Aubrey Scriven (7 July 1904 – 1988) was an English 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 ...

who played as an

outside left Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

for

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. ...

and

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

.Joyce, p. 233 He also played non-league football for Warmsworth, Denaby United,

Worcester City Worcester City Football Club is an English football club based in Worcester, Worcestershire. The club play in the Midland Football League, the ninth tier of English football. Established in 1902, the club play at Claines Lane. Worcester City's ...

and Brierley Hill Alliance.

Life and career

Scriven was born in

Highley Highley is a large village in Shropshire, England, on the west bank of the River Severn and 7 miles south east of Bridgnorth. The closest cities being Wolverhampton and Birmingham. History Highley began as a rural farming community, includin ...

, near

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. Histor ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, to William Scriven, a roadman in a coal mine, and his wife Rose Ann.Joyce, p. 233 He played football for Highley Boys' ClubMatthews, pp. 122–23. before moving to

Warmsworth Warmsworth is a village, Civil parish and suburb of Doncaster in the City of Doncaster district in South Yorkshire, England. Its population was estimated at 3,908 in 2019. The village lies along the A1(M) Doncaster Bypass and the A630. The Riv ...

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, where he helped the village team win the

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

Amateur League title in 1922–23. According to the ''South Yorkshire Times'' of September 1923, "he is fast, has good ball control, centres accurately and shoots strongly from all angles. When he gains complete confidence in himself he should be one of the most dangerous wingers". He signed for Denaby United of the

Midland League The Midland Football League is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midland Combination. The league has four divisions that sit at levels 9–12 of the football pyramid. History T ...

ahead of the 1923–24 season, and his performances attracted attention from clubs at a higher level. He was ever-present in senior competition for Denaby until, at the end of November, he joined Football League First Division club

for an undisclosed fee. Scriven began his Birmingham career with the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

in the

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consi ...

. He made his Football League debut on 7 September 1924, replacing Ted Linley at

for the home match against Bolton Wanderers which Birmingham won 1–0.Matthews, pp. 166–69. He kept his place for a couple of months before Linley took over, and then returned to the side for the last month of the season, during which he scored twice. Inconsistency meant he never established himself as a first-team regular. Over the next two seasons, he shared the position with players including

Ernie Islip Ernest Islip (10 October 1892 – August 1941) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. He played for several years in the First Division of the Football League, and won the FA Cup with Huddersfield Town. Biography Isli ...

, Jack Russell and Billy Thirlaway, taking his appearance total to 60, of which all but one were made in league matches, with 9 goals. Scriven signed for

in May 1927,Frost, p. 406. as part of a £400 deal that also took Islip to the club. He made 105 appearances in the Football League, scoring 37 goals, as well as scoring once from 6

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

matches, and left the club in May 1932 to join

. He spent two seasons with Bristol City, during which he scored 17 goals from 67 appearances in all competitions, of which 54 appearances and 12 goals came in the

Third Division South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to ...

. He also scored in the final as Bristol City won the 1933–34 Welsh Cup, beating another English club,

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

, 3–0 in a replay after the original match was drawn. Scriven moved into non-league football with

in 1934. In his only season with the club, he scored 13 goals in the Birmingham & District League, and then joined Brierley Hill Alliance, where he remained until retiring from football during the war. Scriven ran the Bell Inn, in Livery Street, Birmingham. His wife, Lily ''née'' Gunn, and their 10-year-old daughter Audrey Jean were killed when the city centre was bombed in October 1940 during the

Birmingham Blitz The Birmingham Blitz was the heavy bombing by the Nazi German '' Luftwaffe'' of the city of Birmingham and surrounding towns in central England, beginning on 9 August 1940 as a fraction of the greater Blitz , which was part of the Battle of Br ...

. Scriven remarried in 1942, to Vera Thompson. After the war, he worked as a maintenance man at Monument Road Baths in

Ladywood Ladywood is an inner-city district next to central Birmingham. Historically in Warwickshire, in June 2004, Birmingham City Council conducted a citywide "Ward Boundary Revision" to round-up the thirty-nine Birmingham wards to forty. As a result o ...

, Birmingham. His death at the age of 83 was registered in Birmingham in May 1988.

Honours

Bristol City *

Welsh Cup The FAW Welsh Cup ( cy, Cwpan Cymdeithas Pêl-droed Cymru), currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the mos ...

winner: 1933–34

Sources

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scriven, Aubrey 1904 births 1988 deaths People from Bridgnorth Sportspeople from Shropshire English footballers Association football outside forwards Denaby United F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Worcester City F.C. players Brierley Hill Alliance F.C. players Midland Football League players English Football League players Date of death missing