William Nevill Cobbold (4 February 1863 – 8 April 1922), familiarly known as Nevill or "Nuts" Cobbold, was one of the leading footballers of the Victorian era and on several occasions a member of the England national football team. As late as 1922, at the time of his death, he could be described as "the most famous association football forward of all time", and certainly – in the words of his Times obituary – "the most individually brilliant dribbler, the player who could most often put in those thrusts that no skill could parry".
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Early life and education
Nevill was born in Long Melford, England, the son of a vicar, Edward Augustus Cobbold of the Cobbold family. "Nuts" was educated at Charterhouse School, one of the great nurseries of the association game, and Jesus College, Cambridge. As well as playing for the village team, he represented Cambridge University, Old Carthusians, and the Corinthians. While at university, Cobbold played in four consecutive varsity matches against Oxford University, winning each of them. His nickname, given to him during his time at school, was awarded – thought C.B. Fry – "possibly because he was the very best Kentish cob quality, all kernel and extremely hard to crack."
Playing style and reputation
Cobbold starred on his international debut in England's 7–0 demolition of Ireland in February 1883, scoring twice in three minutes, and was frequently described as the trickiest and most elegant forward in the world at this time. "If one were to ask, Who were the three greatest forwards of all time?" wrote William Pickford and Alfred Gibson in 1906, "no matter what other two were named, W.N. Cobbold would perhaps come first to the lips."
Playing generally at inside left, "Nuts" was considered to have the ideal build for a striker of his period. "The best type of forward player," wrote Montague Shearman in 1887, "is the fast, sturdy man of medium height, like W.N. Cobbold the Cantab." It was true, Pickford and Gibson went on, that Cobbold was pre-eminently an old-style dribbling forward, who had learned his football in the years before the advent of the "combination" (passing) game at the end of the 1870s: "In those days 'dribbling' was the great game, and one only passed the ball when one was completely hemmed in, and not always even then." But "Nuts" was far more than a mere dribbler, the authors stressed:
"He was essentially a scoring forward, and one, too, that made most of his own chances. One could not, for instance, conceive a greater contrast in style than Cobbold and Bloomer, both inside forwards. The former was almost continuously on the ball, while the Derby man seems to be doing nothing, and doing it well, for the greater part of the game. When Cobbold got possession of the ball he seemed to keep it glued to his toe, darting hither and thither as he pursued a tortuous course towards goal. One man was practically powerless to stop him. Two men might stay his career by dividing their attentions between the man and the ball, but they were not always successful even then. Very frequently Cobbold would shoulder his way through a whole crowd of the opposition and emerge triumphant with the ball at his toe. He was built for hard, strenuous play."
G.O. Smith, the great centre forward who followed Cobbold to Charterhouse and into the England team, concurred with Pickford and Gibson, recalling "Nuts" in April 1943 with the comment: "I put him first among all the forwards I have known." Smith's verdict – coming from a noted student of the game and a man who had played with and against strikers of the calibre of Steve Bloomer and Billy Meredith – may be considered to restore the now almost entirely forgotten Cobbold firmly to the foremost ranks of footballers of all periods.
Other sports
Cricket
Although regarded by his friend G.O. Smith as scarcely in the first rank of cricketers, Cobbold played once for Kent, scoring four runs, and, after his retirement from football, persisted with cricket and took up golf. Playing against lesser opposition "Nuts" could be a formidable batsman; the first wicket partnership of 440 runs he notched with WR Gray for West Wratting, a small village in Cambridgeshire, against Fitzwilliam Hostel in 1891 remains, more than a century later, among the ten highest ever recorded in minor cricket.
Tennis
Cobbold was also a notable lawn tennis player and competed at seventeen tournaments between 1882 and 1891. He won six career singles titles including the East Grinstead Open three times (1882, 1883, 1887), Leicester Open (1885), Kent LTC Championships (1886), and East of England Championships (1889).
In 1885 he played at the prestigious Northern Championships at that time considered one of the most important tournaments in the world. He reached the quarter finals stage before losing to Ernest Wool Lewis then considered one of the world's best players. At Cambridge University he also took part in the Cambridge University LTC Tournament (1883, 1885).
Later life
In later life he was a schoolteacher, working principally as a "crammer" who specialised in preparing boys for entrance to the British Army. Cobbold suffered considerably from ill health in the years leading to his death – problems his obituarist attributed to his capacity for sheer hard work. He died at West Wratting.