Henry Alfred Cursham (27 November 1859 – 6 August 1941) was an English

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 ...

and

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 ...

er. He played football mostly for

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 25 November 1862, it is the ...

, with spells at

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

, Grantham Town and Thursday Wanderers. In cricket, he played two first class games for

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

. Cursham holds the individual goalscoring record for the

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 49 goals in 44 games. He also played eight games for the

England national football team The England national football team has represented England in international football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in England, which is affilia ...

, scoring five goals.

Football career

Cursham was born in 1859 in

Wilford Wilford is a village in the city of Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. The village is to the northeast of Clifton, southwest of West Bridgford, northwest of Ruddington and southwest of Nottingham city centre. It is at a meander of the Rive ...

, Nottinghamshire. He attended

Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, independent, day and boarding school in the English public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school whi ...

until age 18 and signed for

in 1877. Cursham made his first team debut on 16 November 1878 in a 3–1 defeat by local rivals

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

. The match was in the first round of the 1878-79 FA Cup, held at

Trent Bridge Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nottingham. Trent Bridge is also ...

, the home ground of Notts County at that time. He became a regular in the Notts County team, frequently appearing alongside his brother,

Arthur Cursham Arthur William Cursham (14 March 1853 – 24 December 1884) was an English cricketer and footballer. He played football for England and for Notts County between 1876 and 1883. He played cricket for Nottinghamshire from 1876 to 1879 and for Derb ...

. His club career from 1877 to 1888 is not well recorded: all sources agree that he played mostly for Notts County with shorter spells at

, Grantham Town and Thursday Wanderers, but the dates that he played for each of these clubs are not clear. His

appearances are known, including scoring six goals for Notts County in a 11–1 win against Wednesbury Strollers in the second round of the 1881-82 FA Cup, held at Trent Bridge on 10 December 1881. He scored four against Basford Rovers in Notts County's 15–0 win (a record at the time) in the first round of the 1886-87 FA Cup on 30 October 1886 at Trent Bridge.

International career

Cursham was selected for the

in 1880, making his international debut in a 3–2 victory over

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. His first international goal came in his second match, a 13–0 win against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in the 1881–82 season. He scored again in a 5–3 home loss to Wales, and a hat trick against Ireland on 23 February 1884; the latter was his final game for the national side. He finished his international career with eight

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

s and five goals.

Football League

The Football League was formed in 1888. Cursham made his first appearance in the new competition on 6 October 1888 at Trent Bridge, for Notts County in a 3–3 draw with

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 ...

, playing at full back. He scored his first League goal on 12 January 1889, in County's 2–1 victory over

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

, this time playing as a centre forward. He appeared in eight of the 22 league matches played by Notts County that season, five at full back and three at centre forward, scoring twice. Cursham made one more league appearance in the 1890–91 season, ending his league career with nine appearances and two goals.

Final years and retirement

Cursham appeared in twice in the 1888-89 FA Cup, scoring one goal, then wrote to the Notts County board in January 1889 announcing his intention to retire. He did not play in the 1889–90 season, but returned in 1890–91 with two more first–team appearances, one in the league and one in the FA Cup, before retiring again. He ended his career with an FA Cup record of 44 games and 49 goals over 12 seasons. , this remains the highest number of goals scored by a player in the FA Cup. Cursham was an advocate for and exponent of

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. A ...

the ball. He was critical of the emphasis on passing tactics that emerged in the

Combination Game The Combination Game was a style of association football based around teamwork and cooperation. It would gradually favour the passing of the ball between players over individual dribbling skills which had been a notable feature of early Associati ...

, which became popular in the 1870s and 1880s. In 1904 he gave an interview to the ''Football Post'', in which he stated that "Individual play was being too greatly sacrificed to the cry of combination."Henry Cursham
at englandfootballonline.com

Cricket career

Cursham also played county cricket for

, as a lower order batsman. His first class debut was in 1880, in a draw with Surrey. Business commitments (he was an

insurance broker An insurance broker is an intermediary who sells, solicits, or negotiates insurance on behalf of a client for compensation. An insurance broker is distinct from an insurance agent in that a broker typically acts on behalf of a client by negotia ...

) prevented Cursham from taking up a career in cricket, which would have required a much greater time commitment than football. He made only one more appearance for Nottinghamshire, 24 years later in 1904 at the age of 44, against a touring South Africa team. His brother,

was also a first class cricketer. In the handling code, he was good enough to represent Nottinghamshire against Bedfordshire in February 1892.

References

External links

Henry Cursham
at Cricket Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Cursham, Henry 1859 births 1941 deaths Corinthian F.C. players Grantham Town F.C. players English cricketers English footballers England international footballers Nottinghamshire cricketers Notts County F.C. players People from Nottingham (district) Association football forwards