Leigh Richmond Roose
Leigh Richmond Roose (November 27 1877 - October 7 1916) was a Welsh international footballer who kept goal for a number of professional clubs in the Football League between 1901 and 1912. A celebrated amateur at a time when the game was played largely by professionals, Roose was renowned as one of the best players in his position in the Edwardian period. He was also well-known as a footballing eccentric, and many stories about him are still told today.
Early life
'Mond Roose was born in Holt, near Wrexham in North Wales at a time when Association football was principally confined to the north of the principality. He was educated at Holt Academy and at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth (1895-1899). After graduating, Roose studied medicine for a short period at Kings College Hospital.
Club career
Standing 6'1" and weighing over 13 stone, Roose was well qualified to play in goal, a specialised position that was, in the Edwardian era, particularly physical challenging.
He began his footballing career with Aberystwyth Town, playing for the club on 85 occasions. His debut came in a 6-0 win over the Shropshire team Whitchurch in October 1895, and he was carried from the pitch shoulder-high following the team's 3-0 victory over Druids in the Welsh Cup final of 1900. It was during this phase of his career that Roose was seen playing by the eminent Welsh historian Thomas Richards, who would later refer to him as 'Yr Ercwlff synfawr hwn' ('This wondrous Hercules').
Signed by Stoke City, Roose made 144 league appearances for the Staffordshire club from 1901-1904 and 1905-1908 - the latter spell, consisting of only three games, being terminated by a broken wrist. Roose kept 40 'clean sheets' (that is, did not concede a goal) in his 160 games for Stoke, a remarkable record not least because his team flirted dangerously with relegation in 1901, 1902 and 1904.
'Mond Roose punctuated his two spells at Stoke with 24 appearances for Everton, whom he helped reach the semi-final of the FA Cup in 1905. He arrived part way through the 1904-05 season and replaced the Irish goalkeeper Billy Scott, who had conceded 17 goals in the first 12 games of the season. Roose kept 8 clean sheets for Everton, a record proportionately better even than that he had set at Stoke.
After leaving Everton, Roose went on to play 92 times for Sunderland FC, helping the club to finish second in the league on two occasions, and 'almost single-handedly' saving the team from relegation on a third occasion. In the course of his career, Roose also turned out for Port Vale and Celtic (both 1910). Other clubs he represented on at least one occasion included Druids, Huddersfield Town A.F.C., Aston Villa and Woolwich Arsenal F.C..
Roose was prone to displays of bad temper throughout his club career, and in 1906 assaulted one of the Sunderland directors, beating him so badly that the Football Association banned him for 14 days.
Roose retained his amateur status throughout his club career, but charged his clubs handsomely for his expenses.
International career
Roose's international career began in 1900, when he played in a 2-0 defeat of Ireland. He won a total of 24 caps, turning out for his last international game in 1910. He was one of Wales's key players when the team won the Home International Championship for the first time in 1907.
Playing style and philosophy of goalkeeping
Roose has been described by the Dictionary of Welsh Biography as a man who 'had been thoroughly grounded in the fundamentals of his art, and gave interpretation to them in the style and manner of a man of genius.' According to Thomas Richards, the renowned 19th century Welsh authority on seventeenth century Puritanism, his principle attribute was his 'prehensile grip', but according to Geraint Jenkins, an Aberystwyth historian who wrote a brief biographical sketch of the goalkeeper in 2000, he also boasted 'sharp eyesight, startling reflexes, competitive instinct and reckless bravery', and was altogether 'an extraordinarily daunting opponent'.
If contemporary accounts are reliable, Jenkins adds, 'the save which Roose made while representing Aberystwyth against Builth in the Leominster Cup in 1897 was at least equal to that made by Gordon Banks against Pelé at Guadalajara in the
.'
Roose was a famous saver of penalties. Thomas Richards described an account of a save he had seen Roose execute for Aberystwyth against Glossop North End, a professional team from the Midlands League, in an FA Cup match. 'One of the full backs,' Richards wrote in 'Gwr o Athrylith' ('Man of Genius'), his profile of Roose,
'committed an unforgivable foul in the penalty box; the harsh blast of the referee's whistle, his finger pointing to one of the most calamitous places in the purgatory of this life; the penalty spot. The heavy odour of death hung over the fateful spot: did you not hear a crowd of thousands suddenly become dumb mutes, did you not see the players standing in a half circle as if they were at a graveside... Everyone holding his breath. I have always believed that Roose grew to his full height as a man in the purgatorial crisis of a penalty, drying off the clay around his feet, washing away the dross which entered his character with the gold... Arthur's sword against the bare fist. Then came the signal; the ball travelled like a bolt from the foot of the penalty taking forward, and in the blink of an eyelid, revolution, a thump, and the ball landed in the heather and gorse of the Buarth.
Roose was also noted for his ability to kick and throw the heavy leather footballs of the period prodigious distances. Although early balls become almost immovably heavy in wet conditions, it was said that, on dry days, he was capable of sending a goal kick the length of the field and punching the ball well over the half-way line.
At his best, Roose was a superb if unorthodox shot-stopper, once, in his first international match, saving a full blooded drive from only six yards out by clamping the ball between his knees. He was extremely athletic and was reputed, by the football spectators of the day, to have the mysterious ability to change his direction while diving full length.
Roose was further noted for a considerable physical presence that has been compared to that of the modern Danish 'keeper Peter Schmeichel, and according to one biographer, 'enjoyed taunting experienced international forwards, some of whom felt the full force of his fist in goalmouth melees.' The Athletic Times described him as 'dexterous though daring, valiant though volatile.'
James Ashcroft, the Arsenal goalkeeper, contributed an appreciation of Roose which singled him out for his bravery in diving at the feet of onrushing forwards.
'Last season when Stoke played Arsenal at Plumstead, I watched the Reds swoop down on Roose like a whirlwind. There was a scrimmage in goal and Roose was down on the ball like a shot with a heap of Arsenal and Stoke players on top of him. It was all Lombard Street [the site of the Bank of England] to a penny orange that the Reds would score. Presently from out of the ruck emerged Roose clinging to the ball, which he promptly threw away up the field. I'll bet that the thrill of triumph which went through him was ample compensation for any hard knocks he received.'
At a time when other goalkeepers walked onto the pitch at the beginning of a game, Roose was unusual in running on briskly, acknowledging the applause of the crowd. When a penalty was awarded, he frequently waved to spectators both before and after completing a save.
Roose generally carried a pair of white gloves onto the pitch but preferred, in good weather, to play with bare hands. He was regarded as unusual in insisting on playing in padded knee-bandages and a twin-peak cap.
Roose played in a daring style, often - at a time when other goalkeepers rarely strayed more than a few yards from their goals - rushing out of his penalty area to fill the position left by an errant full back. In his first international, he sprinted from his area and shoulder-charged an opposing Irish winger on the far touchline, bundling him out of play and knocking him unconscious. He also took full advantage of the rules of the day, which allowed the goalkeeper to handle the ball anywhere in his own half. It has been said that the 1912 alteration to the rules of the game, forbidding the goalkeeper to handle outside his penalty area, was directly due to the performances of Roose, who enjoyed taking part in attacks.
Roose was an early example of the familiar adage that 'goalkeepers are different', a point he made himself in an article on goalkeeping contributed to the four-volume 1906 work Association Football and the Men Who Made It. 'There is a proverb,' he wrote, 'which says, "Before you go to war, say a prayer; before going to sea say two prayers; before marrying say three prayers." One might add: "Before deciding to become a goalkeeper say four prayers." He's the Aunt Sally.'
Considering the goalkeeping ideal, Roose added elsewhere in the same article:
'A tall man able to get down to low shots is certainly preferable to a short one, for he can reach shots that no little man can get near, and if his bigness in stature is combined with weight he will find occasions on which his height and weight will prove of great advantage to him; yet he should not come under Dryden's description: "Brawn without brain is thine." He should possess quickness of eye and hand, activity and agility, and be as light on his feet as a dancing master. It's not much use for a man who can only move "once in about two months" trying to defend a space 24 feet wide and 8 feet high against shots coming in from all possible directions, and when there is only a fraction of a second allowed to get a ball and get rid of it, by either kicking, catching or throwing out, or punching away with forwards on top of him.'
'To a goalkeeper alone,' Roose concluded, 'is the true delight of goalkeeping known. He must be an instinctive lover of the game, otherwise goalkeeping will take it out of a man if he is not devoted to it.'
Stories told of Roose
Tales of Roose's eccentricities appeared frequently in newspapers and books published during his career. Some have been picked up by later writers and repeated many times, particularly in books concerning goalkeeping. A good deal of further research would be necessary to verify the truth of some of the stories, but the following were commonly told while Roose himself was still alive.
- While playing for Stoke, Roose was reputed to have missed a train that was due to take him from London to a game at Aston Villa. In the years before the First World War, railway companies kept private trains ready at a platform for hire by wealthy travellers. Roose engaged such a train and had it take him, in solitary splendour, all the way to Birmingham at a cost of 5/- a mile plus the ordinary fare. Upon arrival, he arranged for the resultant £31 bill - a fortune at the time - to be sent on to his club.
- When the Football League requested a copy of the expenses claim Roose had submitted to the Sunderland club, the account that arrived at their headquarters listed, as its first item, 'Using the toilet (twice), 2d. [2 old pence]'
- On 23 April 1910, Roose, by then a very famous former Stoke player, guested - along with Herbert Chapman - for Port Vale in a match against Stoke Reserves that would decide the winner of the North Staffordshire and District League. Roose not only insisted on playing against his former club while wearing his old Stoke City shirt, but aroused the ire of the 7,000 strong crowd with his breathtaking play. He 'saved every shot with such arrogant ease that the furious crowd spilled onto the field, only the brave intervention of the local constabulary saving him from a ducking in the River Trent.' In the course of the same fracas, Stoke's Chairman, the Reverend A.E. Hurst, ran on to the pitch to appeal for calm and was knocked out by one of his own forwards. The result was appealed to the Staffordshire FA, which declared the championship void, and Stoke's ground was closed for the first fortnight of the 1910-11 season. Roose is reported to have said, in his own defence, that he had believed the game to be a friendly and had not realised a championship was at stake.
- Playing for Stoke against Liverpool FC at Anfield, Roose, along with his team-mates, unwittingly ate a lunch of tainted fish. By kick-off time many of the Stoke players were feeling the effects and - having conceded a goal after only eight minutes - Roose ran from the pitch in search of a toilet. He had a pulse rate of 148 and did not return to the game. At the start of the second half only seven of the Stoke players were in a fit state to continue, the dressing room resembling 'the cabin of a cross-channel steamer in bad weather.' Liverpool won the game 7-0.
- In March 1909, Roose travelled with Wales to play Ireland in a Home International. He appeared at Liverpool station with one hand heavily bandaged, telling the waiting press that he had broken two fingers but would nevertheless play in the match. Roose's Welsh team-mate Billy Meredith, suspecting trickery, peered through the keyhole of the goalkeeper's hotel room soon after their arrival in Belfast and saw his friend remove the bandage and wiggle his fingers with no sign of discomfort. News of Roose's disability having spread through the city, a huge and expectant crowd turned out next day in the hope of witnessing an Irish victory. Instead Wales won the game 3-2, Roose himself playing superbly.
- Like many footballers, Roose was famously superstitious, wearing a 'lucky shirt' beneath his goalkeeping jersey throughout the course of his career. The shirt, said to have been an old black-and-green Aberystwyth top, was reputedly never washed. Some support for this story comes from a contemporary article in Bolton's Cricket and Football Field (March 1904), which observed:
'Roose is one of the cleanest custodians we have, but he apparently is a trifle superstitious about his football garments, for he seldom seems to trouble the charwoman with them. Considerable amusement was created at Stoke on Saturday and again at Liverpool on Monday, when it was noticed that Roose alone failed to turn out in spic and span garments. His pants, we should say, carried about them the marks of many a thrilling contest.'
Miscellaneous
When the Daily Mail invited nominations for a World XI to face another planet, Roose was selected as the World team's goalkeeper by a large majority.
Roose was the brother-in-law of Jack Jenkins, a Welsh rugby international.
In the course of a violent football match played at Holt Academy, Roose's brother Edward kicked H.G. Wells, then a teacher at the school, so hard in the back that he ruptured the future novelist's kidney and left him incapacitated for several weeks.
Although accounts of Roose often refer to him as a doctor of bacteriology, he never qualified as a doctor.
Later life and death
Roose joined the British army as a private soon after the outbreak of World War I and served on the Western Front, where his goalkeeping abilities resulted in his becoming a noted grenade thrower. He was promoted to the rank of lance corporal and was killed, aged 38, towards the end of the Battle of the Somme. The exact location and manner of his death remain a matter of dispute.
Roose was posthumously awarded the Military Medal for his bravery in an earlier action, his award being gazetted on 21 September 1916.
His body was not recovered, and his name appears (spelled incorrectly) on the war memorial to missing soldiers at Thiepval.
References
Books
- Hazelwood, Nick (1996). In The Way! Goalkeepers: A Breed Apart? Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing.
- Hodgson, Francis (1998). Only The Goalkeeper To Beat. London: Macmillan.
Articles
- Geraint Jenkins. "Leigh Richmond Roose". In Peter Stead and Huw Richards (eds), For Club and Country: Welsh Football Greats (2000). Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
- Leigh Richmond Roose. 'The Art of Goalkeeping'. In Alfred Gibson and William Pickford (eds), Association Football and the Men Who Made It (4 vols., 1906). London: The Caxton Publishing Company. I, 97-102.