Frederick Ryecraft (29 August 1939 – 26 September 2017) 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 in the Football League for Brentford as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. He was a member of the club's 1962–63 Fourth Division championship-winning team.

Club career

Brentford

After a short spell at

Athenian League The Athenian League was an English amateur football league for clubs in and around London. The league was originally to be called the Corinthian League,Athenian Football League minutes 1912-1921 (National Football Museum, Preston). but this nam ...

club

Southall Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...

, Ryecraft joined Third Division club Brentford in September 1959. First team goalkeeper Gerry Cakebread's durability meant that a spell doing

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 ...

saw Ryecraft confined to the club's

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

, until the first team's relegation to the Fourth Division in 1962. Ryecraft finally made his first team debut in a 2–1 defeat to Gillingham on 21 August 1962. He went on to make 18 appearances during a 1962–63 season which saw the Bees return to the Third Division at the first time of asking. Ryecraft made 20 appearances during the 1963–64 season, but mainly appeared for the reserves and was released at the end of the campaign. Ryecraft made a total of 38 first team appearances for the Bees and along with Micky Ball and Johnny Hales, he is one of three players to make over 150 appearances for the Brentford reserve team.

Gravesend & Northfleet

After his release from Brentford, Ryecraft dropped back into non-league football and played for Southern League First Division club Gravesend & Northfleet.

Representative career

While undertaking his national service, Ryecraft played for the British Army representative team and the Combined Services. He played on a tour of

South East Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

in 1962 and was a member of the victorious Kentish Cup-winning team the same year.

Personal life

While on national service in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, Ryecraft was a member of the Royal Army Service Corps.

Honours

British Army * Kentish Cup: 1962 Brentford * Football League Fourth Division: 1962–63

Career statistics

References

1939 births Footballers from Southall English men's footballers Brentford F.C. players English Football League players Southall F.C. players Ebbsfleet United F.C. players Southern Football League players Men's association football goalkeepers Royal Army Service Corps soldiers 2017 deaths 20th-century British Army personnel {{England-footy-goalkeeper-stub