Tommy Cheetham
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Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Thomas Miles Cheetham[1] | ||
Date of birth | 11 October 1910 | ||
Place of birth | Byker, England | ||
Date of death | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.[1] | ||
Place of death | Mansfield, England[1] | ||
Position(s) | Centre forward | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
Byker | |||
Royal Artillery | |||
1935–1939 | Queens Park Rangers | 115 | (81) |
1939–19?? | Brentford | 19 | (8) |
1941–1948 | Lincoln City | 47 | (29) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Thomas Miles "Tommy" Cheetham (11 October 1910 – 23 December 1993)[1] was an English professional footballer. He scored 118 goals from 181 appearances in the Football League playing as a forward for Queens Park Rangers, Brentford and Lincoln City.[2]
Football career
Cheetham was born in Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne.[3] A late entrant to the professional game, he played local football before joining the Army and played for his regiment while serving in the Royal Artillery.[2] In August 1935, aged nearly 25, he signed for London club Queens Park Rangers, then playing in the Football League Third Division South.[4] He made his debut on 4 September 1935 in a 1–1 draw away to Brighton & Hove Albion. Although he did not score in that first game, his next two games brought six goals, a six-game spell running up to Christmas produced 11 and from the 35 games he played in his first League season as a professional footballer, Cheetham scored 36 times.[4] He set a new club record by scoring in 9 consecutive games at QPR's home ground, Loftus Road.[5]
His performances earned him an invitation to play for the Possibles against the Probables in March 1936 in a trial match for selection for the England national team.[6] The quality of the Probables' defence, with Alf Young outstanding, meant Cheetham had little chance to shine – The Times' correspondent reported that "Cheetham did not receive a pass for nearly half an hour", but "considering the brilliance of Young, the play of Cheetham could hardly be considered unsatisfactory".[7] Though his next two seasons were less productive,[8][9] in 1938–39 he scored 22 league goals from the 26 games before he left the club on 7 February 1939 to join First Division club Brentford for a fee of £5,000.[10][11]
Brentford brought in Cheetham and inside forward Les Boulter to help their fight against relegation,[6] though The Times suggested that their weakness lay less in attack than in defence.[12] Cheetham made his debut in the top division in a 4–2 home defeat to Aston Villa,[13] but he went on to score twice as Brentford beat fellow relegation strugglers Chelsea 3–1 and created both goals in a 2–0 defeat of Leicester City in early April,[14] by which time his club had achieved a mid-table position.[15] He finished the 1938–39 season with eight goals.[6]
The outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 put a stop to the Football League for the duration and caused a major interruption to Cheetham's career.[6] During the war, he joined Lincoln City.[3] He played for them in wartime competitions, then in the 1946–47 Football League season, the first full season after the war, Cheetham resumed his prolific goalscoring; 30 goals from 41 games in League and FA Cup made him the club's leading scorer. He played only infrequently in 1947–48. His last game came on 6 April 1948 against Rochdale and he retired from professional football at the age of 37.[3]
Personal life
Cheetham was a member of the Territorial Army during the Second World War and was injured at Dunkirk.[6] After his retirement as a player he worked for a Croydon-based building contractors firm in the mid-1950s and lived in North London.[citation needed] Cheetham died in 1993, aged 83.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Access individual season statistics via Season Stats dropdown menu.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://qprnet.com/misc/seasonalstats/excels/QPR1936.xls
- ↑ http://www.qprnet.com/misc/seasonalstats/excels/QPR1937.xls
- ↑ http://www.qprnet.com/misc/seasonalstats/excels/QPR1938.xls
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Use dmy dates from April 2012
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- Articles with unsourced statements from December 2015
- 1910 births
- 1993 deaths
- Sportspeople from Newcastle upon Tyne
- English footballers
- Association football forwards
- Queens Park Rangers F.C. players
- Brentford F.C. players
- Lincoln City F.C. players
- The Football League players
- Royal Artillery soldiers
- British Army personnel of World War II