Talbot-Lewis Albert Image 3 Bristol City 1908

Description

Bedminster, Somerset born goalkeeper Albert Talbot-Lewis began his football career with Western League club Bedminster in 1895, and joined local rivals, Southern League club Bristol City, in 1897 where he was understudy to Hugh Monteith. He moved to Everton in 1898 and spent 1898-99 on their books, but failed to make a first team appearance before returning to Bristol City. He made his Southern League debut in a 3-6 home defeat to Portsmouth in March 1900, his only appearance for The Robins before joining Midland League Walsall in 1901.

Talbot-Lewis then joined First Division Sheffield United in 1902 as understudy to Willie Foulke, making his debut for The Blades in a 2-0 home win over Liverpool at the end of November. He played 10 more matches in Foulke’s place in 1902-03 as The Blades finished fourth in the League Championship and played 6 times in 1903-04 before joining Sunderland in the summer of 1904 after the departure of Ned Doig to Liverpool. Whilst Sunderland did well in the League Championship, finishing fifth, Talbot-Lewis was one of four goalkeepers tried in the campaign, making 4 appearances for Sunderland in September 1904 before joining Southern League Luton Town in the 1905 close season.

After a season at Kenilworth Road he returned to Football League action with Second Division Leicester Fosse in the summer of 1906, where he was an ever present in 1906-07, making 39 appearances for The Fossils before returning to First Division Bristol City in the 1907 close season. He made 23 appearances after taking over the gloves from Harry Clay in October before Clay re-claimed the gloves in March. He then retired from football in the summer of 1908 to concentrate on his cricket.

He is perhaps better known as a first class cricketer for who played for Somerset between 1899 and 1912, becoming a mainstay in the Somerset team from 1904. Already an established batsman he headed the County’s bowling averages in 1907.

An all rounder, Talbot-Lewis was a middle to lower order batsman and right-arm fast-medium pace bowler. He scored 9 first class hundreds, his highest was an unbeaten 201 against Kent in 1909 after he’d made a duck in his first innings. Somerset followed on and Talbot-Lewis’s innings earned them a draw. With the ball he took over 500 wickets for Somerset and took his best innings bowling figures of 8 for 103 against Warwickshire in 1908, finishing the match with 14 wickets. He made one further appearance for Somerset in one match after the start of the First World War in August 1914, although he played under an assumed name, A. Key.

In total Talbot-Lewis played 210 matches for Somerset, scoring 9 centuries and 32 fifties, and had a career batting average of 21.45. He took 532 career wickets at an average of 23.19, taking 5 wickets in an innings 39 times, and 10 wickets in a match 5 times.