Affairs of the heart take centre stage on 14 February, so what better time of year to highlight the life and career of an England international goalie with an appropriately romantic name, writes The Hockey Museum volunteer Dr Jo Halpin.
Garnet Valentine Spooner’s international hockey career was notable perhaps for two things: his two seasons as England’s No.1 came 13 years apart, and he was a coalminer’s son playing at a time when national teams were made up almost exclusively of university-educated professionals and military men (see team lists reproduced below).
The cover page of Garnet Valentine Spooner’s scrapbook in The Hockey Museum’s archive.
Born in Haswell, County Durham in 1885, Spooner moved to Wombwell, Yorkshire, aged 2, when his dad was appointed undermanager at Darfield Main Colliery.
After leaving school, Spooner went to work in the gasworks department of Wombwell District Council, collecting money from slot meters. By 1907 he had been promoted to gasworks clerk and storekeeper, for which his hours were 6am to 5pm and the pay was £1 4 shillings a week.
He played his club hockey for Netherwood and, later, Barnsley, captaining both sides. He achieved representative honours for Yorkshire in the 1906-1907 season – when, for the first time for many seasons, Yorkshire beat Lancashire 5-2.
“The event which stood out above all was Spooner’s goalkeeping. I have seen some very brilliant exhibitions in club hockey, but never have I seen such goalkeeping as I witnessed on Saturday.”
The Yorkshire Evening Post.
Newspaper cartoon illustration of Garnet V Spooner.
His performance at county level earned Spooner a call-up to the North team and he made his debut for England in 1911, when he featured in three of that season’s four international matches. He was unable to make the trip to Scotland, where England won 5-0, but helped his country beat Wales (7-0) and France (4-0), and draw with Ireland (2-2).
In the summer of 1911, Spooner brought his international hockey career to an abrupt end when he emigrated to Canada. There he married Jessie Jardine and their first son, George, was born in 1913. The family returned to England in 1915 and Spooner took over the running of a beer off-licence shop in Dodworth, near Barnsley. The couple’s second son, Blair, was born the same year.
Spooner served in France with the Northumberland Fusiliers during World War 1 and, afterwards, became a pub landlord, running the Strafford Arms at Stainborough, near Barnsley.
Photographs from Garnet Valentine Spooner’s scrapbook in The Hockey Museum’s archive showing him in various club and representative teams. He also played at Scarborough Easter Hockey Festival. Despite these not being England team photographs, Garnet can be seen wearing his England goalkeeping jumper – a red rose cloth badge sewn onto a cricket jumper – and his navy-blue England blazer.
In 1919, he resumed playing hockey for Barnsley and was elected to serve on the committee of Yorkshire County Hockey Association. He captained the North for the first time in 1922 and found favour with the England selectors again in 1924 – by which time he was nearly 40 years old.
Spooner played in England’s victories over Wales (11-2) and Scotland (3-1), and in the defeat by Ireland (3-2), but was not between the sticks for the 9-0 win over France.
Newspaper report of the England vs Scotland at Brooklands, Cheshire in 1924 – Garnet is photographed in action. From Garnet Valentine Spooner’s scrapbook in The Hockey Museum’s archive.
He was not selected the following season and, in 1925, retired from playing representative hockey, although he continued to be involved with Barnsley, both as a player and an administrator.
Spooner died on 30 June 1939, aged 54.
Garnet Spooner’s selection letter to play for England in 1924. From The Hockey Museum’s archive.
England men’s team, 1911
Garnet Valentine Spooner – gasworks clerk and storekeeper
Edgar Clover – Oxford University
John Hadfield ‘Jack’ Bennett – Oxford University; barrister
Eric Bertram Crockford – solicitor
Edgar Wells Page – chartered accountant
Andrew Denys Stocks – solicitor and legal adviser, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries
John Kenneth Matthews – nurseryman, son of a farmer
Arthur Francis Leighton – Cambridge University
William Faulder Smith – Cambridge University
Cornelius John Corbett – headmaster
Stanley Howard Shoveller – stockbroker
England men’s team, 1924
Garnet Valentine Spooner – publican
Dr Charles Lovell Spackman – University of Birmingham; medical doctor
Jack Bennett – Oxford University; barrister
Captain William Freke Hasted – Royal Military Academy, Woolwich/Cambridge University
Herbert Leo Price – Corpus Christi, Oxford; schoolmaster
Ernest Hartley – farmer
Cyril Douglas Terry – Jesus College, Cambridge; director in family firm Herbert Terry & Sons Ltd
F Clifford Harrison – cotton broker, Liverpool
Terence Walter Mansergh – Pembroke College, Cambridge; headmaster
Charles Sholto Wyndham Marcon – Oriel College, Oxford; CofE schoolmaster and clergyman
Kenneth C Chilman – Hertford College, Oxford; schoolmaster
Major R A Dallas Brooks DSO – Royal Marines officer
Sources
Ancestry.co.uk; British Newspaper Archive; Barnsley Chronicle, 14 October 1905, p6; South Yorkshire Times, 7 July 1939, p16; Yorkshire Evening Post, 16 January 1907, p3; The Sportsman, 23 February 1911, p1.
