Harry Cursham

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Henry Cursham
Personal information
Full name Henry Alfred Cursham
Date of birth (1859-11-27)27 November 1859
Place of birth Wilford, England
Date of death 6 August 1941(1941-08-06) (aged 81)
Place of death Holme Pierrepont, England
Position(s) Forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1877–??? Notts County
Corinthian
Grantham Town
Thursday Wanderers
1888–1891 Notts County 9 (2)
International career
1880–1884 England 8 (5)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

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

first class games for Nottinghamshire.[1][2]

Cursham holds the individual goalscoring record for the FA Cup, with 49 goals in 44 games. He also played eight games for the England national football team, scoring five goals.

Football career

Cursham was born in 1859 in

1878-79 FA Cup, held at Trent Bridge
, the home ground of Notts County at that time.

He became a regular in the Notts County team, frequently appearing alongside his brother,

1886-87 FA Cup on 30 October 1886 at Trent Bridge.[3][4]

International career

Cursham was selected for the

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 caps and five goals.[5][6]

Football League

The

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.[7][8]

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. As of 2018[update], this remains the highest number of goals scored by a player in the FA Cup.

Cursham was an advocate for and exponent of

dribbling the ball. He was critical of the emphasis on passing tactics that emerged in the Combination Game, 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."[9][5]

Cricket career

Cursham also played

lower order batsman. His first class debut was in 1880, in a draw with Surrey. Business commitments (he was an insurance broker) 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, Arthur Cursham
was also a first class cricketer.

In the handling code,[clarification needed] he was good enough to represent Nottinghamshire against Bedfordshire in February 1892.

References

  1. ISBN 1-899468-67-6
    .
  2. ISBN 0-9547830-6-9
    .
  3. ^ "English National Football Archive". Retrieved 22 February 2018. (registration & fee required)
  4. ISBN 0-9547830-6-9
    .
  5. ^ a b "England Players – Harry Cursham". England Football Online. Edit this at Wikidata
  6. ^ Henry Cursham at englandfc.com
  7. ISBN 978-1-4456-1881-4
    .
  8. ^ "English National Football Archive". Retrieved 22 February 2018. (registration & fee required)
  9. ISBN 0-9547830-6-9
    .

External links
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