Harold May, then aged fifteen, appeared for Exeter City’s reserves in 1933/34 and was heralded as a player of promise at the time of his first-game against Torquay United’s reserves.

Leaving Newtown School in Exeter as a fourteen-year-old in 1933, he was fifteen when he played for the reserves against Torquay United in the Western League on 6 September 1933. Given that he was a winger and, with Exeter-born Cliff Bastin then starring for Arsenal and England, it was perhaps inevitable that the local press would be all too ready to make comparisons between the two.

Little was heard of him from then on so it is possible that his promise may have been over-played by a couple of reporters on local newspapers with their enthusiasm picked up by other newspapers along the way. An H ‘Bonzo’ May is listed as having played for City’s team in the Exeter and District League a few seasons later.