Peter Scarff (29 March 1908 – 9 December 1933) was a Scottish
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...
who played as an
inside left
In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...
.
Career
Born in
Linwood Linwood may refer to:
Places
Many of the place names for Linwood come from the presence of linden trees. Australia
* Linwood, South Australia
*Linnwood, Guildford, 11-35 Byron Road, Guildford, New South Wales
Canada
* Linwood, Ontario
* Linwood, ...
, Scarff played club football for
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foot ...
, making his debut in January 1929, shortly before his 21st birthday.Scarff, Peter An Alphabet of the Celts, Eugene MacBride (via The Celtic Wiki) He was highly regarded, with observers noting that he could be a successor to
Jimmy McMenemy
James McMenamin (11 October 1880 – 23 June 1965), was a Scottish footballer who most notably played for Celtic from 1902 to 1920 and later served as assistant manager in the 1930s. He has been described by the club as ''"a true Celtic legend"' ...
as the team's creative force and acted a foil for the more direct
Jimmy McGrory
James Edward McGrory (26 April 1904 – 20 October 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and Clydebank as a forward. He later managed Kilmarnock and Celtic.
McGrory is also the all-time leading goalscorer in top-flight Bri ...
at centre forward.
Scarff scored ten goals in four league matches in early 1930, and by the end of the 1930–31 season, he had firmly established himself in the Celtic team, making 46 appearances as the club won the
Glasgow Cup
The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rule ...
and the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup, and also generally improved their league form, finishing within two points of champions
Rangers
A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to:
* Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...
in contrast to the 15-point margin in his debut campaign two years earlier. He had made what proved to be his only appearance for
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
in February 1931 but also experienced tragedy in September that year, being yards from the incident when teammate John Thomson died after receiving an accidental blow to the head during a match.
Scarff never scored another goal after the Thomson incident and within months it was his health that was in serious doubt when he experienced difficulty breathing during matches and was diagnosed with
pulmonary tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
. He played his 119th and last match for Celtic in December 1931, aged 23.Celtic player Scarffe, Peter FitbaStats He soon relocated to a local sanatorium where it was hoped his condition might improve, but despite periods of remission it was confirmed by summer 1933 that he would never play football again; he died in December of that year.