Clifford Birks (born 13 December 1910 – 1998) was an English professional footballer who played as both a right-half and at outside-right for

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

and Halifax Town in the 1930s.

Career

Port Vale

Birks played for Stoke St. Peters and

, before joining

in November 1929. He made his debut on 27 December 1932, in a 2–1 win over Charlton Athletic at

The Old Recreation Ground The Old Recreation Ground was a football stadium located in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, England, and home to Port Vale F.C. from 1913 to 1950. It was the sixth ground the club used. Structure and facilities The stadium was in rather bad conditio ...

, and made 21 Second Division appearances and one FA Cup appearance in the 1932–33 season. He featured 11 times in the 1933–34 and 1934–35 campaigns, scoring four goals in the last five games of the 1934–35 season. He scored three goals in 15 league games in the 1935–36 season, finding himself on the score-sheet against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane, but was released in May 1936.

Later career

He joined

of the Third Division South, but was kept out of the side due to the form of Fred Beedall and George Daniels in the 1936–37 campaign; Birks made his "Gulls" debut at

Plainmoor Plainmoor is an association football stadium located in the Plainmoor suburb of Torquay, Devon, England. Since 1921, the stadium has been the home of Torquay United Football Club, who currently compete in the National League, the fifth tier of E ...

on 16 January 1937, scoring in the 4–1 defeat to Southend United. However, this was to be his only appearance for Torquay and he left to join Halifax Town for the following season. He played just three

Third Division North The Third Division North 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 South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to ...

games for Halifax before leaving both The Shay and the English Football League. During the war he guested for Leicester City.

Career statistics

Source:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Birks, Cliff 1910 births 1998 deaths Footballers from Hanley, Staffordshire English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Stoke City F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Halifax Town A.F.C. players Leicester City F.C. wartime guest players English Football League players