William James Crinson (26 July 1883 – 31 January 1951) 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 le ...

who played as a goalkeeper in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for The Wednesday. He also played

non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

for clubs including Seaham Albion, Southwick, Huddersfield Town, Brighton & Hove Albion and Sunderland Rovers.

Life and career

Crinson was born in 1883 in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, which was then in

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, 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. Crinson married Mary Angus in 1902. The

1911 Census The United Kingdom Census 1911 of 2 April 1911 was the 12th nationwide census conducted in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The total population of the United Kingdom was approximately 45,221,000, with 36,070,000 recorded in England ...

shows him as a professional footballer living in Steyning,

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, and the father of five children. He played

Wearside League The Wearside Football League is a non-league football competition based in northern England. It consists of three divisions which sits at steps 7 to 9 (or levels 11 to 13) of the National League System and is a feeder to the Northern League Di ...

football for Seaham Albion and Southwick before signing for The Wednesday in 1906 as backup for

Jack Lyall John Lyall (16 April 1881 – 17 February 1944) was a Scottish footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Career Born in Dundee but raised on Tyneside, Lyall played club football for Jarrow, Sheffield Wednesday, Manchester City and Dundee, an ...

. Crinson made his

debut on 5 January 1907, standing in for Lyall who had been kicked on the arm in the previous match. He kept a

clean sheet In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

as Wednesday won 1–0 away at

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

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." Lyall returned for the next match, and Crinson made three more appearances in the First Division in the following season, at the end of which he was allowed to leave. 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 Robert Whiting (6 January 1883 – 28 April 1917), sometimes known as Pom Pom Whiting, was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper in the Football League for Chelsea. He made 253 appearances in the Southern League for Br ...

Crinson signed for Albion in 1909 but did not make his first Southern League appearance for another three years. He made 13 appearances for the first team in all before returning to the north east of England, where he signed for North-Eastern League club Sunderland Rovers in September 1913. After the First World War, Crinson acted as secretary of Wearside League club Sunderland Comrades, and scouted on behalf of Brighton & Hove Albion. The 1939 Register records him living with his wife and three children in Givens Street, Sunderland, and working as a plater in a shipyard. He was still resident at that address when he died in hospital in 1951 at the age of 67.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crinson, Billy 1883 births 1951 deaths Footballers from Sunderland English men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Seaham Albion F.C. players Southwick F.C. (Durham) players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Sunderland Rovers F.C. players English Football League players Southern Football League players