Benny Yorston

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Personal information
Benny Yorston
Full name	Benjamin Collard Yorston
Date of birth	October 14, 1905(1905-10-14)
Place of birth	Nigg, Scotland
Date of death	1977
Height	5' 5" (1.65m)
Playing position	Striker
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1927 1927-1931 1932-1934 1934-1939	Montrose Aberdeen Sunderland Middlesbrough	143 0 (101) 49 0 (25) 152 0 (54)
National team
1930	Scotland	1 0 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Benjamin "Benny" Collard Yorston (14 October 1905-1977) was a Scottish professional footballer who played for Montrose, Aberdeen, Sunderland and Middlesbrough.

Born in Nigg, Kincardineshire, the diminutive (5ft 5in) forward played for Aberdeen juvenile sides Kittybrewster and Mugiemoss before joining Montrose in 1927.^[1] He spent only 3 months with the Gable Endies before returning north to sign for Aberdeen F.C.. Yorston stayed with the Dons for five seasons and remains the club's record goal-scorer for a single season, having notched 38 goals in 1929-30. He won his only cap for Scotland against Ireland in 1931.

Yorston was one of five Aberdeen players dropped after a 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock later that year. At the time, the reasons were not clear, but the club's official history claims that several players had been involved in a betting scandal. No players were ever charged with any offence, but none of them ever played for Aberdeen again. ^[2]

Yorston joined Sunderland for £2,000 in January 1932 then moved to their North-East rivals Middlesbrough for £1,250 in 1934. He stayed with Middlesbrough until the outbreak of World War II, during which he "guested" for Aldershot, Reading, West Ham United and Lincoln City.^[1] He retired before the cessation of global hostilities.

Yorston's nephew Harry was also a professional footballer who, like his uncle, played for Aberdeen and the Scottish national side.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Lamming, Douglas (1987). A Scottish Soccer Internationalists Who’s Who, 1872-1986 (Hardback), Hutton Press. (ISBN 0-907033-47-4).
^ Webster, Jack (2003). The First 100 Years of The Dons: the official history of Aberdeen Football Club 1903 - 2003. Hodder and Stoughton, 128-131. ISBN 0 340 82344 5.