Player #240 for Aston Villa, Andrew Ducat, known as Andy Ducat, played as a midfielder for the club in a position then known as a right half.

Andy played for Villa between 1912-13 and 1920-21 making 87 appearances.

Andy was born in Brixton on 16th February 1886 and he made his Villa debut on the 2nd September 1912 aged 26.

Villa had signed Andy from Woolwich Arsenal in June 1912 for a fee of £1,000.

Andy made a slow start to his Villa career, making just 4 league appearances over his first 2 seasons due to injury and not appearing in the FA Cup until the 1914-15 season.

That meant Andy wasn’t on hand to help Villa in the victorious 1912-13 FA Cup campaign that ended in the final victory against Sunderland in front of a crowd of 121,919 at Crystal Palace, London in April 1913.

Andy however became a virtual ever present in the Villa first team from 1914-15 and was an ever present in the 1919-20 FA Cup winning campaign, playing in the final against Huddersfield Town held at Stamford Bridge in front of a much reduced crowd of 50,018 which saw Villa take the cup in extra time after a 100’ minute winner from Billy Kirton.

Andy played his final game for Villa, aged 35, on 23rd April 1921 before moving to Fulham in May 1921.

Andy played his entire Villa career under the George Ramsay led Management Committee.

Andy was also a successful cricketer and had joined Surrey as part of the ground staff but made his presence felt in the first team hitting 52 centuries for the county and being named as one of Wisden’s cricketers of the year in 1920.

As with his start at Villa, injuries interrupted his cricketing career throughout and played just a single test match for England.

Andy went on to be cricket coach at Eton and a sports writer for the then tabloid newspaper the Daily Sketch

Andy passed away whilst playing cricket at Lord’s in Marylebone on 23rd July 1942 aged 56 and retains the dubious honour of being the only person to die at Lord’s whilst involved in an active match.