Randall Butt's story
He's seen them come and he's seen them go. During a Cambridge Evening News career that spanned over 30 years, Randall Butt had a unique insight into happenings at Cambridge United. When he joined in 1973, Bill Leivers' side were about to have a crack at joining the Third Division. When he left to go freelance in 2004, United were staring into the abyss of administration and a return to non-League football.
In 2012, as the U's celebrated their centenary, Randall sat down to write his memoirs, starting from his early days in the South Wales valleys. Whenever we see him at the Abbey, at Fen Tigers speedway in Mildenhall or in the Cambridgeshire Collection, we try to persuade him to finish the job.
Click on the thumbnails below to read each episode of Randall's memories. They start with a tribute to the best U's manager he's known.
In 2012, as the U's celebrated their centenary, Randall sat down to write his memoirs, starting from his early days in the South Wales valleys. Whenever we see him at the Abbey, at Fen Tigers speedway in Mildenhall or in the Cambridgeshire Collection, we try to persuade him to finish the job.
Click on the thumbnails below to read each episode of Randall's memories. They start with a tribute to the best U's manager he's known.
The big fellaWe (Dave Matthews-Jones, myself and our trusty assistant Alan Burge) decided to kick off these memoirs with the drawing on the right (which was drawn by News cartoonist Malcolm Campbell and appeared in the Cambridge News) as a tribute to one of the most important people in United’s 100-year history.
No, not the little bloke with the curly hair, but the big fella, Chris Turner, who in the dark days at the end of the near-ruinous John Ryan/Ken Shellito reign saved the U’s from oblivion. I will go into detail about Chris’s extraordinary achievements when these memories reach that stage. I worked with every manager in the first era of United's Football League history, and there was none better. He was an admirable, honourable man, shrewd and strong, tough but fair, and often very funny. A truly 'diamond geezer'. Sadly, as you undoubtedly know, the great man died in a Wisbech nursing home on Monday, 27 April 2015, a victim of frontal lobe dementia. My thoughts and sympathies, and those of every U’s and Posh supporter, go out to Chris's family and friends. |
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