Benjamin Ward "Ben" Spilsbury (1 August 1864 – 15 August 1938) was an English international footballer. He made his debut for the international team against Ireland on the 28 February 1885. Spilsbury played 3 games for England

England national football team

The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...

, and scored 5 goals.

His biggest game for England came in 1886, when he scored four of England's goals in the 6-1 win over Ireland.

Spilsbury was an all-round athlete when he was at Rossall School

Rossall School

Rossall School is a British, co-educational, independent school, between Cleveleys and Fleetwood, Lancashire. Rossall was founded in 1844 by St. Vincent Beechey as a sister school to Marlborough College which had been founded the previous year...

 and later Repton School

Repton School

Repton School, founded in 1557, is a co-educational English independent school for both day and boarding pupils, in the British public school tradition, located in the village of Repton, in Derbyshire, in the Midlands area of England...

, where he played football, cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 and athletics

Athletics (track and field)

Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...

. At Repton

Repton

Repton is a village and civil parish on the edge of the River Trent floodplain in South Derbyshire, about north of Swadlincote. Repton is close to the county boundary with neighbouring Staffordshire and about northeast of Burton upon Trent.-History:...

 he was school champion 4 times in long jump

Long jump

The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength, and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a take off point...

, and in 1882 he broke the school record.

After that, he began at Jesus College

Jesus College, Cambridge

Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...

 in Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

, and he played football for Cambridge University from 1884 to 1887. In his last year at the university, he was also captain of the team.

After representing Cambridge University and his country, he also played games for Derby County

Derby County F.C.

Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...

 in the years 1884 to 1889. He is best remembered for having scored the first recorded Derby goal in 1884. In total he played eight FA cup games, and scored seven FA cup goals for Derby. He is also recorded as having played one league game, and scoring one goal.

After his playing career was over, he moved to Canada, where he worked as an estate agent.

England career

Cap	Opponent	Date	Place	Result	Goals	Club
1	Ireland	28 February 1885	Manchester	4-0	1	Cambridge University
2	Ireland	13 March 1886	Belfast	6-1	4	Cambridge University
3	Scotland Scotland national football team The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...	27 March 1886	Glasgow	1-1	0	Cambridge University