Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/William Clarke (footballer)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Withdrawn by nominator below. GiantSnowman 09:32, 11 September 2020 (UTC)

William Clarke (footballer)

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I'm quite sure that this is a duplicate article for the Scottish footballer Willie Clarke (footballer), also referred to as Billy, who did play 35 times for Lincoln (the number noted here). The sources here are very weak and expired and do not corroborate his position or era. I can find no references for a William Clarke who only played for Lincoln City in this era, only the aforementioned Willie Clarke (footballer). Mountain cirque 15:34, 10 September 2020 (UTC)


 * Note: This discussion has been included in WikiProject Football's list of association football-related deletions. Struway2 (talk) 16:50, 10 September 2020 (UTC)

Keep. It's not an uncommon name. Sources list them as two different people who played for Lincoln City 12 years apart who each made 35 league appearances (but scored different numbers of goals and made different numbers of total appearances).

If you visit the ENFA website player search facility and search for surname Clark and club Lincoln City, it returns two W Clarkes. The first is William Clarke (footballer), the second, whom they list as Willie, is Billy Clarke (footballer, born 1878). It's a subscription site, so clicking on them won't help unless you've got an account, but they have no details on William Clarke (footballer) beyond what's in his article.

Archived copies exist of the Lincoln City Archive sources. William Clarke (footballer) is here and Billy Clarke (footballer, born 1878), whom they listed as Willie Clarke, is here.

William Clarke (footballer) appears to be a Billy Clark signed from Aberdeen in 1898, per the Aberdeen heritage site, and sacked in January 1900 and his fare paid home (Lincolnshire Echo, 6 Jan 1900). I'll put him on my list of articles to expand..... cheers, Struway2 (talk) 16:50, 10 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Sportspeople-related deletion discussions. Shellwood (talk) 17:44, 10 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Football-related deletion discussions. Shellwood (talk) 17:44, 10 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of England-related deletion discussions. Shellwood (talk) 17:44, 10 September 2020 (UTC)


 * Thanks, apologies for not being able to find this William in my searches, I hadn't been able to access those archived pages. I'm happy to vote for Keep in light of this, of course the page needs some significant referencing and disambiguation links from the other Williams and Billys. The entirety of the 'William/Billy/Willie Clark(e)' football pages is quite a mire. Best wishes, Mountain cirque 09:01, 11 September 2020 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.