Billy Taylor (sportsman)
Encyclopedia
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...
player. He played as Billy Taylor for Durham City
Durham City A.F.C.
Durham City A.F.C. are an English football club that currently plays in the Northern Premier League Division One North. They are based in the city of Durham in North East England.-History:...
, Crook Town and Norwich City
Norwich City F.C.
Norwich City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. As of the 2011–12 season, Norwich City are again playing in the Premier League after a six-year absence, having finished as runner up in the Championship in 2010–11 and winning automatic promotion.The...
before playing First Division
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
football for Sheffield Wednesday F.C.
Sheffield Wednesday F.C.
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, who are currently competing in the Football League One in the 2011-12 season, in England. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the oldest professional clubs in the world and the fourth oldest in the...
from 1919-1922. He spent the subsequent years playing for Doncaster Rovers, and Mansfield Town, rejoining Doncaster in 1925 to play in the Third Division North
Football League Third Division North
The Third Division North of The Football League was a tier in the English association football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran parallel to Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to one or the other according to geographical position...
, scoring 5 goals in only 19 appearances. During this time
he also joined the staff of the LNER (later British Rail) at the Doncaster Railway Engineering Works where he spent most of his working career.
He also played cricket for teams in the North of England. He was a good all-rounder
and an excellent batsman. He played latterly for some 15 years in the Doncaster Works
Athletic Club first team.
During the First World War he served with the Durham Light Infantry and became a
commissioned officer. He was decorated for bravery in carrying out a successful
daylight patrol into the German trenches at the Battle of Arras on the Somme and for digging out men in his section under heavy shellfire.
During the Second World War Major Taylor commanded the 1000 strong Doncaster Works
Home Guard.
In 1920 he married Jean, the daughter of Dr.Robert Steel of Crook, Co.Durham, and they had two sons.
He is remembered as an outstanding all-round sportsman and gentleman.