HE fell asleep at half-time while playing in an FA Cup match on the Isle of Wight and took the Great WT to the last three colours.

Totton Conservative Club snooker veteran Rex Batten believes his hopes of becoming a professional footballer were dashed by being forced to work all day Friday and all Friday night to earn Saturdays off.

Batten, who had a couple of seasons on the books at The Dell, netted five times in Totton Reserves 6-1 home victory over Southampton B (Saints fourth team) in a Hampshire League Division 3 West match in the early 1950s.

The inside forward also had a trial for a Blackpool side that contained Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen.

“It was a privilege,” he said. “I ran my heart out but I obviously wasn’t good enough. I’ve had a wonderful life in football.”

Now 79, Batten recalled trips for Totton to the Isle of Wight.

“I used to go from Husband’s Shipyard at Marchwood over to the Town Quay and get on the boat and have a wash,” he said. “I remember playing in an FA Cup match over at Newport. At half-time I fell asleep.”

In 1983 he won a snooker tournament at Pontin’s, Weston-super-Mare, and played an exhibition match against six-time world champion Ray Reardon.

Two years later, Batten repeated the feat in Devon and took on Willie Thorne.

“I got down to the blue, pink and black,” he recalled. “Mind you, he might’ve been playing around with me.”

Totton A captain, Chris Jones, said: “Normally people that age aren’t potters, they’re just canny players. But Rex can pot. We all learn off of Rex.

“For a guy that’s nearly 80 to pot the way that he pots, to think the game through the way he things the game through... what a brilliant guy.”