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The lady appears

5/31/2017

An edited version of this article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme on 12 September 2015.

Even the most loyal of Cambridge United employees will admit that record-keeping has never been one of the club’s strong points. Coconuts’ requests for access to archives or objects have often been met with an apologetic shrug, although Abbey folklore tells of a long-lost vault, somewhere in the Main Stand’s warren of passageways and burrows, wherein lie the answers to a researcher’s prayer.

Having said that, your Coconuts team is hugely grateful for the club’s generosity in donating the precious artefacts that have graced the walls of the hospitality areas in days gone by. The same goes for Jez’s kind invitation to excavate a room whose existence was hitherto known only to a select few in the summer of 2015. So it was that on a sunny Friday morning, a ragged band of Coconuts volunteers looked on as the doors to this Aladdin’s cave swung open to reveal … dozens of bags of fertiliser.

Initial bitter disappointment – we’ve got nothing against fertiliser but, to be frank, when you’ve seen one bag of nitrogen-rich granules, you’ve seen them all – gave way to hoots of triumph as a dark corner of the nook was found to contain box upon box of what we in the heritage industry call ‘stuff’.

Framed photographs, trophies and mementoes of visits to clubs from Wroxham to Wiesbaden were uncovered alongside paintings, mirrors, pennants, a terrifically ugly clock, a toy lorry … then, with a grunt of satisfaction, a Coconutter, like a latter-day Pickles, emerged from the shadows clutching an extraordinary prize.

The photograph on the right shows a replica of the Jules Rimet Trophy – the one that was nicked prior to the 1966 World Cup before being found by the aforementioned collie in a South Norwood garden hedge; the one won by England that same year and by Brazil in 1970, before it fell into felons’ hands once more. ‘It's only twelve inches high, solid gold and it means England are the world champions,’ as Kenneth Wolstenholme described it on that unforgettable Wembley day.

This replica stands just eight inches high and is made not of gold but of an inferior painted metal. The brass plaque on its marble base is inscribed with the words ‘Presented by the Football Association to mark the winning of the World Cup 1966’. But to whom did the FA present it? Why was it languishing, seemingly forgotten, in a dingy Abbey cubbyhole? How did it get there?

There seem to be two schools of thought as to its origins: that such replicas were presented to the 1966 referees – the legendary Jack Cooke of Waterbeach wasn’t on that list, was he? – and that it was a gift to the grounds that hosted the games: Wembley, White City, Goodison, Old Trafford, Hillsborough and Villa, Roker and Ayresome Parks. The latter theory, which is supported by the fact that one of the little beauties can be found in the superb Everton Collection at Liverpool Record Office, leads us to suppose that there are only eight such replicas in existence.

Above, Bobby Moore with the real thing in 1966. Photo: National Media Museum.

How did this rare object come to be in United’s possession? Someone out there in the Cambridge football family must know the answer. If that someone is you, please get in touch here.

Until the question is answered, the replica will remain in its Costcutter bag, buried deep in good Fen soil near Prickwillow.

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The brickie and the philosopher

5/29/2017

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An edited version of this article was originally published in the Cambridge United matchday programme on 18 April 2015.

On the right is the United Youth team of 1959/60. Click on the image to enlarge and you'll be able to pick out Peter Bowstead – he’s the one kneeling on the right. Peter is an old friend of Coconuts and a member of Cambridge United Former Players’ Association, and he can name every player in the photograph.

At the back, from the left, are Alan ‘Tosh’ Carter, Conrad Lodziak (also known as Conrad Houghton), Brian Page, Vic Phillips, Gerald Butler, Roger Smith, Tim Langran, Derek Potter, David Harrison and John Hiner. At the front are Charlie Irvine, Dave Wisbey, Brian Tailby, Tony Willson, youth team secretary John Munns, assistant secretary Gerry Farrington, Graham Ward, Richard Wilson and our friend Peter. We’re indebted to the Cambridge News for the photograph.

This was an amazingly successful team. They won 62 and drew four of the 70 games they played that season and won the Chiltern League, the Chiltern Challenge Cup and the Cambs & District League.

Some of them, like wing half Peter, became professionals. He made 11 U’s first team appearances before signing for Oxford United for a ‘substantial’ fee in 1962, at the age of 18. He played eight League games and scored twice for Oxford, but injuries blighted his career – he suffered no fewer than four leg breaks. Nevertheless, he played for the likes of King’s Lynn and Chelmsford City before retiring to work as a bricklayer. He still lives in the Cambridge area, like Tony Willson, Vic Phillips and maybe one or two others.

Inside forward Graham Ward played 35 times for United and nearly joined Watford. He moved instead to Wisbech Town and later played for Bury Town, Haverhill Rovers and Soham Town Rangers. Are you out there, Graham? We would love to hear from you.

One of the group was less successful at football (being, in his own judgment, ‘crap’) but followed a fascinating career path.

Inside forward Con Lodziak lied about his age and appeared for the U’s under his mother’s maiden name because he didn’t want his school to know he was playing football. At one time you could get detention at the County (more formally known as Cambridgeshire High School for Boys, which morphed into Hills Road Sixth Form College in the 1970s) if you were found meddling in the round-ball game. You should hear Con’s story of what he and his mate Silvio did to schoolmate Roger Waters. Whatever happened to him?

The son of a Polish soldier who married an Isleham woman, Con carried on playing football, for Purbeck Rovers among others, taught at St Bede’s and published the influential Understanding Soccer Tactics in 1966. He upped sticks for the United States to pursue an MA and PhD in social psychology, before being asked politely to leave by the FBI: the Bureau took a dim view of links Con had forged, while trying to help obtain grants for students, with the Black Panthers, the revolutionary African-American party that played an important part in the civil rights movement of the 60s.

Back in Blighty, Con taught at Trent Polytechnic while continuing to enjoy his football. He carried on publishing too, embracing such philosophical topics as The Myth of Consumerism and The Power of Television. Nowadays he lives in south-west France while family members like brother Mark (inexplicably a Spurs fan) and nephews Martin and Stephen (U’s men both) hold the Lodziak fort here.

There are eight million stories on the naked terrace. This has been one of them. Tell us your story – email [email protected].

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Rich pickings

5/20/2017

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100 Years of Coconuts is delighted to be contributing a regular column to the Cambridge Independent. The first column appeared in the newspaper's 12-18 April 2017 issue.

Modern sports science stresses the importance of post-performance rest and recovery – and they will both be in fairly short supply for Cambridge United players over the coming Easter weekend. The U’s face a Good Friday trek to Grimsby, before returning to Newmarket Road for the Easter Monday fixture against Exeter.

Players of earlier times might have looked on the bus journey home from Humberside as their rest-and-recovery period, knowing they would have to pull on their boots again the following day. The Easter weekend, crammed to bursting with crucial games, often went a long way towards deciding which clubs would be champs and which would be chumps.

That was certainly true of Easter 1970, when United were aiming to clinch their second successive Southern League title and strengthen their case for election to the Football League. In the space of four days they were to face Hereford United at the Abbey Stadium and Chelmsford City home and away.

Hereford arrived at the Abbey on Saturday, 28 March 1970 with legendary player-boss John Charles in defence, but United showed championship mettle in smashing them 4-0 with striker Bill Cassidy, at his impish best, scoring twice. The result saw the U’s climb the table to fourth, five points behind pacesetters Yeovil Town but with five games in hand.

The Chelmsford double-header was scheduled for Easter Monday and the following day. U’s manager Bill Leivers had experimented with a sweeper system in away games, with Robin Hardy in the key position, and at New Writtle Street the tactic proved its worth.

With the hosts playing the second half with ten men – Glen Andrews had suffered a broken leg after sub Tony Butcher had been used – ex-Reading goal machine George Harris notched the game’s only score on the hour. It was his fourth strike in three games and he was on his way to an incredible season’s tally of 35, despite only signing for United in October.

On the Tuesday United beat the Clarets at the Abbey to make it a six-point Easter. The goals in the 2-0 win were claimed by Malcolm Lindsay, but the chief architect was flying right winger Peter Leggett who, at his teasing, tormenting best, ripped his former teammates’ defence apart. The first U’s goal came when he nutmegged his full back by the corner flag, sped along the byline and pulled the ball back for Harris to strike the bar; Lindsay dived to net the rebound with a header. Leivers insisted after the game that he couldn’t work out why Leggett wasn’t playing in the First Division.

United were now second in the league, three points behind Yeovil but with nine games left to play, against the Glovers’ five. 'My team are playing wonderfully well and on our Easter showing it will take a very good side to beat us,’ said Leivers. ‘Make no mistake, Cambridge United and Bill Leivers are on the way up.’

Bill Leivers: Chelmsford shopping spree

Peter Leggett: ripped defences apart

He was spot on. That Easter marathon gave the U’s the impetus they needed to overhaul Yeovil and clinch the title with a 2-0 victory over Margate on the final day. Now it was up to League clubs to decide if United’s achievements merited a place among the 92.

Cheerio
Harry

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, the saying goes. Bill Leivers, the manager who took Cambridge United into the Football League, adapted the adage to ‘if you can’t beat ’em, sign ’em’ as he assembled the side that won back-to-back Southern League titles in 1969 and 1970.

Chelmsford City’s championship-winning side of 1967/68 contained many good players, but four of them – striking double act Tony Butcher and Bill Cassidy, centre half Terry Eades and scintillating winger Peter Leggett – were outstanding. So, in one of the most astute managerial moves in United’s history, Leivers persuaded them to fight for the amber and black cause.

The U’s looked like a good side before the arrival of the Chelmsford Four. After it, they had the look of title winners.

First Claret to join the Leivers revolution, in October 1968, was Scottish hitman Cassidy who, having notched 29 goals in Chelmsford’s league-winning season, had spent the summer in the States with the Detroit Cougars. Driving to his Essex home, Leivers persuaded King Cass to jump in his car and follow him back to Cambridge.

Next to arrive, just two days later, was Butcher, Chelmsford’s record goalscorer, for a fee of less than £500. ‘This should solve our failure to score goals,’ observed Leivers.

The others were a little slower to follow. Leggett, hailed as the non-League George Best, signed in March 1969 for an undisclosed fee and a couple of days later Eades followed him to Newmarket Road, the U’s handing over a cheque for £2,500 in return.

‘This finishes my shopping at Chelmsford,’ said Leivers. His spree had laid the foundations for the next stage in United’s rapid evolution, from Cambridgeshire League minnows in the 1940s to Football League members in 1970.

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They did it for Dobbo

5/15/2017

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Clockwise from above: Ely Cathedral presides over proceedings in the Simon Dobbin charity match at Ely City's Unwin Ground on Sunday, May 14; Tom Youngs, coach of the Boughtwood-Eason All Stars, checks out his squad at the pre-match photograph; Paul Wanless, one of Potter's Pros, discovers that something's been eating his antique boots; Danny Potter leaves the field after a fully committed performance – his daughter Sienna proved more of a threat up front, frankly; the teams and the Dobbin family smile for the cameras.

Coconuts has nothing but praise for the organisers of and participants in Sunday's event aimed at raising money for Simon Dobbin and his family. The sun (mostly) shone on a cracking day during which at least £3,000 was raised, with more to come, and a great time was had by all.

Watched by Simon, his amazing wife Nicole and their daughter Emily, teams assembled by organisers Dave Boughtwood-Eason and Danny Potter fought out a win for one of the sides, or perhaps the other, by a scoreline approximating 7-4, or something.

Simon was brutally attacked by a mob of thugs on his way home from United's game at Southend in March 2015. In that attack he suffered injuries that have changed his life and the lives of his family. He is unable to do anything for himself, can't walk or sit independently, is fed through a tube and is cared for every hour of every day by Nicole. She hopes to be able to make necessary changes to their Mildenhall home, and every penny raised can help them achieve that aim.

Ex-U's and many other players – and more than 400 spectators – turned out in force for the game played on Ely City's Unwin Ground. Ely secretary Paul Jeffrey, a United prospect himself at one time, manned the gates as a steady procession of former and current pros passed through. They included Mark Albrighton, Tes Bramble, David Bridges, Jon Challinor, Jody Craddock, Liam Hughes, Michael Kyd, Rogan McGeorge, Tony Scully, Michael Shinn, Steve Slade and Paul Wanless. Even ex-Arsenal full back Nigel Winterburn turned out, and the game was reffed by former Prem official Mark Halsey. Wayne Hatswell was understandably detained elsewhere after thoroughly enjoying Josh Coulson's testimonial dinner the night before, but a fresh-looking Josh made it to Ely, along with dad Dave.

And Coconuts was able to recruit five new members for Cambridge United Former Players' Association: Messrs Bramble, Challinor, Craddock, Kyd and Scully. Shame be upon the Coconuts committee member who was humiliated at dartboard football (provided by Dan Chillingworth's Xtreme Soccer) by a three-year-old.

More of this kind of thing, please. Meanwhile, if you would like to donate to the Dobbo cause, go to Dave's crowdfunding page here. And keep an eye out for details of another fundraising game: United are arranging a pre-season game with Southend.

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What the U's mean to you, and you, and you

5/12/2017

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Test yourself on the Abbey Stadium and Cambridge United: in what year did the ground open? How tall are the floodlight pylons? What kind of animals used to graze on the pitch? What year do we think the club was founded? What might be buried under the pitch? After whom is the long terrace along the side named? (Answers below, but no peeking until you've given the questions your best shot.)

Children from Year 5 of Abbey Meadows Community Primary School did their best to complete the Coconuts Quiz when they and their teachers visited the stadium and our mini-museum, The Story of the U's, this week. We all had a great time.

The visit was part of a four-week project, dubbed You and the U's, 100 Years of Coconuts is running with the school and with help from the Cambridge United Community Trust. In turn, it forms part of the two-year Coconuts project, funded by a generous Heritage Lottery Fund grant, that aims to spread the story of our football club far and wide. This club is your club, we're telling the children – and you can play just as big a part in its story as the supporters and players who founded Abbey United and built the ground.

In weeks two, three and four of You and the U's, we'll visit Abbey Meadows with handling boxes full of memorabilia, equipment and photographs; enjoy a walking tour of the area around the Abbey, discovering important locations in the club's history; and produce a piece of artwork pulling together what the children have learned.

Answers: 1932; 36.6 metres; sheep; 1912; the mortal remains of 12th and 13th century leprosy victims; Harry Habbin, president of Cambridge United Supporters' Club in the 1950s.

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Eyes left

5/10/2017

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Recognise the moustachioed gent in the picture? Of course you do – it’s Mike Flanagan, goal poacher extraordinaire of Charlton, Crystal Palace and QPR, and all too briefly a Cambridge United player too.

But have you ever seen a stranger programme cover? While the two cheeky young Hoops fans are all smiles, and the one on the right has cunningly wrapped his carrier bag handle round a wrist to add interest to the photograph, it contains more unwelcome elements. The tableful of sprays, ointments and lotions is a humdrum intrusion, and Mike seems terribly ill at ease.

Clutching his programme protectively, he’s wedged between his admirers like a sheep in a dipping pen, and he’s focusing warily not on the photographer but on some off-camera distraction. A furious Terry Venables delivering a post-match rollicking, perhaps? A giant spider on the wall? The sudden appearance of Mike’s old Charlton teammate Derek ‘Killer’ Hales?

Flanagan and Hales usually got on like a house on fire at The Valley, forming a lethal strike partnership and scoring 257 league goals between them. But on 9 January 1979, during an FA Cup tie against Maidstone, their relationship was tested to the limit when Hales was caught offside from a Flanagan pass. Mike took a dim view of this passage of play, and cursed Hales roundly, referring as he did so to his partner’s supposed numerical shortfall in the underpants region. It was Killer’s turn to take umbrage, and the fists were soon flying. The ref insisted that the combatants take their dispute to the dressing room, and Charlton played out the rest of the 1-1 draw with nine men.

After spells at Palace and QPR, Mike returned to the Valiants in 1983 but was given a free transfer in 1986, and was coaxed to the Abbey by manager Chris Turner. The pair had played together for New England Teamen in the North American Soccer League eight years before. ‘I didn’t think it was cheeky of me to go after a player at a First Division club,’ said Turner, ‘because I don’t think of United as a Fourth Division club.’

Mike chipped in: ‘They [Charlton] wanted me to take a 50 per cent cut in my basic wage, and I wasn’t on that big a basic anyway. I wasn’t going to agree to that so when Chris asked about me I was happy to have a talk with him.’

He made his U’s debut from the bench in a 2-2 home draw with Exeter on September 13 and, after a further substitute appearance, won a starting place in midfield, supporting forwards Mark Cooper and David Crown.
He scored his first United goal in a 1-1 draw at Scunthorpe on September 30, enjoying an outstanding game. United then hammered Stockport 5-0, with Mike scoring twice, but he only played six more times, his last game being a 1-0 League Cup giant-killing of Ipswich. Knee trouble forced him to retire from pro football in December, having scored three times in nine U’s appearances.

Flanagan moved into non-League football, then managed Gillingham and several smaller clubs. His last appointment was at Brentwood Town, with whom he parted company in May. Anyone still in touch with him? Please let us know at [email protected].

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The lady appears

The brickie and the philosopher

Rich pickings

They did it for Dobbo

What the U's mean to you, and you, and you

Eyes left

Happy Harry's blog

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