Len Pettit's story
The sight and sound of Len Pettit was a familiar one around Newmarket Road from the 1920s until the 1990s, and he could usually be found selling lottery tickets or programmes when he wasn’t cheering the U’s on.
Born in 1917 to mother Elizabeth and father Herbert, who was away fighting at the front, he grew up in Ditton Walk and first watched Abbey United at the Celery Trenches in the 1920s. He recounted some of his memories to the match day programme in 1989, seven years before his death in 1996. When I was about ten years old, I and a few pals supported Abbey United Football Club, at that time in the Cambridgeshire League Division 3b, if my memory serves me correctly. Their headquarters were at the Dog and Pheasant public house, just over the bridge. Their goal posts etc were carried down Cut Throat Lane to a piece of ground called the Celery Trenches. Ropes were put round the playing pitch to keep off the cows. Needless to say, it wasn’t only mud which was on the players’ kit at the end of the game. After a few years, Abbey United were so successful that a lot of people began to take an interest. Eventually the present ground was sold quite cheaply to the football club. Some local businessmen got together and decided to form [the company] Cambridge United Football Club. Entry was gained to the United Counties League and a board of directors was formed to launch the club. |
Success followed and the next step was the Eastern Counties League. My best memory of those days were when the team drew with Newport County at home in the first round proper of the FA Cup and won the replay at Newport by two goals to one. This was in the season 1952/53 (actually 1953/54 – ed).
Those days we had no floodlights and had to kick off early at 12 o’ clock at home games. Then Dudley Arliss, the pools manager, had a sudden brainwave. Four of us would go round the ground at half-time collecting towards the floodlights. We counted up how much we had collected that day and were able to tell people over the loudspeaker system how much we had raised before they went home. During this time, we collected just over £4,000, so that went towards the £16,000 which the original lights cost.
Dudley Arliss and the manager at that time, Alan Moore, heard of some pools being run at Chelmsford football club and decided to investigate with the help of agents far and wide. Our pools were a great success and have been for many years … I used to sell these tickets only at home games but, as you all know, I sell programmes now, and have done so for many years, and in that time have seen quite a few commercial and football managers come and go.
Some supporters at the Newmarket Road end of the ground love to have a joke with me and I would just like to say that I enjoy it all and life just wouldn’t be the same if they stopped doing it (so keep it up, lads).
Well, there is a lot more I could write about as I am nearly 73 years old and remember the good times as well as the bad. So I will close now wishing the present manager and his team the very best of luck and success.
A lifelong supporter
Len Pettit
Those days we had no floodlights and had to kick off early at 12 o’ clock at home games. Then Dudley Arliss, the pools manager, had a sudden brainwave. Four of us would go round the ground at half-time collecting towards the floodlights. We counted up how much we had collected that day and were able to tell people over the loudspeaker system how much we had raised before they went home. During this time, we collected just over £4,000, so that went towards the £16,000 which the original lights cost.
Dudley Arliss and the manager at that time, Alan Moore, heard of some pools being run at Chelmsford football club and decided to investigate with the help of agents far and wide. Our pools were a great success and have been for many years … I used to sell these tickets only at home games but, as you all know, I sell programmes now, and have done so for many years, and in that time have seen quite a few commercial and football managers come and go.
Some supporters at the Newmarket Road end of the ground love to have a joke with me and I would just like to say that I enjoy it all and life just wouldn’t be the same if they stopped doing it (so keep it up, lads).
Well, there is a lot more I could write about as I am nearly 73 years old and remember the good times as well as the bad. So I will close now wishing the present manager and his team the very best of luck and success.
A lifelong supporter
Len Pettit
Len's vision
Len Pettit revealed in March 1990 – shortly before that month’s FA Cup quarter-final against Crystal Palace at the Abbey Stadium – that he had had a vision of Wembley’s twin towers in black and amber.
He told Cambridge Evening News reporter Judy Polack that the ‘best team United have had’ would beat Palace but warned: ‘It’s going to be very, very difficult. I think they will be better than Millwall and Bristol City [whom United had beaten in earlier rounds]. |
Len recalled an old Abbey United chant when he spoke to Judy Polack: |
‘But wouldn’t it be great to be the first fourth division team to reach the semi-finals?’
Len said he couldn’t remember a better United team. ‘We had some great teams, like the one that beat Newport in the Cup in the 1953/54 season – the last time I paid to get into the ground – but even they don’t compare with this one.
'This is a young team. They’ve come from nowhere and they’ve cost very little. They never looked so good under Chris Turner – I don’t think he could motivate them as well as John Beck.
‘I don’t think I’ve seen a team with so much commitment before. And the way they’ve been playing in the Cup, I can’t think of a better United team.’
Len said he couldn’t remember a better United team. ‘We had some great teams, like the one that beat Newport in the Cup in the 1953/54 season – the last time I paid to get into the ground – but even they don’t compare with this one.
'This is a young team. They’ve come from nowhere and they’ve cost very little. They never looked so good under Chris Turner – I don’t think he could motivate them as well as John Beck.
‘I don’t think I’ve seen a team with so much commitment before. And the way they’ve been playing in the Cup, I can’t think of a better United team.’