On This Day (8th October 1930): A Dutchman's flying visit to Wearside comes to an end!

Yesterday at 01:00 AM

Today, Roker Report looks reflects on the intriguing case of an enthusiastic stranger who attempted to try his luck at Roker Park ninety years ago

According to the old adage, 'shy bairns get nowt', but after an audacious attempt to get signed up, all that would-be Sunderland player Herman Drukker received in 1930 was a slap on the wrist and a journey back to his native Netherlands.

Reports in the press from early October contradict each other at points, but the general consensus was that having arrived on Wearside onboard the steamer Gouwe, Drukker had then deserted his post and somehow made his way into the Roker Park boardroom, and possibly on a matchday, no less!

Approaching a bewildered director, believed to be Duncan White, Drukker boldly asked for a trial at the club – a request that was accepted, although whether this was to simply humour or pacify a potentially dangerous intruder is unknown.

Nevertheless, Drukker duly returned to the ground in the days that followed and got changed into a playing kit.

It was only once he'd made it out onto the pitch and started doing ball practice with some of the squad that two plain clothes officers approached and arrested him on account of landing without the permission of the relevant authorities.

This was quite a serious matter back then, although the Dutchman was treated lightly by the newspapers and the police themselves, who allowed him to shower and change back into his own clothes before removing him from the premises.

A former bank clerk who was unhappy with desk jobs, Drukker had turned into a 'wanderer' in recent times and claimed that he wanted to either follow in the footsteps of his countryman Gerrit Keizer, who was on the books at Arsenal, or become a theatre entertainer.

The ninteen-year-old was certainly keen to showcase his skills as much as he could, and having been denied the chance to do it in the football arena, he soon began entertaining his captors via less common means – yodelling for them as they waited in the changing room while he got dressed!

It was clear by now that the Amsterdam man presented no threat to others, although the magistrates were still obliged to remand him for a week while efforts were made to return him home.

The arrangements were finalised swiftly and on October 8, Chief Inspector Cook of the local force confirmed that Drukker would be setting off from the South Docks aboard the Tynehome that afternoon, bringing an end to an adventure that had begun in Zaandam, continued onto Southampton and then seen him come ashore in the town as the Gouwe collected a cargo of coal.

Whilst Herman's future endeavours (he's thought to have become a PE teacher) wouldn't seem to suggest that Sunderland manager Johnny Cochrane had missed out on a potential star, the gaffer could've done with a boost.

Our 1930/1931 campaign had started badly as we won only one of our first nine games, and the Lads perhaps needed an entertainer around the place to lift spirits if nothing else.

Telling folk he was the son of a diamond merchant, the enigmatic Drukker was clearly a character, but sadly his life was to come to a tragic end.

Born in November 1910, he'd settled down with his job in education and started a family by the time of the Second World War, but was then killed in 1944, aged thirty three.

He'd initially been picked up by enemy forces fourteen years to the week since his visit to Sunderland and as a part of the Dutch Communist Party (the resistance), was being held prisoner when he was shot dead later in the month in retaliation for an unrelated attack on an SD officer.

It was sorry way for somebody with such zest and hope to perish.