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Many Abbey returns

12/31/2017

An edited version of this article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the game against Barnet on 26 December 2017.

You can still hear echoes of the joyous whoops that shattered the peace of Coconuts Acres’ long, dusty corridors when the news broke: the Abbey Stadium, known to generations of United supporters as the Abbey Stadium, would henceforth be known officially as the Abbey Stadium.

Although I think the club could have found someone a little less unsightly to present the Coconuts view on its splendid announcement video, we applaud this recognition that some things are sacrosanct.

We recognise that the sale of the naming rights can present football clubs with a valuable – sometimes essential – amount of dosh over prolonged periods. It’s to United’s credit that sources have been found to cover for the future absence of this kind of revenue from Cambs Glass.

Mind you, I’ve never heard any true U's supporter call our ground anything other than the Abbey. No one I know ever said to his mate, ‘See you up the Trade Recruitment on Saturday,’ or ‘Cor, the old R Costings was rocking last night’.

But the Abbey Stadium was not always the Abbey Stadium. Time for a history lesson, perhaps.

In Risen from the Dust, the second volume of the Celery & Coconuts history of United (available from CFU’s online store and the caravan), Andrew Bennett notes that the first official mention of the name came in December 1961, almost 30 years after the opening of the ground in August 1932.

The ‘New Abbey Stadium’ project, the club said, would encompass the erection of the magnificent floodlights you see today and an extension of the cover over the Coldhams Common side terrace.

Ambition was the watchword at United. The club proclaimed its intention ‘to make our stadium one of the finest in football’. It goes without saying that the aim was achieved.

Supporters and directors may well have informally referred to the ground as the Abbey Stadium before 1961, but the more usual descriptions were variations on ‘the Abbey ground’, ‘the United ground’ or simply ‘Newmarket Road’.

To continue the history lesson, have a butcher’s at the photograph on this page, snapped by a passing aeronaut some time before the Corona works at the front of the ground were demolished in 1996.

The Abbey Stadium when the Corona depot was still facing Newmarket Road, and before the South Stand was built. The allotments at the top of the photograph gave that end of the ground its name.

Some features, not least the aforementioned works, will be unfamiliar to younger fans. It was this soft drinks depot (Every bubble’s passed its Fizzical!) that gave the north terrace its popular name, which is still popular to those who spurn the use of the unromantic, unimaginative ‘NRE’.

Where, you may ask, is the South Stand? Gather round, kids, and you will hear a tale that must be told in turn to your children and your children’s children.

Long before Reg Smart and his army of workers began to dig the South Stand footings, home and away fans alike would gather on the shallow terrace known affectionately as the Allotments End. I'll give you three guesses as to why.

The unlamented age of football aggro brought segregation with it, and the Allotments End was given over to visiting supporters. I’m sorry to say it was not unknown for United boys, on being ejected from the Abbey, to make their way to the allotments, uproot a selection of lovingly tended vegetables and lob them over the wall.

This was one of very few instances in the history of football of away supporters being bombarded by volleys of leeks and carrots.

Cheerio
Harry

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Flick it!

12/23/2017

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,An edited version of this article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the game against Newport County on 16 December 2017.

What a save by Slack! Batson now, and it’s on to Mannion … Mannion, can he find Dublin? Lovely flick! Dublin must score! That makes it 14-2 to United, and Barcelona have until teatime to avoid humiliation.

In an era dominated by FIFA, Pro Evolution Soccer and Football Manager, it’s good to know that some people still use their fingers – but not their thumbs – to play football.

Back in the days before Nintendo and Sega took their first stumbling steps on to a digital pitch, Subbuteo was the only game in town.

Actually, it wasn’t – there were imitators. One such was 4-2-4, whose players stood on clunky wedge-shaped plinths. It was described by notoriously racist Football League secretary Alan Hardaker as ‘the nearest thing to live football I have ever seen.’ Not for the first or the last time in his life, Hardaker was spouting hogwash.

Subbuteo ruled among the tabletop games, and – after a seven-year absence from the shops between 2005 and 2012 – it still does. If you needed a reason to love the game, wouldn’t it be enough to know that it was so named because its inventor, Peter Adolph, was keen on falconry and one of his favourite raptors was the hobby (Latin name: Falco subbuteo)? Hobby: geddit?

Subbuteo virgins among you, if they want to know how to play, should consult the brilliant football magazine The Blizzard. In the latest issue, Andrew McKirdy harks back to the golden age of the Kelso Subbuteo League. 'Flicking a player so that he made contact with the ball rewarded a player with another flick,’ he recalls.

‘A series of attacking plays continued until either a goal was scored, the ball went out of play, the player who had been flicked failed to touch the ball or the flicked player clattered straight into an opponent, thus conceding a foul. The defending team could match the attacking team flick for flick, as long as his players didn’t touch the ball.’

The striking finger had to be pulled back and swung forward without making contact with the other digits – ‘pinging’, or propelling the finger forward with extra purchase from the thumb was not only banned, it was considered the depths of crude, unsophisticated Subbuteo, says McKirdy.

There’s more to the game than flicking, though. You can dictate your team’s formation and style of play, or deck out your pitch with floodlights, stands populated by tiny hand-painted spectators and, naturally enough in this dosh-oriented age, advertising boards.

And, of course, you can be your favourite team.

Coconuts is proud to have in its collection a set of Cambridge United Subbuteo players, generously donated by Roger Watson. Lilliputian U’s peep out from behind trophies and photographs in The Story of the U’s, our mini-museum in the Supporters’ Club.

This set would have set you back the considerable sum of £2.99 in the 1980s and, as the packaging makes clear, it would have been helpful if you also supported Borussia Dortmund, the Antwerp club K Berchem Sport and Biera-Mar of Aveiro in Portugal. These clubs apparently share – or at least shared at the time – United’s suspiciously yellow-looking amber livery.

We’ve had our share of diminutive players in our time: John ‘Scobie’ Saunders springs to mind. I’m struggling to remember one who stood on a semi-spherical plastic base, however.

Cheerio
Harry

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Dandy Andy

12/13/2017

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An edited version of this article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the game against Stevenage on 25 November 2017.

As you know, the patron saint of footballers is Luigi Scrosoppi, a 19th century Italian priest whose achievements included the foundation of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Cajetan of Thiene.

Austrian fan Manfred Pesek, feeling that footballers deserved a patron saint as much as dieticians (St Martha) and ice skaters (St Lidwina), pressed the case for Fr Luigi’s nomination, and was delighted when he was recognised by the Bishop of Gurk in Klagenfurt in 2010. I’m now looking for likely patron saints for fourth officials and turnstile operators.

Luigi is said to embody the qualities of fairness, perseverance, diligence and determination. These are values for which Cambridge United have long been recognised, but for our own patron saint we should look no further than St Andrew.

This lowly fisherman, you will recall, became an apostle and a ‘fisher of men’. Andrew is said to have been crucified on an x-shaped cross – hence the form of the Scottish saltire. In Cambridge, he is remembered at the little church on Newmarket Road that is dedicated to him. It's known to local people as the Abbey Church, and it’s from one of its Sunday school classes that our club is said to have sprung.

While few of them could be described as saintly, plenty of Andrews and Andys have preserved this heritage by playing for United. I could mention our ever-elegant secretary, Mr Beattie, whose career flourished in the 1980s and even now turns out in local veterans' football.

I could mention Messrs Duncan, Fensome, Higginbottom, Hollis, Jeffrey, Lee, Lomas, Parkinson, Polston, Polycarpou, Pugh or Sayer. But if we’re looking for an Andrew who embodies St Luigi’s virtues as much as anyone, we should turn to Sinton of that ilk.

The mid-80s were a desperate time at the Abbey, but Andy shrugged off everything that dread era could throw at him and went on to become the first United youth system graduate to win a full England cap; he had 12 of them when he retired. This is a man who set a U’s record on 2 November 1982 when, 136 days before his 17th birthday, he made his first-team debut in a 2-1 home Division Two win over Wolves.

Andy Sinton in action against Chelsea in a League Division Two fixture on 11 February 1984. New Chelsea signing Mickey Thomas is also pictured. Chelsea won 1-0; attendance 10,602. Photo: Cambridge News.

No one who had seen Sinton score four times in a 19-0 FA Youth Cup demolition of Oxford City four days before was surprised to see him make the step up. Neither was anyone who had looked at the league table; manager John Docherty was seeking solutions to a crisis that had seen United sink to the bottom, with one win in the season’s first 12 games.

The win over Wolves kick-started a resurgence that saw the U’s claim a respectable 12th place at the season’s end. But the following few years were ruinous and, by the time Sinton left for Brentford in December 1985, United had plummeted two divisions. They would soon be forced to apply for re-election to the League.

But after 101 U’s appearances and 15 goals, Andy was off and running. A hit at Brentford, he was coaxed to QPR in 1989, made his national debut in 1991 and moved on to Sheffield Wednesday in 1993. Spells at Tottenham and Wolves followed before he moved into non-League playing and management.

It was great to see Andy once again in amber and black – OK, black and green – in the recent Mick George match in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

Cheerio
Harry

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Memories are made of this

12/11/2017

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100 Years of Coconuts, in partnership with Cambridge United Community Trust, continues to spread the story of the U’s to all sectors of the community, including older people.

One morning last week saw Coconuts volunteers and Trust employees visit Brook House care home in Cambridge to chat to residents about their memories of United, football in general, their lives and their memories of Cambridge.

They took with them photographs, memory cards and other aids to reminiscence, including pieces of football kit from yesteryear – goalkeeper Rodney Slack’s 1950s boots proved especially popular.

CUCT and Coconuts will be visiting more care homes and independent living schemes in months to come.

All photographs of Brook House care home by Cambridge United Community Trust.

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Sixty-four years on

12/9/2017

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An edited version of this article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the game against Accrington Stanley on 11 November 2017.

Which football club plays in amber and black, was formed in 1912 and re-formed in 1919, and experienced a life-changing upheaval in 1989? Apart from Cambridge United, that is?

The answer is Newport County, or at least the Newport County that was formed after the late-80s winding-up of the famous old club that started out in the early years of the 20th century as the Newport & Monmouth County Association Football Club.

Our 1989 experience was a little less traumatic than that of the Exiles: late in the year, inspirational manager Chris Turner was mulling over a change that would eventually see John Beck take over his chair and lead the U’s on a rampage that would see them knocking on the Premier League’s door and reaching two FA Cup quarter-finals.

And talking of the Cup, we’re off to Rodney Parade in early December to do round two battle with Newport, for only the second time in our history. (Sad to relate, the U's subsequently opted out of this season's Cup by losing 2-0 to County.)

Many columns in coming weeks will no doubt be devoted to the first of those occasions. I remember it very well. On 21 November 1953, Newport came to Newmarket Road for an FA Cup first round tie, the result of United’s vanquishing of St Neots & District, Cambridge City, Wisbech Town and Stowmarket Town in the qualifiers. Twelve goals had been scored, and only one conceded, along the way.

If you want all the detail, head for Andrew Bennett’s Risen from the Dust, the second part of his Celery & Coconuts history of our club. It’s available, with a discount for CFU members, from the caravan on matchdays or online at cambridgefansunited.org/store/c4/Books.html.

But to cut a long story short, County and Bill Whittaker’s U’s (wearing a cerise and blue strip, borrowed from the City Police team to avoid a colour clash) fought out a 2-2 draw. In the replay, just five days later, United came away from South Wales with a 2-1 win, Len Saward and Les Stevens the goal heroes.

Into the second-round hat we went, and out came Bradford Park Avenue, to whom United succumbed 2-1 at home in front of 10,000 tightly packed spectators.

We had witnessed the club’s best FA Cup run up to that point, and celebrations were in order. Risen from the Dust reveals that glasses were clinked early in March, when the ladies’ committee of the Supporters’ Club, chaired by Lil Harrison, put on a celebration dinner in the clubroom.

The scene is pictured above, and we’re indebted to Sara Milburn, Lil's granddaughter, for the photograph.

Guests of honour, as a gesture of thanks for the loan of their shirts, were the City police team, and representatives of City, Histon and the Cambridgeshire FA were also there.

There were speeches. United vice-chairman Geoff Proctor recalled that it was nearly six years since he had been ‘kidded’ into attending the Supporters’ Club’s first annual meeting. ‘The meeting lasted 20 minutes and I came out as chairman,’ he added.

‘After a few meetings, it was obvious I’d met a band of people – the best I’ve ever met – who were fine organisers. The best only seemed good enough and although there was only £100 in hand, plans were laid for erecting this building – by voluntary effort. The founding of a limited company was the outcome.’ From little acorns …

Cheerio
Harry

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Many Abbey returns

Flick it!

Dandy Andy

Memories are made of this

Sixty-four years on

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