HARTLEPOOL UNITED

NO BLOG LAST NIGHT, SO HERE'S A LONG ONE! on November 21st in 1936, just over 4800 supporters saw Third Division North, Darlington, host Hartlepools United in a Division Three North fixture, and the teams shared 10 goals. Nine players scored goals: Logan, Brown, Towers and Stanger (2) for Darlo, while Scott, Hill, English, Robertson and Wigham scored for "The Monkey Hangers".You will note that Hartlepools had an "s" in their name in those days and has a popular nickname of the Monkey Hangers. In 1968 the "s" and the "United" were dropped from the team name of "Hartlepools United". This was due to the merger of West Hartlepool with the older smaller town of Hartlepool and the village of Hart into one new borough named "Hartlepool". The appendage of "United" was restored in 1977.

The name derives from "hart", a stag and local pools where they gathered for refreshment.

Hartlepool United, from County Durham, will be lodged in many oldies memories as a club that survives relegation out of the Football League annually. Along with clubs like Accrington Stanley, Gateshead and Workington Town, Hartlepool may be considered a bit of a soft touch. Playing at Victoria Park, the club was founded in 1908, another great north-eastern side formed on coal, iron and resources from the sea. 

Brian Clough, Cyril Knowles and Len Ashurst are among famous names to have been associated with the club. Clough, of course, cut his managerial teeth here. H'Angus the Monkey, the club mascot was famously voted in as mayor at the town elections in 2002, and three years later the club had its greatest moment, missing promotion to the Championship just! 

The land on which Hartlepool United's, Victoria Park, stands, was originally a limestone quarry owned by the North-eastern Railway Company. In 1886, the land was bought by West Hartlepool Rugby Football Club for the development of a new rugby ground. The ground was then named the Victoria Ground in celebration of Queen's Diamond Jubilee. In 1908, West Hartlepool R.F.C. went bust, leaving The Victoria Ground vacant and shortly afterwards, the ground was registered under the name of "The Hartlepools United Football Athletic Company Limited", a football team representing both the town of West Hartlepool and the original settlement of Old Hartlepool. This football team developed into Hartlepool United. From 1908 to 1910, Hartlepool United shared their ground with the amateurs of West Hartlepool until the club broke up, leaving United as the sole occupiers of the ground.

During the Napoleonic War, a French warship was found wrecked off the Hartlepool coast (north-east England)  and when it was boarded by the locals, there were no Frenchmen alive apart from one individual that the locals assumed to be an French sailor. The individual was wearing a French naval uniform and didn't speak English, so he must have been a Frenchman. It was the ship's pet monkey, a mascot on the boat!! The poor beast was taken ashore and because it didn't speak English, it couldn't defend itself and so was found guilty and hung as a French spy. The club  and town now have a team mascot called "H'Angus" and there are also various children's books, adult novels, songs and films with the Hartlepool monkey as the central theme. I wonder how that gets received in this delicate, woke "decade". 

They won the FA  Amateur Cup Final  in 1904-5 as West Hartlepool beating the prolific Clapton at Shepherd's Bush on April 8th. Having joined the new Third Division North in 1921, the club has had many scrapes with re-election.

In the 2002 Council Election, the team's mascot H'Angus the Monkey, aka Stuart Drummond, was elected mayor of Hartlepool, as an independent candidate, under the slogan "free bananas for schoolchildren". He worked on cruise ships, travelling the globe for a couple of years and then worked in a call centre in his home town. Even though his candidacy was just a publicity stunt, Drummond has since been re-elected after throwing off his comedy image and identifying himself increasingly with the Labour group on the council. On 5 May 2013, Drummond left his post of Hartlepool's mayor after a November 2012 referendum meant that Hartlepool would no longer have a mayor, instead being led by committees.

Jeff Stelling of TV Football fame, known to be from the North-east England, notably Hartlepool, studied at Salford University,  training to be a physiotherapist and in July 2012 graduated with a First Class Honours degree. Jeff Stelling, is the club's chief supporter and President of the Monkey Hangers. as he often refers to on Saturday mornings and he raises money for the Prostate Cancer Charity.

In 2016-17 Hartlepool dropped out of the Football League in 23rd place and played in the National League (5th Tier). The next season they came 15th in their League, then 16th, 12th and in 2020-1 4th being Play Off Winners. In 2020-21, they were runners up to Sutton United in the Motorama national League (Level 5-6). Yesterday (2021-2) Pool lost 1-3 to Forest Green in League 2. On Tuesday they play Swindon Town.