Arthur Lever (footballer)
Encyclopedia
Arthur Richard Lever nicknamed "Buller", was a Welsh
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...

 professional footballer and Wales international
Wales national football team
The Wales national football team represents Wales in international football. It is controlled by the Football Association of Wales , the governing body for football in Wales, and the third oldest national football association in the world. The team have only qualified for a major international...

.

Career

Born in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

, Lever joined his hometown club Cardiff City
Cardiff City F.C.
Cardiff City Football Club are a Welsh professional football club based in Cardiff, Wales. The club competes in the English football pyramid and is currently playing in the Football League Championship. Cardiff City is the best supported football club in Wales, averaging approximately 22,500 for...

 at the age of twenty-two in 1942 having played amateur football. He went on to play over one hundred wartime fixtures for the club before making his league debut during the 1946-47 season against Norwich City
Norwich City F.C.
Norwich City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. As of the 2011–12 season, Norwich City are again playing in the Premier League after a six-year absence, having finished as runner up in the Championship in 2010–11 and winning automatic promotion.The...

. He was ever present for the club in his first season and went on to play in one hundred and fourteen consecutive league games for the club, the run ending in March 1949 when he was injured in a match against Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur F.C.
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club , commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English Premier League football club based in Tottenham, north London. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane....

.

In September 1950 he joined Leicester City
Leicester City F.C.
Leicester City Football Club , also known as The Foxes, is an English professional football club based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester...

 for a fee of £17,000, eventually going on to become club captain. He spent four years at Filbert Street
Filbert Street
Filbert Street, in Leicester, England, was a football stadium, and the home of Leicester City from 1891 to 2002. Although officially titled "The City Business Stadium" in the early 1990s, it remained known almost exclusively by its address, like many English football stadia.- Early years :The club,...

 before returning to South Wales to play for Newport County
Newport County A.F.C.
Newport County Association Football Club are a professional football club based in the city of Newport, south Wales, who currently play in the Conference National, the highest level of the National League System and fifth highest of the overall English football league system...

 until his retirement from football in 1957 due to an achilles problem.

During his career Lever won just one cap for Wales when he played against Scotland
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...

 at Ninian Park
Ninian Park
Ninian Park was a football stadium in Leckwith, Cardiff, Wales. Until 2009, it was the home ground of Cardiff City F.C., who compete in the English Football League Championship...

 in 1952. However it is widely believed he could have won more caps had he played in a different period as during his career Wales had numerous top level full backs.

Lever was well known as being a sporting all-rounder during his life and played numerus sports at different levels, including Baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

, Basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, Cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 and Golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

. He died on 20 August 2004 after spending a short time at a nursing home in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

. He is buried in Thornhill, Cardiff.
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