[1][2] Having turned professional,[2] he did play one match in the Football League for their West Lancashire rivals Blackpool, in the Second Division away to Gainsborough Trinity on 29 September 1906.
[3] Crossthwaite joined Fulham for a £15 fee ahead of the 1907–08 season,[4] and made two more Second Division appearances in the second half of that campaign, standing in for first-choice goalkeeper Leslie Skene on each occasion.
[2] He returned to football with Birmingham in 1911, for which he played 49 Second Division games, most of which came in a spell from October 1912 to New Year's Day 1914.
[13] He was also a competent sprinter, despite being a heavy man,[14] and was for many years actively involved with the charity sports meetings organised by the Birmingham police.
[17] He was promoted to sergeant in 1917 and to inspector in 1925,[17] spending much of his career serving in the Chief Constable's office, specialising in entertainment tax enforcement before such work was taken over by the Inland Revenue.