Billy Davies (Welsh footballer)

Billy Davies

Billy Davies with Crystal Palace in 1914
Personal information
Full name	William Charles Davies
Date of birth	1883
Place of birth	Rhayader, Wales
Date of death	1960
Playing position	Outside forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
–	Rhayader
–	Llandrindod
–	Knighton
1903–1905	Shrewsbury Town
1905–1907	Stoke	16	(1)
1907–1908	Crystal Palace	32	(3)
1908–1910	West Bromwich Albion	53	(4)
1910–1915	Crystal Palace	163	(18)
Total		262	(26)
National team
1908–1914	Wales	4	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

William Charles Davies (1883 – 1960)^[1] was a Welsh international footballer who played as an outside forward for Crystal Palace, Shrewsbury Town, Stoke, West Bromwich Albion and the Wales national team.^[2]

Career

Davies was born in Rhayader^[3] and played for Rhayader, Llandrindod, Knighton and Shrewsbury Town before he joined Stoke in 1905. He played 17 times for Stoke in two seasons scoring once against Preston North End on the final day of the 1906–07 which saw Stoke suffer relegation. He then spent a season with Crystal Palace before playing over 50 matches for West Bromwich Albion. He returned to Palace in 1910 and went on to play 162 times in five years.^[4]

He was capped on four occasions by the Wales national football team.^[2] His first cap came in March 1908^[3] when he became Crystal Palace's first current international player.^[3]

Career statistics

Biography

The following is an interview with Davies from The Football Evening News published on 28 March 1914.^[5]

Early life

I am a native of Newtown, Montgomeryshire, where I remained until I was some fourteen or fifteen years old. Newtown wasn’t the sort of district where they grow footballers of any class, as may be imagined when I explain the fact that although we certainly had an eleven at school, the matches were few and far between; indeed, I believe at one time our ball became deflated, and apart from the periodical up by some of the boys, who put their mouths to the tube in the bladder, it was not inflated again for a year or two. Consequently, we got very little proper football, and outside a few rough-and-tumble “kickabouts” in which every boy did his utmost to get a huge lunge at the ball, there was really no chance of getting the most elementary knowledge of the game.

But even if we didn’t get much proper practice in those days, we, at least, kept perfectly fit, and to this day I regard physical perfection as being the greatest help to the professional footballer, or, indeed, any other footballer. Those things that count more than anything else, in my opinion, are good training, thorough fitness in every way especially the breathing apparatus, and “keeping at it”. Neither am I what you would call a “prig”,but I cannot help thinking that being a teetotaller and non-smoker has a lot to do with a footballer’s success, There are, of course, many thousands of junior footballers who have no liking for either tobacco or alcohol simply because they haven’t become accustomed to indulge in them. Yet it is quite likely that they will encourage themselves into forming, at least, the smoking habit without any real reason; but if they only appreciated the huge difference which smoking and drinking make upon the wind, nerves and general well-being of a footballer, I question if they would sacrifice a grand branch of sport for a mere matter of idle habit. This by the way.

Welsh League Football

At the age of fourteen I had to leave school and give all my thoughts to the more serious side of life. Yet, strange to relate, it was after I had started working as a “tiler” and dropped some of my old school pals that I took up football. The place where I learned the game properly was Knighton, Radnorshire, and I can well remember a piece of ground where we youngsters used to practice.

Pretty well all my spare time was spent on that ground; in fact even at meal times I was often to be in the company of other young enthusiasts, dribbling, passing, shooting and generally trying to become an absolute master of the sphere, so that I could manipulate it as easily as one does a knife and fork. I didn’t succeed up to that point, but it was the continual ball practice, or “footing about”, which taught me quite a lot of the little things that help one to make headway in what is styled “class football”. Anyhow, the Knighton Town Club got hold of me, brought me out, and I played for the side for three seasons, when, perhaps, only as a matter of coincidence we won the championship of the Mid-Wales League three times in succession.

Towards the end of that time I was working at Rhayader, where the Birmingham Water Company had their filtering beds. I was bricklaying; not in the ordinary style that we know of in Greater London, but special work with glazed bricks, which brought in a fair amount of money. I have to mention this because while at my work one morning I was told that a gentleman had come to see me about my football. But so little impressed was I that the caller was kept waiting for an hour or two before he and I came together.

Shrewsbury Town

However, when the next season came round I had fallen to the temptation and “swopped” my job, which brought me in some £3 a week, for a salary of £2 10s. with the Shrewsbury Town Club. The football was, of course, a lot better than that in which I had previously taken part, and I began to improve. We competed in the Birmingham League, and after meeting Stoke Reserves, against whom I suppose I put up a decent game, I was approached by the Staffordshire club with an offer which tempted me to leave Shrewsbury.

Stoke

Stoke were then in the First Division of the League, and they promised Shrewsbury Town a match if I found a place in their team and played six games right off the reel. I went up on a Friday, and on the next day was in the side against Newcastle United. I suppose I did fairly well; anyhow on the following Saturday I was again in the team to oppose Aston Villa, and on the Monday, which was Christmas Day, I appeared against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. It will ever be a matter of regret to me that I played in the Christmas match, for I got my leg broken and, incidentally, did Shrewsbury Town out of the game which had been promised to them; thereby, in a way, robbing them of a big gate. The team for some eight weeks, and only became fit to play again toward the end of the season.

Altogether I had one and half seasons with Stoke, and it goes without saying that I took part in some exciting games. For instance, we had to meet West Bromwich Albion three times in the first round of the Association Cup Competition before we were knocked out, and it was probably owing to those struggles that W.I.Bassett, a director of the Throstles, formed a good opinion of my capabilities and subsequently got me to “sign on” for his club. Not, however, until I had served a season with the Crystal Palace, whose manager, Mr Goodman, got on to me through the telephone while I was staying with a friend at Denbigh during the week following the close of the season. 1906-7. I won’t touch on the first year I spent with the Palace, but will pass on to 1908-9, when I commenced playing for West Bromwich. I shall not easily forget that season, if only because we were struggling hard to get into the First Division of the League, a feat we failed to accomplish by the visitation of “hard luck” one of the biggest enemies a side can have.

West Bromwich Albion

I will explain. To the best of my recollection the last week of the season arrived with Bolton Wanderers, Tottenham, and our team all at the top of the Second Division; and, strange to say, all having to meet one side – Derby County – in order to decide which two were to be promoted. These games had been postponed owing to “Cup-ties”. Anyhow, our game came off on the Monday, and we were beaten; on the Wednesday Tottenham made a draw; and on Friday – absolutely the last day of the season – Bolton won. Tottenham only beat us on goal average, but I venture to think that if we had met Derby County on the Friday instead of Monday we would have gained Promotion.

I spent two seasons with West Bromwich Albion, and had a great time. I remember going on tour through Norway, Denmark and Sweden, where we met with some funny adventures, funny players, and still funnier referees. At Copenhagen, in particular, the play was very rough, in consequence of which the game had to be stopped, and I, as well as others, was very thankful to get back to the dressing room without being assaulted by the crowd. at the end of my second season with West Bromwich, and when I found out that two or three other clubs were after me, I wrote to Mr Goodman, and so came about my return to Crystal Palace. Very few honours have come my way; still those few have been gratifying. I have played for Wales against England in 1909 and 1914, against Scotland in 1908 and 1910 and against Ireland in 1909. After all, there is something about an International Cap which makes one feel just a little proud; and I would be a hypocrite were I to pretend that such was not the case.

A footballer’s life is not always filled with success and glory; indeed, I have had many disappointments in my career, and although they would not appear very great to the ordinary individual, the real heavy disappointments on the field of play are very painful to the conscientious player.

Since I came south I have seen much of the social side of class football, and I am sure there are few people who can imagine what a great amount of good can be worked in a team by social influence. For my part, I shall always believe that you may possess a side wholly composed of International players, and if there is the slightest disagreement between the men, or friction between the players and directors, they will not be one half as successful, so far as match results are concerned, as the team of modest ability who are the best of friends and work in thorough harmony with the management.

As to football’s followers during my short career I have taken part in League fixtures, Cup-ties, and International matches, and I cannot help confessing that I like the crowd of the last-named best. Somehow the individual who looks on whilst one country is playing another is not quite the same as he who comes to see a Cup-tie or League game. He may be the same in body but is not in spirit. I suppose it is on the same principal as one boy fighting another at the same school. This is all right, but let any fellow from another school endeavour to touch your opponent – this is when the spirit changes. 

References