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BILL HURST
Full Name: William Robert Hurst
Born: 04 March 1921
1. Came from: Burnley Went to: Career interrupted by WW2
1. First game: 07 June 1940 Last game: 07 June 1940
2. Came from: Career interrupted by WW2 Went to: Nelson
2. First game: 02 March 1946 Last game: 03 May 1947
Appearances: 11 (11/0) Goals: 2
On Sunday 3rd September 1939, Britain declared war on Germany. Restrictions on travel and a ban on the assembly of crowds were immediately imposed, forcing the Football League to bring the 1939-40 season to an end. A few weeks later, seven regional competitions were introduced, including the South West Regional League, in which Argyle played for just one season. Five years passed before the next first team competition at Home Park, the Football League South, after which the conventional Football League resumed the following year. Hurst was one of only two players to play for the club in all three league competitions; the other was fellow Lancastrian Stan Dixon.
Born in Brierfield, just south of Nelson, Hurst scored 15 goals for Burnley Reserves in the season before the war, but rejected new terms and signed for Argyle in June 1939, a few months after Dixon, who had also left Burnley for Jack Tresadern. A winger, Hurst played a single game in the South West Regional League and, after the war, only occasionally in the Football League South and resumed Football League Division 2 campaigns. Mainly regarded as a reserve player, he made less than a dozen appearances for Argyle in total, but because of the war interruption, was 26 by the time he left Home Park. He moved back closer to his roots to join Lancashire Combination side Nelson (who had spent a decade as a Football League side between the wars) but within a month of the start of the 1947-48 season, Bury gave him another chance to play in the Football League. However, he made just a single appearance for the Gigg Lane side. A brief spell with Northwich Victoria followed before he moved back to the League again with Accrington Stanley for the 1948-49 season, where again he made just a single start.
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APPEARANCE DETAILS [reselect competitions]
The details below reflect appearances in all first-team competitions.
I'm very grateful to many who have helped write GoS-DB's player pen-pictures, and to Dave Rowntree, the PAFC Media Team and Colin Parsons for their help with photos. Thanks also to staff at the National Football Museum, the Scottish Football Museum and ScotlandsPeople for their valuable assistance.
The following publications have been particularly valuable in the research of pen-pictures: Plymouth Argyle, A Complete Record 1903-1989 (Brian Knight, ISBN 0-907969-40-2); Plymouth Argyle, 101 Golden Greats (Andy Riddle, ISBN 1-874287-47-3); Football League Players' Records 1888-1939 (Michael Joyce, ISBN 1-899468-67-6); Football League Players' Records 1946-1988 (Barry Hugman, ISBN 1-85443-020-3) and Plymouth Argyle Football Club Handbooks.
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