Arthur Richard Lever (25 March 1920 – 20 August 2004), nicknamed "Buller", was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

and Wales international.

Career

Born in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, Lever joined his hometown club

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

at the age of twenty-two in 1942 having played amateur football. He went on to play over one hundred wartime fixtures for the club before making his league debut during the 1946–1947 season against Norwich City. He was ever present for the club in his first season and went on to play in one hundred and fourteen consecutive league games for the club, the run ending in March 1949 when he was injured in a match against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

. In September 1950 he joined Leicester City for a fee of £17,000, eventually going on to become club captain. He spent four years at Filbert Street before returning to South Wales to play for Newport County until his retirement from football in 1957 due to an Achilles tendon problem. During his career Lever won just one cap for Wales when he played against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

at Ninian Park in 1952. However it is widely believed he could have won more caps had he played in a different period as during his career Wales had numerous top level full backs. Lever was well known as being a sporting all-rounder during his life and played numerus sports at different levels, including

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

. He died on 20 August 2004 after spending a short time at a nursing home in

. He is buried in Thornhill, Cardiff.

References

1920 births 2004 deaths Footballers from Cardiff Welsh men's footballers Wales men's international footballers Cardiff City F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players English Football League players Men's association football defenders {{Wales-footy-defender-stub