REG ON THE BRINK AND REG ON THE BRINK!!

 23rd March 1951

I would guess my level of anger and disappointment at being at an abandoned fixture, would depend on how well my team was doing at its conclusion. 

On Friday 23rd March 1951, Newport County fans in the 6,741 crowd at their home, Somerton Park for a Division 3 (South) fixture would have been livid. On a wet and windy Good Friday, their side was 5-1 up against second-placed Norwich City and with a little more than a quarter of an hour remaining the two points looked a certainty. Then referee, Arthur Blythe, abandoned the match following Norwich City defender, Reg Foulkes (below) injuring himself, after heading the rain-sodden leather ball. Those of you of a certain age will remember that a soaking-wet leather ball was often a lethal weapon!

(it certainly did not respect nice haircuts!!)

The Newport fans were not too pleased and many stayed to demonstrate their disapproval at the ref, who could only escape the ground disguised as an ambulance man and with a police escort. The match was voided and in the replay a month later the points were shared in a 1-1 draw. Not only did Newport have the victory taken from them but the scorers in the first match had their goals deleted from the records. 

Reginald Ernest Arundel "Reg" Parker (born 10 June 1921 – died 1997) was a Welsh professional footballer. A centre-forward, Parker began his career at Cardiff City, playing for the side in wartime fixtures. Parker later went on to serve in World War 2 before returning to Ninian Park on his return, where he was unable to force his way past Stan Richards and made just two appearances at the end of the 1947–48 season. 

One of Newport's goalscorers in the original match was Reg  and when he retired  in 1954, he had 99 League goals for Newport to his name; the century, possibly, being denied him by that abandonment. In August 1948, he joined Newport County in exchange for Bryn Allen, going on to make 201 appearances for the side between 1948 and 1954, scoring 99 goals!!!

BLADES, CLEGG, CUP, CRICKET

March 22nd 1889. I admit I have used this historic date before, but how can we ignore such an important date in the history of the World's greatest cup competition. Not to mention the foration of the oldest club......

Sheffield United Football Club was formed at the Adelphi Hotel, Sheffield, by the President of the Sheffield Cricket Club, Sir Charles Clegg. Just six days before the club's formation, the Bramall Lane ground hosted an FA Cup semi-final between Preston and West Bromwich Albion, when a crowd of 22,688 paid gate receipts of £558. The cricket club saw that regular football at the ground would provide an important additional source of income. In future years football became the main sport at the ground with Yorkshire playing their last match there in August 1973. The picture shows clearly the change of use of Bramall Lane with a new football stand taking the place of the old cricket pavilion.

F.A. Cup
1888/89  Results
* denotes non-league club
Some unusual and spectacular club names here!
For the first time there were qualifying rounds in the FA Cup with round of entry being decided on previous FA Cup performance and not League membership. Four of the twelve Football League clubs were included in the qualifiers with Stoke becoming the first League side to be knocked out by a non-league team. The results of qualifying round matches played by League sides were.....
1st Qualifying Round
Sat	Oct	6		Notts County		4	-	1		Eckington Works*
Sat	Oct	6		Hurst*		0	-	0		Bolton Wanderers
					(Hurst withdrew from the FA Cup before the replayed was played)
Sat	Oct	6		Stoke		1	-	2		Warwick County*
				Ulster*  (walk-over)						Everton  (scratched)
2nd Qualifying Round
Sat	Oct	27		Notts County		4	-	2		Beeston St John's*
Sat	Oct	27		West Manchester*		1	-	0		Bolton Wanderers
					(The FA ordered that the match be replayed - match void)
Wed	Oct	31			Bolton Wanderers	9	-	0			West Manchester*
3rd Qualifying Round
Sat	Nov	17		Notts County		2	-	1		Derby Midland*
Sat	Nov	17		Linfield Athletic*		4	-	0		Bolton Wanderers
4th Qualifying Round
Sat	Dec	8		Staveley*		1	-	3		Notts County
First Round
Sat	Feb	2		Accrington		1	-	1		Blackburn Rovers
Sat	Feb	9			Blackburn Rovers	5	-	0			Accrington
Sat	Feb	2		Aston Villa		3	-	2		Witton*
Sat	Feb	2		Birmingham St George's*		3	-	2		Long Eaton Rangers*
Sat	Feb	2		Bootle*		0	-	3		Preston North End
Sat	Feb	2		Burnley		4	-	3		Old Westminsters*
Sat	Feb	2		Chatham*		2	-	1		South Shore*
Sat	Feb	2		Derby County		1	-	0		Derby Junction*
Sat	Feb	2		Grimsby Town*		3	-	1		Sunderland Albion*
Sat	Feb	2		Halliwell*		2	-	2		Crewe Alexandra*
Sat	Feb	9			Crewe Alexandra*	1	-	5			Halliwell*
Sat	Feb	2		Nottingham Forest*		2	-	2		Linfield Athletic*
					Nottingham F.* (walk-over)						Linfield Athletic* (scratched)
Sat	Feb	2		Notts County		2	-	0		Old Brightonians*
Sat	Feb	2		Notts Rangers*		1	-	1		Sheffield Wednesday*
Sat	Feb	9			Sheffield Wednesday*	3	-	0			Notts Rangers*
Sat	Feb	2		Small Heath*		2	-	3		West Bromwich Albion* (holders)
Sat	Feb	2		Swifts*		3	-	1		Wrexham*
Sat	Feb	2		Walsall Town Swifts*		5	-	1		Sheffield Heeley*
Sat	Feb	2		Wolverhampton Wanderers		4	-	3		Old Carthusians*
Second Round
Sat	Feb	16		Aston Villa		5	-	3		Derby County
				Blackburn Rovers  (walk-over)						Swifts  (scratched)
Sat	Feb	16		Chatham*		1	-	1		Nottingham Forest*
Sat	Feb	23			Nottingham Forest*	2	-	2			Chatham*
Thur	Feb	28			Chatham*	3	-	2			Nottingham Forest*
					(the match was played at the Kennington Oval)
Sat	Feb	16		Grimsby Town*		0	-	2		Preston North End
Sat	Feb	16		Halliwell*		2	-	3		Birmingham St George's*
Sat	Feb	16		Sheffield Wednesday*		3	-	2		Notts County
Sat	Feb	16		West Bromwich A.*  (holders)		5	-	1		Burnley
Sat	Feb	16		Wolverhampton Wanderers		6	-	1		Walsall Town Swifts*
Third Round
Sat	Mar	2		Blackburn Rovers		8	-	1		Aston Villa
Sat	Mar	2		Chatham*		1	-	10		West Bromwich Albion (holders)
Sat	Mar	2		Preston North End		2	-	0		Birmingham St George's*
Sat	Mar	2		Wolverhampton Wanderers		3	-	0		Sheffield Wednesday*
Semi-Finals
Sat	Mar	16		Wolverhampton Wanderers		1	-	1		Blackburn Rovers
					(played at Alexandra Road, Crewe)
Sat	Mar	23			Wolverhampton W.	3	-	1			Blackburn Rovers
					(played at Alexandra Road, Crewe)
Sat	Mar	16		Preston North End		1	-	0		West Bromwich Albion* (holders)
					(played at Bramall Lane, Sheffield)
Final (at the Oval)
Sat	Mar	30		Preston North End		3	-	0		Wolverhampton Wanderers

Bramall Lane

It would be common to add 'Sheffield United FC' to 'Bramall Lane' as the venue for the Preston v WBA semi-final but to do so would not, strictly speaking, be correct. Explanation below:

Originally Bramall Lane was the home of Sheffield Cricket Club (below)who were formed in 1854 with Yorkshire County Cricket Club playing their first match there a year later. The first football match to be played on the ground was between Sheffield FC (the oldest club in the world) and Hallam on December 29th 1862; the game was played to raise money for the Lancashire Distress Fund during the cotton famine, the match ended 0–0. Later Sheffield Wednesday (then The Wednesday) played a few of their more important fixtures there.

History was made on Monday October 14th 1878 when the ground hosted the first recorded floodlit fixture. Two representative sides from Sheffield provided the opposition and a crowd of around 20,000 - which was massive for the times -  witnessed the spectacle which was considered a great success.

In March 1883 England entertained Scotland in the first international match at Bramall Lane but still there was no regular football at the ground. That was to change just six days after the Preston v WBA semi in 1889. Such was the success of the match - with nearly £600 in receipts being taken -  the cricket club were convinced it would be a good move to form their own football club, and so Sheffield United were born as a direct result of that semi-final. Three years later they were elected to the Football League and the rest, as they say, is history.

Sheffield United became independent of the cricket club and bought the ground but Bramall Lane still hosted both sports for many years until the cricket club were finally given their marching orders. The last County cricket match played at Bramall Lane was in August 1973 which at the time left Northampton's County Ground as the only one which staged both first-class cricket and League football. When that particular relationship ended it was to be the football club who had to move on, to the Sixfields Stadium.

DO YOU KNOW THE OTHER "GROUND" THAT HAS HOSTED BOTH FA CUP FINALS AND TEST CRICKET?

CRAMPED AT FULHAM

Bit of late one, but you know when you are an international traveller, not every place on our globe suits Blog dates! Found a space nevertheless to drop one today. It's 7.20pm. Tuesday 21st.

21st March 2009
It is always a good time to draw in Fergie to the Blog, he was always reliable for a headline. A Manchester United defeat was usually followed by (an excuse) a reasonable explanation - a dodgy ref, a poor pitch, the colour of their shirts, fog, massive injury list, to name but a few. 

But one of the more bizarre followed a 2-0 Premier Division defeat at Fulham on 21st March 2009 - the Craven Cottag(right) dressing rooms were too small! I am not entirely disappointed by this, having been in them! He said the FA should have rules for the size of dressing rooms and implied Fulham should be demoted because they beat United because their dressing rooms were too small. Amazingly though just two weeks previously United had won 4-0 at Craven Cottage in the FA Cup - and dressing rooms were exactly the same size! and a win is a win. The away team dressing room is a cold, uninspiring place.

Remember that match when we beat Man.U. 2-0 with Scholls and Rooney given red cards near the end of the match due to pure frustration and then Fergusson blamed the small dressing room for the defeat. United just haven't learnt how to behave when beaten. From a Fulham supporter's website: "Our dressing rooms are small but to stand in the middle of the home one I found quite special. To think of all the players who have got changed in there down the years, well how memorable was that?"

I know Ferguson used to moan about them. Not enough room  for your hair dryer Fergie?

When I went on the Stadium tour a while back, the guy showing us round specifically commented on the size of the changing rooms, highlighting how tiny they were.

The opposition team's room in particular  is very cramped, he admitted that the club gives the opposing team the smaller room to make them as uncomfortable as possible! As others have said, sitting in the changing rooms remembering the history of the club was magical, so  it would be a shame to move them.  When you see some of the other clubs' state of the art changing rooms you can understand why their multi million pound players would be so shocked when they see ours!  Tough!!

HOME TEAM!. Apparently bigger and more luxurious....fish eye tells all.

ST PATRICK'S DAY: March 17th

 

Yes, today is St Patrick's Day and I was made aware of the Irish National Saint in CUBS! Those were the days, woggles, knots, freezing cold scout hut .....for me, quite a long time ago. It wasn't just Baden-Powell that became part of our knowledge, but the "Saints" too. Anything for a celebration eh, Akela?? Dib, Dib, Dob, Dob....

Baden-Powell of course an Old Carthusian who ;played in goal for the school team. He played the piano and violin at school,was an ambidextrous artist and enjoyed acting. Holidays were spent on yachting and canoeing expeditions with his brothers. Baden-Powell's first introduction to Scouting skills was through stalking and cooking game while avoiding teachers in the nearby woods, which were strictly out-of-bounds, not nipping off for a fag!

St Patrick's Athletic Football Club (Irish: Cumann Peile Lúthchleas Phádraig Naofa) is a professional football club based in Inchicore, Dublin,, that plays in the Irish Premier Division.  Founded in May 1929, they played originally in Phoenix Park, but they moved to their current ground Richmond Park, in 1939, where there is around 5,500 capacity.

The crest elements that have featured over the past 100 years are: the circular shield, the golden crozier of Saint Patrick emerging from the waves of the Camac River. The updated crest features a new sans-serif typeface, while the crozier that adorns the centre of the crest is made up entirely of geometric circles, aiding the overall scalability of the crest!!! OK?

St Patrick's Athletic has won many trophies in the Irish Football Association, including eight league titles, the fifth most in the country competition, as well as four FAI Cups and four League Cups. The current manager is Tim Clancy, who took over in December 2021.

The club graduated through the ranks of the Leinster Senior League and duly took their place in the League of Ireland, in 1951, and won the Championship at their first attempt. The club's glory years came in the 1950s and 1990s when they won 6 of their 8 league titles. The club also has the record for never having been relegated from the Premier League. The club plays in red and white colours and nicknames include The Saints, Supersaints and Pats. The Saints also have a lot of Dublin Derby games with the likes of Shelbourne. Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians.

St Patrick's Young Men Football Club is a Northern Irish junior football club based in Belfast, playing in Division 2A of the Northern Amateur FL. The club, founded in 1965 as Peter Pan, and originally based in west Belfast, has been a member of the Amateur League since 2009. Club colours are yellow and blue.

The club participates in the Irish Cup, formed in 1881, is the fourth oldest cup competition in ther World.

St. Patrick was a 5th-century missionary to Ireland who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. He became a legendary figure by the end of the 7th century and is considered a patron saint of Ireland.

Get it?

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE

In 1878, a "church", St Domingo's, Methodist New Connexion Chapel, in Breckfield Road, North Liverpool, formed a sports' club, to encourage local lads to behave themselves, play the game of football and to stay "good and righteous".  These local lads learned to play sport, all year round – including cricket in summer. The club's first game was a 1–0 victory over Everton Church Club. The club was renamed Everton in November 1879, after the local area, as people outside the congregation wished to participate. 

It wasn't long before the lads decided to call themselves, Everton and moved to play in the local, Stanley Park. Huge crowds eventually meant that the club needed a proper stadium, so in 1884, club President, John Houlding (below). a local brewer found and bought a plot of land south of the park, called ANFIELD, and he rented it out to the Everton club.

Everton FC was a founding member of the Football League in 1888–89 and won its first League Championship title in the 1890-1 season.

Soon, gate receipts multiplied and Houlding was making enough money, especially from the Sandon pub near the ground which he owned. His home brewed sparkling ales were the sole beverages sold in the ground, so he had money to help the club with transfers, wages and maintenance (of the ground!). With this in mind, Houlding upped the rent from £100 to £250 per annum but Everton only offered him £180 and a stand off ensued. Houlding did not accept this and decided to offer the Anfield ground to Everton FC for £6,000. The Everton club was unhappy because they were changing in the Sandon, drinking from Houlding's bar, so voted to leave Anfield in October 1891, spending money on a nearby plot of land worth £8900 called Mere Green. This was soon to be Goodison Park.

Houlding was not pleased, being left with a ground that nobody wanted to play on, so he formed his own team. He could not call it Everton, so settled for Liverpool in 1892 and with a staff member from Everton, John McKenna, imported several Scottish players, which soon became known as "The team of All the Macs". His team joined the football league in 1893, winning promotion in the first season and set up a first league match between the two Mersey clubs in October 13th 1894, Everton winning 3-0. Liverpool had to wait until September 1897 before they beat their city rivals at Anfield 3-1.

On the 15th March 1947, New Brighton manager Neil McBain had a few team selections problems for the Division 3 (North) match against Hartlepool United on this day in 1947. The former centre-half had to play himself as goalkeeper for his one and only League appearance for the club – at the age of 51 years 4 months! New Brighton, originally 1921 founded, is another Merseyside club, which has been included in this "Blog" previously and plays in the West Cheshire League. Know any others?