Reginald Arthur Pickett (6 January 1927 – 4 November 2012) 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 le ...

. During his career he made over 100 appearances for both

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

and

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

in a professional career that spanned from 1949 to 1963. Pickett had been playing non-league football with Weybridge prior to joining Portsmouth. He was a member of Portsmouth's Football League championship winning sides in the late 1940s. In 1957 he signed for Ipswich for £5,000 by Sir Alf Ramsey and was made captain. He went on to make 148 appearances for the Suffolk club, scoring four times. Born in Bareilly in India, Pickett appeared in 26 games in the 1960/61 campaign in which Ipswich won the Second Division but on only three occasions the following year when Town won the Football League championship for the only time in their history. He then joined Stevenage in June 1963. He died in a nursing home in

Rowlands Castle Rowland's Castle is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 2.9 miles (4.7 km) north of Havant, on the Hampshire/West Sussex border. The focal point of the village is the village green which i ...

, Hampshire, on 4 November 2012, aged 85. He is the first Indian-origin player to feature in a European continental club competition.

References

External links

Reg Pickett at Pride of Anglia
1927 births 2012 deaths Portsmouth F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Men's association football midfielders English men's footballers British people in colonial India People from Rowland's Castle Footballers from Hampshire English Football League players {{England-footy-midfielder-1920s-stub