A Leeds United membership card has turned up in the weeds more than 30 years after it was lost, and its owner has no idea how it got there.
The card was from the 1992-93 season, when Leeds were the defending league champions and Mark Dexter was a sports reporter on the Yorkshire Evening Post. It was found this week by Claire Wilson, who runs a forest school near Leeds, in a patch of overgrown land.
Wilson posted about it on Facebook, where it was seen by Dexter’s wife. Dexter, who now lives in Burley-in-Wharfedale, said he had no memory of losing his wallet, but used to live in the area and drink in a pub nearby.
“It’s next to a public footpath, but I’ve no recollection of ever walking down there at any time in the past. So I’ve no idea how it’s got there,” he said.
The wallet also contained a membership card for a long-defunct video shop. It was found next to a leather jacket, but the 63-year-old said he could not remember if that belonged to him.
“The only thing I can think of is either it’s been nicked, my jacket, but again I don’t remember that, so I don’t know what that says about my memory!”
Dexter said the timing of the card made it even more memorable.
“Leeds had beaten Manchester United to the title the season before, and given that I was a sports reporter, you would have thought I would have had more of a smile on my face on the Leeds card, but I look miserable as sin, so I hope I’ve cheered up a bit since then!”
Wilson has run the forest school in Rawdon for four years, offering outdoor learning through play for children and older nature-lovers. The site is on land once attached to a hotel and later used as a private garden.
She said she first found the wallet while working on the plot a year ago, but it was put to one side and was eventually swallowed up by weeds again. It was rediscovered on Sunday during a community clean-up.
“Where we found the wallet is next to a dry stone wall that borders some allotments, so it could have been chucked lengthways from the playing fields or just over the wall,” Wilson said.
Wilson, 39, said the leather jacket was not as well preserved as the wallet and had been sent to the tip months ago. She said the finds were not unusual for the site, with a child previously digging up a watch.
“There was no strap, it was just a face, you find all sorts when you’re digging,” she said.
Mark and his wife Nicola collected the wallet on Tuesday. He has since wiped the mud from his Whites card, leaving it looking as good as new.
Looking back on that period, he said: “I’m 63 now, so in ’92 I was 30 and happy, having a good time, loving journalism, loving working in newspapers. It was just great.”
He said he lived nearby and used to drink in the Emmott Arms, so the wallet may have been misplaced after a night in the pub.
“The pub is right next to Rawdon Cricket Club and I’m a big cricket man, so I don’t know whether I’ve had a few drinks at the cricket club or at the pub and somebody pinched it, I really don’t know.”
Read more from BBC News.
