Ted Platt

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Ted Platt
Personnel
Surname Edward Hewitt Platt
birthday March 26, 1921
place of birth Newcastle-under-Lyme ,  England
date of death September 20, 1996
Place of death Ilford ,  England
position goalkeeper
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
Bath City
1937-1939 Colchester United 0 (0)
1939-1953 Arsenal FC 53 (0)
1953-1955 Portsmouth FC 31 (0)
1955 FC Aldershot 16 (0)
1955-1957 Worcester City
1957–? Ashford Town (Kent)
1 Only league games are given.

Edward Hewitt "Ted" Platt (born March 26, 1921 in Newcastle-under-Lyme , † September 20, 1996 in Ilford ) was an English football goalkeeper . He was part of the Arsenal team that won the English championship in 1953 , but remained mostly only "third choice" behind the preferred competitors George Swindin and Jack Kelsey .

Athletic career

Platt grew up in Gloucestershire and made a name for himself as a goalkeeper in the Bath City reserves in the Somerset Senior League . In 1937 he joined the club Colchester United , which was playing in the Southern League , and remained there behind Billy Light on assignments in the reserve team in the Eastern Counties Football League . At the beginning of January 1939, at the age of 17, he moved to the first division club Arsenal . The pecking order among the "Gunners" under then coach George Allison was clear with George Swindin as "number 1" and the experienced Alex Wilson as his usual deputy. Platt was considered an option for the future, which in turn was accompanied by further uncertainties, as the league game operations were interrupted for several years a few months later due to the outbreak of the Second World War. In so-called "war games" Platt stood 33 times for Arsenal between the posts, but most of all he fought as a soldier with the Royal Fusiliers in North Africa. There he was captured by the Italian armed forces in 1943 and after his liberation in Tunis he continued in Italy.

In the first post-war season 1946/47 Swindin remained a regular goalkeeper at Arsenal, but Platt was allowed to represent him for the first time in November and December 1946 due to injury for four games (the debut was a 4-2 on November 16, 1946 against Leeds United ). Although Swindin was now in the advanced footballer's age and Platt played a total of 36 league games in the two seasons 1949/50 and 1950/51, he could not recommend himself as an alternative. On top of that in 1949 the new coach Tom Whittaker with Jack Kelsey another (and much younger) Goalkeeper had committed. In the championship season 1952/53 Swindin paused due to injury in numerous games and ultimately completed only a third of the league games. Platt was allowed to play three games from mid-September 1952, but then had to make way for the 22-year-old Kelsey after conceding five goals, who was ultimately able to claim the "lion's share" on the way to the league title with 25 appearances. For the following season 1953/54 Platt moved to first division competitor Portsmouth FC .

Platt spent two years in Portsmouth and completed a total of 31 league games before he finished his career in the Football League after exactly 100 league games in the third- tier Third Division South at FC Aldershot . After an argument in the locker room with his teammate Len Gaynor , he was transferred to the Southern League in Worcester City in November 1955 , where he replaced his Portsmouth teammate Charlie Dore in goal. By the end of the 1956/57 season he came to a total of 60 competitive appearances for Worcester before moving to Ashford Town (Kent) in the Kent League .

He died on September 20, 1996 at the age of 75 in Ilford, East London .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b SPORTS LETTERS . In: Grimsby Daily Telegraph , Jan 7, 1939, p. 6.  (paid link)
  2. ↑ BATH CITY RESERVES v. WESTON-SUPER-MARE UDC . In: Shepton Mallet Journal , February 19, 1937, p. 3.  (link subject to charge)
  3. ↑ Saturday Soccer Sideshow . In: Daily Mirror , December 17, 1938, p. 26.  (link with costs)
  4. ↑ cf. Hal Mason: Colchester United: The Official History of the U's . Yore Publications, Harefield 1993, ISBN 978-1-874427-50-6 , pp. 136 ff .
  5. ^ Anton Rippon: Gas Masks for Goal Posts: Football in Britain During the Second World War . 2007, ISBN 978-0-7509-4031-3 .
  6. ↑ Ted Platt (11v11.com)
  7. ↑ Ted Platt: wartime keeper who could not replace Swindin or Kelsey (The History of Arsenal)
  8. ↑ Ted Platt (Arsenal.com)
  9. ↑ SOCCER'S BACK-ROOM SECRETS! . In: The People , November 20, 1955, p. 11.  (paid link)
  10. ^ Ted Platt to replace old clubmate . In: Sports Argus , November 19, 1955, p. 4.  (link with costs)
  11. ^ Bill Cook, Julian Pugh: The Official History of Worcester City FC . Britesport Publishing, 2003, ISBN 978-1-904103-99-8 , pp. 74 ff .
personal data
SURNAME Platt, Ted
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Platt, Edward Hewitt (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English football goalkeeper
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Newcastle-under-Lyme
DATE OF DEATH September 20, 1996
Place of death Ilford