Arthur Hydes played a handful of Football League games for Exeter City when ‘official’ football resumed in 1946. A successful goal scorer for Leeds United in the 1930s, he arrived at St James’ Park from Newport County. 

Playing for local side Ardsley United, he signed as an amateur for Barnsley in 1928 and as a professional for Leeds United in May 1930. Scoring 74 goals in just 127 league appearances. Arthur finished as top-scorer at Elland Road for three consecutive seasons before eventually moving on to Newport County in May 1938 where he added a further 13 goals in 27 league starts. 

After guesting for Barnsley, Bradford City, Nottingham Forest and York City during the war, Arthur was thirty-five when he joined Exeter City to make his debut against Bristol City at St James’ Park in a Division three South Cup (Southern Section) fixture in February 1946. Playing a total of five games in that still-‘wartime’ season, Arthur featured in the opening four Third Division South matches of the 1946/47 season as ‘normal’ football resumed.

Suffering from a succession of injuries, Arthur requested his release from the Grecians in January 1947 and immediately retired from playing.

Arthur died in Barnsley in June 1990.