A LOAD OF COBBOLDS

I had an email from an old colleague, who has retired to Felixstowe and who is a full on Ipswich Town fan. I guess this is due to his family roots (he should tell me) and the fact that he went to Charterhouse School, the Alma Mater of the Ipswich Football Club family, The Cobbolds, famed for their Tolly Cobbold Brewery.
He also returned to teach at the school when he had completed his university "stretch".

Thomas Clement Cobbold was the founding father of the Suffolk club in 1878. He was at Charterhouse from 1848-51, when it was a London based school  and Thomas became the Conservative MP for Ipswich in 1876 and instilled in his club "the principles of fair play". His players were scrimmagers and dribblers, very much after the style of the Carthusians and their old boys who went on the dominate amateur football in the late 19th Century.

Thomas' nephew, William Neville Cobbold, was known as the "Prince of Dribblers" and was a leading player for the Old Carthusians and England in the 1880s. I could write a whole blog on him.....in fact I might, tomorrow or maybe the day after.

The Old Carthusians are recorded as playing an AFA Cup match against Ipswich Town on January 2nd 1933. The teams play at Ipswich and drew 4-4, meeting again on the 9th losing 2-4 at home. The club turned professional eventually in 1936 and were elected to the Football League two years later, joining the relatively youthful Third Division South in 1938. They came 7th that year and were ahead of Clapton Orient, a side that left the FL after the war, continuing at the lower level.