William Parry Crake (11 February 1852 – 1 December 1921), sometimes known as William Parry,
was an English amateur
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 ...
who won the inaugural
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 the
Wanderers in
1872
Events
January–March
* January 12 – Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 500 years.
* February 2 – The government of the United Kingdom buys a number of forts on ...
and played for the English XI against Scotland in the
representative matches between 1870 and 1872. By profession, he was a merchant in India.
Family and education
Crake was born in
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
, India where his father had been in business. He was educated at
Harrow School
(The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God)
, established = (Royal Charter)
, closed =
, type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school
, religion = Church of E ...
between 1866 and 1870. At Harrow, he was a member of the school football team in 1868 and 1869; he also played
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 ...
for the school in his last two years.
On 2 April 1881, he married Emily Noble Chase in Madras; they had two sons:
*
Ralph Hamilton Crake (1882–1952), who became a Lieutenant Colonel in the
King's Own Scottish Borderers
The King's Own Scottish Borderers (KOSBs) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Scottish Division. On 28 March 2006 the regiment was amalgamated with the Royal Scots, the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret's O ...
and was awarded the
D.S.O. He played two
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 officiall ...
matches, the first in 1901 and the last in 1921.
*
Eric Hamilton Crake (1886–1948), who made one first-class cricket appearance for
M.C.C. in 1912.
Football career
He played football for several clubs, including the
Barnes Club,
Harrow Chequers and the
Wanderers. He played as a forward and was described in the 1873 ''
Football Annual
__NOTOC__
The ''Football Annual'' was a reference work published annually from 1868 to 1908. It reported on the various codes of football played in England, and also provided some coverage of the other home nations, supplemented on occasion by r ...
'' as "a very neat dribbler, slow but certain" and "very useful on the side".
He made his debut for the Wanderers on 5 January 1870 at
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
, having been introduced to the club by
E. E. Bowen, a master at Harrow School.
In March 1870, he and Bowen were selected for the first
unofficial international match between an English XI and a team representing Scotland, which had been arranged by another Old Harrovian,
C. W. Alcock
Charles William Alcock (2 December 1842 – 26 February 1907) was an English sportsman, administrator, author and editor. He was a major instigator in the development of both international football and cricket, as well as being the creator of ...
. One match report said that Crake "deserved no little praise for the energy of
isfollowing-up throughout the game". He also played for England in the matches played in November 1870 and February 1871 (listed as a member of the Barnes Club) and November 1871 (now with Harrow Chequers).
In
1871, Wanderers were one of 15 clubs who entered the inaugural
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 ...
competition. Wanderers reached
the final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
where they met a side from the
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
. Crake played as one of eight forwards as Wanderers claimed the trophy for the first of five times, with the single goal coming from
Morton Betts
Morton Peto Betts (30 August 1847 – 19 April 1914)
England Football Online. Retrieved 2018-09-15. ...
.
Crake continued to play for the Wanderers until 1874, making a total of 23 appearances with three goals.
Cricket career
Crake was a keen cricketer who played for various clubs, including
M.C.C. and the
Free Foresters
Free Foresters Cricket Club is an English amateur cricket club, established in 1856 for players from the Midland counties of England. It is a 'wandering' (or nomadic) club, having no home ground.
The Free Foresters were founded by the Rev. Will ...
. In June 1868, aged 16, he played for the M.C.C. against his own school.
Professional career
By the end of the 1870s, Crake had returned to India and set up as a merchant. Following his retirement in 1892, he returned to England to live in Norfolk Crescent, near
Hyde Park
Hyde Park may refer to:
Places
England
* Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London
* Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds
* Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield
* Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester
Austra ...
, London where he died on 1 December 1921, aged 69.
He was buried at
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederic ...
.
Honours
Wanderers
*
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 ...
winners:
1872
Events
January–March
* January 12 – Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 500 years.
* February 2 – The government of the United Kingdom buys a number of forts on ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crake, William
1852 births
1921 deaths
Association football forwards
Barnes Club footballers
England v Scotland representative footballers (1870–1872)
English footballers
FA Cup Final players
Footballers from Chennai
Harrow Chequers F.C. players
People educated at Harrow School
Wanderers F.C. players