Black Country Bluenose who made it to the top
TOM Grosvenor belatedly made it to the top in English football – then it all came to a painful halt.
A Netherton lad, he was almost 23 when he made his Football League debut for Birmingham in 1931 and within two years was in the England team. Then he broke his leg and a highly promising career was in tatters.
Tom went to Northfield Road school in Dudley and later played football for Rowley Regis-based Tippity Green Victoria and then his works team Vono as well as Stourbridge.
His father, Sid, was a full-back who made a couple of appearances for Wolves before moving into non-league football, while Tom’s brother Percy played nearly 200 games as a half-back with Leicester City.
Another brother, Cliff, was on Bristol City’s books and then joined Percy at Leicester, but did not make any league appearances. Like his dad, Tom played full-back as a youngster.
Ambition
Tom had trials with Wolves and Albion without success. That did not dim his ambition and he finally got his chance with Blues who were in the First Division, as the top flight of English football was then known. They signed him in March, 1928.
First, Tom had to serve his time in the reserves as Scotland international Johnny Crosbie had been Blues’ first-choice inside right for over a decade. Finally, with Crosbie in the veteran stage, it was Tom’s time and his debut at inside right for Blues came in a 2-0 defeat at Middlesbrough in October 1931.
Birmingham Gazette correspondent ‘Forward’ said of his display: “Grosvenor revealed skill in his play as well as showing that he has a good shot in his locker.”
The reporter did add a note of criticism: “He was rather inclined to wander too much from his position and also displayed a tendency to indulge in dribbling when a firsttime pass would have saved time and trouble.”
Tom made 26 league appearances that season and then all 42 the following campaign. He made rapid progress and had caught the England selectors’ eye at the start of the 1933-4 season. Perhaps he had learned from the criticism of ‘Forward’.
First he was chosen in the Football League side to meet the Irish League at Deepdale, Preston, and impressed in a 4-0 win. The five-man forward line were promptly named for England’s opening international, against Ireland in Belfast – Sammy Crooks (Derby), Tom, Jack Bowers (Derby), Cliff Bastin (Arsenal) and Eric Brook (Manchester City).
England beat Ireland 3-0 at Windsor Park and Tom’s day was made when he scored the second goal, from a Brook pass, four minutes into the second half. Brook had broken the deadlock on 31 minutes and Bowers made it 3-0 a few minutes after Tom’s goal
A month later Tom kept his place for the game against Wales who were then the strongest side among the home nations and won the game at St James’ Park, Newcastle, 2-1.
Changes were made for the game against France at White Hart Lane but Tom, it appeared, had come to stay in the national side. One of the changes saw George Camsell replacing Bowers and the Middlesbrough centre forward scored the first two goals in a 4-1 win. That brought his total goals in five internationals to a remarkable 13.
Camsell’s second goal was amazing. From out on the left near the corner flag he fired the ball into the goalmouth where it
swerved onto the crossbar and then dropped over the line.
After Brook had fired in a free kick, Tom headed home a centre from Brook. France got a late consolation when Blues goalkeeper Harry Hibbs failed too late to pick out a shot in the gathering gloom. There were no floodlights in those days, of course.
Surprise
Two goals in three games for his country was quite a surprise for Tom, a man whose main role was in midfield. Indeed it was not the goal that most impressed ‘Forward’ but his general display as schemer-in chief. He wrote in the Birmingham Gazette: “The best forward on the field was Grosvenor. He literally
toyed with the opposition at times.”
A gangling player, Tom was tall for those days, standing over 6ft 1in. A Footballers’ Who’s Who at the time noted that his recreations were “pigeons, horticulture, running and swimming.”
With three useful performances under his belt, Tom must have been quietly confident of being chosen for what was then regarded the game of the season – the annual clash with Scotland. Then it all went wrong
Two days before Christmas, 1933, in Blues’ game against Huddersfield at Leeds Road he broke his leg, making a tackle. He was carried off on a stretcher and was in obvious pain. He was kept in hospital in Huddersfield.
Clem Stephenson, the Huddersfield boss, went to see him and was told by his nurse it would be a few days before Tom could leave the hospital.
In early January he was taken by ambulance to a nursing home in Edgbaston. He was said to be making satisfactory progress but it would be several weeks before he was eventually allowed to return home to Netherton.
It was almost a year before Tom played firstteam football again but the man who had been described as “one of the cleverest inside-rights in the country” was never quite the same player again.
Comeback
Tom made his comeback in the Blues first team in October 1934 after a long recovery process He played in only eight games, however, before he was dropped in favour of 20-year-old Welshman Don Dearson, newly-signed from Barry Town. It was ten months before he got a recall but played only 14 games.
In February 1936 Tom was transferred to Sheffield Wednesday. The fee was not disclosed but Blues boss Liddell said it was a record for the club. In the summer of 1937 Tom moved on to First Division Bolton and made 56 appearances in the two seasons before the war.
While at Bolton he played alongside another Black Countryman, Ray Westwood, once of Stourbridge and Brierley Hill Alliance, who had followed Tom into the England team and won six caps.
One can only wonder how many more caps Tom would have won had it not been for that bad day in Huddersfield.