Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | William James Crinson[1] | ||
Date of birth | [2] | 26 July 1883||
Place of birth | Sunderland,[1] England | ||
Date of death | 31 January 1951[3] | (aged 67)||
Place of death | Sunderland, England | ||
Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1] | ||
Position(s) | Goalkeeper | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
–1904 | Seaham Albion | ||
1904–1906 | Southwick | ||
1906–1908 | The Wednesday | 4 | (0) |
1908–1909 | Huddersfield Town | ||
1909–1913 | Brighton & Hove Albion | 5 | (0) |
1913–1915 | Sunderland Rovers | ||
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
William James Crinson (26 July 1883 – 31 January 1951) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper in the Football League for The Wednesday.[4] He also played non-League football for clubs including Seaham Albion, Southwick, Huddersfield Town, Brighton & Hove Albion and Sunderland Rovers.
Crinson was born in 1883 in Sunderland, which was then in County Durham,[1] to Robert Crinson, an iron ship plater, and his wife Ophelia. As of the 1901 Census, the family were living in the Monkwearmouth area and the 17-year-old Crinson was an apprentice in the shipyards.[5] Crinson married Mary Angus in 1902. The 1911 Census shows him as a professional footballer living in Steyning, Sussex, and the father of five children.[6][7]
He played Wearside League football for Seaham Albion and Southwick before signing for The Wednesday in 1906 as backup for Jack Lyall.[8][9] Crinson made his Football League debut on 5 January 1907, standing in for Lyall who had been kicked on the arm in the previous match.[10] He kept a clean sheet as Wednesday won 1–0 away at Manchester City and, according to the Yorkshire Telegraph and Star, "but for a first-class display in goal by young Crinson Wednesday would scarcely have come back home with both points."[11] Lyall returned for the next match, and Crinson made three more appearances in the First Division in the following season,[12] at the end of which he was allowed to leave.[13]
He spent a season in the North-Eastern League with the newly formed Huddersfield Town club before joining Brighton & Hove Albion of the Southern League. As at Wednesday, Albion used him mainly as backup, in this case to Bob Whiting[1] – Crinson signed for Albion in 1909 but did not make his first Southern League appearance for another three years.[14] He made 13 appearances for the first team in all before returning to the north east of England,[1] where he signed for North-Eastern League club Sunderland Rovers in September 1913.[15]
After the First World War, Crinson acted as secretary of Wearside League club Sunderland Comrades, and scouted on behalf of Brighton & Hove Albion.[1] The 1939 Register records him living with his wife and three children in Givens Street, Sunderland, and working as a plater in a shipyard.[16] He was still resident at that address when he died in hospital in 1951 at the age of 67.[2][3]