Ellis Rimmer (2 January 1907 – 16 March 1965) 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 ...

who played for

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

and

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

. He was a

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who was quite tall and scored his fair share of headed goals. His career lasted from 1924 until 1939 during which time he played 447 league games, scoring 142 goals, he also played for the

England national football team The England national football team has represented England in international football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in England, which is affilia ...

on four occasions. He was also a talented musician and often played

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at public appearances.

Playing career

Early days

Rimmer was born in

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

on 2 January 1907, he played as an amateur for Parkside, Northern Nomads and Whitchurch before signing as a professional for Tranmere Rovers as a 17-year-old in 1924. In his three seasons with Tranmere, Rimmer played briefly with football legends Dixie Dean and Tom 'Pongo' Waring, making 62 league appearances and scoring 20 goals. His good form alerted other clubs and in February 1928 he was signed by Sheffield Wednesday manager

Bob Brown Robert James Brown (born 27 December 1944) is a former Australian politician, medical doctor and environmentalist. He was a senator and the parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens. Brown was elected to the Australian Senate on the Tasma ...

for a fee of £3,000.

Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday were in a grave situation when Rimmer signed for them, they were seven points adrift at the foot of Division One. However Rimmer, who made his Wednesday debut on 25 February 1928 against Newcastle United, was to take part in what has gone down in Sheffield Wednesday history as the "Great Escape" as they picked up 17 points from a possible 20 in their last 10 matches to avoid relegation by a single point. The following two seasons saw Wednesday transformed from relegation strugglers to league winners as they lifted the Division One title in 1928–29 and 1929–30 with Rimmer a virtual ever present on the left wing. He played in Sheffield Wednesday's 2–1 defeat by Arsenal in the Charity Shield at Stamford Bridge in October 1930. In April 1930 he was called up by England for his first international cap, scoring twice in a 5–2 victory over

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

in the 1930 British Home Championship. Three other Wednesday players Bill Marsden, Alf Strange and Ernie Blenkinsop all played in that match. Rimmer played a further three international matches, his last being just before his 25th birthday in December 1931 against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

."''The Men Who Made Sheffield Wednesday Football Club''", Tony Matthews, Page 206 Gives biographical information.Sheffield Wednesday Legends.
Gives biographical information.www.englandstats.com.
Gives details of England career. The first two full seasons of the 1930s saw Rimmer net 24 and 23 goals respectively, an excellent effort for a winger whose main job was to provide chances for other players. The 1934–35 season was probably his most memorable as Wednesday lifted the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

with Rimmer netting two late goals in the final against

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

. He scored eight FA Cup goals in total that season and achieved the rare feat of scoring in every round, only twelve players have managed this in the history of English football.www.blurtit.com.
Confirms that twelve players have scored in every round of the FA Cup. He also scored 18 league goals to give him a best ever season tally of 26 and finished as Wednesday's top scorer. He continued to be a regular for Wednesday until March 1938 when Bill Fallon took his place on the left wing. In his 10-year career with Sheffield Wednesday, Rimmer played 418 games in all competitions, scoring 140 goals.

Latter career and retirement

Rimmer was transferred to

Division Three South The Third Division South 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 North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to o ...

team Ipswich Town in August 1938, making his debut against Cardiff City on 10 September 1938. He only made four appearances for Ipswich before deciding to retire in January 1939 after playing his last match against

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

in a Southern Section Cup tie.Pride of Anglia.
Gives career statistics. After retirement Rimmer ran The Hallamshire House,Sheffield History.
Gives names of pub keepers in Sheffield. a public house in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

and then in

Formby Formby is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 22,419 at the 2011 Census. Historically in Lancashire, three manors are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under "Fo ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...

. He died in Formby on 16 March 1965, aged 58.

Honours

* Football League First Division winner 1928–29, 1929–30 *

winner: 1935 * Charity Shield winner 1935

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rimmer, Ellis 1907 births Sportspeople from Birkenhead 1965 deaths Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players English footballers England international footballers Association football forwards Northern Nomads F.C. players FA Cup Final players