ONE of Britain's greatest sportsmen lines up alongside the founder of the Hereford Times in a dream team to pitch true blue Hereford heroes back into the limelight.

Jack Sharp, the legendary double international capped by England for football and cricket, and Charles Anthony, hailed as the father of modern Hereford, are both frontrunners for first-time blue plaque salutes.

Their elevation to the ranks of the city's most exalted is set to spearhead a spruce-up for the blue plaque scheme as a whole.

Hereford mayor Councillor Chris Chappell wants his "true blue" project to be a lasting legacy of his own time in office.

"Blue plaques should be the sign of the city's pride and seen as such.

The range of talented and distinguished people Hereford has produced over the ages needs proper recognition," said Coun Chappell.

Jack Sharp and Charles Anthony have been proposed by the Mayor as the worthy recipients of two new blue plaques, put up to get the revamp going and a special mayoral committee has been set up to make it happen.

The Hereford Times has long fought for a proper civic salute to free-scoring Jack Sharp, one of the finest sporting talents Britain has produced, yet all but forgotten where his skills first shone.

It took the paper nearly 10 years to get an unofficial plaque put up at Jack's birthplace in Eign Gate, where the Acorns charity shop is now.

Along the way various councils and councillors rejected tributes ranging from a street name to a statue.

Jack Sharp kicked off his football career with Hereford Thistle FC, a powerful force in the Midlands and west and regularly among the honours over the late 1800s.

The team HQ was The Grapes tavern, run by Jack's father Charles. If playing at home, they would be driven by brake to their ground at The Barracks, Harold Street.

In 1897 Jack signed for Aston Villa then, as now, one of the country's leading clubs. Two years later, he was an Everton player, getting 300 league games for the Toffees with an FA Cup winners' medal and a host of England caps to boot before retiring in 1910.

Sportwriters of the day dubbed Jack the "Pocket Hercules" splitting defences with his sprints forward to unleash shots of fierce power or send over pin-point centres. Back then, a sporting star's popularity was measured in the number of times his portrait appeared on cigarette cards - Jack had 14 different cards.

Jack's cricketing career was equally illustrious. Having re-written records on county wickets, he went on to star for Lancashire between 1899 and 1925, and his country.

Statistics show an accomplished all-rounder - 22,715 runs, 38 centuries, 440 wickets and 223 catches.

Jack died in 1938 aged just 59. He left £24, 215 in his will, less than a lot of present premiership players get per game. Tributes at the time ranked Jack among football's greats, competing with "Welsh Wizard"

Billy Meredith and even Sir Stanley Matthews for a place in one of those mythical supersquads sustained through time and memory.

Charles Anthony founded the Hereford Times in 1832 and went on to become a six-time Mayor of Hereford. His period in office is hailed as the start of modern Hereford as he campaigned for reformin the city and took a lead in: ● The installation of the first iron bridge over theWye at Hunderton.

● Devising a new network of municipal drains.

● Building the current railway station and the arrival of rail itself.

● Piloting the scheme for a new cattlemarket.

● Bringing about a bigger Shirehall, the Eign railway bridge and schools.

Charles Anthony's blue plaque will probably be put on the site of the first - now demolished - Hereford Times office in Maylord Street.