Thomas Edgar Ball (11 February 1900 – 11 November 1923) was an English footballer who played at centre-half for Aston Villa. He was shot dead by his landlord and neighbour, ex-policeman George Stagg, thus becoming the first and to-date only active Football League player in England to have been murdered. Football career Ball was born in Chester-le-Street, County Durham in North-east England, and was brought up in nearby Usworth. He played football for his school, winning a medal as a ten-year-old. After school he worked as a coalminer, playing for various colliery teams, before being signed by Newcastle United. He made no first-team appearances for Newcastle before moving to the West Midlands to join Aston Villa of the Football League First Division in January 1920, where he was seen as cover for Frank Barson. His first-team appearances were limited until Barson left Villa in August 1922 after which Ball became the first-choice centre-half, making 36 appearances in the 1922–23 season, at the end of which Villa finished sixth in the league table. In the following season, he continued to perform well at the heart of Villa's defence and he was forecast to be called up to play for England. His last game for Villa came on 10 November 1923 with a 1–0 victory at Notts County's Meadow Lane ground; this result left Villa third in the league table. By this time, Ball had made a total of 77 appearances in league and cup matches. Personal life and death In May 1922, Ball married Beatrice Richards, the daughter of a local pork butcher and pie maker. In October, the couple moved into Somerville Cottages, on Brick Kiln Lane (now Beeches Road), Perry Barr which they rented from George Stagg, who occupied the adjoining cottage. Stagg was a former City of Birmingham Police officer who had been injured during the First World War; after the war, he had taken various factory jobs before purchasing the Brick Kiln Lane properties in 1921. The relationship between Stagg and Ball was strained, with Stagg objecting to Ball's chickens straying into his garden; Stagg had threatened to poison the chickens and had made attempts to have Ball evicted from the cottage. On the evening of Sunday 11 November, the day after the match at Nottingham, Ball and his wife had visited the Church Tavern where Ball drunk pints of ale. They returned home late in the