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Paul Daw 1950-2017

3/28/2017

The local football family has lost a great friend and helper with the death, at the age of 66 on March 25, of former Cambridge United secretary Paul Daw.

It was Paul who researched and published United in Endeavour, the first history of Abbey/Cambridge United, in 1988. He discovered during his research that the club was formed in 1912 and not 1919, as had been assumed until then. That was followed by On the Up and First Team Match Statistics 1913-1991, both published in 1991.

His later years were devoted to the service of his hometown club, Saffron Walden Town, and a match in February at Catons Lane raised money for the ground’s newly named Paul Daw Stand.

Paul was born in 1950 and went to school in Saffron Walden, where he captained the football, cricket and athletics teams. He went on to play for Saffron Walden Town's first team in every position other than goalkeeper. He trained as a teacher in Bognor Regis, and used his time in Sussex to qualify as a referee.

Back home in Essex, he spent a year as a teacher in Dunmow before leaving to follow a career in the construction industry, while studying part-time and playing for Town in the Essex Senior League. On the resignation of the club secretary, Paul stepped in to fill the position and held it for the next ten years.

He was secretary of Cambridge United in 1985 and 1986, at a time when the club and, to some extent, football in general were in a state of turmoil. United were experiencing torrid times on the pitch under the management of John Ryan and Ken Shellito, and supporters were faced with the prospect of the introduction of Margaret Thatcher's proposed identity card scheme.

After marrying Marguerite in 1986, Paul joined residential developer Alan Reason Homes as chief surveyor, and continued to help his local football club in many capacities: as a player (he quit playing for the veterans side at the age of 62), supporter, historian, local press reporter and fundraiser among others, during a period in which the Bloods were able to join the Eastern Counties League.

Above, Paul Daw (right) presents a portfolio of his work on the history of Cambridge United to the Cambridgeshire Collection. Photo: Cambridge Evening News. Below, Paul, accompanied by pipes and drums, crosses the Catons Lane pitch with the newly named Paul Daw Stand in the background, 5 February 2017. Photo: Andrew Bennett.

He retired from a management role with Keith Collier Engineering in 2010 and devoted his energies to the rebuilding of the football ground. Other interests included stone circles and his local church choir.

Paul’s pioneering work as a football club historian was inspiring, and 100 Years of Coconuts is in his debt.

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Look here, were you at the Hall of Fame evening?

3/14/2017

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Click on the images to enlarge and spot yourself at the Cambridge United Hall of Fame induction ceremony in the Cambs Glass Stadium's Premier Travel Hospitality Suite on Thursday, March 9.

Simon Lankester, whose copyright all these images are, was roaming with his camera, snapping away.

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Yet more from the Hall of Fame do

3/12/2017

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Starting with three of last Thursday night's Cambridge United Hall of Fame inductees (right: Paul Wanless, John Beck and Dion Dublin), here are more photographs of the evening.

Were you there? If you were and you're not pictured, check out yet more coverage on this blog in the coming days … there's more to come.

All photos are the copyright of Simon Lankester, whose permission you should seek before reusing them.

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More Hall of Fame pictures – and there's more to come

3/10/2017

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The consensus seems to be that the second induction ceremony for the Cambridge United Hall of Fame, held at the Cambs Glass Stadium on Thursday, March 9, was a terrific success all round.

A Premier Travel Suite packed with 120 guests paid tribute to four new inductees to the Hall of Fame: John Beck, Ian Darler, Dion Dublin and Paul Wanless. Beck, Dublin and Wanless received the accolade following voting among supporters; stadium manager Darler, whose career of nearly 40 years has been punctuated by many other awards, was selected by a committee.

The Coconuts committee is hugely grateful to Graham Daniels, who acted as master of ceremonies on the night, Paul Burling and his staff, whose catering and service were top class, and Olivia Disley-Stevens, Cambridge United's conferencing and events manager, for her help in putting the evening together.

Here is the second batch of photos, from Simon Lankester, from an evening that will be remembered for a long time. Watch out for more in the coming days and visit the Cambridge United Hall of Fame website: www.cuhalloffame.org.uk.

Clockwise from top right: master of the master of ceremonies' art, Graham Daniels; three Hall of Fame inductees, from left Paul Wanless, John Beck, Dion Dublin; Abbey legends Dion Dublin and Richard Money; Lindsay Smith (left) shares a joke with Tom and Pauline Finney; Dion chats with Steve and Linda Fallon; Coconuts committee members line up with inductees and shortlistees, back from left: Rodney Slack, Richard Money, Paul Wanless, Brendon Batson, Alan Burge, Dion Dublin, Steve Fallon, Tom Finney, Lindsay Smith, John Beck; front Andrew Bennett, Tom McGrane, Ian Elliott, Barry Benton. Click on images to enlarge. All photos copyright Simon Lankester.

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Fun in the Hall of Fame

3/10/2017

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Above, John Beck accepts his memento of induction into the Cambridge United Hall of Fame. Right, Dion Dublin. Below, Paul Wanless, Beck and Dublin. Not pictured: fourth inductee Ian Darler, who was unable to attend. Photos: @100yearcoconut

The Cambridge United Hall of Fame – cuhalloffame.org.uk – gained four members on the evening of March 9 when John Beck, Ian Darler, Dion Dublin and Paul Wanless were inducted on a night of celebration, emotion and reminiscence at the Cambs Glass Stadium's Premier Travel Suite.

Here are the first pictures from the ceremony, which was attended by 120 supporters and guests from various eras of the club's history. A full report and many more pictures will follow in the coming days.

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Len Saward 1927-2017

3/7/2017

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The Cambridge United family is mourning the death on March 7, at the age of 89, of Len Saward, a highly influential and popular player in the 1950s and later a huge contributor to the club’s commercial success.

Len was born on 6 July 1927 in Aldershot. August of the following year saw the birth of his brother Pat, who would go on to play for Millwall, Aston Villa and Huddersfield and earn 18 caps for the Republic of Ireland. Len was less driven than his brother but there were those who thought him the better player. Indeed, no less an authority than Wilf Mannion called Len the cleverest footballer he played with.

He developed into an elusive inside forward with a powerful shot and, having played nine League games for Crystal Palace between 1948 and 1950, he turned down Notts County before joining non-League Tonbridge. United player-manager Bill Whittaker signed him for £750 in late September 1952 and he scored on his debut, a 5-1 win at Stowmarket, on October 2. He came close to scoring a hat-trick when his penalty hit the post in a 3-0 defeat of Chelmsford City Reserves.

The following season he claimed a hat-trick in a 5-3 win over Stowmarket and played a prominent part in United’s notable 3-1 FA Cup win at Cambridge City before a crowd of 11,908. That cup run led to the club’s 2-1 giant-killing victory over Division Three South’s Newport County in a replay at Somerton Park, in which Len headed United’s first goal.

Newport were impressed, and Len joined the Welsh club for £750 on New Year’s Day 1954. He soon regretted the move. For a time he continued to live in Cambridge and trained in London, but after 25 League games, five goals and a trial with Brentford he was allowed to rejoin the U’s in March 1955, just after Whittaker had resigned.

Playing under new manager Gerald Williams, Len scored within 30 seconds of the start of the first game of 1955/56, going on to complete a hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Lowestoft. After a one-month suspension for failing to be ‘in a fit state to give of his best in the interests of the club on the field’, he regained his place under another new manager – Bert Johnson – and scored in United’s first game under floodlights, a 3-0 East Anglian Cup win at Bury Town.

The 1956/57 season saw Len playing on the right wing as part of perhaps United’s strongest ever forward line, which included Mannion, Bernard Moore, Brian Moore and Kevin Barry. He was allowed to miss a match in March so that he could watch brother Pat play for Villa in an FA Cup semi-final against West Bromwich Albion.

In October 1957 he was granted a benefit match against Aston Villa, and he used some of his testimonial fund to buy the club its first floodlights: lamps mounted on telegraph poles, costing £14 each. Villa could not make the agreed date so United’s first game under the lights was a 3-0 defeat of Great Yarmouth in the East Anglian Cup on October 21; fittingly, Len scored the first goal.

His benefit match eight days later attracted a crowd of 5,500 to see United take on an Invitation XI including stars like Peter McParland, Jack Kelsey, Noel Cantwell and of course Pat Saward. Len subsequently sold the floodlights to the club.

He was released in 1958, having played 170 games and scored 43 goals for the U’s. He joined Sudbury Town, later moved on to Newmarket Town and was player-manager of Soham Town Rangers in 1965 when he took on the job of assistant admin secretary at United.

Above, Len Saward in action for Cambridge United at Newmarket Road. Below, Len greets Cambridge mayor Bertram White at his benefit match, 29 October 1957.

Len Saward at the Abbey Stadium, December 2015.

He proved a vital part of Dudley Arliss’s massively successful pools team, which helped to provide the funds to support the club’s applications to join the Football League. United’s successful bid in 1970 owed much to the work of Dudley, Len and other members of the team.

Len worked in the commercial department until 1987 and in later life was a porter at Magdalene College. He lived in Cambridge until his death.

He is survived by brother Fred, sister Kathleen, former wife Jill, long-term partner Sylvia Emmerson, son Patrick, daughters Theresa, Rebecca, Jill and Lynn and grandchildren Charlie, Jack, Daisy, Toby, Pippa, Natalie, Leroy and Anthony.

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Paul Daw 1950-2017

Look here, were you at the Hall of Fame evening?

Yet more from the Hall of Fame do

More Hall of Fame pictures – and there's more to come

Fun in the Hall of Fame

Len Saward 1927-2017

Happy Harry's blog

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