2nd not 1st: Essex 1899-1914 (6th ed)

Spurs team photo, 1907-8: Jack Nie (left) and Vivian Woodward. Both had played two matches for Essex 2nd XI. Woodward followed in his father’s profession and insisted on playing as an amateur, not even accepting legitimate expenses for bus and train fares. In classic amateur fashion, he assisted Spurs whenever it was ‘convenient for him to play.’ When he joined Chelsea in 1909, the Sporting Chronicle wrote: ‘Great as he is as a player, his first claim to popularity lies in the fact that he has ever been first and foremost a gentleman.’ He was 5ft 10in tall but slightly built and the target of rough tackling, so often missed games through injury. Newspapers called for referees and the football authorities to do more to protect skilful players against the crude tactics of defenders, but with little effect. When Woodward made his debut for Spurs in 1901, they had just won the FA Cup but were still playing in the Southern League. They were elected to the Second Division of the Football League in 1908 and he scored their first League goal after only six minutes. Inspired by Woodward, they immediately won promotion to the First Division and he decided to retire to concentrate on his architectural career. He had scored 73 goals for Spurs in 169 games. Then a friend who was chairman of Chelsea persuaded him to help them out with an injury crisis and he continued to play for them until 1914, scoring 34 goals in 116 games. For England, Woodward scored 29 goals in 23 full internationals, 13 as captain. His record was finally broken by Tom Finney in 1958, although it took him 72 matches! He also scored 57 goals in 44 amateur internationals and captained Great Britain to gold medals in the 1908 and 1912 Olympics. In the Great War Woodward served in the 17th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment (the Footballers’ Battalion) on the Western Front, where he rose to the rank of captain and was wounded in the thigh. The war virtually ended his football career but he did turn out again in the 1919/20 season. He helped Clacton win the Pearson Cup and was chosen to captain the Essex County team again, scoring a stunning goal against Suffolk. Later he became a director of Chelsea FC. His proudest achievement as an architect was the design of the main stand at the Antwerp Stadium, used for the 1920 Olympics. He gave up his practice and went into dairy farming near Clacton. In the Second World War he served as an ARP warden but he became seriously ill in 1949 and, under the care of a committee set up by the Football Association, moved to a nursing home where he died in 1954. Vivian Woodward in 1906, with acknowledgments to Clacton & District Local History Society

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