Category: 1971/72

The Light Blue U

11/17/2015

This article appeared in the Cambridge United official programme for the game against Newport County on 8 August 2015.

The 2015 Varsity match between Oxford and Cambridge was played on the Abbey turf in March as a result of a maturing partnership between the two CUs, United and University – but it wasn’t the first time.

Four Varsity matches have taken place on the sacred sward, the first of them in 1990. What’s more, back in the day – a historical era in which Coconuts specialises – the U’s used to help their scholarly chums prepare for the fixture with a practice match, sometimes at the Abbey and sometimes at Fenner’s. Yes, Fenner’s. Wonder what Cyril Coote made of that.

Something else about the Varsity match that young U’s might not know: between 1953 and 1988 it was played at Wembley. And it was at the national stadium that the only Cambridge graduate ever to play for United’s first team made his three Varsity match appearances, scoring each time to help the Light Blues to a triplet of victories.

Peter Phillips was at Fitzwilliam College between 1966 and 1969, studying for the history degree that he hoped would lead to a teaching career. The football gods had other ideas. His attributes – grass-scorching speed, bravery, skill aplenty and an eye for a goal or two – had been noted by professional clubs. Having earned two England amateur caps while playing at Bishop’s Stortford, in 1969 he signed pro terms with Luton.

Back in Cambridge, by March 1971 Bill Leivers was struggling to manage an injury crisis that had left him with just ten fit players. A sympathetic Football League waived the transfer deadline rules to allow him to borrow Phillips and Robin Wainwright – and Phillips impressed on his debut against Scunthorpe by making a goal for Jim White. But the League’s generosity wavered when three United men’s injuries healed, and it was back to Kenilworth Road for Phillips.

In the summer Leivers plundered Luton for Phillips, Alan Guild and Jack Bannister, and 1971/72 saw the young forward claim a regular starting spot at United,

Peter Phillips challenges in an FA Cup tie at Bristol Rovers on 11 December 1971, which Rovers won 3-0. Photo: Cambridge Evening News.

even if it was in a wider position than his usual central striking role. But in January 1972 came a calamity that would eventually end his career.

At home against Southport, he suffered appalling injuries: fractured jaw, displaced cheekbone, swollen eye and three 15-inch gashes on a thigh. Assault or accident? Opinion was divided. Four years later the long-term effect of the injuries became clear when Phillips suffered an illness that necessitated a six-week hospital stay: the cheekbone had pierced a sinus and, over time, his body had been poisoned from within.

By 1976 he was in any case pursuing a career that would see him become a partner in the national accountancy firm MacIntyre Hudson and playing – as a sweeper of all things – for Old Wellingburians, his old school club. He retired in 2003 and now lives in the same Northamptonshire village in which he was born in 1946.

United’s Light Blue played 51 times between 1971 and 1974, scored 15 goals and set up quite a few more. Will we ever see a Cambridge graduate in the amber and black again?

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Jim is made of the White stuff

10/12/2015

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It was a great pleasure for 100 Years of Coconuts to welcome Jim White to the Abbey on Saturday. Jim, who as an ex-Portsmouth and ex-U's player had a foot in both camps, held his listeners in thrall as he recounted tales from a long, distinguished playing and coaching career and regaled listeners with his thoughts on the 3-1 Pompey win.

Dorset-born Jim was just 15 years and 321 days old when he made his debut for Bournemouth on 30 April 1958 – and he was still only 16 when he first played for Portsmouth, having switched south-coast clubs. Having been capped for England Youth, he moved to Gillingham before returning to Bournemouth in 1966.

He played in 175 League games for the Cherries before joining United on 9 December 1970 as player-coach, replacing non-playing coach Peter Watson and taking responsibility for the youth team. 'Before I was even considered for the post everybody I met in the game spoke highly of the club,' he said, 'and when I came for the interview I couldn’t help finding that there was an attitude of tremendous pride among the people here.'

Manager Bill Leivers made Jim his captain, and he made his debut on December 19 in a 2-0 home defeat by Northampton. He became a regular as either a centre-back or sweeper, and after a defiant 1-0 win at Stockport on January 15, Leivers declared: 'Jim White is about the best professional I have come across.'

Jim scored his first goal for United on 30 January 1971: a 25-yard free-kick in a 3-3 home draw with Barrow. He lost his first-team place to Alan Guild for the 1971/72 season but was a regular for the reserves and continued to coach. He stopped playing at the end of that season but remained as coach until he left at the beginning of 1973/74 to become first team coach at Reading. He had played 37 times and scored three goals for the U's.

Above, Jim White chats to United chairman Dave Doggett after the game. Below, Coconuts volunteers Alan Burge (left) and Barry Benton get to know the great man.

He later returned to the Cambridge area and managed or coached at King’s Lynn, Histon, Cambridge City, Chatteris and Swavesey among other clubs. He still lives, with wife Sue, in Cambridgeshire and indulges his passion for the game regularly.

Coconuts thanks Peter Reeve for his sterling work in hosting his friend Jim on Saturday, and Andrew Bennett for providing the career information.

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Brave old world

9/29/2015

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Who remembers the Football League Review? You're showing your age if you admit it.

The magazine was produced by the Football League from the 1966/67 season to succeed Soccer Review, which had been published by a Leicester company called Sport & Screen, run by a certain Harry Brown, since August 1965. It was a mouthpiece for the Football League – some features were even tagged with the words 'This is an official League article' – and was inserted into many a League club's matchday programme. As you may have heard, Cambridge United joined that exclusive club in 1970.

In those days, a new club joining the League was far from the regular occurrence it is today. Ambitious non-League outfits had to apply to join and then, along with the bottom four clubs in Division Four, who were obliged to apply for re-election, wait for the League big boys to vote at the summer AGM. The oft-quoted 'old pals' act' usually saw to it that the status quo prevailed and the Div 4 failures lived to fight another day – the last club to be voted out before United replaced Bradford Park Avenue was Gateshead in 1960.

So there was a lot of interest in the new boys when the U's took to the League stage on Saturday, 15 August 1970, and the Football League Review sought to satisfy its readers' curiosity about the johnny-come-lately. The illustrations on this page are of two articles, the first published in the 1970/71 season and the second the following year. Love the accurate depiction of the open part of the Habbin on an inclement Barnwell day.

The first feature, published a few months into United's first League season, focuses on the club's early experience of the big time and warns: don't expect too much too soon. 'Some people seem to be under the impression we are still in the Southern League,' observes chairman Jack Woolley of the fans' seeming reluctance to embrace League football. 'There are even those who can't grasp we are no longer an Eastern Counties League club.'

In the second article, the League insists that it will not

always be swayed by the slick kind of PR campaign that helped to get United elected (alongside successive Southern League titles), although there aren't many who witnessed that campaign who would deny its ambition or effectiveness.

The third article, dating from around the halfway mark of the 1971/72 season, portrays a Cambridge United in confident mood and manager Bill Leivers sleeping more easily at night in his Elfleda Road home.

All this provides a fascinating insight into a vanished world: a world in which non-League clubs could dominate their competitions for years without gaining their due reward, and when the fourth division was still the Fourth Division. Click on the pictures to enlarge.

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The Light Blue U

Jim is made of the White stuff

Brave old world

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