Arthur Hudgell

1920 - 2000

Hackney North London

Footballer

Sunderland and Crystal Palace

Arthur John Hudgell

   Arthur John Hudgell was born in Hackney North London son of Albert Hudgell, East London on 28^th December 1920 and signed for Crystal Palace Football Club in December 1937 from Eton Manor (I believe it was a well-known Junior Club that spawned a number of professional footballers).      One source I have quotes Arthur as apparently walking into Selhurst Park and asking for any job with Crystal Palace, “even cleaning weeds as I want to play for Palace”.

Career:

Hackney Schools Eton Manor, Crystal Palace December 1937 debut against Blackburn Rovers February 1947, Sunderland January 1947 £10,000

   The record books state that Arthur did not play for Crystal Palace until 1946 but that was due to the Second World War, certainly he did not play for the first team before September 1939.   However wartime football leagues were set up which consisted of clubs within a local area to reduce travelling etc. and in those troubled times and clubs were allowed to field ‘guest’ players which in effect was any footballer in the area who was available to play. For example Aldershot had (naturally) one of the strongest teams at that time.

  Arthur's playing position with Crystal Palace was usually at left-half or left full-back and it was at left-half (No.6 shirt) that he made his first team debut for Crystal Palace for one of these wartime regional league fixtures at home at (Selhurst Park) to Watford on Saturday 28th October 1939.

   Arthur was a regular player for Palace during the Second World War but I have no record as to how he was involved military or otherwise during this period.   A clue may be that he did not appear in the team from October 1942 until August 1944 apart from 6/3/1943. It could be that he was involved in the War effort somewhere else in England and was playing for another club.  Arthur’s wartime career with Crystal Palace totalled 174 appearances and he scored 7 goals, some of these from the penalty spot.

   The F.A. Cup competition resumed in 1945 but League Football did not recommence until August 1946, hence Arthur’s recorded first team debut with Palace is in the F.A. Cup game against Queens Park Rangers at their ground on January 5^th 1946, a tie that involved two replays.

    In the first post-war season of League Football (1946-7) Palace competed in Division Three South and Arthur was ever-present in the team from the start and he played for Palace in a F.A. Cup-tie at Newcastle United on January 11^th 1947. Although Palace lost 2-6 there were some football scouts present and those from Sunderland were sufficiently impressed with his play for the Wearside team to make an offer of £10,000 to Crystal Palace for his signature. This incidentally was a then record for a Third Division player and also for a full-back. Palace accepted and Arthur’s last game for the club was on 25^th January 1947, coincidentally at Queens Park Rangers. Arthur’s official career with Palace totalled 25 League games (scoring 1 goal) and 4 F.A. Cup appearances (wartime appearances do not count in the official record books).

  His Sunderland career lasted from January 1947 until May 1956 when he retired from football with a total of 260 League games for the Wearsiders.  He missed Sunderland’s famous defeat at Yeovil in 1949 in the F.A. Cup.

   Arthur was described as a stylish, fair-haired full-back he was Jack Stelling's partner for seven years.  He made no pre-war senior appearances for Crystal Palace being still only 18 when war broke out, but he stayed with them for 10 years, but did so in wartime.  His peacetime 1946/47 figures for the Glaziers were 25 Southern Section outings (One goal) plus one in the FA Cup.

Hudgell - 1947-1957

Arthur Hudgell was a cockney who came to Sunderland after spending 10 years at Crystal Palace. A stylish left-back, Hudgell arrived at Roker for £10,000, a record fee for a defender. This huge amount certainly proved value for money though, as Hudgell went on to make 274 appearances for the Lads. Hudgell’s worth to the team was undoubtedly overshadowed by more exciting individuals who inevitably grabbed the limelight. Among his team-mates Hudgell could count Len Shackleton, Stan Anderson and Trevor Ford.

McLain  Stelling  R.Robinson  Hudgell Wright  Duns

 J.Robinson  Hall(Capt)  Whitelum  Quinn  Burbanks

He cost Sunderland what was then a record transfer fee for a defender but it was certainly money well spend on a solid player who became an often unsung stalwart of a Sunderland side containing some outstanding individuals.

 Arthur had played in the same boys club team as Ivor Broadis and could fill the right-back position most capably.

He was 5'9 inches tall and weighed 11st 13Ibs at the height of his career and he wore the No. 3 shirt.

Retired 1958

Crystal Palace v  Cardiff City

23rd November 1946

Kurz Guthrie Lewis Graham Hudgell Bassett

Girling Lewis Dawes Naylor Robson

 Arsenal

v

Sunderland 1951

Fulham v Sunderland 1950

Sunderland Football team

Sport Newspaper

Sunderland FC 1948 -1949

Back Row Ramsden, Shackleton, Hudgell, Mapson, Scotson, Wright.  -  Front Row :- Duns, Davis, Hall, Turnbull, Robinson, Watson

No.

Player  

Team

1

Thanks to Sunderland Football Club for all

the information they have

 supplied

Match report:

SUNDERLAND 3 NORWICH CITY 1

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1951

Crystal Palace v Watford

October 28th 1939

Kick-off 3 p.m.

Official programme

and news reports in

The Times for the F. A. Cup 1951

Wikipedia on Arthur Hudgell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Hudgell