Billy Rees

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Billy Rees
Personal information
Full name William Rees
Date of birth March 10, 1924(1924-03-10)
Place of birth    Blaengarw, Wales
Date of death    July 27, 1996 (aged 72)
Playing position Inside forward
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
 ?-1944
1944-1949
1949-1950
1950-1956
1956-?
?-?		 Caernarvon Rovers
Cardiff City
Tottenham Hotspur
Leyton Orient
Headington United
Kttering Town		 00? 0(?)
101 (33)
011 0(3)
184 (58)
00? 0(?)
00? 0(?)   
National team
1949-? Wales 004 0(0)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

William "Billy" Rees (born 10 March 1924 in Blaengarw died 27 July 1996) was a former Welsh professional footballer.

Rees had been working as a coal miner while playing amateur football for Caernarvon Rovers when he was spotted by Cardiff City manager Cyril Spiers. He made eighty-three appearances in wartime fixtures for the club, scoring seventy-four times, as well as appearaing in a wartime international for Wales against England in May 1945. With the Football League returning following the end of the war Rees became a major part of the side, helping them to promotion in the first season. He finished as top scorer the following year but at the end of the 1948-49 season his good form saw Tottenham Hotspur take him to London for £14,000, just weeks after winning the first of his four Wales caps against Northern Ireland.

Early into his Tottenham career he suffered from a number of minor injuries which caused his form to severley dip and he found himslef out of the side. He was quickly sold to Leyton Orient at the end of the season for £14,500. He managed to return to form with Orient and spent six years at the club before ending his career with spells at non-league sides Headington United and Kettering Town.

Following his retiremnt from football he workd as a plant operator before later joining a pharmaceutical company based in Bridgend.

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