Jon
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Post by Jon on Mar 1, 2015 23:25:02 GMT
Would this have been part of a Torquay Times series about football celebrities? It was indeed. Can you guess which England international footballer married a Torquay Times football celebrity? |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2015 10:22:58 GMT
Would this have been part of a Torquay Times series about football celebrities? It was indeed. Can you guess which England international footballer married a Torquay Times football celebrity? I'm struggling to guess that one. My hunch is that I'm not alone. I'll go for - in the officiating sense of "married" - the Rev Kenneth Hunt of Wolverhampton Wanderers and England. 1905 would be too early for him so it would needed to have been a later event. Other than that is this just with the Edwardian period in mind? Or did the Torquay Times feature football celebrities for many a year? I'd like to think we are about to be treated to more. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2015 11:07:26 GMT
Can you guess which England international footballer married a Torquay Times football celebrity? Got it! That'll be the marriage between Agatha Miller - captain of the "ladies section" (and subject of many favourable articles in the Torquay Times) - and Lt Archie Christie, the great Corinthians and England schemer. Luscombe, page 106. |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Mar 2, 2015 22:56:03 GMT
That'll be the marriage between Agatha Miller - captain of the "ladies section" (and subject of many favourable articles in the Torquay Times) - and Lt Archie Christie, the great Corinthians and England schemer. Luscombe, page 106. No. Your previous guess was on the right lines. I'll give you the Torquay football celebrity involved: torquayfansforum.co.uk/thread/11644/theodore-lewis-kemberThe other man involved was the first Devon man to play for England and the first Devon man to play in an FA Cup Final - both before Theodore Kember was born. He may have thrown you off the scent by changing his name by deed poll! |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2015 23:22:03 GMT
Looks like you're talking about Robert Walpole Sealy Vidal. A north of county chap from Abbotsham near Bideford.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Mar 2, 2015 23:43:29 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2015 8:45:12 GMT
FA Cup winner and England international before the age of twenty. By today's standards Rev Sealy would be a sensation.
What's more he was also on the FA committee as a teenager. These days that would be rather more than a sensation.
But that's the rub; a clear indication that (association) football was being played, watched and administered by a smallish social circle. Sealy Vidal was in the right place at the right time to leave his mark on the game. A few years earlier and there wouldn't have been FA Cups and internationals to record. Just a few years later the game would have expanded and the likes of Sealy Vidal might not have got a look in.
Which makes you wonder about the lasting extent of his fame. At the time of his footballing endeavours, Sealy Vidal would have been known only to a certain class of person who read a particular type of journal. Then, as he doesn't appear to have played any significant football after leaving Oxford, Sealy Vidal may quickly have faded from memory. Contemporaries would have recalled his dribbling skills but that's probably about it.
It may have taken the rather later mass popularisation of the game for Sealy Vidal's fame to resurface. Perhaps there was a list of former internationals in the Athletic News Football Annual to stir people's curiosity. Maybe Rev Sealy's parishioners knew of his footballing prowess; maybe they didn't. Footballing fame probably wouldn't have been quite the automatic process as it would be now. The football of the 1870s would have seemed prehistoric in Edwardian times.
A good "spot" from Jon about Cricket Archive confusing the Rec and Cricketfield Road. Assuming there was absolutely no cricket played at the Rec before "the move" - I'd imagine the configuration of the place would have mitigated against this anyway - it appears that around a dozen games have been misplaced on Cricket Archive.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Mar 3, 2015 23:21:34 GMT
Which makes you wonder about the lasting extent of his fame. I see that RWSV scored the first ever goal in the varsity match. Doesn't a Devonian still hold the record for the fastest ever goal in a varsity match? I would imagine that RWSV's "fame level" locally might have been more akin to a Maurice Cox than a David Beckham. By the way, it is strange that 20 of the first 21 FA Cup finals were played at The Oval but the 1873 one was played at Lillie Bridge. According to Rob Cavalllini's book on Wanderers this was because the cup holders had choice of ground and wanted as small a pitch as possible to try to cramp the style of the famous Devon dribbler.  |
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Post by Jon on Mar 5, 2015 23:50:57 GMT
What is all this about then? Devon and Exeter Gazette 16/11/10  |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2015 8:54:03 GMT
What is all this about then? Devon and Exeter Gazette 16/11/10 "P.C.Evans again". I trust the emphasis is merely on the continuing reporting of the story. It may have been dragging on for a while. Unless, that is, something is implied: "P.C.Evans has been at it again." Call yourself an amateur, Mr Evans? Surely they wouldn't have been making such insinuations. |
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Post by Jon on Mar 7, 2015 13:20:50 GMT
"P.C.Evans again". I trust the emphasis is merely on the continuing reporting of the story. It may have been dragging on for a while. Unless, that is, something is implied: "P.C.Evans has been at it again." This is probably referring to the huge punch-up between Exeter City and Plymouth Argyle over Crad's registration the season before. Have I told you about that one? |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2015 13:25:27 GMT
Have I told you about that one? Possibly. But there's no harm in repetition. Nobody will notice. |
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Post by Jon on Mar 13, 2015 0:08:08 GMT
More on Crad at Arsenal courtesy of the Woolwich Arsenal expert on Tony Kempster's forum. Looks like Crad was kept out of the inside right slot by the world's first £1,000 footballer Alf Common. Nice to see that playing for Devon carries more kudos than playing for Wales.  |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2015 7:33:25 GMT
Very good. I have hopped over to the Non League Matters site and see the conclusion is that Crad most likely never kicked a ball for Woolwich Arsenal. Not for the first team; not for the reserves. That's curious with him being named in a squad of no more than twenty players in that press report. You wonder if there was any contact at all after the initial signing. Maybe the Arsenal had put the forms in the post - or sent a man down - and Crad never even set foot in Woolwich.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2015 9:50:02 GMT
The other man involved was the first Devon man to play for England and the first Devon man to play in an FA Cup Final - both before Theodore Kember was born. He may have thrown you off the scent by changing his name by deed poll! Sir, Yesterday I saw an England team play on Devon soil under the captaincy of a Devonian. Is this a record? Yours, etc. |
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