Morton Betts

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Morton Betts
Personal information
Full name Morton Peto Betts
Date of birth 30 August 1847
Place of birth Bloomsbury, London, England
Date of death 19 April 1914
Place of death Menton, France
Nickname A.H. Chequer
Position Full-back / Goalkeeper
National team
1877 England 1 (0)

Morton Peto Betts (b. 30 August 1847, Bloomsbury, London, d. 19 April 1914, Menton, France) was a leading English sportsman of the late 19th century. He was notable for scoring the first goal in an English FA Cup Final.

His sporting career also featured first-class cricket for Middlesex (1 match) and Kent (2 matches). Switching between football and cricket duties frequently, he is also associated with Essex. He played for Essex in 1884, before they became a first-class county, and he acted as secretary of the Essex CCC from 1887 to 1890.

Betts' most notable moment came when he scored the winning goal in the 1872 FA Cup Final for Wanderers F.C., the first final of the tournament. In the match, he played under the pseudonym A.H. Chequer. This was because Betts was cup-tied for the match; he had begun the tournament registered with Harrow Chequers (a team associated with Harrow School). They had withdrawn prior to the first game but, under the rules of the time, Betts could not play with another club in the same tournament. Betts' goal was a relatively simple 'tap-in', coming as a result of Robert Vidal's successful dribble through the Royal Engineers' defence.

Betts usually played football as a full-back, though his one appearance for England national team (against Scotland in 1877) was as a goalkeeper. By this time, he was with the Old Harrovians Football Club.

For twenty years, Betts was a board member of the Football Association.

He spent his final years living in France, and died aged 66, shortly before the outbreak of World War I.

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