[HerefordBull]

As it's Remembrance Sunday I thought I'd write a little about one of your ex players who sadly lost their life on the Somme in 1916. You have mentioned him before on the anniversary of his death........Goalkeeper, Leigh Richmond Roose.

I got hold of the book mentioned in the previous write up, Lost In France by Spencer Vignes. It is a good read and apart from my interest in Military History had a lot of football content. This guy was an extraordinary goalkeeper who even got the rules of the game changed due to the way he played! Most keepers of that time stayed on their goal line and were subjected to physical violence by the opposition forwards and at that time received no protection from the referee...............change from the modern game! Roose not only came out of the penalty area and acted as a sweeper but also gave as good as he got with regard to the violence.

I say the penalty area as in his day the goalkeeper was allowed to bounce the ball anywhere in his own half so frequently he would be taking the ball write up to the halfway line before either kicking or throwing it to get an attack going. This is the rule the FA eventually changed restricting goalkeepers to the penalty area. He was a real character chatting to the crowd, doing extraordinary warm up routines ( like John Budge ) and often having made a save would swing himself up onto the crossbar to take the plaudits of the crowd. He also introduced the Bruce Grobbelaar knee tremble whilst waiting for the penalty taker to run up. Certainly a "playboy" of his day both on and off the field!

There are a few mentions of Huddersfield Town in the book mainly about his disputes with the club regarding "breaking of contracts" and "expenses" ( He was always an amateur so was able to claim only expenses for the games.......however this became a grey area as clubs wanted him to play for them and the amount he was claiming was a vast amount which led to on going dispute with the FA.)

The first mention of the Terriers was when recovering from injury he played various invitational events and one of these was for Port Vale against his former Club Stoke City for a Stafforshire trophy. One of the other "ringers" Port Vale got in for the game was Herbert Chapman who I'm sure all Terrier fans know!
Roose played 5 games for the Terriers at the end of the 1910 / 11 season but at the start of the next one he got an offer to play for Aston Villa which he accepted. Huddersfield sent directors down to see him to try and change his mind but after his first appearance for the Villa the Yorkshire club tried to sue Roose for breaking a contract. As Roose pointed out though, he was an amateur and as such didn't have a contract!!

When he had played for Huddersfield, on three occasions , he had stayed with Hilton Crowther, a wealthy cotton trader and a director of the football club. During his playing time they became friends but with the "breach of contract" dispute that rumbled on this relationship soured. In 1912 the Club went into liquidation and Crowther settled all the debts but still refused to pay Roose a penny for his "expenses" which Roose had put a figure of £2000 on!! The dispute rumbled on well into 1914 when eventually it went to Court where due to Roose firstly deciding to defend himself and secondly being absent due to the War lost the case.

The rest is history with Roose ( or Rouse as he was known in the Royal Fusiliers following his return from Gallipoli ......why??) after winning the Military Medal for bravery in August he disappeared, presumed dead, in October near Gueudecourt on the Somme.

RIP