Eddie Clamp

Harold Edwin Clamp (14 September 1934 – 14 December 1995[3]) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Arsenal, Peterborough United, Stoke City and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Through his career he was renowned for his 'take no prisoners' style of play and was nicknamed 'Chopper Eddie'.[1]

Eddie Clamp
Personal information
Full name Harold Edwin Clamp[1]
Date of birth (1934-09-14)14 September 1934[1]
Place of birth Coalville, England[1]
Date of death 14 December 1995(1995-12-14) (aged 61)
Place of death Wolverhampton, England
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[2]
Playing position(s) Right half
Youth career
Coalville Schools
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1953–1961 Wolverhampton Wanderers 214 (23)
1961–1962 Arsenal 22 (1)
1962–1964 Stoke City 50 (2)
1964–1965 Peterborough United 8 (0)
1965–1967 Worcester City
Total 294 (26)
National team
1958 England 4 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Career

Clamp joined Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1950, turning professional in April 1952, before breaking into the first team to make his debut on 6 March 1954, away at Manchester United. He made one further appearance that season as he club won their first league title. He later became an integral part of the first team and won League Championships in (1957–58 and 1958–59) and the 1960 FA Cup. He played over 200 matches for Wolves before signing for Arsenal for £34,000 in November 1961. The last signing made by George Swindin, he made his debut against Nottingham Forest on 18 November 1961 but stayed only ten months. His tough tackling style had failed to find favour with his former teammate, now Arsenal manager, Billy Wright, and so he was sold to Stoke City in September 1962 for £35,000.[4][5][5]

At Stoke, he won the Second Division title in 1962–63, playing alongside Stanley Matthews.[1] After Ron "Chopper" Harris had poleaxed Matthews in one game Clamp threatened Harris, only to be admonished by the referee, an angry Clamp said "Thats the trouble with you referees. You don't care which side wins!" Matthews said in his autobiography that this was one of the greatest lines ever said on a football pitch.[6] He was described as 'mad' by Stoke trainer Frank Mountford and on more than one occasion he would headbutt an opponent whilst the referee's attention was diverted.[1] He played 28 times for the "Potters" in 1963–64 helping Stoke to reach the League Cup final. But with Clamp again suspended Stoke lost 4–3 over two legs.[1]

He finished his league career at Peterborough United, before dropping into the non-league with Worcester City and Lower Gornal. He retired from football in 1969 to run a building and decorating business in Wednesfield. Clamp also played four times for the England national football team, including three matches in the 1958 FIFA World Cup, after making his debut just before the tournament in a friendly draw in Russia on 18 May before 102,000 spectators.[4][5]

His mother, Sarah, was Wolverhampton Wanderers' laundry lady for some 30 years beginning in the 1950s before retiring in the 1980s. She outlived her son by 11 years, dying in November 2006 at the age of 94.[7][5]

Career statistics

Club

Source:[8]

Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other[A] Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1953–54 First Division 2000––20
1954–55 First Division 10000–10110
1955–56 First Division 27110––281
1956–57 First Division 13100––131
1957–58 First Division 411040––4510
1958–59 First Division 26300–20283
1959–60 First Division 38872–605110
1960–61 First Division 400200040460
1961–62 First Division 170000000170
Total 214231420013024125
Arsenal 1961–62 First Division 1802000–200
1962–63 First Division 410000–41
Total 221200000241
Stoke City 1962–63 Second Division 3201010–340
1963–64 First Division 1824060–282
Total 502507000622
Peterborough United 1964–65 Third Division 800000–80
Career Total 294262127013033528
A. ^ The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the FA Charity Shield and European Cup.

International

Source:[9]

National teamYearAppsGoals
England 195840
Total40

Honours
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Stoke City
gollark: Me? Running half the internet through a centralized platform is actually *not* good.
gollark: Sadly, they are probably not setting up space colonisation missions.
gollark: Oh, great.
gollark: I use the firefox PDF.js reader thing mostly.
gollark: It doesn't, unless they finally got round to adding it recently.

References
  1. Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0-9524151-0-0.
  2. Maurice Golesworth (1965). Soccer Who's Who. The Sportsmans Book Club.
  3. Ponting, Ivan (19 December 1995). "OBITUARY: Eddie Clamp". The Independent. London. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  4. "Eddie Clamp". Spartacus Educational.com.
  5. "Eddie Clamp". Arsenal.com.
  6. Matthews, Stanley; Scott, Les (2000), The Way It Was, Headline, p. 529, ISBN 0-7472-6427-9
  7. "Tributes to Wolves legend mum". Express & Star. Wolverhampton. 7 November 2006. Archived from the original on 15 May 2012.
  8. Eddie Clamp at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)
  9. Clamp, Eddie at National-Football-Teams.com
  10. "Wolves Cubs And Best Of Mates". WolvesHeroes.com. 7 January 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.