Mounteney Arthur Image 1 Birmingham City 1905

Description

Belgrave, Leicestershire born inside forward Arthur Mounteney played junior football for Belgrave Nonconformists in 1902 and Leicester Imperial in 1903 before joining Second Division Leicester Fosse, for whom he made his Football League debut against Bolton Wanderers in January 1904, scoring his first goal in his only other game that season against Bradford City in April. He established himself in the first team in 1904-05, scoring 20 goals in 32 appearances including a hat-trick at West Bromwich Albion and 4 goals against non league Linby Church, both in FA Cup ties.

In the 1905 close season he transferred to First Division Small Heath, renamed Birmingham a year later, and scored the club’s last goal at their Muntz Street ground before they moved to St Andrew’s in December 1906. Despite their relegation to the Second Division in 1908 Mounteney stayed with them for a further season, before returning to the First Division with Preston North End in the 1909 close season after 30 goals in 97 appearances for The Blues.

At Preston he scored 11 times in 54 appearances over the next two seasons before he returned to the Second Division in the summer of 1911, joining Grimsby Town. He stayed just over a year at Blundell Park, scoring 17 times in 46 appearances, before joining Southern League Portsmouth in November 1912, where he scored 12 goals in 35 appearances in a season and a half on the south coast. He returned to the East Midlands to finish his career in non league football in 1914, first with Balmoral United and finally with Hinckley United.

Mounteney played first class cricket as a right-handed batsman and occasionally he also bowled for Leicestershire County Cricket Club from 1911 to 1924, scoring 5,306 runs in 144 matches for the county, including hitting six centuries and 19 half centuries, batting at an average of 20.80, his highest score being 153. He also took 17 wickets at just under 30 a piece with career best figures of 3-38. His Leicestershire career was severely interrupted by the First World War, during which he served in The Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex) Regiment 17th (Service) Battalion, better known as The Footballers’ Battalion, fighting on the Western Front in battles such as Vimy Ridge and The Somme.