death in 1970 after he fell off an oil tanker in the Middle East.

A campaign, launched by local football historian Chris Brook alongside Lucy Thorpe, a distant relation, for a historical marker to be placed on the former family home in West Melton has proven successful with officials from Barnsley FC offering to foot the entire bill. The designing the plaque is almost complete and the date of an official unveiling will be released shortly.