I can’t help thinking that the name of Reg Stockill should be commemorated by Arsenal even though he only played seven games for us.
But in those seven games he scored four goals, which is not bad going, including a goal that ought to be symbolic to the club – although it isn’t.
For Reg Stockill, who was born on this day in 1913. He became York City’s youngest ever player at 15 and the second youngest person ever to score in a League game when 15. But somehow York didn’t think that much to him and moved him to Scarborough, which is where Arsenal found him.
And with us he made his name scoring in the first game of the first season of the run in which we won the league three times running. Injuries however hampered his career, and caused his departure from Arsenal although he continued playing until the outbreak of the war, after which we lose sight of him.
He isn’t remembered at Arsenal at all but he should be as the man who started the three league wins in a row – under three different managers!
Here are the anniversaries.
24 November 1894: Robert Buchanan scored his first goal for Arsenal, against Newcastle. (Wiki has different scorers, but all other sources note it as Buchanan.)
24 November 1888: Arsenal 4 Dulwich 2 in London Senior Cup. Royal Arsenal’s first team made it to the semi-final, in this season, and won the competition in 1891.
24 November 1895: Billy Milne born in Buckie. He played before and after the first world war for Buckie Thistle, and during the war served his country with great honour with the Seaforth Highlanders in France, for which he won the Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1918.
24 November 1903: Edward Anderson signed from St Mirren. He made his debut away to Stockport on 1 January 1904 but played just one more game after that before moving to Fulham in 1904.
24 November 1913: Reg Stockill was born in York. Although he only played a handful of games for Arsenal he should always be remembered for what he did on 27 August 1932. For on that day there was a football result which read Birmingham 0 Arsenal 1. It was the opening day of the season, and Reg got the goal in the first match in the extraordinary three year run in which Arsenal were champions three times running – under three different managers.
24 November 1917: Alfred Godfrey Calverley was born. He joined Mansfield Town in June 1946 but was signed by Arsenal for £2,500 on 11 March 1947.
24 November 1923: Tottenham 3 Arsenal 0 – the signs for manager Leslie Knighton were not good. Although Arsenal won the London FA Challenge Cup, they finished 19th in the league and went out of the FA Cup in the second round; a state of affairs not even mentioned in his subsequent self-serving autobiography that attacked Sir Henry Norris and which was run in the Sunday press. This made it four games in a row without a win over Tottenham.
24 November 1934: After two defeats, a win and a draw normal service was resumed on this day with a 5-2 win over Chelsea, followed on December 1 with a 7-0 win over Wolverhampton.
24 November 1951 Arsenal 4 Bolton 2. Doug Lishman’s third consecutive home hat trick – an all time record. Arsenal scored 14 goals in those three home games.
24 November 1971: 52,884 at WHL saw a classic of determination and pure entertainment mixed with tension. Storey was booked on the half hour – leading to press comments about him being not quite the sort of man that should be playing for England. Rice passed a free kick to Kennedy who dribbled and scored. Rice also did a back pass which Chivers latched onto and scored. It ended 1-1.
24 November 1979: 55,546 saw a goalless draw with Liverpool with the star performers being Clemence and Jennings. It was probably the most entertaining 0-0 the crowd had ever seen.
24 November 1996: Arsenal 3 Tottenham 1. Arsène Wenger’s first derby. Arsenal had not beaten Tottenham in over 3 years and Tottenham were unbeaten at Highbury since Sept 1991. When Lukic threw the ball out after an injury, Tottenham failed to return it and scored as Arsenal looked on. Wright, Adams and Bergkamp set things right.
24 November 2004: PSV Eindhoven 1 Arsenal 1. Arsenal’s fourth draw in a row in the group.
24 November 2007: Victory over Wigan left Arsenal 3 points clear at top of league and undefeated after 13 games. Gallas and Rosicky scored but the run only lasted two more league games.
24 November 2008: Arsène Wenger announced that Cesc Fàbregas was the new permanent Arsenal captain, following the dismissal of William Gallas who had fallen out with the squad.
24 November 2009: Rhys Murphy loaned to Brentford where he played five games before going on loan to Preston, after which he transferred to Telstar in the Netherlands.
24 November 2009: Alex Song signed a new contract to last to 2014. However after reported disagreements with the management he was sold to Barcelona after 2012, and after two years they loaned him for two seasons to West Ham and then went to Rubin Kazan.
