Career
Throughout his career, he was known as "Banquo" Stride. In his youth, Stride was an all-round sportsman, who was described as an athlete "par excellence", winning many prizes as a runner with the Southampton Athletic Association. He started his football career with Freemantle before joining the short-lived Southampton Harriers club
The Harriers had started life as the Temperance Amateur Athletic Association but changed their name in 1885.
In 1887, they decided to enter the inaugural Hampshire Junior Cup unlike Freemantle who declined the invitation. As a consequence, many Freemantle players, including Stride, signed on for the Harriers instead.
On 10 March 1888, Harriers met Saint Mary"s in the first final of the Hampshire Junior Cup. The first match, played at the County Cricket Ground ended in a 2–2 draw, with Saint Mary"s taking the replay on 24 March by a 2–1 margin, thus winning the trophy for the first time.
In the summer of 1888, the Freemantle club acquired their own ground in Southampton following which, most of the Harriers" players returned, with the exception of Stride, who joined Saint Mary"son
In the third round of the Hampshire Junior Cup, Saint Mary"s were drawn to play Fordingbridge Turks on 12 January 1889. Stride and three other Saint Mary"s players had been selected to play for the Hampshire Field Artillery against Berkshire & Buckinghamshire on the same day. Saint Mary"s tried to get the match against the Turks re-arranged but the New Forest club refused.
Consequently, Saint Mary"s withdrew their four players from the county match to play in the cup.
Saint Mary"s eventually defeated Cowes after three replays, going on to retain the trophy, defeating Christchurch in the final. In 1891, Saint Mary"s had a relatively straightforward passage to the final of the Hampshire Junior Cup, where they defeated Lymington 2–0.
In the following season, Saint Mary"s entered the Hampshire Senior Cup for the first time and reached the final against the winners of the two previous years, the Royal Engineers based at Aldershot. In the final, played at the County Ground on 14 March 1891, the Saints took an early lead through Ernie Nicholls before the engineers equalised.
Two second-half goals, from Frank Bromley and Bob Kiddle, saw Saint Mary"s claim the senior cup for the first time.
In the next round, Saint Mary"s defeated Reading 7–0 but the match was awarded to Reading following an FA enquiry into the eligibility of two Saint Mary"s players, Jock Fleming and Alexander McMillan. In March 1892, Saint Mary"s retained the Hampshire Senior Cup, with an easy 5–0 victory over a Medical Staff team Not wanting to commit to regular league football, Stride decided to retire from the club
Following his retirement from football, Stride continued to work in Southampton and was employed in the Borough Engineers department.
