Thomas Arthur Capel (27 June 1922 – 5 October 2009) was an English professional

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 scored 120 goals from 276 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

playing for

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

, Chesterfield,

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

and

Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in the National League, the fifth level of English football league system. They replaced Halifax Town, who went i ...

. He 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

Capel played football for a

works team A works team, sometimes also referred to as factory team and company team, is a sports team that is financed and run by a manufacturer or other business, institution, or organization in a broad sense. Works teams have very close ties with thei ...

, Gosling's, in Manchester, and for

Droylsden Droylsden is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, east of Manchester and west of Ashton-under-Lyne, with a population at the 2011 Census of 22,689. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, in the mid-19th cen ...

, before joining

in 1941, He made his competitive debut on 4 January 1947 in a 1–0 win in the

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third tier ...

away at Chesterfield.

Bob Brocklebank Bob Brocklebank (23 May 1908 – September 1981) was an English football player and manager. He played for Aston Villa and Burnley, for whom he was top scorer in the 1937–38 season, before becoming a manager. He took charge of Chesterfield, ...

signed him for Chesterfield in October 1947. He scored on his league debut for the club, finished his first season as the club's leading scorer with 16 despite joining well after the start of the season, and in something under two seasons scored a total of 27 league goals from 62 appearances. In the 1949 close season Brocklebank signed him for a second time, taking him to

First Division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

club

for a fee of £10,000. Capel, described as a "powerful, bustling player", failed to settle at Birmingham, and moved to

a few months later. He and Wally Ardron formed "a lethal striking partnership" which contributed to Forest, under the management of Billy Walker, winning the

Third Division South The Third Division South of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to on ...

title in the 1950–51 season. Capel spent four-and-a-half seasons at Forest, and scored 72 goals from 162 appearances in all competitions. In the 1954 close season, Capel joined

, for whom he scored 19 goals from 34 league matches in the Third Division South, and finished off his league career with a few months at

Third Division North The Third Division North of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to ...

club

, thus completing the set of playing in all four divisions of

. Capel spent the 1956–57 season with

non-league Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

side Heanor Town. They won the Central Alliance North title, scoring 158 goals in the 30 games available, and finished the season with a flourish. Capel had scored four in a match for Nottingham Forest against Gillingham in 1950: he went one better in Heanor's last game of the season against Sutton Town, "scoring all five goals including one from the penalty spot with his unfavoured right foot".

Personal life

Capel was born in

Chorlton-on-Medlock Chorlton-on-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, Chorlton-on-Medlock is bordered to the north by the River Medlock, which runs immediately south of Manchester city cen ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. He served in the

Royal Marines The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, alongside fellow footballers

Eddie Quigley Edward Quigley (13 July 1921 – 18 April 1997) was an English football player and manager. He was born in Bury, Lancashire, the son of Edward and Martha (née Rowley) Quigley. A forward, he scored 179 goals from 337 appearances in the Footba ...

and Ken Oliver. His younger brother Freddie also became a professional footballer. The pair were on Chesterfield's books at the same time, but played together only once, for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

. He died in October 2009, aged 87.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Capel, Tommy 1922 births 2009 deaths Military personnel from Manchester Royal Marines ranks People from Chorlton-on-Medlock English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Droylsden F.C. players Manchester City F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Halifax Town A.F.C. players English Football League players Heanor Town F.C. players Royal Marines personnel of World War II Footballers from Manchester 20th-century English sportsmen