Denzil 'Paddy' Hale is a former professional footballer, who played in The Football League

The Football League

The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...

 for Bristol Rovers

Bristol Rovers F.C.

Bristol Rovers Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Bristol, that competes in Football League Two. The team plays its home matches at the Memorial Stadium, in the Horfield area of the city....

.

Hale started playing non-League football

Non-league football

Non-League football is football in England played at a level below that of the Premier League and The Football League. The term non-League was commonly used well before 1992 when the top football clubs in England all belonged to The Football League; all clubs who were not a part of The Football...

 for Yatton United and his home town team Clevedon Town

Clevedon Town F.C.

Clevedon Town Football Club are an English professional football club based in Clevedon, North Somerset. They currently play in the Southern League Division One South & West.-History:...

 before joining Bristol Rovers as an amateur in 1951. He was awarded a professional contract on 19 February 1952 and made his first team debut in a Division Two

Football League Second Division

From 1892 until 1992, the Football League Second Division was the second highest division overall in English football.This ended with the creation of the FA Premier League, prior to the start of the 1992–93 season, which caused an administrative split between The Football League and the teams...

 game in 1953. He initially played as an inside forward

Inside forward

In football, the position of inside forward was popularly used in the late nineteenth and first half of the 20th centuries. The inside forwards would support the centre forwards, running and making space in the opposition defence, and, as the passing game developed, supporting him with passes...

, and spent some time playing as an emergency centre forward following an injury to Geoff Bradford

Geoff Bradford

Geoffrey Reginald William Bradford was an English professional footballer who spent his entire career at Bristol Rovers and won one international cap for England....

. He was later converted to a centre half, and played in that position for the majority of his professional career.

After playing 120 League games between 1953 and 1959 and scoring twelve goals, all in the 1953–54 season, Hale left Rovers and returned to non-League football, playing for Bath City

Bath City F.C.

Bath City Football Club are a semi-professional football club based in Bath, Somerset. They play in the Conference National league after gaining promotion from the Conference South via the play-offs in May 2010...

before returning to his previous club Clevedon Town.