Edward John Orton Hemsley (born 1 September 1943) 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 ...

, playing at

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

and

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

. He was also a

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

er for

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

Football career

Hemsley was born in Stoke-on-Trent, and was still a schoolboy when he signed professional terms with

in 1961. He made 235 league appearances for the Shrews with 21 league goals. In 1968,

appointed

Arthur Rowley George Arthur Rowley Jr. (21 April 1926 – 19 December 2002), nicknamed "The Gunner" because of his explosive left-foot shot, was an English football player and cricketer. He holds the record for the most goals in the history of English lea ...

as manager, who had spent the previous ten years in charge at Shrewsbury. Rowley's first signing was to be his old club captain: Hemsley. He was given his chance in the starting line-up at left-back and soon made the position his own. His debut for Sheffield United was against

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...

at Bramall Lane in 1968 in a 1–0 victory. He was a regular in the team over the next few years, and played 40 matches (out of a possible 42) when the Blades won promotion to the First Division in 1970–71. He played for Sheffield United for 9 years; his final appearance was at Ewood Park against

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

on 5 March 1977. In total, he made 247 league appearances for Sheffield United, scoring 7 goals. He finished his footballing career with

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

, making 32 league appearances over two seasons.

Cricket career

Hemsley was a right-hand

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

. As a bowler he was a right-arm medium pace. He played first-class cricket for Worcestershire between 1962 and 1982. He was mentioned as a possible

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

batsman when he helped Worcestershire, for whom he played 243 first-class games and 219 one-dayers, to the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

in 1964. In total, Hemsley scored 9740 first-class runs for Worcestershire. He also (uniquely) played cricket on his home football ground, Worcs v Yorkshire at Bramall Lane His younger brother, Colin Hemsley, played

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numb ...

for

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

References and notes

External links

Profile of Ted Hemsley
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hemsley, Ted 1943 births Sheffield United F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Men's association football defenders Worcestershire cricketers Living people English cricketers Shropshire cricketers English men's footballers Cricketers from Stoke-on-Trent