Cyril "Cec" Blinkhorn (18 April 1892 – 8 April 1977) was an Australian
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
footballer who played in the 1910s and 1920s. He played in the
NSWRFL premiership
The New South Wales Rugby League premiership was the first rugby league football club competition established in Australia and contributor to today's National Rugby League. Run by the New South Wales Rugby League (initially named the New Sou ...
for the
North Sydney and
South Sydney clubs, and also represented
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. He primarily played on the
wing
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...
and has been named amongst the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.
Biography
Playing career
Although born in
Redfern, New South Wales
Redfern is an inner-city suburb of Sydney located 3 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney. Strawberry Hills is a locality on the border with Surry Hills. The area ...
, the middle of
Souths territory, Blinkhorn grew up a Norths supporter after moving to
Chatswood. He was graded to Norths in 1914 and for five years he was the team's leading try-scorer. Blinkhorn spent the 1919 season at Souths, where he met fellow winger,
Harold Horder
Harold Norman Horder (23 February 1894 – 21 August 1978) was an Australian rugby league player. He was a national and state representative player whose club career was with South Sydney and North Sydney between 1912 and 1924. Regarded as on ...
. In 1920, Horder and Blinkhorn moved to Norths, where they remained until 1923. Both wingers returned to Souths in 1924.
Blinkhorn was a member of the premiership winning Norths teams of
1921
Events
January
* January 2
** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in First Brazilian Republic, Brazil.
** The Spanish lin ...
, where the team went through undefeated, and
1922
Events
January
* January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes.
* January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...
when Norths met
Glebe
Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...
in the Grand final. Blinkhorn scored two tries.
Representative career
Blinkhorn was first selected to play for Australia in 1921. On that
1921–22 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain, he scored a record 39 tries in 29 matches and played in three Tests. This record still stands as the most tries scored on a Kangaroo tour and will most likely never be beaten. He played one further Test against England in 1924.
Cec Blinkhorn is Kangaroo No. 116.
Accolades
In February 2008, Blinkhorn was named in the list of Australia's
''100 Greatest Players'' (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the
NRL
The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
and
ARL
ARL may refer to:
Military
* US Navy hull classification symbol for repair ship
* Admiralty Research Laboratory, UK
* United States Army Research Laboratory
* ARL 44, a WWII French tank
Organizations
* Aero Research Limited, a UK adhesives comp ...
to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia. He was described by some who saw him play as the only player to have possessed a triple sidestep.
Family legacy
Four of Cec's nephews all made appearances for Norths. Clarrie Blinkhorn played in the 1930s. His brothers Jack (61 games 1956–659) and Harold (74 games 1956–62) played in the forwards in the 1950s and 1960s, while Douglas was a three-quarter who made 11 first-grade appearances in 1961–62.
[
]
References
Sources
*
External links
Cec Blinkhorn at ''NRL Stats''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blinkhorn, Cec
1892 births
1977 deaths
Australian rugby league players
Rugby league players from Sydney
North Sydney Bears players
South Sydney Rabbitohs players
New South Wales rugby league team players
Australia national rugby league team players
Australasia rugby league team players
Rugby league wingers
South Sydney Rabbitohs captains