Henry Alfred Cursham (27 November 1859 – 6 August 1941) 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 ...

and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. He played football mostly for Notts County, with spells at Corinthian, Grantham Town and

Thursday Wanderers Thursday is the day of the week between Wednesday and Friday. According to the ISO 8601 international standard, it is the fourth day of the week. In countries which adopt the "Sunday-first" convention, it is the fifth day of the week. Name '' ...

. In cricket, he played two first class games for

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

. Cursham holds the individual goalscoring record for 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 49 goals in 44 games. He also played eight games for the

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

, scoring five goals.

Football career

Cursham was born in 1859 in Wilford, Nottinghamshire. He attended Repton School until age 18 and signed for Notts County in 1877. Cursham made his

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

debut on 16 November 1878 in a 3–1 defeat by local rivals

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

. The match was in the first round of the 1878-79 FA Cup, held at Trent Bridge, the home ground of Notts County at that time. He became a regular in the Notts County team, frequently appearing alongside his brother,

Arthur Cursham Arthur William Cursham (14 March 1853 – 24 December 1884) was an English cricketer and footballer. He played football for England and for Notts County between 1876 and 1883. He played cricket for Nottinghamshire from 1876 to 1879 and for Derby ...

. His club career from 1877 to 1888 is not well recorded: all sources agree that he played mostly for Notts County with shorter spells at Corinthian, Grantham Town and

, but the dates that he played for each of these clubs are not clear. His

appearances are known, including scoring six goals for Notts County in a 11–1 win against Wednesbury Strollers in the second round of the 1881-82 FA Cup, held at Trent Bridge on 10 December 1881. He scored four against

Basford Rovers Basford may refer to: People * Basford (surname) Places United Kingdom * Basford, Cheshire * Basford, Nottinghamshire ** Basford Rural District, a rural district close to Nottingham, England, from 1894 to 1974 ** Old Basford, an area of Nottingham ...

in Notts County's 15–0 win (a record at the time) in the first round of the 1886-87 FA Cup on 30 October 1886 at Trent Bridge.

International career

Cursham was selected for the

in 1880, making his international debut in a 3–2 victory over

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. His first international goal came in his second match, a 13–0 win against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in the 1881–82 season. He scored again in a 5–3 home loss to Wales, and a

hat trick A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

against Ireland on 23 February 1884; the latter was his final game for the national side. He finished his international career with eight caps and five goals.

Football League

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 ...

was formed in 1888. Cursham made his first appearance in the new competition on 6 October 1888 at Trent Bridge, for Notts County in a 3–3 draw with Blackburn Rovers, playing at full back. He scored his first League goal on 12 January 1889, in County's 2–1 victory over

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 pla ...

, this time playing as a

centre forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

. He appeared in eight of the 22 league matches played by Notts County that season, five at full back and three at centre forward, scoring twice. Cursham made one more league appearance in the 1890–91 season, ending his league career with nine appearances and two goals.

Final years and retirement

Cursham appeared in twice in the 1888-89 FA Cup, scoring one goal, then wrote to the Notts County board in January 1889 announcing his intention to retire. He did not play in the 1889–90 season, but returned in 1890–91 with two more first–team appearances, one in the league and one in the FA Cup, before retiring again. He ended his career with an FA Cup record of 44 games and 49 goals over 12 seasons. , this remains the highest number of goals scored by a player in the FA Cup. Cursham was an advocate for and exponent of dribbling the ball. He was critical of the emphasis on passing tactics that emerged in the Combination Game, which became popular in the 1870s and 1880s. In 1904 he gave an interview to the ''Football Post'', in which he stated that "Individual play was being too greatly sacrificed to the cry of combination."Henry Cursham
at englandfootballonline.com

Cricket career

Cursham also played

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

for

, as a lower order batsman. His first class debut was in 1880, in a draw with

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. Business commitments (he was an insurance broker) prevented Cursham from taking up a career in cricket, which would have required a much greater time commitment than football. He made only one more appearance for Nottinghamshire, 24 years later in 1904 at the age of 44, against a touring South Africa team. His brother,

was also a first class cricketer. In the handling code, he was good enough to represent Nottinghamshire against Bedfordshire in February 1892.

References

External links

Henry Cursham
at Cricket Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Cursham, Henry 1859 births 1941 deaths Corinthian F.C. players Grantham Town F.C. players English cricketers English footballers England international footballers Nottinghamshire cricketers Notts County F.C. players People from Nottingham (district) Association football forwards