RIPON CITY AFC

Been to Fountains Abbey today. Autumnal, sunny, walk etc. I did pass through Ripon City (not the one in Wisconsin)-population around 16,700 and steeped in history from its original name of "Inhrypum" a Christian community around 658 located in the Anglian Kingdom.
Through the Vikings, Danelaw, Plantagenets and the success of the wool industry and then dear old Henry VIII, the CITY has benefitted from its site advantages on the Rivers Ure, Laver and Skell confluence and building a canal. It has great soil, loads of hard rock and well terrific roads.
As the third smallest city in England (name the other two?) Ripon has lived on its religious history, market town status and UNESCO HERITAGE site at nearby Fountains Abbey.
The Racetrack is famous being founded in the 18th century and hosting  female race in 1723. The Ripon RUFC was founded in 1886 and the Amateur Football Club in 1898. They play in the West Yorkshire Amateur Football League and run two adult male teams and two adult female teams. I have tried unsuccessfully to search for junior teams but did see some nippers having an half term session this afternoon at the neatly situated club in the city.
RCAFC play at Mallorie Park where they first set up after the First World War. In the 1950s Dickie Bird's dad played for Barnsley FC v Ripon in the Yorkshire Trophy Final winning 1-0 and over the years the club has built a substantial stand and clubhouse.
Sitting half way down/up the West Yorkshire Amateur Football League Division Two with P10 W5 D2 L3 F28 A28, they are coping in local competition from Swillington Saints, Brighouse Old Boys and Glasshoughton Rock.
Best wishes to the City!

HAPPY UNHALLOWEEN-THAT'S THE SPIRIT

Nearly Ghouls and Ghosts time and I have the various frighteners ready for any little twerps that are going to visit my house tomorrow night. We are out!
On October 30th 1954, Billy Holme of Southport FC was married in the morning and spent the next few hours of his "honeymoon" playing Carlisle United in a Division 3 league game. YEP he scored a hat trick, lucky Mrs Holme.

On this day in 1974, Don Revie's England beat Czechoslovakia 3-0 in a Euro qualifier at Wembley. Mick Channon(with the "windmill goal celebration)
 and Colin Bell (2) were the goalscorers. see below....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3FfdgaBomk you can see why England were so good in his time...LOOK AT THE PITCH!

In his first 6 games, Revie's England team did not concede a goal and were unbeaten in 9, even beating West Germany 2-0. On 30/10/1975 the England team eventually lost to the Czechs away who won the qualifying group and eventually won the whole tournament.

On this day in 2012 Arsenal found themselves 0-4 down to Reading after 37 minutes, in a Capital One League Cup tie, away. You may remember, Arsenal made a bit of a come back and won 7-5.

Today in 1960 Diego Maradona was born in Lanus, Argentina! Living in poverty for many years, at the age of 10 he joined Argentinos Juniors and that was the start of his career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShziSQX6hRo   BOOOOOO!

GOLD, HAMMERS AND LINGERIE

Extraordinarily yesterday's Blog on Glen Hoddle notched up ONE reader according to my "posts" record. Well, I normally get 2 hits just by publishing the blog, so what's going on out there? I don't care much about this lack of support, because the half hour or so of research that I spend on a blog keeps me lively on cold afternoons in October. And you are missing some real treats.

Today we are all about ladies' underwear. Jacqueline Gold was on "Desert Island Discs" recently, so my wife told me. Here it is.......
https://player.fm/series/desert-island-discs/jacqueline-gold

I was fully expecting her to launch into a tirade about men "overpowering" women by buying saucy lingerie from Ann Summers and Knickerbox Ltd, to liven up Friday nights but she just suggested that this might be good blog subject to show how empowering women can be and particularly Ms Gold, who has strong footballing links. Jacqueline did work experience at Ann Summers, her father's company, at 19 and two years later took on the "all male boardrooom, made the company female oriented and changed the atmosphere completely. There are now over 100 high street shops with that label that dabble in ladies underwear and sex toys (but watch out for Sainsbury's invasion of this market!!).

Jacqueline was born in Bromley in 1960 and like all blogs there is usually a good link and so I need to warn you about "The Bromley Boys" which is a film about a lad falling in love with a Non-league club, Bromley FC. Inspired by David Roberts' book, TJ Herbert, himself a Bromley boy and actor/producer, created a film about a 15 year old lad and 1969/70 season, the darkest in Bromley's history. Already a cinema "hit" it is released on DVD. About the same time the club found out they were drawn with Peterborough United in the First Round of the FA Cup.

Meanwhile Ms Gold is a seriously successful business woman who is now CEO of Ann Summers and Knickerbox in Old Oxted (that's in Surrey for my northern readers).

Ann Summers was bought by her father, David, in 1972 and stimulated by the success of Tupperware parties, Jacqueline encouraged ladies to do the same but with her goods. This proved a great success, with no men allowed, women could comfortably chat about such things but not plastic boxes of course. As the managing director of the company, she was joined by her sister, Vanessa and became the 16th richest women in Britain.

Where's the football you might ask? Their father David, a West Ham boy who played for the Hammers' Youth team, was born within spitting distance of Upton Park, as it was then. He proved to be very successful in business, but not by following in the footsteps of his father, a well known East End criminal, honest Guv'.
David bought GGI, the parent company of Ann Summers and Knickerbox and also owned an adult magazine company, Gold Star productions, that released saucy mags such as Rustler and Raider on to the British High Street.

David Gold bought the "second" FA Cup for nearly £490,000 to save it "from leaving the country". He was chairman of Birmingham City FC around 2009 and Joint Chairman of West Ham United in 2010. In 2013 he was listed as being worth £350m.
Jacqueline was awarded the CBE in 2016, is a parent and loves football of course.

GLEN HODDLE

It was a challenging day yesterday and to top all the fun and games that I had visiting local games, I got home to hear the news of the Leicester City disaster and then the news of Glen Hoddle's illness.

The Leicester tragedy is closer to many Charterhouse footballers because the club very kindly hosted the Independent Schools' Cup Final and Charterhouse School was fortunate enough to play at Filbert Street in 2000 and the Walkers' Stadium (as it was known then, now the King Power) in 2007 and 2011. Leicester City were fine hosts and the boys enjoyed their time at the Foxes' home ground.
Glen Hoddle would have graced these grounds at some stage either as a player, manager or pundit and it was sad to hear that he was taken ill while working for BT Sports yesterday. It was his 61st birthday. The link below will take you to a news item but more importantly photos of Glen during his colourful career.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/glen-hoddle-latest-former-england-manager-in-hospital-after-collapsing-at-bt-studios-a3973506.html

You should know all about Glen's footballing and managing career, beginning in 1974 when Martin Chivers presented the cup and medals at a local schools' tournament and he spotted Glen.
This took Hoddle to Spurs as an 11 year old in 1974. In 1987 he went to AS Monaco and Chelsea in 1991 briefly before managing at Swindon Town, a remarkable move but he stopped them from being relegated to the old Division Three and then took them to the Premier League. He then, with John Gorman, joined Chelsea.
In 1993 he was player-manager and "retired" from playing in 1995.
He took the club to the FA Cup Final but they were thumped 4-0 by Manchester United. He left Chelsea in 1996 to do a job for England.

In 1996 England came calling and he managed the national side for 3 years until he made a statement about disabled people and public opinion voted him out of the job in 2000.
During his "spell" with England he failed to pick Gascoigne for the 1998 squad, subjected the team to Eileen Drewery's "faith healing" and his "born again Christianity".  The team was known as the "Hod squad".

In 2000-1 Glen was manager at Southampton and once again had a positive influence keeping them in the Premier League in 2001 as they had their highest division position of 10th since 1995.

Hoddle was sacked by Spurs in September 2003 when his team lost 1-3 to Southampton.

His final effort in management was with Wolves where during 76 games , his team drew 34 times in two seasons. The locals objected to this and eventually Glen gave up in 2006!
He then dabbled with a Football Academy and kept an eye on Spurs' as they mucked around with managers and then went for punditry.
Hence his presence with BT Sports yesterday.
He played nearly 550 games and scored 144 goals.
For England 1979-88 53 apps 8 goals.
http://int.search.mywebsearch.com/search/video.jhtml?id=XNxdm019YYgb&n=77edc526&ptb=308DCB58-2A13-42C4-993A-77A59B6C34C6&ptnrS=XNxdm019YYgb&qs=&si=CJeTnrb1k7ECFZMctAodh14dkA&ss=sub&st=sb&tpr=sbt&enc=2&searchfor=kMJPrz1aI7ststxQwPD0NECt7P1xM4YEdK5arT-LF3aUEBGRjAXuqIXQT5czXqZWx0TEZuP1w--wufZJLPhDfDKV5MMtL9oLAtsgC9ilqXZ8C1S6GA3sZqMpgyeCK0fk_47Y_3BERoAbOY9REgfno6nSGc_xB1Seg1pIQh8HiZv3IY-eEtqZOZu8f6o0QPJMdgGOLqGwgaXGSmz_Ya8q5pOOkCzPrM_5TaGGqGDC3xLo80nawX9gRK7ytVpsT7lWiksVqV7eslkgo_4DInWFP6uIwcLaGJsuiHgW-NmDZ7CzsGP8EbQD_CLd6cy5kB3EdFY82Z1J_3PbhYghQxCCmA&ts=1540744447890

TONY INCENZO

It was another one of those Saturdays when I watched Hepworth United Juniors play today at Far lane, a morning when the weather got the better of the Hepworth United youngsters, who lost. Many of the young ones were in tears (on both sides) because the Arctic air mass, combined with altitude + wind chill +lack of proper cold weather wear......la,la,la

During the morning I read Tony Incenzo's Twitter pages and noted that he was heading to Penistone Church to watch their local derby against Athersley Recreation. If you don't know who Tony Incenzo is then have a look at his Twitter page and you will get the idea.
https://twitter.com/tonyincenzo?lang=en

Mr Incenzo has a news slot on Talksport on Monday mornings about Non-League Football, so the Church experience will no doubt get a mention and he signed my programme.
I hope enjoyed his long round journey to South Yorkshire, his lunch at Cubley Hall, the hospitality of PCFC and the game.

0-1 down, the Church recovered against a lively Rec side by winning 4-2 and maintained their position at the top end of the Northern Counties East League Premier.

Athersley Recreation FC, Geoff Horsfield's starting club, founded in 1979 as Athersley North Juniors (The Penguins) were named as present in 1986.

Over the watershed I saw the second half of a victory for Hepworth United 1st team, in their Sheffield and Hallamshire County League Premier. Home team manager Bob Wright, on crutches after a major hip operation, saw his lads grind out a 2-1 win, much needed as they wobble at the lower end of the division. As you will know this is their highest pyramid rank in their history.
All credit to them for their victory against Oughtibridge War Memorial FC who have nice badges! Sadly not a lot to write about them though, no research material as far as I can find apart from an active Ladies section.

(MARKET) HARBOROUGH TOWN FC

Well, if the small number of readers yesterday suggests that the topic of Sheffield Football was not an attractive one, then I don't know what they are going to make of today's (Market) Harborough Town FC item. The original Bees, played in the Leicestershire Senior League from 1904-5. History suggests that the club disbanded in 1913 before the First World War. There seems to be a large gap post war.

The modern club was founded in 1975 as a youth team, merged with adult team Spencer United in 2006, then became known as Harborough Town in 2008, at which time the club rose rapidly through the various regional divisions. From 2010, the club was playing in the Northampton Combination and were champions that season and now plays in the United Counties League Premier having been promoted in 2011-12, to Step 5.

My chum Jerry plays Walking Football for the club, a casual (and sometimes very serious) afternoon out for a mature gentleman (but he has scored a goal at Wembley-don't ask).
He sent me a link to the Daily Telegraph sports page, where his club has been used as a case study in describing the various issues relating to financing of grass roots football-you know thwarted "that Wembley sale" and so on. (M)HTFC seem have had a windfall recently.

Have a look at their website and click on NEWS where you will find reference to the relevant news article at the 17 acre site.
https://harboroughtownfc.org/news/
https://harboroughtownfc.org/official-opening-of-clubs-new-facilites/
A £1.2 m investment, with money coming from the Football Foundation, Premier League and other sources, has created 10 grass pitches and an astro (actually news items vary on this and £££s!!) at the HT Community Football Ground. There are other fabulous features such as a well stocked bar, function room, gym and all mod cons for a sporting centre in a market town of over 20,000 population.
To open the complex, Paul Fairclough, manager of the England C XI, is bringing an FA Rep XI on November 1st at 7.45.
Several other clubs are using the facility which already hosts 800 HTFC members and 48 teams from mini football to Walking! Men and boys and Women and girls.

£15.5m has been invested across Leicestershire from similar sources.

SHEFFIELD - THE HUB OF FOOTBALL?

I have been to Sheffield Central Library today...NOT to return a book or take one out, don't be silly. The Sheffield and Hallamshire FA, amongst others, were promoting a Football Exhibition to celebrate the remarkable history of the Sheffield and Hallam FCs (two separate and very old clubs). I am not going to bang on about the history of football, but safe to say that this part of the country was a hub of football development. Sheffield needs a football museum, like Manchester.

I came across a wonderful artist who had drawn many of the great players of his era and had all his portraits signed. One of Stanley Matthews was worth a few hundred pounds, so his complete collection needed better security I felt.

The Sheffield Football Club had its fixture card on show from 1884-5 and low and behold the Old Carthusians feature on one of their ventures north on April 9th. Other clubs playing the Sheffield lads included Notts County (the oldest professional club).Nottingham Forest, the Cambridge University Wanderers and a week or so before the OC game, Lincoln City.

A copy of The Sheffield Rules was on display where I met a couple of "southerners". One was a Hendon FC supporter and we had a chat about the great Hendon side that played in several post war FA Amateur Cup Finals and was especially successful between 1965 and 1974.

Then there was Jason Golder's mate from Surrey. Jason is a "retired" Old Carthusian footballer of some substance, his mate living north now and a fan of Hampton Borough. We had a nice chat and swapped numbers.

I came across the Sheffield Sunday Schools' Football Union Shield and several other trophies including the Youdan Cup (see previous blog) and one of Wednesday's goalkeeper Ron Springett's 33 England caps (1959-60), a record for a Sheffield Wednesday player until Nigel Worthington broke it 26 years later.
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/youdan-you-read-you-marvel-you-sure_27.html
Hallam FC was very much on show too, one of the oldest clubs and so was Tapton School, an early winners of the schools cup, Sebastian Coe's place of learning (Seb, of course, a father of an OC).

Local to me was a record of Thurlstone School (John Stones early school), the first winners of the Sheffield Elementary Schools' FA, Clegg Shield, presented by Alderman W.S.Clegg, first played for and won by the school in 1889. It is the oldest inter-school trophy.

By the way there was the FA Cup on show...though I suspect it was a replica, although there was a large security man on show.

CUSTOMISING MARLON

Remember Marlon Harewood? Who doesn't? The former Nottingham Forest (x2), HAKA in Iceland, Ipswich, West Ham, Villa, Wolves, Newcastle, Blackpool, Barnsley (x 2), Guangzhou, Bristol City, Hartlepool and Nuneaton B. (over 590 apps) forward has, after his illustrious career, avoided being a pundit or a coach and has taken himself into car customisation. You can visit his garage in a Nottingham industrial estate where the company AC13 Premier gives top of the range motors a serious make over.

For ten years he has worked with his partner Andy Cole (not the Andy Cole) buying, selling and making over the best automobiles on the market. At first it was Andy that put a base-booming stereo into Marlon's FIAT Punto after he had passed his driving test. Marlon was 17 then and didn't want to be ripped off because he was a footballer. He wasn't and  their long term friendship has developed into a thriving venture with a long business of A-list clients.

Marlon at 39, retains his huge stature and is fit like a well tuned sport's car! Nowadays he is often found to be up front in the salesroom doing the meeting and greeting and scoring goals by personality.
A Mercedes V-Class sits in the building with screens and spotlights designed to mimic stars shining on a cloudless night. Recently he has dealt with Harry Kane, Stuart Broad and Carl Froch, with dozens of signed shirts and letters framed on his show room walls.

We have put in Playstations, coffee machines and printers into customers cars.
https://twitter.com/mazer_9?lang=en  his Twitter feed
In the early days he modified Ryan Giggs' blue Renault Clio with gold alloys. He customised the apprentice, David Beckham's classic turquoise VW Golf with a cream leather interior. Have a look at the Instagram site.
A recent signing has been Ric Leighton, whose career with TNS in the Welsh League was cut short by injury, has joined in and is responsible for the service side of the business. He helps Marlon get good deals for sportsmen and women avoiding them being "ripped off" because they are known high earners. Deals includes getting top tickets to concerts and even mending a well known England international's electric gates to his house.

Why not use the club's Player Liaison Officer? Clubs have one (or more) of these, looking after the players' every needs. But maybe these requests may go beyond the call of a PLO's duty and probably they won't have the expertise to do the very special deal!

JOSE v JUVE

My son's work takes him to Old Trafford tonight; dealing with clients, hosting hospitality, meeting ambassadors (Denis Law has signed my programme) and I suspect enjoying the game. Somebody has to do it.
Here's a little snippet about Juve that I did a while back.
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/il-grande-torino.html

Founded in 1897 by Torinese students (from Turin!), Juve as it is usually known is also known as the "Old Lady", an affectionate term for this historic club. The club has played in the top flight since the beginning of the 1900s and since the 1920s has been owned and run by the Agnellis, one of Italy's leading industrial families.
Needless to say the FIAT car industry, in Turin, supplied many workers from home and from Southern Italian migrants who boosted the playing staff and crowds!
 The earliest known photograph of the team c.1897
In the early years the club wore a pink shirt with a "black tie" but in 1903 changed to black and white stripes, inspired by Notts County FC. One of the Juve players was John Savage from Nottingham, who used his local club's strip for inspiration.
In 1906 there was a split in the club and Swiss businessman, Alfred Dick, took several players to form Torino FCB, Juve's local rivals.
Ronaldo may be one of the best known footballers in Juve's side but in the late 1950s, John Charles, a mountain of a man from South Wales, was one of the first British players to migrate to Europe to play in Italy. He is in the middle of this magic trio including Silvo from Argentina and Boniparti. At the moment-Jose 0 Juve 1

SUPER BALOTELLI?

In 2011 Mario Balotelli decided that he would test out some fireworks before the actual day, so he let them off in his bathroom and caused £400,000 worth of damage. "Why always me?"
This was in the early hours before the important "derby" match for City against United, in which Mario came up with two goals in a 6-1 victory!

On this day in 1972, Gordon Banks was involved in a car accident as he was driving home from a physio appointment, when he was involved in a crash which caused him to lose the sight in one eye, thus ending his illustrious career.

In 1969 Tommy Gemmell was sent off while playing away with Scotland against West Germany in a World Cup qualifier in Hamburg. Scotland's scorers were Jimmy Johnstone and Alan Gilzean but the lost 2-3. Gemmell was the first British "Home" player to be sent off in an international match.
Remarkably he only won 18 caps having played 247 times for Celtic. For his club he scored the equaliser against Inter Milan in the 1967 European Cup Final, being one of the Lisbon Lions. He also scored a goal in the 1970 European Cup Final defeat against Feyenoord. Only Phil Neal of Liverpool has matched the achievement of scoring in two ECFinals.
During his career at Celtic, he experienced "sectarian abuse", from colleagues who wanted an all catholic club.

Beware, there is another Tommy Gemmell who played for St Mirren during the 1950s and earned 2 Scottish caps.

BENE 'N' HOT: CARABAO AND BENEDICTINE

After full day of football yesterday I was quite pleased to get home and have a nice glass of red....no idea where it came from apart from France! It went well with my late "tea" including a pudding, allowed since I had little time during the day for food.

I went from refereeing the Hepworth United U10s, watch the televised match on my TV, nipped down to Far Lane to watch the Hepworth Seniors and then made it to a 4pm rendezvous before the Huddersfield v Liverpool game at 5pm at the John Smith's. A full day. Not much food.

Next to me in the stadium was a delightful man who was tucking into some sweeties, which he offered to me (I politely refused) and he was also sipping Bovril, the traditional beverage of the football fan....OR IS IT? What about a dose of Benedictine swamped in 27 herbs and spices and Carabao?

Burnley FC bats well above its average in all fields and its liking for Benedictine is well known. Yes, you know, Burnley FC is the centre of Benedictine sales (in East Lancashire anyway). The video below explains things, but if you can't be bothered to watch it, then let's just say the Burnley FC is one of the largest sellers of Benedictine (anywhere).

https://www.jamieoliver.com/drinks-tube/benedictine-and-the-burnley-miners/

When the East Lancs Regiment, the 11th Battalion, was fighting in Fecamp, Normandy, France in the First World War, the band of brothers was known famously as the Accrington Pals. Men from local families joined up and generations of men from the area were lost on French battlefields and so footballers was also lost. 

Benedictine with hot water was given to the Pals as a "restorative" known as "Bene 'N' Hot" and the lads got such a taste for it, it kept the cold out, so they took it back to the Burnley Miners Social Club (below) after the war. To this day the region is the biggest consumer of the drink outside France, handling over 1000 bottles a year. The club has invented a Bene Bomb (mixed with a Carabao energy drink!!), the rival to Jager! a modernised version.

30 bottles will be sold at Turf Moor on match day and the present owners, Bacardi, have a strong link with the club and were presented with a 1914 Replica Burnley FC shirt. Nice piece of HISTORY below...have a read and maybe a drink, got any Carabao?

http://www.lancashireinfantrymuseum.org.uk/the-accrington-pals-and-the-benedictine-connection-or-a-bene-and-ot/

ALAS POOR YORK CITY

FA Cup afternoon and 32 winners will raise £25,000 for their clubs courtesy of Emirates Funding. Previous FA Cup semi-finalists playing this afternoon include:
York City 1955, Leyton Orient 1978, Chesterfield 1997.
In 1955, remarkably, in the semi-final, York City held Newcastle United to a 1-1 draw on neutral ground and then lost 0-2 in the replay. They had beaten Notts County 1-0 in Rd 6, Tottenham 3-1 in Rd 5, Bishop Auckland in Rd 4 3-1.
The Bishop's were a top amateur side in those days (as they are now!) being losing finalists in the 1954 Amateur Cup,losing to Crook Town at Wembley (100,000 crowd). In 1955 they beat Hendon in the Final 2-0 and the crowd was 100,000!, In 1956 they drew 1-1 at Wembley and then beat the Corinthian Casuals 4-1 after a replay at Middlesbrough in front of 30,000. They were finalists again in 1957 winning 3-1 over Wycombe Wanderers.
Back to York City where they beat Blackpool in Rd 3 2-0 away (Blackpool had been Cup winners in 1953), Dorchester Town 2-5 away in Rd 2, Scarborough 3-2 at home in Rd 1. Some run.
 the badge from 1959-78
The modern one
and today they beat local north-easterners, Blyth Spartans 0-1 to move on into the First Round proper.
Leyton Orient lost to Maidstone United 2-0. Chesterfield beat AFC Fylde away 3-1.

"PENNANCE"

Jermaine Pennant appeared on the Jeremy Kyle show this morning and let out a few indiscretions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crCXR8GDXUg
His life has not been a bed of roses and his football career hardly a bowl of apples.
Born in Nottingham it would be fair to say that he didn't have a very secure or supportive childhood and like many he could have gone totally off the rails, but football offered him a flag of hope.
His father was a semi-professional football (but ended up in jail following drug crimes) so Jermaine avoiding the temptations of his home district joined Notts County, where during his YTS he was living in a club hostel,  a safe haven. He eventually made around 300 appearances for the following clubs:
County, signed a contract with Arsenal,Watford, Leeds,Birmingham, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Real Zaragoza, Stoke, Wolves, Pune City (India), Wigan, Tampines Rovers (Singapore), Bury and lately Billericay Town and earned 21 caps at U21, but was sent off for punching Niko Kranjcar in an U21 game.
He is of course now "retired" to take up a career on television, possibly?

His last game was on 28th December 2017 and following his appearance on "Celebrity Big Brother" he has written an autobiography "Mental-Bad Behaviour, Ugly Truths and the Beautiful Game".
He has had drink-driving punishments, drove while disqualified, was involved in a road crash, been tagged even during a match, chosen infidelity, had £200,000 worth of designer clothes and personals destroyed by an angry girlfriend, had his home gates rammed in a potential raid, been arrested after a domestic, was drunk when he scored a hat trick in his first game for Arsenal, found during his various trials to be illiterate. He did score in a Champions League Final!
By coincidence I have just be bought a football book "The Beautiful Game- Searching for the Soul of Football" by David Conn.

LINCOLN IMPS AND THE ROCK CHIMPS

After the excitement of being given the Checkatrade Trophy Final 2018 between Lincoln City and Shrewsbury Town, by my Ockbrook agent, I then found that Gibraltar had won another few points in the UEFA Nations League. Why Gibraltar? Obvious, one of their successful club teams in Lincoln Red Imps!
The national team, now nestled safely in Group D, for the minnows, the Gilbraltar team has won 6 points in four games sitting second in their group behind MYR Macedonia. They have beaten Armenia away 0-1 and Leichtenstein recently 2-1 at Victoria Park, having lost to Liechtenstein away 0-2 in Vaduz and MYR Macedonian 0-2.
Gibraltar FA is one of the genuine sprats in UEFA, ranked XXX. Coached by Julio Ribas, a Uruguayan the team from the rock attracted a maximum 2,000 crowd to their "national stadium". During this exciting period in GFA's history they have scored 2 goals in a real international match for the first time and have won a competition game for the first time on home soil.
With two ties left, at home to Armenia and away to FYR the team from the hopes to reach the play offs. A true achievement for a small FA.
Recently their youth teams have been spanked by Iceland 0-8 at U18 and Macedonia 1-6 at U21s.
Founded in 1895, the GFA established the Merchant's Cup, the only competition at the time in the country, see Gibraltar FC below, the first winners. The first "national " team played against Army teams from 1901 and a "national league" was formed in 1907.


The National League contains 10 teams in the First Division with names such as Club Boca Juniors, Lincoln Red Imps and Mons Calpe, they are really local "pub" sides....actually that's unfair for they take the whole thing seriously.

One famous moment was a draw with Real Madrid in 1949. The FA was allowed the join FIFA...here are some more on the IMPS, I did earlier:-
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/wheat-from-chaff.html
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/phew-they-survived-
imp-invasion.html
Its a celebration of the Association! And the Chimps , well they are not quite chimps...you know that.

ENGLAND REIGN IN SPAIN

I thought we were a little fortunate to get away with the 3-2 win last night, but the newspapers have shed huge praise all over Gareth's youngsters and then fair enough, we scored more goals that the Spanish, that's what will be read in the history books. Overall the two countries have met 27 times, surprisingly few, with England winning 14 and Spain 10, including the most recent games.

Spain joined FIFA in 1904 and formed the Spanish Football Federation in 1909. Their international debut was in August 1920 against Denmark in the Olympics. Spain won 1-0 and ended up with a silver medal.
The Spanish War of Independence and World War One (and Two for that matter) did not help Spain's development in football, for example, there was no international football between 1934 and 1950.
Where regional nationalism was at its strongest and football closely aligned to it, the national team and championships generated most conflict. On occasion football could function as a "unifier" but often as not, an arena for conflict and dissent.
Spain was the first country amongst neighbours France and Italy to  create a national league in 1928, having legalised professionalism in 1926. There were no amateurs in strength, as such to put obstacles in front of professionalism and commercialism was quick to take up the business; there was no maximum wage for example.

The first fixture between England and Spain was on the 15th May 1929 in Madrid which Spain won 4-3 in front of 50,000. Tommy Cooper from Liverpool played at right back and Joe Carter scored 2. Edgar Kail who played for Dulwich Hamlet, was the last non-league amateur to win a full cap for England. (He won the FA Amateur Cup with the Hamlet in 1920 and in 1932) An experienced amateur international he won his third and final cap in Spain the last match of a European Tour that started in France (W 4-1) and Belgium (W 5-1). There is a road named after him on the approach to Champion Hill, Dulwich Hamlet's ground, Edgar Kail Way. His name is still sung by Hamlet fans even today!

The next contest was in December 1931 with England winning 7-1 at Highbury.

In 1950, after another gap due to the Second WW, England and Spain met in the Brazilian World Cup with England going down 0-1. You should know what happened to England in this tournament.
There were two UEFA Championship ties in 1968, another World Cup tie in 1982 (0-0), another UEFA Q-F at Wembley in 1996 (0-0 win on pens) and now the two European Nations League games. Many pundits have questioned the wisdom of this extra tournament and its value, but they should be delighted now, having seen this valuable contest played in such spirit, spoilt only by our hooligans.
La Furia Rioja

ANNIVERSARIES AND DEBUTS

I missed this notable anniversary recently on the 11th October. On the 11th October 1958, Bill Nicholson's new club as manager, Tottenham Hotspur played Everton at White Hart Lane. The Spurs set the place alight with a 10-4 victory. As a 7 year old, I collected the newspaper reports and put them in my scrapbook.

10 years later (on 27th August) Everton won the day with a 4-0 victory over Newcastle United. Tony Cottee, with a record transfer fee of £2.2 million paid by Everton to West Ham, hanging around his neck, settled the Toffees' nerves with a goal after 34 seconds and he finished his ddebut with a hat trick.

On the "first name and surname" theme, goalkeeper Tony Coton, who had just joined Birmingham City on December 27th 1980, cheered up the faithful Blues with a penalty save after just 1 minute, when colleague Joe Gallagher fouled in the penalty area and Coton saved John Hawley's spot kick.

Having left Birmingham City for Nottingham Forest for the first ever £1 million transfer, Trevor Francis made his club "debut" for the Forest "A" XI in a Midland Intermediate League match against Notts County, hence the programme shown below. Two weeks later he made his League debut against Bristol City at the City ground, as Brian Clough kept the "young man's" feet firmly on the ground and announced Francis' arrival in a modest club game. Francis was ineligible to play in Europe until the European Cup Final, but of course, he marked his European debut with a goal against Malmo in Munich's Final.

In another Reserve league, the Central League, one designed for Football League Reserve Teams, Tony "Pongo" Waring made his debut for Aston Villa in February 1928. This was never going to be a small affair since the match was a local derby against Birmingham City, so nearly 24,000 turned up to witness Pongo score a hat trick in a 6-3 win at Villa Park. Waring went on to score 49 goals in the 1930-1 season and 159 goals in 216 appearances overall. A legend, he scored on his debut for England in 1931, but only won 5 caps, scoring 4 goals. In November 1935 he was transfered to Barnsley as Villa struggled at the bottom on the First Division and Waring needed a change. After that, he turned out for Wolves, Tranmere Rovers, Accrington Stanley, Bath City and Ellesmere Port.
In 1980 Pongo died and his ashes were scattered at the Holte End!

SQUARING CIRCLES AND ALL THAT JAZZ

I could report back to let you know how successful Non-League Day was; it was eventful. I took a Market Harborough Walking Footballer along with me for security. The point is if I got into any hooligan trouble on a touchline, I can run faster than him, so the hooligan chasing "us" would get him first!
We went to Hepworth United to see the First team play in the Sheffield and Hallamshire FA Cup, First Round and it was North Gawber opposing the home team. It didn't end well, Hepworth losing. On the touchline there was no hooligan, only Chris Eyre, who was representing the S&H FA. Chris is sent to a ground by the local FA to check that all is well. There was also a referee assessor, keeping an eye on the three "men in black", an necessary expense that knocks a bit of a hole into Hepworth's finances. Chris Eyre is a bit of an historian (particularly of his local area)Chris with his very important volume on "Football in Sheffield", a history that has been told in the past but Chris' book includes wonderful memorabilia such as images of medals, cups and trophies. It is a cracking piece of work and he deserves much praise for adding to the exceptional history of our local county FA.

It was a wind blown game but sunny and spirited. As the game was coming to a conclusion, with HUFC losing, Jerry and I headed off to Penistone Church FC who were entertaining Eccleshill United from the western side of the Pennines. I am afraid that this didn't end well either and after a 3-0 defeat, PCFC have slipped down the Toolstation NE Counties Premier to 4th place.
But we did meet a "Groundhopper", who on Non-League Day was doing what groundhoppers do....he was wearing a Luton Town shirt and was carrying the standard plastic bag with nick nacks in...guide books, compass, water bottle, a pie?....Yep-he had been to Oakwell to see Barnsley v Luton a lunchtime ko and then headed to "the nearest" Non-League match-namely the Memorial Ground, Penistone. You have to admire these people, anoraks but dedicated.
 The birds are martlets..............anyone know anything about them apart from being the emblem of Sussex CCC?
Meanwhile today was the Marsden Jazz Festival, a feast of music and whom do I meet in a "bistro" doorway? A bloke who was wearing a Marsden FC shirt, sponsored by the local firm, sporting a Cuckoo on the badge. The Cuckoo story might be worth reading...The Beautiful Badge!!

http://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/leisure/marsden-cuckoo/
Hepworth Senior Reserves played Marsden Res this weekend and lost in a local league game 0-5.
Small world, squaring the circle? and so finally,
back to Hepworth United c. 1907-8, an historic team photo thanks to Chris Eyre!!

APOLOGIES IF THE FIRST EDITION DID NOT INCLUDE ALL PHOTOS...HOPEFULLY THIS ONE DOES.

NON-LEAGUE FOOTBALL DAY

It is the Non-League weekend and specifically Non-League Day today. Plenty of games are being played on Sunday, for example the FA Trophy Preliminary tie between Pickering Town and Stocksbridge PS and of course, Hepworth United Juniors will have plenty of matches going on in the massive Huddersfield and District Junior League. Our Under 15 section consists of 6 divisions alone. Age groups run from U7/8 through to U18 boys and girls.

So it is important to keep kids playing at all levels and of course to maintain the development of players in "senior" age groups as they hope for professional contracts! All players have their roots in Non-League Football and those who reach the heady heights of professionalism have many worthy individuals to thank for their success.

Why not support your local club by spending a few £s at the turnstiles, or in the club cafe or bar, buy a programme and a raffle ticket.
Loads of volunteers help run clubs and most of the hard work is done on the clubhouse side of the touchline (apart from the groundsman of course!). These are the unsung heros.
This weekend at Hepworth we are collecting money for the club's "World Mental Health Day" project, something that is close to our hearts and something that is being promoted all over the country.
Martin Tyler is one of many media personalities who didn't quite make it in the big game but has always supported Non-League football, as a player (The Commentators' XI for instance and at slightly more competitive levels; he is now very much part of Hampton and Richmond Borough FC, presently 4th in the National League South).

Don't forget Leyton Orient, Torquay and Hartlepool, a few of the ex-Football League Clubs that now ply their trade at lower levels, striving to get back in the big time.
https://theballisround.co.uk/

So remember the grass roots stuff....Hepworth United FC playing in the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Premier today and our Ladies whose central charity is World Mental Health and they will be playing their league game on Sunday, very much with Lauren in their memory.
Since it is international weekend, go out and find a Non-League game.

On the other hand......don't forget the oldies who are still playing despite their old age:
Dannie Bulman, Crawley Town 39y241d
Kevin Ellison Morecambe 39y225d
Aaron Wilbraham Rochdale 38y344d and
of course our oldest international, the great Stanley Matthews, who at 43 years and 103 days played for England against Denmark on the 15th May 1957. England won 4-1 in Copenhagen.
He was the oldest "capped" goalscorer at 41y 248d, 6/10/56 in a 1-1 draw v Northern Ireland at Windsor Park. His international career lasted 22 years 228 days. Matthews is here with Stan Mortensen.

GAZZA NOT A SCOTTISH HERO?

There are 83 footballers in the Scottish Football Hall of Fame. There is also a Cup celebrating the winning of the "World" Cup when Renton of Dumbarton, Scottish FA Cup winners beat West Bromwich Albion, English FA Cup winners in 1888, 4-1. The Scottish FA Cup began in 1873 and the English FA Cup in 1872.
The Scottish FA Museum is at Hampden Park, of course, showing memorabilia such as the nation's oldest international cap and the oldest ticket from the original 1872 international match.
The Hall of Fame was established in 2004 and includes foreigners Brian Laudrup, Henrik Larsen, a host of Scottish footballers, Denis Law, Matt Busby, the Lisbon Lions*, Dalglish and so on. There is also Rose Reilly who was inducted in 2007.

Born in 1955 in Kilmarnock, she married an Argentinian, to become Rose Peralta. From her local clubs Stewarton United and then Stewarton Thistle LFC in 1963, she bravely ventured into Reims, ACF Milan, several Italian clubs and then she represented Scotland and Italy before retiring at 40 years old. She won a host of various league titles and cups in France and Italy. her best moment would be in the 1984 Women's World Cup. McCrae's Battalion the 16th Battalion Royal Scots Guard from WW1 get recognised, as does Queen's Park FC, the oldest club in the country.
http://www.mccraesbattaliontrust.org.uk/the-sporting-battalion/
BUT Paul Gascoigne cannot get voted on to the long list of inductees. His nomination has been withdrawn "over concerns about his health". Gazza was due to be inducted at a dinner on October 21st.
Gascoigne scored that memorable goal against Scotland at Wembley in 1996,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDzzqVNwx2U

he made a "piping a flute" gesture at  Celtic Park in 1998 having done it before during his debut against Steau Bucharest at Ibrox.

There are other misdemeanours...so maybe he shouldn't be inducted?
Do you know who the Lisbon Lions are?

YOUNGEST DEBUTANT AND OLDEST

Jadon Sancho became the first player "born this century" to be called up to the England senior squad on October 4th. In recent news items Jodan has been described as the first player "this millenium" to become part of Southgate's national squad. Well informed readers have announced that since his birthday was 25th March 2000, he is a child of the "second millenium" not the third. "This millenium" began a second after the 31st December 2000, millenia are a 1000 years long not 999!

Putting this aside he has also become the 7th Englishman to debut for a foreign Champions League club. Sancho of Borussia Dortmund follows in the footsteps of Brian Deane, Michael Thomas, Scott Minto (all Benfica), Steve McManaman (Real Madrid), Matt Derbyshire (Olympiacos) and Owen Hargreaves (Borussia Dortmund). obviously some of these players have "moved on" to other clubs or retired!

Youngest players appearing for the English national team rank as follows:
Theo Walcott debut 30.5.06 v Hungary 17 years and 75 days
Wayne Rooney d. 12.2.03 v Australia 17y111d and to score a goal
James Prinsep (Clapham Rovers and Old Carthusians) d.17y253d debut on 5th April 1879 v Scotland. See photo below.

Thurston Rostron of Darwen FC 17y311d v Wales 26th February 1881
Rahem Sterling L'pool 17y332d v Sweden on 14 Nov 2012
Clement Mitchell of Upton Park 18y24d v Wales 15/3/1880
Michael Owen L'pool 18y59d v Chile 11th February 1998...the youngest to represent England in the 20th Century..see above??!!
Micah Richards of Manchester City 18y144d v Netherlands 15/11/2006
Duncan Edwards of Man utd v Scotland 18y183d 2/4/1955 v Scotland
Marcus Rashford v Australia 27/5/2016 aged 18y209d

The oldest debutant is Alec Morten, a goalkeeper of Crystal Palace who made his England debut on 8th March 1873 v Scotland aged 42.

EMMA CLARKE; ENGLAND'S FIRST BLACK FEMALE FOOTBALLER

With Non-League Football Day this weekend, let us celebrate another important part of football's history, our Ladies. After England's disappointing draw with Australia last night, news has been published of a film made to celebrate Emma Clarke, from Bootle, the first black lady footballer to play for England; this short film sets the scene.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/get-inspired/40802247
Theatre Company, "Futures Theatre", produced a film called "Offside" that has been to Edinburgh and toured the UK, which tells the story of women in football and particularly Clarke's contribution to the game. (she is second left back row)

Clarke was described as "fleet footed and a dark girl on the wing".

Early attempts to play ladies' football in the 19th Century failed miserably with violent demonstrations by the public. A match between Scotland Ladies and England's at Easter Road, Edinburgh, caused a violent pitch invasion on May 9th 1881. A later fixture in Glasgow on the 20th brought the same result from a crowd of 5,000.
Helen Graham Matthews (below), a suffragette from Montrose,  played in goal in a team known as Mrs Graham's XI. With Nettie Honeyball, a pseudonym (her real name is unknown), formed a Ladies' Football team in England, comprised mainly of "well to do ladies".

Emma Clarke, hardly "well to do" and black, from Liverpool, is recorded as a goalkeeper and right winger, who played for England Ladies in 1895 and "Mrs Graham's XI" in 1896. This team played as the British Ladies Club North Team, at that time and it toured Scotland earning money as they visited various venues. It was inspired and supported by Lady Florence Dixie from Dumfrieshire, who was a well known war correspondent and feminist of the day.
In 1897 Clarke played in a team known as "New Woman and Ten of her Friends" that played "Eleven Gentlemen" and won 3-1.
Nettie Honeyball is second left in the top row.

Clarke's career finished in 1903 at least!
She and her sister Jane, might stand out in this new cutting reporting a match played in Hull in 1897.
I have blogged on Ladies football before. Here is a link to Dick Kerr!
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Dick,_Kerr%27s_Ladies_F.C.

BITCH? ON PITCH

Dog/Bitch on pitch! Ok, not very news worthy but he/she was somebody's treasure and just shows every club that they should be prepared with dog handlers and nets. During a National Football League game at Gori in Georgia, the goalkeeper with gloves, seemed to be appropriately dressed but the attempted dislocation of the dog's front legs did not seem a very good idea. It took about 3 minutes to sort out and actually I'm not sure the incident was concluded.
https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/08/stray-dog-invades-football-pitch-mid-game-for-a-belly-rub-8017289/

Other invasions are included here and poor old Chick Brodie of Gillingam, Aldershot (having completed his National service, he stayed in the home of the British Army), Wolves, Northampton, Brentford,  and was put out of the game (for ever)  in 1970 by this shocking tackle in his penalty area against Colchester. Damage to his knee ligaments put pay to his playing career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptt-gLTGhHE
Chick made a return to playing ending up at Margate in the Southern league and was in goal against Bournemouth in the FA Cup in November 1971, when his team lost 0-11. Bad back?
A Scot born in 1937 in Duntocher, he made over 400 appearances in the Football League.
He died in April 2000 after suffering prostate cancer.