Frederick Charles Lucas (29 September 1933 – 11 September 2015) was an English

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 le ...

who played as a wing half and inside forward in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

, primarily for

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

. He was a good all-round sportsman and played two

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

matches for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

in 1954. Lucas was born at

Slade Green Slade Green is an area of South East London, England, within the London Borough of Bexley. It lies northeast of Bexleyheath, northwest of Dartford and south of Erith, and east-southeast of Charing Cross. Historically Slade Green was part of th ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in 1933 and educated at Erith Grammar School.Carlaw D (2016) Frederick Charles Lucas, Obituaries, ''Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2016'', pp.256–257. Canterbury:

. He was an "outstanding all-round sportsman"Lucas, Frederick Charles
Obituaries - 2015, ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'', 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2018. at school and left at 14 to join Charlton, working in the club's offices until he was able to sign as a professional after his 17th birthday. He joined the staff at

in 1950 and played five Second XI games during the season before taking 25 wickets and winning his Second XI county cap in 1951. He served in the

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is a corps of the British Army that maintains the equipment that the Army uses. The corps is described as the "British Army's Professional Engineers". History Prior to REME's for ...

(REME) on

national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

between 1951 and 1953 but found the opportunity to play cricket limited, although he did play football for REME. He was called into the Kent First XI in 1954 and made two first-class appearances for the side but was released at the end of the season. Lucas also rejoined Charlton after being demobilised and enjoyed a "rather more successful" career as a footballer, making 185 appearances for the team between 1956 and 1964, scoring 29 goals. He played in the 1957 match between Charlton and Huddersfield Town which finished 7–6 to Charlton, setting up John Ryan's winner with a minute left. Charlton had been 1–5 down with 27 minutes remaining and with

Derek Ufton Derek Gilbert Ufton (31 May 1928 – 27 March 2021) was an English professional cricketer and footballer, and later a football manager. Playing professionally for Kent County Cricket Club as a wicket-keeper and Charlton Athletic Football Club, ...

, also a Kent cricketer, unable to play on after an injury.Ward A (1999) Second half transformation, ''Football's Strangest Matches'', pp.104–105. London: Robson.
Available online
Retrieved 24 October 2018.) Lucas moved to Crystal Palace in 1964 and joined concrete company Readymix Corporation Group as a sales executive on his retirement in 1969. He retired in 1998 and died, aged 81, at

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...

in September 2015.

References

External links

Fred Lucas' Career
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lucas, Fred 1933 births 2015 deaths English footballers Charlton Athletic F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players English Football League players English cricketers Kent cricketers Association football midfielders