As part of our celebrations to mark the announcement that Sixes Lacrosse will be featured in the 2028 Olympic Games in LA, USA, we’re taking a look back at the second Great Britain team to compete at an Olympics in 1928.
The Games, held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, were the third to feature lacrosse and the first with lacrosse as a demonstration sport after previously being a competitive sport in 1904 and 1908.
Great Britain, Canada, and USA competed in the 1928 Olympic Games between 5 and 7 August in a round robin format with each team playing the other teams once.
After the round robin, all three teams ended with a record of one win and one loss with Great Britain claiming a 7-6 victory over USA before succumbing to a 9-5 defeat to Canada in what was a replay of the Olympic final from 20 years earlier.
With all three teams also scoring 12 goals, a three-way tie was declared; USA suggested a three-way play-off to decide a single victor. Canada agreed but Great Britain refused and the Olympic Committee declared all three teams gold medal winners.
Percy Astle
Born | 21 January 1900
Died | 27 November 1974
Town | Stockport
Astle was the son of a newspaper editor and a leading goalscorer in the Stockport team that dominated Cheshire lacrosse in the 1920s, winning the Iroquois Cup four times in the first eight finals after World War I.
Astle won representative honours with Cheshire and The North on many occasions in the annual match against The South. He also served on the committee of Stockport Lacrosse Club. In 1930, Astle toured the United States with a team made up mostly of Oxford University players and they returned home having deprived Syracuse University of the Flannery Cup, which they had held for the previous seven years.
Leonard Clayton
Born | 20 April 1899
Died | 6 December 1942
Town | Stourbridge
A former Manchester Grammar School student, he played club lacrosse with Second Division Monton before joining Albert Park in the First Division in September 1924. At the end of the season, he helped them win their first ever Senior Northern Flags before going on to beat Brockhurst Hill and win the Iroquois Cup for the first and only time.
Clayton won county honours with Lancashire and regularly played for The North in the annual match against The South. In 1926, he was in goal when Lancashire beat Middlesex 15-5 in the County Championship Final.
Alexander Baird Craig
Born | 12 June 1901
Died | 4 October 1989
Town | Didsbury
A former Manchester Grammar School student, Craig played attack for Old Mancunians before joining Mellor for the 1927/28 season. In his final season at Old Mancunians, however, he helped them reach their first Senior Northern Flags final. Unfortunately, the Old Boys were beaten 12-6 by Heaton Mersey.
Craig, who won representative honours with Lancashire and The North, retired after just one season with Mellor, but came out of retirement when he got the call to join the Great Britain squad for the Amsterdam Olympics.
Henry Crofts
Born | 8 September 1895
Died | 24 December 1961
Town | Rutherglen
Henry Crofts played his club lacrosse as a defence-wing with Eccles and was a regular member of the Lancashire side that dominated the County Championship in the 1920s. He was part of the team that enjoyed big wins over Middlesex in the 1925 and 1926 finals, winning 21-3 and 15-5, respectively. He was also in the team that beat London Counties 18-3 in the 1929 final.
Crofts was a regular member of The North team in the annual fixture against The South throughout the 1920s, and in 1930 played in The North’s 22nd consecutive game without defeat, stretching back to 1902.
Maurice Stanley Fleeson
Born | 14 September 1847
Died | 4 May 1964
Town | Northenden
Stan and two of his siblings, Wallace and Marcus, all played lacrosse for South Manchester. Stan started playing during his school holidays before World War I, helped by some coaching from his brothers. He progressed to the South Manchester juniors but was a first team regular from just after the War until the mid-1930s and he maintained the continuity of the Fleeson name in South Manchester lacrosse circles for more than 30 years.
Fleeson first played for Lancashire in 1922 and held his place continuously in attack until 1932, when he was captain. He also played for The North in the annual match against The South on several occasions.
Stan rounded off a long career with victory over Stockport in the final of the Senior Northern Flags in 1933, and followed that by scoring a hat-trick in the 10-0 victory over Oxford University to bring the Iroquois Cup back to South Manchester for the first time in 24 years.
By profession, Stan Fleeson was an estate agent, valuer, and auctioneer in the family business of Richard Fleeson and Sons.
Geoffrey Higson
Born | 26 May 1899
Died | 27 May 1984
Town | Stockport
Geoffrey Higson was a member of the brilliant Stockport team of the 1920s. A county player, he played for Cheshire from 1923 and eventually became the team captain. He also represented The North in the annual match against The South. A leading goalscorer, Higson was still playing up to the mid-1930s and in 1933 helped Cheshire win the County Championship. The following year he scored in Stockport’s 25-5 triumph over Cambridge University in the Iroquois Cup.
Frederick Johnson
Born | 9 May 1905
Died | 1960s (exact date unknown)
Town | Liverpool
Ex-Manchester Grammar School student Frederick Johnson played for Old Mancunians and was selected to represent The North in the annual match against The South several times in the 1920s. An attacker, he also played for Lancashire, and was in their County Championship-winning teams of 1925 and 1926 when they beat Kent 21-3 and Middlesex 15-5 respectively. He was also a member of their winning team in 1929 when they enjoyed another big win, by 18 goals to three over a combined team from the London Counties.
Herbert Carleton Johnson
Born | 10 May 1899
Died | 19 December 1967
Town | Stockport
Herbert Carleton Johnson was a defender with Stockport, one of the most successful lacrosse cubs of the 1920s. He was a member of their Iroquois Cup team that enjoyed a 20-8 win over Hampstead in 1924, and an even bigger 24-2 win against Buckhurst Hill in 1926. When Stockport won the Cup for a record 14th time in 1928, however, it was a closer affair, beating Oxford University by a single goal, 7-6. Johnson had the unwanted distinction of captaining Stockport when they were beaten by Oxford University in the 1931 Iroquois Cup match, because it was only the second time since the Cup was inaugurated in 1887 that a Northern team had failed to win it. In addition to his club triumphs, Johnson also played for The North and won the County Championship with Cheshire.
Orric Knudsen
Born | 21 January 1892
Died | 18 August 1974
Town | Withington
Orric Knudsen attended Manchester Grammar School and then played for their Old Boys team, Old Mancunians, from 1911 until the early 1930s. After leaving school, he was an assistant agent with his father at the United Steamship Company of Denmark. During World War I he served with the 22nd Manchester Regiment and saw action in France. He was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre and in 1919 was made a temporary captain. After the War he was based in Cologne as a Railway Training Officer with responsibility for the movement of troops. For his work in this role he was awarded the OBE.
After his demobilisation from the Army in 1922, Knudsen resumed his lacrosse career and won Lancashire county honours and also played for The North in their annual match against the South. In 1930, Old Mancunians beat Oxford University 4-3 with a last-minute goal to win the Iroquois Cup for the first time. Knudsen was still playing for Lancashire in 1931 at the age of 39.
Knudsen was also a fine athlete, and in 1914 ran the 800 metres in 2:09.6 in a meeting dubbed “Olympic Trials” at Fallowfield, Manchester. In 1933 Knudsen was granted a Royal Licence to wear the Insignia of Chevalier of the Order of the Dannebrog, conferred by the King of Denmark and Iceland, in recognition of his services as Denmark’s Honorary Vice-consul in Manchester. In 1937 Knudsen was appointed Honorary Consul of Roumania (now Romania) in Manchester, and held the post until 1940.
Eric Parsons
Born | Unknown
Died | Unknown
Town | Disley
At the time of his Olympic selection, Eric Parsons was the only member of the Great Britain squad not to have played in the annual North versus South match. He was, however, a county player and represented Cheshire for more than 10 years. Leading club honours were not forthcoming for Parsons because most of his league lacrosse was spent in the second division with Disley.
Francis Cyril Grenfell Perceval
Born | 15 September 1892
Died | 3 May 1979
Town | Ossington
Francis Cyril Grenfell Percival was one of the leading attack players in the South of England and started playing for Lee before World War I. He also won Kent county honours and played for The South in the annual match against The North. Lee won the Senior Southern Flags in the last year before the War (1914) and the first two after the hostilities, 1920 and 1921. In the 1927/28 season, Percival switched and played for Hampstead Lacrosse Club in North London. He was the treasurer of the South of England Lacrosse Association until 1932, when business commitments forced him to resign the post.
Albert Phillips
Born | 2 February 1896
Died | 8 June 1966
Town | Ashton upon Mersey
Albert Phillips was the son of a Derbyshire farmer and was educated at Manchester University before serving three years in World War I. From 1921 he was a mathematics teacher in schools at Egham in Surrey and Merton, London. He returned to his native North of England in 1932, when he was appointed the headmaster of Colne Grammar School, near Burnley.
Phillips was a keen sportsman and was captain of the school football team. He also played lacrosse for Manchester University and on moving South joined the Willoughby Lacrosse Club in Surrey. He played in defence and was a regular member of The South team in the annual match against The North. He also won county honours with Middlesex and was in their team beaten 15-5 in the final of the 1926 County Championship.
Ernest “Jack” Richards
Born | 25 January 1886
Died | 10 January 1958
Town | Wolverhampton
Along with W. D. Stott and A. B. Craig, defender Ernest Richards came out of retirement to join the Great Britain squad for the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, but did not get to play. He played for South Manchester and also had the honour of captaining both The North and Lancashire, and in 1923 was in the side that beat Middlesex to retain the County Championship. Richards was appointed chairman of the North of England Lacrosse Association in 1924, and that same year he enjoyed his finest moment in club lacrosse when he helped South Manchester beat the invincible Stockport side 7-4 to win the Senior Northern Flags.
George Seed
Born | 18 February 1891
Died | 3 September 1976
Town | Manchester
Although he did not play in Amsterdam, defender George Seed of South Manchester was the Great Britain team captain at the 1928 Olympics. He had enjoyed a long playing career going into the Amsterdam Games, and had been playing for his club, The North and for Lancashire since before World War I, and played in the 1913 County Championship final against Middlesex. Ten years later, he was captain of the Lancashire team that beat Middlesex, again to win the Championship. Also in 1923, Seed played for Lancashire against the visiting Syracuse University team, and helped his side to a 10-5 win.
Walter Stott
Born | 11 February 1899
Died | 21 July 1989
Town | Barton
Walter Stott came out of retirement to join the Great Britain squad for the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, but did not get to play. Stott played his league lacrosse with the Manchester-based Monton club and, because he spent most of his career in the second division, Monton never appeared in a Senior Northern Flags final. Stott did, however, win representative honours with The North and also with Lancashire, and scored in the 18-3 win over Yorkshire in 1922. He scored four goals in Lancashire’s 11-6 win over Cheshire in 1925.
Stott was also active in track and field as well as boxing during this time at Manchester Grammar School. He also saw service in World War I with the Lancashire Fusiliers and was awarded the Military Cross. He later farmed in Southport, Lancashire before retiring to Anglesey, Wales.
Edric Tweedale
Born | 4 June 1895
Died | 18 November 1969
Town | Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Edric Tweedale was one of the great lacrosse goalkeepers in the 1920s. He was captain of Heaton Mersey in the early part of the decade when he also played for Cheshire and represented The North in the annual match against The South. He was in goal for The North in 1926 when they won 26-2 at Lord’s. It remained a record score for this fixture until 1982 when The North won again by the same score.
Sam Wood
Born | 25 September 1906
Died | 18 September 1961
Town | Stockport
Stockport’s Sam Wood was equally at home either in goal or in defence. Originally a goalkeeper, he switched to defence before reverting back to tending the goals towards the latter part of his career.
Along with H. H. Crofts, Wood was one of two late selections for the 1928 Great Britain Olympic squad but, unlike Crofts, he did not play in Amsterdam. Wood played for The North and also won county honours with Cheshire and was their skipper when they won the 1933 County Championship. With Stockport he won the Iroquois Cup in 1926 when they beat Buckhurst Hill 24-2, in 1928 when they beat Oxford University 7-6, and in 1934 with a record 25-5 win over Cambridge University.
John Woollam
Born | 7 March 1900
Died | 8 May 1975
Town | Manchester
John Woollam made his debut for Lancashire juniors as a 15-year-old in 1915, in the first representative lacrosse match after the outbreak of World War I. It was a charity match for the benefit of the wives of soldiers and sailors in the Manchester area who had gone off to fight in the Great War. Woollam himself served in the Air Force. After the hostilities, Woollam played his lacrosse as a defender with Old Hulmeians, the Old Boys team of the William Hulme’s Grammar School in Manchester. He also played for The North and Lancashire. In 1927 he was a member of The North team that beat The South by a record 26 goals to two in the 50th anniversary match at Lord’s.
Woollam played in some other memorable matches during his career. In 1923 he was involved in one of the most remarkable Senior Northern Flags games ever, when the Old Hulmeians went into the match having suffered six league defeats throughout the season, whilst their opponents Stockport were unbeaten. It was the Old Boys, however, who came out on top with a memorable 6-4 win. A chemical engineer, Woollam later went on to captain Lancashire and his finest moment with his club side was in 1932 when they followed up a Norther Flags triumph by beating Oxford University 13-1 to win the Iroquois Cup.
Our records on the 1928 Great Britain Olympic team are currently incomplete. If anyone has any more information about the 1928 Games and the players involved, please contact us via email on j.naylor@englandlacrosse.co.uk.
