PICKED FOR WALES

November 4th 1933 was a date when if you had Welsh heritage and could kick a round ball (football). you might have been in contention for a Welsh International cap. The Wales team was due to play Northern Ireland in a Home International on this day. Team selection problems were so bad that the, Welsh FA Secretary, Ted Robbins, had to ring (in 1933) around clubs asking for recommendations  to make up his team. 

Arthur Turner the Spurs' secretary mentioned a promising half back whom he believed to be Welsh!  Alf Day of Tottenham Hotspurs made his debut for the national side and his previous experience had been in the non-league and the Spurs' Reserve side. He made his debut for the full Spurs' side in April 1934 and never played for Wales again. Day made his debut for Spurs going on to make 14 appearances.Day was one of four new caps that day, the others were; 

Harry Hanford (below) earned 7 international caps (1933-9) and made more than 300 appearances in the Football League, playing for Swansea (201 apps between 1927-35), Sheffield Wednesday (88 1935-9) and Exeter City (36 up to 1947), guesting for Swindon Town in the war and finishing off at Haverford West FC. 

Tommy Mills of Clapton (now Leyton) Orient...actually now Orient....He was part of the Welsh team between 1933 and 1934, playing 4 matches. His last match was on 21 November 1934 against Scotland. On club level he played for Bristol Rovers between 1936 and 1939, playing 99 matches and scoring 17 goals.

Another Spurs' player, Eugene "Taffy" O'Callaghan, was the most experienced Welsh international that day, earning his 9th cap in a game that was drawn 1-1 v Ireland at Windsor Park, Belfast. He played four times against England between 1928-35, winning 1 drawing 2. Taffy was born in Ebbw Vale and joined Tottenham in 1925. He helped Spurs achieve promotion back to the Football League First Division at the end of the 1932–33 season and in the following year was a key member of the side known as the 'greyhounds' as they played with speed and style. During his time at Spurs he made 252 league appearances scoring 93 goals and a further six in eleven FA Cup matches for the club. He was transferred to Leicester City in March 1935, although playing once again for Tottenham, as a 'guest' during the war years at the time when the Football League had been suspended. After the war he went on to a coaching role at Fulham FC. 

The most "Welsh" named player would have been David Owen Jones (above) who earned 7 caps, winning 3 times and drawing one.