Colin Sampson Benham (23 November 1907 – 22 February 2000) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er, who played for

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the Vi ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL).

Fitzroy

Recruited from Hamilton Football Club, Colin was a solid, hard working ruckman, with tremendous stamina and a good mark. He was especially valuable when resting in the forward lines, and combined well with champion rover Haydn Bunton, (who started playing with Fitzroy in 1931). Colin played 81 senior games for Fitzroy between 1930 and 1936, and kicked 70 goals.

Benham's famous "in-off the small boy" goal

On Saturday 30 June 1934, Fitzroy were playing against

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

at the

Lake Oval Lakeside Stadium is an Australian sports arena in the South Melbourne suburb of Albert Park. Comprising an athletics track and soccer stadium, it currently serves as the home ground and administrative base for association football club South M ...

in front of a crowd of 27,000, plus

Baron Huntingfield Baron Huntingfield is a title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of Ireland. The first two creations were by writ, but little more is known about them, except that John de Huntingfield, who wa ...

, who served as

Governor of Victoria The governor of Victoria is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the Australian state of Victoria. The governor is one of seven viceregal representatives in the country, analogous to the governors of the other states, and the ...

from 1934 to 1939, who had come to see his first match of Australian Rules Football. With only seconds remaining, South Melbourne led Fitzroy 13.19 (97) to 12.10 (82). Benham took a mark close to the goals, and went back to line up his kick. The final bell rang and by the time he had started his run-in, most of his teammates had begun to leave the field. As the ball left his boot, some boys had started to jump the fence and run on to congratulate the South Melbourne players, unaware that the match was not yet officially over. The ball veered sideways off Benham's boot, and from his perspective it was clear that it would be a behind; but, as the ball neared the goal-line, it struck one of the running boys and was deflected between the goalposts. Because the football had not hit another player, the goal umpire had no alternative but to award the goal (6 points), rather than the behind (1 point) that it would otherwise have been, and South Melbourne's winning margin was reduced to nine points: 13.19 (97) to 13.10 (88).Ross, 1996, p.142.

Notes

References

* Ross, J. (ed), ''100 Years of Australian Football 1897-1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported'', Viking, (Ringwood), 1996.

External links

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World War II Nominal Roll: Colin Sampson Benham (VX32091)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benham, Colin 1907 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Fitzroy Football Club players Hamilton Football Club players 2000 deaths