Charles Mayne
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Charles Blair Mayne | ||
| Date of birth | 15 October 1855 | ||
| Place of birth | Madras, British India | ||
| Date of death | 17 October 1914 (aged 59) | ||
| Place of death | Camberley, Surrey, England | ||
| Position(s) | Half-back | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1875–84 | Royal Engineers | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Colonel Charles Blair Mayne (15 October 1855 – 17 October 1914) was an association footballer and British Army officer who played in the 1878 FA Cup final.
Mayne was born in Madras, British India, in 1855, the son of Jasper and Amelia Mayne.[1]
He passed the examinations for the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in 1873, scoring the 12th highest mark - his future football team-mate Charles Haynes scored the 3rd highest.[2]
Football career
He joined the Royal Engineers, which had one of the strongest football teams at the time, and made his debut for the Royal Engineers A.F.C. in a 7–0 win over Barnes at the Chatham Lines in October 1875; the match was played 10-a-side.[3]
He was mostly a reserve player for his first two seasons of football, and did not play competitively until the 2nd round of the 1877–78 FA Cup, in a 5–0 win over Pilgrims.[4] He had generally played as a forward, but in the third round tie against the Druids, he had a one-off appearance in goal.[5] He had little to do as the Sappers had an easy 8–0 win, and in his next appearance - the quarter-final replay with Oxford University – he played as half-back, scoring the Sappers' equalizer in a 2–2 draw after the ball came out of a scrimmage.[6]
He retained the position for the remaining Cup games, and scored the winner in the semi-final against the Old Harrovians with a "well-directed kick".[7] He was considered one of the Sappers' better players in the final against the Wanderers,[8] but ended up on the losing side, the Wanderers winning 3–1.
His posting abroad prevented him from playing in any more competitive matches until 1882–83, and he featured as half-back (alongside Richard Ruck) in the Sappers' 3–1 win over Woodford Bridge for his only Cup match that season.[9] His final recorded match was as a full-back in the Sappers' final FA Cup tie, at Great Marlow in November 1884, which, in an indication of how football had moved on, ended 10–1 to the home side.[10]