FORMER Cherries favourites Tony Nelson and Brian Bedford have paid warm tributes to Ollie Norris – a key figure from the club’s most famous FA Cup run – who has died in Australia after a long illness. He was 82.

Derry-born Norris, who began his professional career with Middlesbrough, partnered the likes of Stan Newsham and Bedford on his way to scoring 34 goals in 96 league appearances for Cherries.

But his most notable performances came when he featured prominently as the club embarked on a giant-killing FA Cup run to reach the quarter-finals in 1956-57.

Having caught the attention of the country by helping to see off Wolves, Norris netted the opener as Cherries shocked Tottenham Hotspur with a 3-1 win. Cherries’ heroics were eventually ended when they lost 2-1 against mighty Manchester United in the sixth round.

Norris’s impact at Dean Court is fondly remembered and former team-mate Nelson, an ex-Cherries stalwart of 19 years, said he was a player the club would have loved in their current team.

Nelson told the Echo: “He was a real character and was always game for a laugh.

“He started this business of jumping up and down in front of people taking throw-ins. In those days, there was no law against it. It was something he thought of to put off the fellow. He was a likeable rascal and a lovely chap.

“He was a good, direct forward to have on your side. He was a class act.”

Striker Bedford, also a star of the epic cup run, recalled: “He was always laughing and joking but he was serious when he got on the pitch.”