Charlie Dove (1879–?) was an English footballer.

Career

Dove was regarded as being very physically fit for a footballer; in 1895 he stood nearly 6 feet tall and weighed 12 stone, which was considered large for a sixteen-year-old from a working-class area of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. His main position was defender. He played for many local teams and was a schoolboy player of some repute, winning two medals as a right back with Park School. Upon leaving school he joined Forest Swift Juniors as a centre forward, before moving on to captain Plaistow Melville. Dove continued to make his name at Upton Park and with South West Ham, being regarded as an exceptional talent. Dove was an employee of

Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Co. Ltd The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Limited was a shipyard and iron works straddling the mouth of Bow Creek at its confluence with the River Thames, at Leamouth Wharf (often referred to as Blackwall) on the west side and at Cannin ...

, working as an apprentice to the riveters and jumped at the chance to play for the newly formed Thames Ironworks in 1895. The half a crown (12½p) membership would have been a third of his weekly wage. On 31 December 1898 Dove completed the distinction of playing in every position for the club when he deputised for goalkeeper Tommy Moore in an away game against Maidenhead. He even kept a clean sheet and the Thames Ironworks won 4–0. Dove was an important part of the Thames team that won successive London League and Southern League Division Two titles, and one story suggests that he had a connection with the club adopting claret and blue as their colours. Charlie had apparently gotten the kits for the club at a very cheap price of £3.10s. They had come from William Belton (great-grandfather of author Brian Belton), who was a professional sprinter of national repute, as well as being one of the coaches at Thames Ironworks. During the summer of 1899, Belton had been at a fair in

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. ...

, close to

Villa Park Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway station ...

, the home ground of Aston Villa. The scrawny looking Belton had been challenged to a race against four Villa players, who wagered money that one of them would win. Belton defeated them, and when they were unable to pay the bet one of the Villa players, who was responsible for washing the team's kit, offered a complete side's 'uniforms' to Belton in payment of the bet. The Aston Villa player subsequently reported to his club that the kit was 'missing'. Dove would continue to be a major player for Thames Ironworks, and its later incarnation of

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

until his controversial transfer in 1901 to arch-rivals

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...

. He made 23 Southern League appearances for Millwall during the 1901–02 season, but played only three matches in 1902–03 before an injury ended his playing career. In total he made 49 appearances for Millwall.

References

External links

West Ham United statisticsBiography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dove, Charlie 1879 births Footballers from East Ham English footballers Association football fullbacks Upton Park F.C. players Millwall F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Year of death missing Thames Ironworks F.C. players Southern Football League players