Peter Stringfellow (born 21 February 1939) is an English former 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 ...

. He played for

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

, Gillingham and

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

between 1958 and 1965, making more than 100 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

, but his professional career came to an end after he was involved in a car crash which killed a teammate.

Career

Stringfellow was born in

Walkden Walkden is a town in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, northwest of Salford, and of Manchester. Historically in the township of Worsley in Lancashire, Walkden was a centre for coal mining and textile manufacture. In 20 ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

and began his career playing for local team Walkden Town. He had a short spell with Manchester City but never played a match for the club. He moved to nearby

in December 1958. An

inside 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 spent two seasons with the club, playing 54 times in

and scoring 16 goals. He was the team's top scorer during the 1959–60 season with 11 goals, but was then forced to leave the club when he was posted to Malaya with the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

. He later played for the

non-league Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to d ...

club

GKN Sankey GKN Ltd is a British multinational automotive and aerospace components business headquartered in Redditch, England. It is a long-running business known for many decades as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. It can trace its origins back to 1759 an ...

, based in

Wellington, Shropshire Wellington is a market town in Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England. It is situated 4 miles (6 km) northwest of central Telford and 12 miles (19 km) east of Shrewsbury. The summit of The Wrekin lies 3 miles southwest of the town. The ...

, and then, upon leaving the Air Force, joined Gillingham in December 1962. He made his debut for the club the following April in a home match against Newport County. In the 1963–64 season he made 25 appearances and helped the club to win the championship of the Football League Fourth Division. At the end of the season, however, manager

Freddie Cox Frederick James Arthur Cox DFC (1 November 1920 – 7 August 1973) was an English football player and manager. Playing as a winger, he scored 25 goals from 182 appearances in the Football League either side of the Second World War, and was on t ...

decided that Stringfellow would not feature in his plans at the higher level, and the player moved to

in an exchange deal which saw Charlie Rackstraw move in the opposite direction. Stringfellow made 28 appearances for the "Spireites", scoring seven goals, but in December 1964 he was involved in a car crash in which teammate Ralph Hunt (the brother of Stringfellow's former Gillingham teammate Dennis Hunt) was killed and two other players injured. Stringfellow had been driving the car which crashed, but no responsibility was attached to him for the accident. Nonetheless, following the accident, his form dramatically declined and he was allowed to leave

Saltergate Saltergate, officially the Recreation Ground, was the historic home of Chesterfield Football Club, and was in use from 1871 until the club's relocation in July 2010, a 139-year history that made it one of the oldest football grounds in Englan ...

at the end of the season. He chose to emigrate to Australia, and no details are known of his subsequent life.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stringfellow, Peter 1939 births Military personnel from Manchester Living people People from Walkden Footballers from Greater Manchester Sportspeople from the City of Salford English men's footballers Men's association football inside forwards Manchester City F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players GKN Sankey F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players English Football League players English emigrants to Australia Royal Air Force personnel of the Malayan Emergency Royal Air Force airmen