Page:Association Football and How to Play It (1908) by John Cameron.djvu/34

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ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL

famous Everton forward. He must be getting on in years, and yet season after season he plays cricket up till the end of August and then turns up at Goodison Park and shows how well he can carry the ball along and whip it into goal, like "a rocket, though not so straight up," as one great judge has written of him. He has been an International this year. He has done splendid work as a cricketer, and is second on the list of Lancashire averages, and may be described as one of the greatest all-round men in England. Now, in his thirty-first year, he has given evidence that if you keep in condition there is no need to worry about special preparation or anything of the sort. Another instance is E. Needham, the captain of Sheffield United, and perhaps the greatest halfback for many years that we have had. He is now thirty-five, and it is a long time since he played his first International match, and long before he was a cricketer he had made his name as a footballer. He is a tireless worker, as anyone who has watched him with the Sheffield United club knows quite well, and long before his age many men have retired from the game. He has the respect and admiration of everyone, and this year he has come to the front as a cricketer and finished at the head of the Derbyshire averages. The result of his always keeping in condition is that he will probably go on for some years as a great cricketer, and as one career is on the wane the other seems to be beginning. He is great indeed at both games. Two other members of the Sheffield United club have also made their presence felt at