Cec Thompson
Cec Thompson (12 July 1926 – 19 July 2011) was an English professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.[1]
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Theodore Cecil Thompson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Durham, England | 12 July 1926||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 19 July 2011 85) | (aged||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playing information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Position | Wing, second-row, Loose forward | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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He was born in County Durham, the son of a mother from Durham, and a Trinidadian father. His father died when he was very young and his childhood was spent in a succession of orphanages.[1]
Thompson took up rugby league when working near Hunslet. He turned out to have a natural talent for the game. He went on to play for Great Britain and was transferred to Workington Town in Cumbria after which he was manager of Barrow.
All of Thompson's games for Hunslet, and in representative matches were as a second-row. For Workington he played 164 games as a second-row, twenty-two as a positions, and six as a wing.
Cec Thompson played right-second-row, i.e. number 12, in Workington Town's 9–13 defeat by Wigan in the 1958 Challenge Cup Final during the 1957–58 season at Wembley Stadium, London on Saturday 10 May 1958.[2]
At Barrow, with the side plagued by injury, he played two games as a second-row against Bramley and Blackpool Borough, to make up the numbers.[3]
He was one of the founders of the Student Rugby League in the United Kingdom, when along with Andrew Cudbertson and Jack Abernathy, he founded a team at the University of Leeds in 1967.
Thompson built up his own window cleaning business, and then qualified to teach Economics with a degree from the University of Leeds, and a teaching diploma at the age of 39, initially at Dinnington Comprehensive School, and then at Chesterfield Grammar School.
References
- Obituary: Cec Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 21 July 2011
- "1957-1958 Challenge Cup Final". wigan.rlfans.com. 31 December 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
- Thompson, Cec (14 Oct 1995) Born on the Wrong Side, The Pentland Press. ISBN 1-85821-339-8
External links
- !Great Britain Statistics at englandrl.co.uk (statistics currently missing due to not having appeared for both Great Britain, and England)
- Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org
- (archived by web.archive.org) » Legends Evening 50s
- (archived by web.archive.org) Britain hold out Kiwis at Odsal
- Obituary in The Guardian
- Obituary in The Independent
- Obituary in The Telegraph