Biography
Inside forward Teddy Gilberthorpe joined the Tigers in June 1908, his bustling style mking full use of his five foot six inches frame. City manager Ambrose Langley gave Teddy his first start in mid-September and he scored his first goal for the Tigers against Bolton in early October. He then added another three goals in the next seven games, including a goal against his former club Chesterfield Town. Gilberthorpe started 19 of the 21 first team fixtures played following his debut but by January 1909 he hadn’t scored for two months and Langley turned to other forward line options. Teddy made just one further first team start, an April 1909 defeat at Wolves, and while Gilberthorpe served City’s reserves for another season he never made another first team appearance, leaving the club in the 1910 close season.
Alfred Edward “Teddy” Gilberthorpe was born in Barlow, a village to the north west of Chesterfield. After 1901 he was raised in Bolsover, ten miles east of his birthplace. Teddy’s father was a coal miner and his son followed his footsteps, by 15 years of age Teddy was working underground driving the pit ponies that transported hewn coal from coal face to shaft. Gilberthorpe came from a lively family – his mother Sarah was twice fined for using indecent and threatening language in public around Bolsover, while Teddy himself was fined five shillings in January 1905 when alongside three accomplices he stole timber from the yard of a local merchant. By the end of 1905 he had been given a trial at local club Chesterfield Town, which went sufficiently well for Teddy to sign professional terms in February 1906. By then he had already made his Spireites debut against Burslem Port Vale and made eight starts that season without scoring. Gilberthorpe was a first team regular in 1906/07 season, scoring six times in 33 starts. But in the 1907/08 season he played only fifteen times, scoring twice, and by the end of the season Chesterfield released Teddy having scored eight times in 56 starts during a three season spell.
When Gilberthorpe left Hull City he returned to Bolsover and for five years between 1910 and 1915 he served the Bolsover Colliery works team. Gilberthorpe also returned to the collliery to earn his keep, working as a coal miner in Bolsover. Gilberthorpe was still working underground three decades later in 1939, when he was living at Adwick-le-Street north of Doncaster. Later he moved up the road to Carcroft, dying in September 1960 at Doncaster Hospital.
Details
Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 28 March 1886, Barlow
Hull City First Game: 14 September 1908, Bolton Wanderers A (Division Two), 22 years, 170 days old
Hull City Final Game: 12 April 1909, Wolverhampton Wanderers H (Division Two), 23 years, 15 days old
Clubs
Chesterfield Town (1905-1908), Hull City (1908-1910), Bolsover Colliery (1910-1915)
Hull City Record
Career: 20 apps, 4 goals
Teddy Gilberthorpe| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1908/09 | 18 | 4 | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1909/10 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |