In footballing terms, the Panenka is a specialist and flamboyant way to take a penalty – introduced in 1976 by a Czechoslovakian player.
Antonin Panenka stunned the football world at the EUFA final against West Germany when he beat Sepp Maier with an audacious chip from the penalty spot – and created his own place in football history.
But what if the game had received the same wall-to-wall coverage it does now back in the early 1900s? A West Cumbrian might have weaved his way into the game’s fabric with his own trademark penalty-taking style.
Bob Benson – or Robert William Benson to give him his full name – was born in Frizington on February 9, 1883 and christened six weeks later at St Paul’s Church in the village.
The eldest of three children to coal miner Joseph and Sarah Jane (nee Yewert) he was to go on and play professionally as a full-back for Newcastle, Southampton, Sheffield United and Arsenal.
During his career he became a specialist penalty taker at Southampton and Sheffield Utd – with a style which surely would have been dubbed the Benson in modern times – although it appears to have had varying degrees of success.
With the Saints an unorthodox method saw him running the full length of the pitch from his full-back position before kicking the ball. However, this method of penalty-taking was not a success, never actually converting any of the penalties he took in his year with the Saints.
When he moved to Sheffield United for a fee of £150 he again became the team’s regular penalty taker, perfecting a new routine whereby he would jog slowly up from his normal defensive position before breaking into a run and shooting after a team-mate had placed the ball on the spot – all but one of his 21 goals scored for United came from the penalty spot.
Bob and his family had lived at Crosby Villa for a while, presumably when his father found new pit work.
That was likely the reason the family moved to the North East and settled in Whickham, Swalwell near Gateshead and where his football ability was first recognised.
Only 5ft 8in and weighing in at 14 stones, Bob found work as a steel moulders apprentice, but also began to be noticed on the football field playing for Shankhouse in the Northern Alliance and then Swalwell.
In December 1902 he signed for Newcastle United and made his debut just three months later at 20 years of age.
That was at Anfield against Liverpool in a 3-0 League Division One defeat and was to prove to be his only appearance start for the Magpies.
In 1904 he joined Southampton for £150 and went on to play 19 times before he was off again, for the same transfer fee, to Sheffield United.
That was the start of eight memorable years for the West Cumbrian as he clocked-up 273 appearances.
He was almost certainly the first Cumbrian to play for England – capped once at left-back against Ireland in Belfast when the hosts won the British Championship game 2-1.
Bob also represented the Football League on one occasion and in 1910 was a member of an FA touring party to South Africa.
Unfortunately Bob’s story was to have a tragic ending after he joined the Arsenal in 2013, soon after they had made their move to Highbury.
Over two seasons he made 53 appearances for the Gunners, mostly at full-back although he was later moved to centre-forward, and eventually scored seven goals for the club as they tried for promotion back into the First Division.
Due to the war, in 1915 first-class football was suspended. Benson quit the game to work at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich munitions factory.
He kept in touch with his old club and on 19 February 1916 attended a London Combination match at Highbury against Reading.
One of his former teammates was unable to make the game so Benson volunteered to take his place, which ultimately had fatal consequences.
Having not played a game for nearly a year, Benson was not match-fit.
He collapsed on the pitch in the second half and had to be taken off; soon afterwards he died in the Highbury changing rooms, in the arms of team trainer George Hardy.
A burst aneurysm appears to have been the cause of death, at the age of 33 and it is said he was buried wearing his Arsenal shirt.
Arsenal held the club’s very first testimonial as a result and a game was played against the Rest of London.
Over 5,000 turned up and the proceeds went to his widow Jean, and their two daughters.
That happened 105 years ago, but for the most part the story has just surfaced, and efforts are now being made to trace his humble beginnings in Frizington.
