Asquith: Beamont

WW2 Guest: 1941-1942 (Leeds United War-time Guest Player Details)

Inside Forward

Born: Painthorpe, West Yorkshire: 16-09-1910

Debut: v Sheffield Wednesday (h): 04-04-1942

Height & Weight: Unknown

Asquith started playing football in his native town with Painthorpe Albion, near Wakefield. After playing local football he joined Second Division Barnsley in July 1933. Asquith started as an inside-left. He was switched to left-half but it was not until he settled down as a centre-forward that he fulfilled his true potential. However, in the 1937-38 season Asquith was unable to save Barnsley from being relegated from the Second Division. In the 1938-39 season Asquith scored twenty-eight goals and helped Barnsley to become Champions of the Third Division North. His total included five goals in one match against Darlington. Asquith was signed by First Division Manchester United in May 1939. During his time at Barnsley he had scored forty goals, including nine from penalties, in one hundred and five League games. He also scored once in five games in the F.A. Cup. However, he had not played one game for his new club before the outbreak of the Second World War. Asquith guested for several clubs while the Football League fixtures were suspended. With Leeds he played consecutive fixtures at Easter 1942 as a Centre-Forward, the first in a 1-2 loss at Elland Road to Sheffield Wednesday on the Saturday and the second in a 1-6 defeat at the Shay against Halifax Town, in which he got United’s only goal. He did spend most of the war-time fixtures with Barnsley, but initially he shared his time with Blackburn Rovers, where he scored four goals in six appearances in 1939-40, Huddersfield Town, where he had one game in 1939-40 and returned for another game in 1944-45, without scoring and Manchester United, where he scored twice in six games in 1939-40, but also had four games in 1940-41 and one in 1942-43 without scoring. He also had one game in 1940-41 for Chesterfield and three games for Doncaster Rovers in the same season , both without scoring. Towards the end of the War Years he twice played for Bradford Park Avenue once in 1942-43 and once in 1943-44, while in the latter season he also guested once for Rotherham United, but did not score for either club. However, it was at Barnsley where he spent most of his War Years. He scored three times in seven appearances in 1939-40, seven times in twenty-four games in 1940-41 and thirteen goals in thirty games in 1941-42. He rejoined the club in July 1942 and went on to score six times in thirty-one games in 1942-43, sixteen goals in thirty-three games in 1943-44, three goals in forty-one games in 1944-45 and four goals in thirty-four appearances in 1945-46. Asquith signed again for Second Division Barnsley, after the cessation of hostilities in in July 1946. After scoring five goals in forty League games and one goal in three F.A. Cup outings, he signed for Third Division North Bradford City in September 1948. While at Valley Parade he scored four times, including two from the penalty spot in thirty-one League games together with three F.A. Cup games for no goals. He played his final game in the Football League at the age of thirty-eight and joined Non-League Scarborough. He died in Barnsley on 12th April 1977.