William Nevill Cobbold (4 February 1863 – 8 April 1922), familiarly known as Nevill or "Nuts" Cobbold, was one of the leading footballers of the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
and on several occasions a member of 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 ...
. As late as 1922, at the time of his death, he could be described as "the most famous association football forward of all time", and certainly – in the words of his ''
Times
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems.
Time or times may also refer to:
Temporal measurement
* Time in physics, defined by its measurement
* Time standard, civil time specific ...
'' obituary – "the most individually brilliant dribbler, the player who could most often put in those thrusts that no skill could parry".
Early life and education
Nevill was born in
Long Melford
Long Melford, colloquially and historically also referred to as Melford, is a large village and civil parish in the Babergh District, Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by ...
, England, the son of a
vicar
A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...
, Edward Augustus Cobbold of the
Cobbold family
The Cobbold family is a prominent family that flourished in Ipswich since the eighteenth century. They first became prominent for their involvement in the brewing industry, but subsequently became involved in other areas of trade, banking politics ...
. "Nuts" was educated at
Charterhouse School
(God having given, I gave)
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public school Independent day and boarding school
, religion = Church of England
, president ...
, one of the great nurseries of the association game, and
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...
. As well as playing for the
village team, he represented
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
,
Old Carthusians, and
the Corinthians. While at university, Cobbold played in four consecutive varsity matches against
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, winning each of them. His nickname, given to him during his time at school, was awarded – thought
C.B. Fry
Charles Burgess Fry (25 April 1872 – 7 September 1956) was an English sportsman, teacher, writer, editor and publisher, who is best remembered for his career as a cricketer. John Arlott described him with the words: "Charles Fry could b ...
– "possibly because he was the very best Kentish cob quality, all kernel and extremely hard to crack."
Playing style and reputation
Cobbold starred on his international debut in England's 7–0 demolition of
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 February 1883, scoring twice in three minutes, and was frequently described as the trickiest and most elegant forward in the world at this time. "If one were to ask, Who were the three greatest forwards of all time?" wrote
William Pickford
William Pickford (1861–1938) was an English football administrator, who played an important role in the early development of The Football Association, in which he was its most recent President not to come from the British royal family.
Early ...
and Alfred Gibson in 1906, "no matter what other two were named, W.N. Cobbold would perhaps come first to the lips."
Playing generally at inside left, "Nuts" was considered to have the ideal build for a striker of his period. "The best type of forward player," wrote Montague Shearman in 1887, "is the fast, sturdy man of medium height, like W.N. Cobbold the
Cantab
Cantab may refer to:
* ''Cantab'' (magazine), produced by University of Cambridge students from 1981 to 1990
* Cantabrigian, a member of the University of Cambridge, a member or Alumnus of Harvard University, or a resident of Cambridge
* Cantabri ...
." It was true, Pickford and Gibson went on, that Cobbold was pre-eminently an old-style dribbling forward, who had learned his football in the years before the advent of the "combination" (passing) game at the end of the 1870s: "In those days 'dribbling' was the great game, and one only passed the ball when one was completely hemmed in, and not always even then." But "Nuts" was far more than a mere dribbler, the authors stressed:
:"He was essentially a scoring forward, and one, too, that made most of his own chances. One could not, for instance, conceive a greater contrast in style than Cobbold and
Bloomer, both inside forwards. The former was almost continuously on the ball, while the
Derby
Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
man seems to be doing nothing, and doing it well, for the greater part of the game. When Cobbold got possession of the ball he seemed to keep it glued to his toe, darting hither and thither as he pursued a tortuous course towards goal. One man was practically powerless to stop him. Two men might stay his career by dividing their attentions between the man and the ball, but they were not always successful even then. Very frequently Cobbold would shoulder his way through a whole crowd of the opposition and emerge triumphant with the ball at his toe. He was built for hard, strenuous play."
G.O. Smith
Gilbert Oswald Smith (25 November 1872 – 6 December 1943
), familiarly known as G. O. Smith or simply as G. O. ...
, the great centre forward who followed Cobbold to Charterhouse and into the England team, concurred with Pickford and Gibson, recalling "Nuts" in April 1943 with the comment: "I put him first among all the forwards I have known." Smith's verdict – coming from a noted student of the game and a man who had played with and against strikers of the calibre of Steve Bloomer and
Billy Meredith
William Henry Meredith (30 July 1874 – 19 April 1958) was a Welsh professional footballer. He was considered one of the early superstars of football due to his performances, notably for Manchester City and Manchester United. He won each ...
– may be considered to restore the now almost entirely forgotten Cobbold firmly to the foremost ranks of footballers of all periods.
Cobbold's other great attribute was his speed. In his prime he was a considerable sprinter, his obituary in ''The Times'' recalling: "Who that ever saw him speeding away down
Parker's Piece
Parker's Piece is a flat and roughly square green common located near the centre of Cambridge, England, regarded by some as the birthplace of the rules of association football. The two main walking and cycling paths across it run diagonally, an ...
will ever forget it? He was extraordinarily hard to stop and extremely fast." Although in essence a one-paced player, lacking the ability – so conspicuously displayed by
Stanley Matthews
Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game, he is the only player to have been knighted while stil ...
– to stop, start and accelerate, Cobbold nonetheless possessed the exceptional ball control required to make him a most daunting opponent. "No man that ever played," wrote Pickford and Gibson, "could control the ball so effectively as Cobbold could when travelling at full speed...
e was
E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plura ...
inimitable, the finest and fastest dribbler the Association game has known."
He also has remarkable skill as a goal scorer, which must be combined to his running and dribbling talent. Given two feet of a goal to aim at, Cobbold was famed for his accuracy, and it was said that "Nuts" would always strike the target. The striker had, most contemporaries agreed, one of the fiercest shots yet seen. "He could shoot in any position," was the verdict of Pickford and Gibson, "and he sent the ball in like a charge from a hundred-ton gun."
Cobbold anticipated the professional game in one respect (noted Edward Grayson, the historian of the early amateurs), "for in order to avoid getting hurt, he turned out swathed in rubber bandages and ankle guards." He belonged, nonetheless, resolutely to the earliest period of Association Football, disdaining – in common with many footballers of his generation – the aerial game, then regarded as a novel and distasteful innovation, and "eliminating all heading from his play." "Nuts" also declined to modify his dribbling style with the advent of new tactics for "passing forward" in the early 1880s – partly, speculated Pickford and Gibson, "because in his day they had not been sufficiently developed and partly because he himself was a man of infinite resource." Those who had seen the player in his prime sometimes debated how "Nuts" would have fared against the better organised defences of the 1890s. "The chances," Gibson and Pickford concluded in their assessment, "are that against three of our strongest half-backs he would have had to considerably modify his methods."
Cobbold accumulated a total of nine England caps, a good number at a time when only three international matches were played each year, scoring six England goals in total. His final international appearance came in a narrow March 1887 defeat to
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
.
Other sports
Cricket
Although regarded by his friend G.O. Smith as scarcely in the first rank of cricketers, Cobbold played once for
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 ...
, scoring four runs, and, after his retirement from football, persisted with cricket and took up golf. Playing against lesser opposition "Nuts" could be a formidable batsman; the first wicket partnership of 440 runs he notched with WR Gray for
West Wratting
West Wratting is a village and civil parish 10 miles southeast of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire. At above sea level, it can claim to be one of the highest villages in Cambridgeshire.
The parish covers 3,543 acres in south east Cambridge, a thin ...
, a small village in
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...
, against Fitzwilliam Hostel in 1891 remains, more than a century later, among the ten highest ever recorded in minor cricket.
Tennis
Cobbold was also a notable lawn tennis player and competed at seventeen tournaments between 1882 and 1891.
He won six career singles titles including the
East Grinstead Open
The East Grinstead Open was a combined grass court tennis tournament held at the East Grinstead Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club(f.1882), East Grinstead, West Sussex, England from 1882 to 1939.Nieuwland, Alex (2011–2022). Sourchttps://www.tennisarch ...
three times (1882, 1883, 1887),
Leicester Open (1885),
Kent LTC Championships (1886),
and
East of England Championships
The East of England Championships also called the East of England Lawn Tennis Championships was a men's and women's grass court tennis tournament founded in 1885 as the Felixstowe Open Lawn Tennis Tournament. In 1889 the event had by this time beco ...
(1889).
In 1885 he played at the prestigious
Northern Championships
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ra ...
at that time considered one of most important tournaments in the world. He reached the quarter finals stage before losing to
Ernest Wool Lewis then considered one of the worlds best players.
[Meyers, A. Wallis] At
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
he also took part in the
Cambridge University LTC Tournament
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge became ...
(1883, 1885).
Later life
In later life he was a schoolteacher, working principally as a "crammer" who specialised in preparing boys for entrance to 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 ...
. Cobbold suffered considerably from ill health in the years leading to his death – problems his obituarist attributed to his capacity for sheer hard work. He died at West Wratting.
References
* Anon (1922). Obituary in ''The Times''. 11 April 16''d''.
* William Gibson and Alfred Pickford (1906). ''Association Football and the Men Who Made It''. London: Caxton.
* Grayson, Edward (1996 edition of 1955 original). ''Corinthians and Cricketers and Towards a New Sporting Era''. Harefield, Middlesex: Yore Publications.
* Montague Shearman (1887). ''Athletics and Football''. London: Longman, Green & Co.
Further reading
Clive Hodges: ''Cobbold & Kin: Life Stories from an East Anglian Family'' (Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2014)
External links
Nevill CobboldEngland Football Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cobbold, William
1863 births
Footballers from Suffolk
1922 deaths
People educated at Charterhouse School
19th-century male tennis players
British male tennis players
English male tennis players
England men's international footballers
English men's footballers
Long Melford F.C. players
Cambridge University A.F.C. players
Old Carthusians F.C. players
Corinthian F.C. players
Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge
People from Long Melford
Men's association football forwards
People from West Wratting
Nevill