Alf Ridyard was a professional football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 player from 1930 through 1947.

Alf Ridyard was originally from Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

. He started his footballing career for Barnsley

Barnsley

Barnsley is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Dearne, north of the city of Sheffield, south of Leeds and west of Doncaster. Barnsley is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, of which Barnsley is the largest and...

 as a Centre Half

Football (soccer) positions

In the sport of association football, each of the eleven players on a team is assigned to a particular position on the field of play. A team is made up of one goalkeeper and ten outfield players who fill various defensive, midfield and attacking positions depending on the formation deployed. These...

 (#5) between 1930 and 1931. He then moved to West Bromwich Albion where he stayed until 1936.
In 1937 he joined Queen's Park Rangers where he rose to become team captain. In the 1939-1940 season he played for Tunbridge Wells Rangers F.C. probably as a guest player. He remained with Queen's Park Rangers until ten years later when he finished his playing career in 1947.
In World War II he worked with the Metropolitan Police

Metropolitan police

Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...

, 6 months CID

Criminal Investigation Department

The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...

, and also played for Queen's Park Rangers and West Ham United

West Ham United F.C.

West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Upton Park, Newham, East London. They play in The Football League Championship. The club was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks FC and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United. In 1904 the club relocated to their current...

  in wartime games.
In the twilight of his playing career in 1947 Ridyard made a dramatic comeback at the age of 40 and captained Rangers in the vital last games to win promotion to Division 2, which at the time was the equivalent to the Championship

Football League Championship

The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League...

.
He continued to be involved with the club for many years after he stopped playing including roles as Chief Scout and Assistant Manager to Jack Taylor

Jack Taylor (footballer)

John "Jack" Taylor was an English footballer who became a manager.-Career:Taylor was a full-back who started his playing career with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1931. He made his senior debut on 1 February 1936 in a 0-5 loss at Brentford...

.

External links

• Images of Sport Queen's Park Rangers football club. Compiled by Tony Williamson. Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7524-1604-9
• www.allfootballers.com