Syd Puddefoot

Syd Puddefoot

200px Puddefoot as a West Ham United player
Personal information
Date of birth	(1894-10-17)17 October 1894
Place of birth	East London, England
Date of death
Place of death	Rochford, Essex, England
Position(s)	Forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
–1912	Limehouse Town
1912–1922	West Ham United	158	(102)
1922-1925	Falkirk
1925-1932	Blackburn Rovers
1932-1933	West Ham United	22	(3)
International career
1925–1926	England	2	(0)
Managerial career
1931–1933	Fenerbahçe
1933–1936	Galatasaray
1937–1939	Northampton Town
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Syd Puddefoot

Personal information
Full name	Sydney Charles Puddefoot
Born	(1894-10-17)17 October 1894 East London, England
Died	Rochford, Essex, England
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Left arm medium
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1922–1923	Essex
Career statistics
Competition FC Matches 8 Runs scored 101 Batting average 16.83 100s/50s 0/1 Top score 42 Balls bowled 198 Wickets 1 Bowling average 105 5 wickets in innings 0 10 wickets in match 0 Best bowling 1/34 Catches/stumpings 2/–
Source: Cricinfo, 16 February 2011

Sydney Charles Puddefoot (17 October 1894 in Bow, London – 2 October 1972 in Rochford, Essex) was a footballer who played as a forward for West Ham United. He was also a cricketer for Essex and later went into football management.

Puddefoot was a pupil at Park School in West Ham and played with Condor Athletic and Limehouse Town before being spotted by West Ham trainer Charlie Paynter in a London Juniors match against Surrey Juniors. He quickly developed into a formidable force and scored 28 goals in 55 Southern League appearances for the club.

Puddefoot made 126 appearances in the war-time London Combination and scored nearly 100 goals, including seven against Crystal Palace in November 1918 (a record for the competition).

After the end of World War I, Puddefoot played in the newly enlarged Football League Division Two for the 1919-20 season. He scored 21 goals, and was selected to play in England's Victory International games against Scotland and Wales. He then scored 29 in the 1920-21 season and 19 in 1921-22 before transferring to Falkirk for £5,000 in February 1922, a world transfer fee record, with an agreement to transfer younger brother Len as part of the deal.

Puddefoot left Falkirk after three years to join Blackburn Rovers. He won the FA Cup with Blackburn in 1928. He set up the opening goal in the first minute of the match when he charged the Huddersfield Town goalkeeper Billy Mercer with Jack Roscamp following-up to score after Mercer had fallen to the ground.

Ten years after leaving his boyhood club, Syd returned to east London to help with the ultimately doomed effort to avoid relegation in the 1931-32 season. After two years at West Ham, he left to coach Turkish club Fenerbahçe.

The following year, he moved to Galatasaray, but left after an incident in which he was manhandled while trying to calm down players during a game. He moved back to England in March 1937 and coached Northampton Town until the outbreak of World War II.

He later worked as a scout for Southend United.

His daughter Susanne Puddefoot (1934–2010) was a journalist who edited the Times Women's Page in the 1960s.

He died in October 1972, just before what would have been his 78th birthday.

International career

Puddefoot played twice for England, once in 1925 and once in 1926.

References

• Syd Puddefoot - When Falkirk FC broke the World Transfer Record