CASUALS v HAMLET IN THE PINK

It is the FA Cup Second Qualifying Round this weekend and the Government has moved to avert chaos by providing a Convid "bail-out" to the National League clubs taking part on October 3rd. Hopefully this will prevent the North and South Division clubs from withdrawing from their ties or playing with no income. The government has promised to underwrite losses, as clubs play behind closed gates again, as enforced by the Government. Clubs, with costs at home and away draining their coffers, are precariously balanced financially. The season for many clubs has not started.

The Isthmian League Premier club, the historic Corinthian-Casuals FC (Step 7 Football League), is scheduled to play rivals Dulwich Hamlet (Step 6 Football League) this weekend, with away spectators banned at their King George's Arena. A club statement said that "Coronavirus is clearly clever enough to differentiate between supporters of National League Step 2 and Step 3 clubs....."

Corinthian-Casuals supporters are able to attend (look left) and so can neutral ones, but away fans cannot join the "bubble". The club officials have announced on their website that Hamlet supporters cannot buy tickets and so, the club apologises for having to make that statement. 

Have a look at Dulwich's supporters "kit" bottom left.......

The Casuals beat Little Common, away 0-3 in the last round. This is Hamlet's first official game.

The FA promises to review the situation as the next round draws near, but much depends on government decisions. Here is a recent statement from the FA and the Dept of Culture, Media and Sport:

The purpose of this communication is to provide clarification on the situation regarding spectators attending matches in the Second Round Qualifying of the FA Cup.

 

The FA has been liaising with Government regarding attendance of spectators at FA Cup fixtures in light of the recent Government announcements. Following The FA’s latest discussions with Government, the agreed position for matches in the Second Round Qualifying will be as follows:-

 

• Where an Elite Club is playing another Elite Club, the match must be played behind closed doors (i.e. with no spectators permitted to be in attendance)
• Where an Elite Club is playing a Non-Elite Club:
  • Where the match is played at the Elite Club’s ground, the match must be played behind closed doors (i.e. with no spectators permitted to be in attendance)
  • Where the match is played at the Non-Elite Club’s ground, spectators of the home Club only shall be permitted to attend the match in accordance with the latest applicable National League System Spectator Guidance. Both clubs shall ensure that spectators of the visiting Club are not in attendance at the match.
• Where a Non-Elite Club is playing another Non-Elite Club, spectators (of both the home and visiting Clubs) shall be permitted to attend the match in accordance with the latest applicable National League System Spectator Guidance.

For the avoidance of doubt, as at the date of this communication, Clubs in Steps 1 & 2 of The FA National League System are considered to be “Elite Clubs” and Clubs in Step 3 and below of The FA National League System are considered to be “Non-Elite Clubs”.

 

This position shall apply for matches in The Emirates FA Cup Second Round Qualifying and will be reviewed prior to the Third Round Qualifying.

FREDERICK PENTLAND-EL BOMBIN

 

His middle name is Beaconsfield, born July 1883, died March 1962. He played in the Midlands mainly for Willenhall Swifts and then Small Heath (later to become Birmingham City) in Division 2 in August 1900, aged 17.

He later played for Blackpool and scored his first senior goal on September 26th 1903 v Stockport County. His total was 8 apps and 5 goals, so he was signed by Blackburn Rovers for 3 years (apps 51 goals 9). When he left the club, the locals arranged for the town's Palace Theatre Band to parade on his farewell and the crowd sang "For he's a jolly good fellow" and "Auld Lang Syne".I wonder if the lads in North London will do the same when Dele Alli finally leaves Spurs??

For £250, he was transfered to Southern League, Brentford FC (36 apps 14 goals), then he went to QPR (37 apps 14 goals) again in the S.L. 

As Southern League winners, QPR were asked to play Manchester United, the Football League Winners, in the 1908 FA Charity Shield at Stamford Bridge. Frederick played in a 1-1 draw with a crowd of 6,000 on April 27th. The "replay" took place on the 29th August at the start of the new season and drew 50,000 fans to The Bridge raising £1000 for Charity. There was NO CHARITY in the QPR directors when selecting the team for the replay. Fred, over summer, had been transfered to Middlesbrough, but was keen to play with his ex-mates. The big wigs at QPR refused to pick him, despite the FA allowing him to join in. By all accounts, he had been insisting on a maximum wage at QPR, which didn't go down too well with the directors.

He earned 5 caps for England in 1909. It was Middlesbrough next 1912 (92 apps 11 goals), then drifting to Halifax Town, Stockport, Halifax again.

By 1914 Fred was in Germany and was coaching the German Olympic team. War started and of course Fred became a POW in Ruhleben in Spandau, Berlin. He had 5000 inmates and with permission from the camp boss, he arranged football matches and a league. In his teams were Steve Bloomer and Fred Spiksley, among other England footballers. 

Amongst some of his in-mates were Nobel Prize winner Sir James Chadwick, Prince Monolulu, a flambuoyant horserace tipster and Geoffrey Pyke, an eccentric journalist.

In 1918 he was free, so he helped coach France in the 1920 Olympics and then managed in Spain at Racing Santander, Athletico Bilbao, Ath Madrid and Oviedo. In 1929, he coached Spain to a 4-3 victory over England, the first time England had been beaten (ever) by a non-Brtish national team. 

In 1931, he was at Bilbao again when they beat Barcelona 12-1(still a record). In 1933 the Civil War started, so he headed home and ended up at glamorous Barrow FC from 1938-44! (he was 57 years old). 

In 1959 Fred was invited back to Bilbao's San Mames' Stadium for a homage. Desite being frail he "kicked off", a game between Athletic and Chelsea. Known by the Spanish as EL BOMBIN (bowler hat), he was awarded the "Distinguished Members' Medal" which was pinned on to his familiar Crombie-a high quality, three-quarter length coat. His statue stands at the stadium.

He retired to Poole in Dorset where he died in March 1962 and was buried at Lytchett Matravers.

SINGERS IN COVENTRY

This is a repeat item but with some highly valuable additions!!

In 1892, Burton Swifts were double booked on October 1st, when they were due to play Crewe Alexander in a local derby, Second Division match. On the same day they also had to play Singers' Factory of Coventry in a Preliminary Round FA Cup tie (only 7 ties were drawn for this round).

Singers were a fore runner of Coventry City FC. They moved the Cup tie to the previous Wednesday, at 8am (YES in the morning) kick off and they won 3-0. 

What about the workers? Perhaps they had "late shifts"... I can understand the Singers getting time off but the Swifts?

In the next round (Qual Rd 1) the Swifts beat Burslem Port Vale- away 0-2.
then (QR2) away at Leek 0-3,
next QR3 away Walsall Town Swifts 1-3
QR4 Burton Swifts v Burton Wanderers 3-2...surely the best beery local derby?
Rd 1 Preston NE 9 (yes nine) -2 Burton Swifts oops-hang over?
Preston lost in the semi-final to Everton after a draw and Wolves won the Cup 1-0 at Fallowfield, Manchester.

In 1883, the Singers' Factory Gent's Club was formed by Willie Stanley, who set up the football team in the local cycle factory. This eventually became Coventry City in 1898 and joined the Football League after the First World War, 1919. 

Jimmy Hill, the well known Fulham player and TV football pundit was manager of Coventry in 1961 and he named the team "The Sky Blues" and led them to promotion to the First Division (top div) in 1967. Let's forget the FA Cup Final win v Spurs in 1987!!

In 1992 they were founder members of the Premier League.

The following Old Boys' sides were also involved in the Preliminary Round: Old Etonians v Norwich CEYMS (6-1), Old Westminsters v Norwich Thorpe (11-3), Old Wykehamists (Winchester College) v Old Harrovians (Harrow School) 3-0. Just for info!!

CEYMS is an acromyn for Church of England Young Men's Society. Sited at Swardeston, near Norwich, the club was founded in 1888. It now plays in the Premier Division of the Anglian Combination, previously in the Eastern Counties' League. Their furthest tie in the FA Cup was in 1906-7, when they reached the 4th Qualifying Rd. The club lays claim to having the oldest football song, adopted by Norwich City; "On the ball, City!!".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPVn9eLOkF0  I know the lads at Carrow Road don't sing this in full anymore! This is the latest Canaries' version below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MVXaE_AHR8

YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS

Today, the Hepworth U18s played at Brighouse Juniors and we won nicely. There were few incidents in the game, the referee used his common sense and there was no need to worry about whether the ball hits the arm. We went away happy and excited knowing that Sheffield United v Leeds United, a famous Yorkshire derby, was due to kick off , when we all got home. 

I thought I would test the lads' knowledge of this fixture since they are all Yorkshiremen and sure enough one of our squad came up with the answer to, "When was this fixture first played?". "1924" was the correct answer, which caused a few jaws to drop, considering the long history of the football game. Surely both teams had their origins in the 19th Century?  He knew what this was all about!                                                                    Here is a history of Leeds City and then Leeds United.

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/3994718670252035536/7978820413875833018?hl=en-GB

Leeds City and Sheffield United met in the Midlands Section Principle Tournament between 27/12/1915 and March 9th 1918....a War tournament....Sheffield won 3, Drew 1 and Lost 2.

The first Yorkshire derby between these two great clubs was held as late as November 8th 1924, when Leeds United was finally "in being", They drew 1-1 with hosts Sheffield United . The return game on March 25th, was also drawn at Leeds.

Sheffield have now won 29 fixtures, Leeds 31 and 23 drawn in all competitions. 

31 fixtures have been in the "Second Tier" ie League Division Two or the Championship. 

43 fixtures in First Division  or Premier League. 3 have been FA Cup ties, 3 League Cup ties, one Full members Cup and ONE in the Simod Cup.

Sheffield United is based, of course, in Sheffield and it was here that the first football clubs were formed. Sheffield United's ground, Bramall Lane, is regarded as the oldest major league ground in the world, dating from its first game in 1862. The club was first known as the Sheffield United Cricket Club (1854), the first sports' club to use the word "United".  Local referee, J.C.Clegg, was in charge of the 1889 FA Cup Semi-final between Preston NE and West Bromwich Albion at Bramall Lane. Over 22,000 watched the game and the money raised was around £570. This convinced the Sheffield ULnited Cricket Club that football could help finance the summer sport. Although the club was very much against "professionalism", a vote was held and the football club idea was passed by ONE!

It is not well known that Sheffield Wednesday were first known as "The Blades" with reference to the city's steel industry. This changed when Wednesday moved to their new ground at Owlerton in 1907 and became known as "The Owls". United then adopted "The Blades" nickname.

FINNEY IN THE DISTILLERY

Tom Finney was an extraordinary footballer who had much success with his ONE club, Preston North End and for England. But one of his later triumphs, at the age of 41, might be regarded as his one performance for Northern Ireland champions (at the time), Distillery, who were entered in the European Champions Cup in 1963, thre equivalent of the Champions League today.

Coaxed out of retirement, Finney was 3 years into retirement by Distillery manager George Armstrong to play against Portuguese Champions, Benfica. In 1963, they were some force to be reckoned with, especially with an ageing Finney up front. In front of a Distillery crowd of 19,326, the game ended in an exciting 3-3 draw.

In the return leg abroad, Finney did not travel and his influence was lost, as Distillery gave in 0-5!

The club's playing record in Europe's various competitions is:              P10 W0 D1 L9 F8 A34

Finney was my brother's favourite footballer as a youngster and he supported Preston as a youngster. I favoured the tangerine of Blackpool and Stanley Matthews. I don't think either of us Sussex lads had any idea where these places were, but we did follow the Lancashire clubs' successes and failures week by week.

Known as Distillery FC, the club originates from 1880, becoming founder members of the Irish League in 1890. In 1999, they became known as Lisburn Distillery FC. They first played at Distillery Street, Grosvenor Park and found a new ground in 1980 at the New Grosvenor Park, which they ground share with Brantwood and Crusaders at Ballykeagh in South Belfast.

Club groundsman, Dale Winton, sleeps at the ground so he can get to work at 7am on the dot.

THE SHANKLY HOTEL 2015/2020

My holiday planner and I, visited The Shankly in Liverpool a few years ago (December 2015) to celebrate Mrs B's birthday. In those days you could take a train across the Pennines to Manchester, then change to another and go to Liverpool centre and walk to The Shankly Hotel. Not a mask in sight. You tell that to our teenagers today and they won't believe you!

What a joy for Mrs B; train journeys, a lovely dinner, the Christmas pantomime at the famous Empire, (Dick Whittington) and a night's stay with me, in a hotel themed on Bill Shankly, the very famous long serving Liverpool FC Manager. Imagine waking up in the morning being looked down upon by Bill and his sidekicks, dressed in match trackies. The stay was fun if slightly eccentric; the hotel was covered in Shankly and Liverpool memorabilia; but what better way to celebrate the grand man (Shankly not me). It was a great experience. Funnily enough I was 64! ("When I get older, losing my hair.......)

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/3994718670252035536/3274307776464540851

Last night, the TV pages alerted us to a documentary featuring "The Grand Party Hotel". It is still called "The Shankly" and Bill Shankly would be turning in his grave if he knew what was going on under his name. 

Here is the link....you must watch some of it! (or ALL) or use "Catch Up".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000mv5f/the-grand-party-hotel-series-1-episode-1 

This is just one of the multi-occupancy select rooms. The evidence of celebration, left in and around the room and jacuzzi, the following morning, would be equivalent to a football changing room after a brilliant victory on a Saturday afternoon!

By the way, my visit happened on the same week that saw the "sacking" of Jose Mourinho, from Chelsea. 

EPSOM SALTS

Chatting to Brian just before the Pilates class this morning, we were sharing aching backs and Brian mentioned Epsom Salts so we discussed hot baths, massage (which we thought would be appropriate) and pain killers. I foolishly mentioned Epsom and Ewell, which wasn't very far from my upbringing. Indeed my school, Collyer's School, used to play Glynn School (both Grammar Schools in the old days), a good Sussex v Surrey Schools' fixture. Epsom was about 45 minutes drive from my home and occasionally my family would drive through the town (very nice market place) on our way to "the smoke" as my dad called it; his original home of Walworth in South-east London. So I thought I would have a quick re-education of the town and its football club; relying on a couple of past blogs and some recent stuff!

This does contain some wild language.....

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/3994718670252035536/3432559520976785688 

This does contain some chemistry!

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/3994718670252035536/6101753505877733766

So to sum up: Epsom football club was formed by cricketers, who wanted to keep winter fit in 1919, following the distraction of the war. The club joined the local Junior Leasgue and became known as Epsom Town in 1922. Their best effort in the FA Cup was to reach the 1st Round proper in 1933-4 losong to Leyton Orient 2-4. In 1963 the club became known as Epsom and Ewell, since the two settlements were neighbours. 

Their best effort was to get to the FA Vase Final at Wembley losing to Hoddesdon Town 1-2. In 1993 they sold their home ground and now share with Leatherhead FC at Fetcham Grove.

THE SEPTEMBER EQUINOX

 Actually it was yesterday, when the Sun "appeared" to cross the Celestial Equator, heading South, dragging in our Autumn and Winter. This event can happen on a day between 21st September and the 24th. Harvest Festivals will be celebrated on the Sunday of the "full moon" closest to the September Equinox, but maybe not this year. Bloody goalposts.....I said they have to be 4 inches in diameter

23rd September 2000 at Adams Park, Wycombe Wanderers (The Chairboys) played Peterborough Utd (Posh) in a Div 2 league game and Wycombe's Jamie Bates scored with the last kick of the first half. 

Wycombe then kicked off for the second half and within seconds their own, Jermaine MacSporran, scored another for the Chairboys. TWO goals in 9 seconds accoding to the referee. No Posh players touched the ball.

Of course all this would be more appropriate if Wycombe were nicknamed the Choirboys, but they are not...the nickname comes from the local trade, furniture makers, who enjoyed the wooded hills of Buckinghamshire. The club was founded in 1887 by local furniture makers and once established the clb joined the Southern League, gradually carving out a history that led them to be invited to the Football League. 

AND on September 23rd 2006, when Arsenal played Sheffield United at home in the Premier League winning 3-0, the three goalscorers shared the same birthday of August 17th: Arsenal's William Gallas (1977), Thierry Henry (1977) and the OWN GOAL scorer Phil Jagielka of the Blades (1982). At home, the Gunners only lost one game in the league that season, but the away games weren't quite so good, leaving Arsenal 4th in the division.

On February 25th 2007, in the League Cup Final, Arsenal lost 1-2 to Chelsea at The Millenium, Cardiff, the last one to be staged there while Wembley was being renewed.

Arsenal also had a run in the FA Cup, reaching the 5th Round, losing to Blackburn Rovers 0-1 away in a replay, on February 28th. The first tie had been played on the 17th.

To add to the congestion, there were two important ties in the Champions' League Round of 16 "two legs" against PSV Eindhoven, which Arsenal lost away 0-1 on Feb 20th and could only draw 1-1 at home on March 7th.  

By the way, in the next round Liverpool thumped Eindhoven 4-0 (over two legs) and then beat Chelsea 1-1 on pens 4-1 before reaching the final.

Arsenal had started their Champions' League campaign on August 8th and had ties against Dinamo Zagreb (5-1) in a Qualifying Round, then met SV Hamburg, FC Porto and CSKA Moscow in their group before bowing out. 

The Champions League semi-finals included Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. Of course, AC Milan beat United in the semi-finals and won the Final beating Liverpool 2-1.

Arsenal played 59 games during the season, their final 11 PL games between March 14th and May 13th.

 

ALL THE FUN OF THE FAIRS 1971

 

September 22nd 1971 brought together the "top clubs in Europe"  when the UEFA Cup replaced the very well known Inter Cities Fairs Cup, at the start of the 1971-2 season.

The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was arranged for cities that held international "Trade Fairs". One city per country was invited to play. This was not a UEFA or FIFA event and London City was England's first representative....losing to Barcelona City 8-2 on agg. ICFC held between1955-1971.

The UEFA big wigs, always inventive, decided to mark the change over by bringing together:

the first time winners of the ICFC, Barcelona, who lifted the first trophy in 1958. 

VERSUS the winners of the last Cup, Leeds United, who beat Juventus in the final in 1971.

35,000 turned up to the Camp Nou to witness this "play off", which Barcelona won 2-1.

1971-2: Leeds came second in the Football League First Division (top one then) behind Derby C. with a record of unbeaten at home and away: P21 W7 D5 L9 F10 A21, not a great return. At Home P21 W17 D4 L0 F54 A10, better. 

In a drawn league game 1-1 v Spurs at Boothberry Park (see below), the visitors were at full strength except for Anthony Want? Tony was born in Hackney and played between 1965-72, 50 times. He then went to Birmingham 100 apps and then USA. 2 goals in his full career of 250 games. Leeds had a full team!

In the UEFA cup Leeds met Lierse SK of Antwerp and won away 0-2, Galvin and Lorimer scoring. The return was a disaster of a 0-4 defeat and out went Leeds, with less well known team players in the team of Shaw, Faulkner, Mann, Belfitt and Bates along with the ususal suspects.

In the Football League Cup: Rd 2 Leeds beat Derby 2-0 at home after a replay, then in Rd 3 lost to West Ham after a 0-0 away and 0-1 losing at home. 

In the FA Cup: Leeds beat Bristol Rovers at home 4-1 in Rd 3, Liverpool at home 2-0 after 0-0 away in Rd 4. Cardiff 2-0 away in Rd 5 and Tottenham at Hull's Boothberry Park 2-1 in Rd 6 when Elland Road was banned after crowd hooliganism. Then they beat Birmingham City in the Semi-final (Hillsborough) 3-0 and Arsenal in the Final at Wembley.

 

ALPACA FORCED OFF PITCH; RHUBARB FORCED IN SHEDS

 

This is Oscar, the four legged one, who invaded the Carlton Athletic pitch when the home team was playing local rivals Ilkley Town AFC in a West Yorkshire Premier League match-Tier 7. The Alpaca is well known for following the ball up and down his farm field fence that runs alongside the Carlton pitch. Sporting a Patrick Bamford haircut, the Alpaca, hypnotised by the ball, found a way onto the pitch and stopped play-see video.

The referee lost his patience as the game was held up for about 20 minutes, waiting for the local famer to come and entice the woolly beast back to his field. The two teams were clearly disturbed by this, they got over excited, upsetting the ref, who began handing out bookings left right and centre. But at least Oscar, the alpaca, sparked some action!

It was a dire match after 35 minutes,with a dull score of 0-0 at the disturbance. At least Oscar brought some amusement to the occasion. Various players and supporters tried to entice the creature off the pitch with "treats" and the club chairman even found a "lasso" in the clubhouse and tried the cowboy rope trick with no success. Eventually the beast found itself away from the football pitch on to the next door cricket club. It was explained that alpacas have soft feet so no fear of damage to the wicket! but there was a fear of it charging one of the footballers or even making a tackle.

The alpaca came from the neighbouring farm shop *"The Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle" and was later led back to its "pen".

Ilkley won 0-2 by the way.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-54224681

Carlton FC's "commercial department" went into overdrive and is suggesting t-shirts, photos, film rites and so on. It was all so "a-llama-ing" one wit said. Yes, they do spit but only when they are very upset!

The Yorkshire Rhubarb triangle is a well known area in West Yorskhire nestled between Wakefield, Bradford and Leeds....an area of helpful soils, plenty of water and flat land where surprisingly, rhubarb is "force" grown in darkened sheds. 

I first heard of this unique region from a Huddersfield born Oxford Uni educated geography teacher and footballer, Brian Hardcastle. Brian had arrived at my school in Horsham when I was in the O Level years and he had played for Oxford Uni at Wembley in the "Varsity" match and joined Horsham Town FC. This was in a year when the Hornets (non-league) played Swindon Town (Div 3) in an 1966-7 FA Cup 1st Round tie at Horsham's home pitch, Queen's Street. Don Rogers, of Swindon, then becoming famous, was an attraction and he led his team to a comfy 3-0 win. 

Swindon went on to beat Ashford Town 5-0 Rd 2, then in Rd 3 played West Ham away 3-3, winning the replay 3-1. Rd 4 they beat Bury 2-1.                    In Rd 5 they drew with Nottingham Forest away 0-0, then 1-1 and lost 3-0 at a neutral ground. Forest beat Everton and eventually lost to Tottenham in the semi-final 2-1. Spurs won the Cup v Chelsea! 

Below, no it's not Christmas, it's forced rhubarb...a Yorkshire speciality.

Just to finish the story, Don Rogers was later the hero of Swindon Town, when he and his mates beat Arsenal on March 15th 1969, in the Football League Cup Final, in front of over 88,000 at Wembley. Rogers, a winger scored twice in extra time (104', 119') having see his team hold Arsenal to a 1-1 after 90 minutes. Roger Smart of Swindon opened the scoring after 35 minutes and Bobby Gould equalised after 86'. Gould was reduced to tears. Then in extra time it all kicked off. NOTE the state of the pitch-post Horse of the Year Show!! (that was a good idea...) and Arsenal of course had been hit by 'flu! Apparently.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ-rJx13s9g

HADLEY v HADLEIGH

https://hadleyfc.co.uk/club/index.html 

It doesn't take long to find inspiration for this blog, especially when there is an FA Vase 1st Qualifying Round draw due. There have been 221 fixtures drawn out of the hat including clubs from the Southwest Peninsular League, from Liskeard Athletic to Sunderland Ryhope Community Association in the Northern (Eastern) League.

You will remember that the FA Vase was introduced to the FA's series of trophies, taking the place of the now defunct FA Amateur Cup which had first been contested in 1893-4 and won by the Old Carthusians (old boys of Charterhouse School) 2-1 beating the Casuals. The early years were dominated by Southern clubs and even Tottenham Hotspur were in the draw, being amateur at this time, but were "suspended" for the next round, giving Clapham Rovers a walk over.

The Vase came into being when football went "open" with no divide between amateurs and professionals. Who played in which competition depended on the "Pyramid" with lower Step clubs playing in the Vase, intermediate Step clubs playing in the FA Trophy and the highest Step clubs obviously enjoying the FA Cup Proper.

Tie 113 involves Hadley FC from the Essex Senior League (Step 5) who have previously reached the Second Round https://hadleyfc.co.uk/club/index.html. 

The club is sited in Monken Hadley, site of the Battle of Barnet, one of the battles in the War of the Roses, 1471.

I would recommend looking at this website where "The Bricks" feature. You must look at the fund raising effort involving tennis balls. Founded in 1882, the website tells me that they are the oldest football club in Barnet!

The Bricks coincidently play Hadleigh United from the East Counties League, whose best effort in the Vase has been a quarter-final berth. https://www.hadleigh-utd.co.uk/ Another website worth browsing!

Founded in 1892, the Suffolk club is known as the Brettsiders and their best effort in the Vase has been getting to the quarter-final in 2012-13.

Why Brettsiders? Obvious-it's Geography again....the town of Hadleigh, pop: 8,500 is sited between Ipswich and Sudbury on the River Brett. 

HISTORY? The Kray twins were evacuated to the town with their family during the Second World War.

Who you looking at?

SAN SIRO

 

There are plenty of iconic football stadia in the world...........

this is the spectacular San Siro, Milan, one of the great stadiums in football. San Siro is the place in Milan where the stadium is sited. The first game played here was in September 19th 1926, when AC Milan played rivals Inter Milan(Internazionale) and lost 3-6. 

In 1947 Inter moved in to share the stadium, which was renamed Stadio Giuseppi Meazza, after a player who had played for both clubs. He played during the 1920-1940s and was later Inter manager. 

Here is Sanchez in the new kit zig-zaggy kit Inter kit.

AC Milan, founded in 1899, stands for Associazione Calcio (calcio-is the Italian name for football in its historic form). AC Milan are known as the Rossoneri-red and blacks.

Here is Kaka in the kit.

The stadium, of course, is generally known as the San Siro and holds 80,000. It hosted the World Cup in 1934 and 1990 and many Euro Finals including those of 1965 won by Inter, 1970 won by Feyenoord, 2001 won by Bayern M and 2016 won by Real Madrid.

The San Siro has also hosted boxing, rugby union (Italy v New Zealand in 2009) and concerts including Ed Sheeren in June 2019

Inter, founded in 1908, has never been relegated for the top Italian division.

The derby between the two Milan clubs, is known as the "Della Madonnina", named after the statue of the Virgin Mary on the Duomo, the Little Madonna. 

The derby was first played on January 10th 1909. Their first meeting was on January 10th 1909 which AC Milan won 3-2

In all 225 derby games:

Inter have won 82 games scoring 309 goals winning 39 trophies in various competitions

AC have won 76 games scoring 301 goals winning 48 trophies....

the rest of the derby games have been drawn!

Most recently on February 9th 2020, Inter beat AC Milan 4-2

There have also been 71 unofficial meetings of the two clubs.

The largest gap between the two was a 0-6 victory for Milan on May 11th 2001 in Serie A.

GEOGRAPHY-YOU CAN'T GET AWAY FROM IT

I was chatting over social media this afternoon with an old pupil, William Webbe, who loves sport (decent footballer and cricketer), geography and "lumps" of land surrounded by the sea (he heralds from the Channel Islands). It was by pure coincidence therefore that I found this past fixture, below, which involves all that lot and took place on September 18th..........

On September 18th 1990, Dundee United played a UEFA 1st Round tie away, against the almost unpronounceable Icelandic club, FH Hafnarfjordur FC, a place 10  miles south of the capital, Reykjavik. They are locally known as Fimleikafelag (this means gymnastics' club) Hafnarfjiordur; I bet they love reading that out on the results programme at 4.50pm on a Saturday.  It's a sports' club, founded in 1929, with gymnastics, handball and athletics added to the footy.

A huge crowd of 263 came along to witness the occasion which United won 3-1. The return tie, on the 2nd October at Tannerdice, ended 2-2 with Connolly scoring for United, aided by an own goal by somebody with a name ending in "sson". The other visitors' goal was scored  by another player with -sson at the end of his name. 

The Icelanders played Aston Villa in the UEFA Cup in 2008-9, losing 1-4 at home and drawing 1-1 at Villa Park = 2-5 on aggregate.

If you study the club name and have done a university course on settlement placenames (see recent blog) then you will spot that there is a FJORD mentioned in the name. If you have done glaciology or geology also then all this will clear to you. 

"Hafnar" means harbour (convenient in a fjord) OR it could be an unlikely reference to a famous song sung by the great Harry Belafonte; Hava Nagila. It means "Let us rejoice" and is an Israeli folk song performed at Jewish celebrations, based on Psalm 118 (verse 24) of the Hebrew Bible. Only joking but always informative.

All the Icelandic team players' names ended in "sson", the inherited link with each person's forefathers. Chairman of the club is Vidar Halldorsson, an ex-international footballer.

The Scots had Jim Mclean as player/manager and Mckinlay, Malpas, ONeill, Dailly, Welsh, Kopel, Thomson, Preston, Bowman, Connolly, Cleland.

Iceland has a population of around 365,000 (only!), Their present squad includes a Scot, Steven Lennon, who started his career at Rangers (2006-10) and Partick. Lincoln City, Dundalk, Newport County, then Sandnes Ulf, Norway and found himself at FH in 2014. He has made 116 apps and scored 64 goals.

In the next round, Dundee United, the "Terrors", as they are locally known, lost their shock appeal and were thumped by Vitesse Arnhem 0-5 on aggregate. Having only been beaten 0-1 away, with over 8,000 watching in Holland, over 10,000 packed Tannadice Park....sadly..it did not end well.

P.S. I have fish for tea tonight and might pop an ice cube into my wine.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

 

I keep hearing names from the not so distant past on our sporting media and wonder where are they now? Mostly they are still active......

Gareth Barry, at 39 is at West Brom and has played more times in the Premier League than anyone else 680 apps with 53 for England.He has played with Aston Villa, Manchester City and Everton, as well as the Baggies.

Kenny Miller, at 40 years old, is still with Partick Thistle has played 670 times between 1998 and 2020, starting with Wolves, Derby and then Thistle.

Some of football's overseas' players have longevity: 

Buffon, that Juve and Italian keeper, now with PSG is 41 years old. Goalies have longer life? In defence Dani Alves, a right back, is 37 made his mark with PSG and has gone to Sao Paulo, in Brazil. 

Ashley Cole, at 37, is at LA Galaxy, the American Soccer League graveyard. 

Lucio who played in the Brazilian 2002 World Cup winning team, once with Inter, is with Brasiliense at 41.

Daniele De Rossi, 37, played with AC Roma between 2001-19, was in the Italian World Cup 2006 squad and is playing with Boca at the moment.

Hernandez Xavi, 38, is player-managing Al Sadd in Doha having just stopped playing at Barcelona in 505 apps between 1997-2020. A long career.

Ya Ya Toure, 37, began in Beveren in 2001 and moved through Donetsk, Olympiacos, Monaco, Barcelona, Man City (230 apps), Olympiacos, Qingdao Huanghai and made 101 apps for the Ivory Coast from 2004.

Pascal Chimbonda, at 41, is at Ashton Town....where? Manchester area-North-west Counties Div 1.

He began at Le Havre in 1998 and then Bastia, Wigan (cultural shock), Tottenham twice around 2006-9, Sunderland, Blackburn Rovers, QPR 2011, Doncaster R, Market Drayton, Arles-Avignon, Washington (Tyne and Wear) and Ashton. His TOTAL CAREER GOALS = 16 in around 450 apps. 

Frank Ribery, a wonderful footballer, is 37 and spent his main career at Bayern Munich (273 apps) 2007-19 and is now with Fiorentina. He played with Boulonge, Ales, Brest, Metz, Galatasaray and with France 2006-14.

 

and finally Zlatan.... at 37 is with LA Galaxy, his career stretching from 1998-2018, starting in Malmo and ending "possibly" in AC Milan. Overall club: 591 apps 391 goals. though I read somewhere that he has over 500.

For Sweden: 2001-16 116 caps/62 goals. Mostly with PSG and a little with Man U.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=a1e54af_DV0

PLACENAMES AND THE CUP

On a day when England Cricket has just lost two wickets on the first two balls of their One Day innings v Australia, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, I am tempted to go "cricket", but the FA Cup brings the best and the worst out of anoraks like me, so here a lazy way to start the blog:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53983501 Stick with it, there are some nice stories.

I couldn't get to the Stocksbridge Park Steels (Jamie Vardy's old club) v Stalybridge Celtic tie; five miles down the road-COVID struck. I didn't even get the chance to watch it in TELLY-yes, it was broadcast and I was looking after some of our Hepworth United Juniors. 

I wonder if there hadn't been COVID, whether The Steelers would have got a decent crowd? Stalybridge won comfortably and play Bishop Auckland at home on September 22nd 7.45pm, one of 117 ties in the next Preliminary Round.

Two "t's" Consett played Ossett United in the Preliminary Round and drew 2-2 winning 5-4 on pens.

Tadley Calleva (TC) won away at Fawley 1-0 and find themsleves playing Truro City (TC) in the First Qualifying Round on September 22nd. The TCs tie. Tadley Calleva is a town sited on an ancient Iron Age Fort (settled by the Atrebates who invaded from the Belgium region) and then occupied as a Roman crossroads.

Tadley Atrebatum is a old Roman settlement near Silchester in Hampshire; the club founded in 1989 and plays in the Wessex League. Harking back to the series of lectures by Professor Harold Darby, the leading expert on "placenames"; Tadley means (Tad = toads/frogs) and (ley = clearing in a wood), we can work out why the locals developed their settlement name. Can anyone explain Penistone?  Upperthong? Wetwang? Prof Harold didn't mention these in his lectures.

Two Sussex clubs: Broadbridge Heath v Haywards Heath meet at the West Sussex home near Horsham. A few miles away, Horsham play Kingstonian, rivals in the Isthmian League. The Hornets, my first senior club!

Poole Town have to travel to Merthyr Town, a longish hop over the Severn Bridge.

Two teams "flying high", Larkhall Athletic v Bitton- is a meeting of two birdnames? whereas Cray Wanderers meet Fisher but at their home Hayes Lane, Bromley, nowhere near the sea. The Cray club claims to have been formed when St Mary Cray and St Paul's Cray, near Orpington, joined to make a team in 1860...making a claim for being one of the oldest clubs IN THE WORLD. To celebrate their 150th anniversary, they cleverly arranged a triangular tournament with Sheffield FC and Hallam FC, the other two "oldest" clubs.

Old friends Hashtag Utd play Soham Town Rangers ( a club some uni friends went to play for during the student years).

New Salami play Brentwood Town and Hayward Heath Town (who beat Broadbridge Heath Town in the battle of the Heaths) play Hanwell Town.

I wonder if Macclesfield Town (146 years old) will recover from its financial disaster to take part later in the draw.

This round winners get £2250 and losers £750, which won't help MTFC!

EARLY EUROPEAN ROUNDS

 

15th September 1982, Swansea City, representing Wales in the European Cup Winners Cup, beat Sliema Wanderers from Malta, winning 12-0 with 8 different scorers. The largest victory by a Welsh club in European competition. Left is the proper Swansea match day programme, on sale for 35p.

On the same date in 1976, Derby County beat Finn Harps of the Irish Republic at the Baseball Ground in a UEFA Cup tie. 

The "newspaper style" programme left much to be desired, but only cost 15p.

Having had their first 8 games in the season as defeats, goals from Kevin Hector (5), Charlie George (3), Leighton James (3) and Bruce Rioch brought the tally to 12 (9-0 at half time) and a win for Derby County in the first leg of their First Round UEFA Cup tie. In the second leg, away, they won 4-1.

In the next round, The Rams met a proper club and lost 2-5 on aggregate to AEK Athens. 

On September 12th 1972 in the European Cup, Derby represented the English Football League and The Rams made it to the semi-final. They beat Zeljeznicar, from Yugoslavia, in Rd 1 4-1 on aggregate, then met the powerful Benfica , from Portugal, winning 3-0 on aggregate. 

In the quarter-final they beat Sparta Trana of Czechoslovakia, 2-1 on agg and then reached the semi-final where Juventus proved too strong. The Italians won 1-3 in Italy and characteristically played out a 0-0 draw away in Derby.

Where is he now? Bruce Rioch got a mention earlier and he is now 73 years old. Born in 6th September, 1947 in Aldershot, he played at Luton Town 149 apps, Aston  Villa 154, Berby 106, Everton  30, Derby 41, Birmingham City 3, Sheffield Utd 8, Seattle Sounders 46, Torquay 71, amassing 133 goals. Scotland 24 caps. The first player born in England to captain Scotland.

He started management in 1986 at Torquay and by 2008 had managed (or mismanaged?) 11 clubs including Odense Boldklub and Aalborg BK. 

His last appointments were with Falmouth Town in Cornwall in 2010 and Penryn Athletic in the South-west Peninsular League.

His longest stay was at Middlesbrough 1986-1990. They rest were short visits!

UNDER LIGHTS

  Wolves were one of the first Football League clubs to get floodlights fully operational and they did this with friendlies against teams from South Africa, Hungary and Russia. On Wednesday September 30th 1953 they played a South Africa XI and then realising the value of floodlights, invited Honved, Dynamo Spartak and Moscow Dynamo to Molyneux.

Two years earlier Arsenal had played Hapoel Tel Aviv in a friendly under lights at Highbury on Wednesday September 19th 1951.

The first "official" Football Association approved game was held at Mansfield's Field Mill Ground on Saturday 22nd February 1930 staging the North Nottinghamshire Senior Cup Final between Ollerton Forest and Welbeck Athletic.

Ollerton (above) won 3-0 but the real heroes were the chaps on the side line who dipped the five dark brown leather footballs into whitewash every so often, so that at least one ball was seeable on the pitch, under the new style lighting. As it was an evening kick off, of course, and a lot of the locals were at home, from their work in factories and mines etc. Home fires were lit "tea" was being served up and smoke descended onto the pitch, adding to the poor visibility. But the show went on! 

An FA rep at the match got excited and noted the expenditure on the floodlight system-£1200 for equipment-30 feet high poles etc in each corner of the pitch, that cost £1200 (note the date, so not cheap) and £3 for electricity! There was half an hour of community singing before the game, providing quality entertainment. 

 August 1930, the ever inventive and initiative based Football Assocation, banned floodlit games and not even Watford FC was allowed to switch on the lights around their ground's surrounding "greyhound track" when they asked for permission in December to stage a game.

So the FA banned any floodlit football until December 1950!!!

The first Football League side to install floodlights was Swindon Town who played a friendly against Bristol City on Monday 2nd April 1951. The FA eventually lifted the ban and on September 14th 1955 Kidderminster Harriers hosted Brierley Hill Alliance, at their Aggborough Ground, in an FA Cup Preliminary Rd replay, winning 4-2 after a 1-1 draw away.

By June 1956 the FA finally saw the light and on Wednesday 22nd February 1956 Portsmouth hosted Newcastle United at floodlit Fratton Park in a First Division game. Pompey lost 0-2 and nearly 16,000 saw it.

Putting all this into context, on October 14th 1878, the first floodlit game took place at Bramall Lane, between two representative teams from the Sheffield area. Over 8,000 attended but it could have been 12,000 because the entrances had not been "lit", so a number sneaked into the ground in the shadows. Two times 8 horse power generators behind each goal whirled away supplying 30 foot floodlight towers in each corner of the pitch.