CAPTAINS AND CAPS

This afternoon I might have won the point in Pointless on the section when the contestants were given the initials of England Football captains. The initials were JH, DB, JT, BC, BM. Yes you've already guessed the obvious ones;
DB-Beckham, BM, Bobby Moore, JT? John Terry yep really, JH??
The lowest score (not pointless) was Johnny Haynes-I saw him play, but one of the lads on the podium knew his stuff and chose correctly.

Pointless was BC....hmm! Didn't know that. Well it's Bob Crompton who played for England from 1902 and was captain on and off from March 1903. He played right back for Blackburn Rovers (over 500 times) and was the first professional England captain, who also drove his own car to training!

Remember in those early days there were only 3 internationals per season against Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

Crompton, played 41 times for his country and first captained them in 1904. He did not play in 1905, he played but not as captain in 1906, he was reinstated as captain in 1907 and then did not lead the side in 1908 when he played 7 out of 7 times as foreign opposition was introduced. England toured Austria, Hungary and Bohemia in June that year. Crompton is on the left.

After that his international career continue either as captain or not until the war, his last period as captain was in 1914 when understandably England only played three "Home" internationals.

Johnny Haynes led the side between 1954-62 22 times and gained 56 caps, scoring 18 goals. A wonderfully artistic "inside forward", Haynes played for Fulham mainly (nearly 600 times) and ended his career briefly at Wealdstone in 1973.

The players with most England captaincy (caps) are Billy Wright (90/105 caps) and Bobby Moore (90/108).

The first England captain (November 1882 v Scotland) was Cuthbert Ottaway, an Old Etonian, who played for Oxford University,l Crystal Palace and Marlow. he is on the left.

Alfred Bower (an Old Carthusian) was the last amateur to captain England's full side. He played for the OCs, The Corinthians, The Casuals and as an amateur with Chelsea.

The FA believed that a professional might let the side down by wanting to win too much? So an amateur held the dignity of the country! Bower played five times for England and captained 3 times between 1923-7. Dixie Dean, a true professional was in the same England side!