By Brian Knight* in Cheltenham on 08/05/2014 ...

It was fortunate for the game's journalists that Bill Strauss chose to make his football career as a winger. Those images of Strauss 'waltzing' around the opposition or 'dancing' his way along the touchline, so apt when it came to describing his wing play, would have been totally inappropriate if applied to some dour, unyielding defender. But although Strauss' nimble footwork put many an opposing full¬back to the test, he was never content to confine his skills to the extremities of the pitch. Bill Strauss cutting into the middle with the ball, or dashing in to meet a centre from the other ...  More

By Brian Knight* in Cheltenham on 08/05/2014 ...

It was fortunate for the game's journalists that Bill Strauss chose to make his football career as a winger. Those images of Strauss 'waltzing' around the opposition or 'dancing' his way along the touchline, so apt when it came to describing his wing play, would have been totally inappropriate if applied to some dour, unyielding defender. But although Strauss' nimble footwork put many an opposing full¬back to the test, he was never content to confine his skills to the extremities of the pitch. Bill Strauss cutting into the middle with the ball, or dashing in to meet a centre from the other wing, was one of the most cheering sights for Argyle supporters in the seasons just after World War Two. Indeed, at one point in 1946-7, he and his opposite wingman Sid Rawlings threatened to monopolise the scoring. Strauss, who scored 11 League goals that season, would have added more, had injury not forced him to miss half the season. Strauss was 30 when he joined Argyle from Aberdeen in 1946 and this meant that his career at Home Park was necessarily shortened. He effectively dropped out of the first-team reckoning in 1950, in favour of the younger Alex Govan, but he was still considered worthy of a couple of first-team games in 1953, at the age of 37.

Strauss was born in Transvaal, South Africa, on 6 January 1916 and arrived in Britain on the SS Arundel Castle in December 1935, to begin his career in football with Aberdeen, the club to whom he had been recommended by a former Dons' player, Eddie Swan. Strauss broke into the first team at the start of 1936-7 and went on to play a major part in Aberdeen reaching the Scottish Cup Final for the first time. When war was declared he joined the Royal Signals and was later commissioned in the Commandos. He rejoined Aberdeen after the war and it was while he was playing for them in a Scottish League Cup semi-final that he was noticed by Plymouth manager Jack Tresadern, who had gone to check on another forward.

So began Strauss' career at Home Park. His signing for Argyle also benefited other sports in the area, for he was an all-round games player who had starred at cricket and badminton whilst with Aberdeen. He played for Plymouth Cricket Club for a number of years and for Devon in the Minor Counties Championship, scoring a century against Surrey 2nd XI at The Oval. After he retired from football in 1954, Bill Strauss became landlord of a public house in the Octagon, Union Street, Plymouth. He died in 1984.

*Extracted from Plymouth Argyle - A Complete Record 1903-1989 by Brian Knight [ISBN 0 907969 40 2] and reproduced with his kind permission.

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From Brian Knight in Cheltenham on 10/05/2014 ...

Soon after his arrival at Home Park, the annual Argyle handbooks described Strauss as a South African international, one specifically stating that his cap (or caps) came against England in 1939. This is wrong on two accounts. There was no international between the two countries that year. What did happen was that an FA squad toured South Africa in the summer of 1939 and played three representative games against the home country. They were not classified as international matches and the South African sides consisted of home-based players only. Strauss was then of course in Aberdeen. Curiously, ...  More

From Brian Knight in Cheltenham on 10/05/2014 ...

Soon after his arrival at Home Park, the annual Argyle handbooks described Strauss as a South African international, one specifically stating that his cap (or caps) came against England in 1939. This is wrong on two accounts. There was no international between the two countries that year. What did happen was that an FA squad toured South Africa in the summer of 1939 and played three representative games against the home country. They were not classified as international matches and the South African sides consisted of home-based players only. Strauss was then of course in Aberdeen. Curiously, there is no mention of him in W.S. Tonkin’s list of 'Argyle Internationals' in his Jubilee book “All About Argyle”, published in 1963.

So, Strauss’s international qualifications must remain a mystery. However, none of the above is intended to detract from his playing abilities, which have more recently been endorsed by a well-qualified judge. In his autobiography, the late Sir Tom Finney recounted his experiences in wartime services' football at the end of World War Two and one particular game in which he played for Central Mediterranean Forces against a British Army XI. There were some famous names on the pitch that day – Frank Swift, Andy Beattie, Cliff Britton, Bryn Jones, Arthur Rowley – but in Finney’s view the “star turn” of the match was the then Aberdeen winger Bill Strauss.

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