Charles Frederick Calladine (24 January 1911 – 29 October 1983) was an English professional footballer who made 162 appearances in the Football League for Birmingham and Blackburn Rovers.[1] An inside forward or wing half, Calladine also played senior football with Midland League club Scunthorpe & Lindsey United and Guildford City of the Southern League.

Charlie Calladine
Personal information
Full name Charles Frederick Calladine[1]
Date of birth (1911-01-24)24 January 1911[1]
Place of birth Wessington,[1] England
Date of death 29 October 1983(1983-10-29) (aged 72)[2]
Place of death Matlock, England
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[2]
Position(s) Inside forward, wing half
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
192?–1929 Wessington Ivanhoe
1929–1930 Scunthorpe & Lindsey United (23)
1930–1936 Birmingham 114 (5)
1936–1938 Blackburn Rovers 48 (6)
1938–194? Guildford City
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Personal life edit

Calladine was born in 1911 in Wessington, Derbyshire, a son of Samuel Calladine, a coal miner, and his wife Mary Ann née Riley.[3][4] Calladine was the nephew of another Charles Frederick Calladine, his father's younger brother, who played league football as an outside left for Notts County in 1907–08 and was killed in action during the First World War while serving as a tunneller.[5][6] Calladine himself served in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War.[7]

He was a resident of Holloway, near Matlock in Derbyshire, when he died in 1983 at the age of 72.[8]

Football career edit

In December 1928, the Derbyshire Times described the 17-year-old Calladine, who had just scored five goals in a match for his village club, Wessington Ivanhoe of the Matlock and District League, as "a promising young player, on whom several higher class clubs have an eye."[9] By the end of the season, he was playing in the Midland League for Scunthorpe & Lindsey United,[10] and his goalscoring from the inside-left position – notably his contributions to their progress in the 1929–30 FA Cup, in which they reached the rounds proper for the first time in the club's history[11] – prompted the Derby Daily Telegraph's "Walters" to opine that he "[could] not see [Scunthorpe] retaining him much longer."[12] They did keep him for the rest of the season, which he finished as the club's top league goalscorer, jointly with Bill Baldwin and Jackie Beynon, with 23 goals,[13] but he then signed for Football League First Division club Birmingham.[2]

Calladine made his Football League debut on 11 April 1931 away to Huddersfield Town, playing at centre forward in a 1–0 defeat.[14] He played twice the following season, again in the forward line, but did not reappear for another twelve months. When Jimmy Cringan was injured ahead of a demanding Christmas programme of matches, Calladine was selected at left half for the visit of Portsmouth on 24 December 1932. Birmingham won 4–0, and Calladine had found his position.[15][16] Described as a physically strong player, vigorous in style, with a powerful shot,[2][17] and possessing "quickness and cleverness",[18] he missed only one match in what remained of the season.[16] In March 1933, the Sheffield-based Daily Independent reported that he was "being regarded as a candidate for the left half position in the England team."[18] He was ever-present in Birmingham's 1933–34 season and missed four matches in the next.[19] After the first seven matches of the 1935–36 season produced only one win, Calladine lost his place, and when the team started winning, he did not get it back. He played twice more, on the left wing, and scored once, in a draw away to Derby County on 16 November which was the last of his 126 appearances for Birmingham.[20][21][6]

In February 1936, Calladine joined another First Division club, Blackburn Rovers. He initially displaced Wally Halsall from the half-back line but was also used at inside right before dropping out of the side entirely for the last few matches of the season, at the end of which Blackburn were relegated to the Second Division.[17][6] He played at left half for the first couple of months of the 1936–37 season, and spent the second half of the campaign as a forward, scoring six times from 16 matches at inside left. He played the first six weeks of 1937–38 at right half, but rarely appeared after that,[6] and Blackburn agreed terms with another Second Division club, Swansea Town, for his transfer. However, maybe in ignorance of the club's arrangements, Calladine signed for Southern League club Guildford City.[22] He helped Guildford finish as runners-up in the 1938–39 Southern League,[2] and signed on for the following season, which was abandoned soon after the start of the Second World War.[17]

Career statistics edit

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Birmingham[23] 1930–31 First Division 1 0 0 0 1 0
1931–32 First Division 2 0 0 0 2 0
1932–33 First Division 22 1 5 0 27 1
1933–34 First Division 42 2 3 0 45 2
1934–35 First Division 38 1 4 0 42 1
1935–36 First Division 9 1 0 0 9 1
Total 114 5 12 0 126 5
Blackburn Rovers[6] 1935–36 First Division 10 1 0 0 10 1
1936–37 Second Division 25 5 1 1 26 6
1937–38 Second Division 13 0 0 0 13 0
Total 48 6 1 1 49 7
Career total 162 11 13 1 175 12

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d Joyce, Michael (2004). Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939. Nottingham: SoccerData. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-899468-67-6.
  2. ^ a b c d e Matthews, Tony (1995). Birmingham City: A Complete Record. Derby: Breedon Books. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-85983-010-9.
  3. ^ "1911 England Census for Charles F Calladine". RG14/21079 – via Ancestry.com.
  4. ^ "Derbyshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754–1932 for Samuel Calladine" – via Ancestry.com.
  5. ^ "1891 England Census for Charles F Calladine". RG12/2759 133 – via Ancestry.com.
    "His last letter. Wessington soldier killed in action". Derbyshire Courier. 27 June 1916. p. 1.
    "Sapper Charles Frederick Calladine". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Player search: Calladine, CF (Charlie)". English National Football Archive. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  7. ^ "Serving with the Forces". Derbyshire Times. 20 February 1942. p. 2.
  8. ^ "Wills and Probate 1858–1996: Calladine 1984". Probate Calendar. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  9. ^ "Sports items". Derbyshire Times. 1 December 1928. p. 13.
  10. ^ "Visit from Scunthorpe. Forest Reserves league match". Nottingham Evening Post. 17 April 1929. p. 12.
  11. ^ "Teams for Cup-ties. Scunthorpe and Mansfield at full strength". Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 27 November 1929. p. 11.
  12. ^ Walters (4 January 1930). "Rainy days for the Midland clubs". Derbyshire Daily Telegraph. p. 12.
  13. ^ "Midland League. The goal-getters". Boston Guardian. 3 May 1930. p. 6.
    "Results at a glance". Boston Guardian. 10 May 1930. p. 6.
  14. ^ Matthews (2010), pp. 302–303.
  15. ^ "Team changes for week-end football. Calladine to fill Cringan's place. Blues ready for stiff holiday games". Birmingham Gazette. 23 December 1932. p. 12.
  16. ^ a b Matthews (2010), pp. 304–307.
  17. ^ a b c Jackman, Mike (1994). Blackburn Rovers: the official encyclopaedia. Derby: Breedon Books. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-873626-70-2.
  18. ^ a b "The world of sport. Formerly of Scunthorpe". Daily Independent. Sheffield. 3 March 1933. p. 10.
  19. ^ Matthews (2010), pp. 308–311.
  20. ^ "Birmingham experiment with new half-back line". Birmingham Gazette. 28 September 1935. p. 12.
  21. ^ Matthews (2010), pp. 312–313.
  22. ^ "Searchlight. Lost a fee". Sunderland Echo. 23 June 1938. p. 11.
  23. ^ Matthews (2010), pp. 302–313.

Sources edit

  • Matthews, Tony (2010). Birmingham City: The Complete Record. Derby: Derby Books. ISBN 978-1-85983-853-2.