Lindley Tinsley Image 1 Corinthians 1905

Description

Nottingham born His Honour Tinsley Lindley OBE played football for Nottingham Forest from 1882 to 1890, although never in the Football League, and was the youngest ever Nottingham Forest player. At age 16 he scored three goals on his debut on 17th February 1882. In one season, he scored 85 goals for Forest. He played for Cambridge University between 1885 to 1888, and also for The Corinthians and The Casuals.He also played for amateur teams The Crusaders in 1887 and The Swifts in 1890.

He first played League football for Notts County, making his Football League debut against Aston Villa in November 1889, making 3 appearances that season, and in 1891-92 he played once for Preston North End at Sunderland in March 1892 in a season when he had already played 6 FA Cup ties for Nottingham Forest, scoring in a draw with West Bromwich Albion in February,

His England call-up came on 13th March 1886 when still at university, along with his Nottingham Forest teammate Teddy Leighton, he was one of eight new caps selected to play against Ireland at Ballynafeigh Park, Belfast. Lindley scored as England “totally dominated” the match with Benjamin Spilsbury scoring four goals in a 6–1 victory.

It has been claimed that he holds the record for scoring in nine consecutive England matches between 13th March 1886 and 7th April 1888. However, there is no substance whatsoever to this claim, as this includes the match against Wales on 29th March 1886, in which all contemporary reports credit the goals to George Brann, Fred Dewhurst and Andrew Amos. He did, however, score in each of the next 6 consecutive matches, which is still an England record (though note that Steve Bloomer scored in ten consecutive matches in which he played, and George Camsell in nine). In total he scored 14 international goals in just 13 matches. He held the overall England goalscoring record from March 1888 when he equalled Charles Bambridge’s tally of 11 until his final tally of 14 was overhauled by Steve Bloomer in 1898.

Lindley also played first class cricket for Cambridge University and Nottinghamshire. He played ten matches between 1885 and 1893 taking nearly a wicket a match as a round-arm right-armed slow to medium bowler. Lindley also averaged about ten runs per innings as a right-handed batsman.