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, India where his father had been in business. He was educated at Harrow School 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 str ...

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 officia ...

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

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, 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

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. 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, 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 Frederick ...

Honours

Wanderers *

winners:

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