Category: Abbey United

A cabinet full of cups

6/4/2020

This article appeared in the Cambridge Independent's edition of 6-12 December 2017 and on the 100cocnuts page 25th January 2018

You can imagine the engraver, burin in hand, squinting at the scrap of paper in front of him and trying to decipher the handwritten scrawl.

‘That must be C Alsop and he’s first, so he must be the goalkeeper,’ he mutters to himself. ‘That one looks like F Tuff … funny name; and that one must be … no, it can’t be … yes, it’s R Twirmore. Must be a foreign chap.’

Our craftsman was doing his best to inscribe the names of the Abbey United team that had just won the Cambridgeshire Challenge Cup for 1924/25. To be fair to him, he got most of the names right, although not necessarily in the right order.

But the C Alsop he inscribed should have read G Alsop, and he was a centre half, not a goalie. ‘F Tuff’ was actually wing half Frank Luff, and as for R Twirmore … how he arrived at that interpretation of Joe Livermore’s name is anybody’s guess.

To put the record straight, the Abbey team that beat Girton United 6-1 at Cambridge Town’s Milton Road ground lined up: R ‘Percy’ Wilson; Joe Livermore, Bill Walker; Jim Self, George Alsop, Bill ‘Pim’ Stearn; Fred Stevens, Frank Luff, Harvey Cornwell, Tom Langford, William ‘Fanny’ Freeman.

United club historian Andrew Bennett, in Newmarket Road Roughs, the first volume of his Celery & Coconuts history of Abbey/ Cambridge United, tells how Walker converted an early Abbey penalty.

Girton equalised on the half-hour but Cornwell put his side in front again before half-time. Bennett continues: ‘Inspired by a penalty save by goalkeeper R “Percy” Wilson early in the second half, Cornwell went on to complete his hat-trick, which included a superb score after sprinting half the length of the pitch.

‘Further goals from Langford and Freeman sealed a resounding 6-1 win and a third trophy for skipper Alsop to hold aloft in the space of eight days.’

A third trophy? It was indeed, and Abbey would add another before the season was out.

The Wasps set out on the trophy trail by playing the first of three cup finals in eight days on April 11.

In the Chatteris Engineering Works Cup, Cottenham United had no reply to three early second-half goals and Abbey won 5-0, with Cornwell claiming four.

Two days later, in the Cottenham Nursing Cup final, Watson put Girton ahead early on, but then Stevens crossed for Wilson to score and Alsop struck a majestic 30-yard winner on the half-hour.

Two weeks after the Cambs Challenge Cup win, it was on to the Creake Charity Shield final, against United Cantabs at Milton Road.

A goalless draw was followed by a 1-1 stalemate in the replay, with Alsop notching the Abbey goal. The clubs, understandably not wanting to play a second replay in September, agreed to share the trophy for a year.

United’s remarkable cup performances had established them as a force in Cambridgeshire football.

Above, the slightly battered Cambridgeshire Challenge Cup. Below, the 1925/25 inscription.

In celebratory mood, players and officials, along with guests from the town council and Cambs FA, made their way to the Livingstone Hotel in Petty Cury. During the evening, the three cups Abbey had won outright were filled and passed round, and doubtless many a toast was proposed.

It must have been a jolly evening. Exactly how jolly, and what the trophies were filled with, we may never know. The Livingstone was a temperance hotel.

George Alsop, one of Abbey United's star players in the 1920s.

The name of George Alsop, the man who picked up the four 1924/25 cups on behalf of Abbey United, was seldom absent from match reports of the time.

The Barnwell-born lad had made an impression in 1921/22, and had spent the following two years at Chelsea.

He never made it out of the Pensioners’ reserves, and returned to his local club for its record-breaking season.

A centre half who could switch to centre forward to great effect, Alsop was a mainstay of the United side until the early 1930s. By the time his Wasps career finished, he had scored 62 goals in 160 appearances.

Two of those goals came in his first reappearance in amber and black, a 2-0 away win over St Ives on 13 September 1924.

After a 6-2 home win over Cottenham two weeks later, the local press hailed him as Abbey’s best player, adding: ‘He was originally a forward, and it was in that capacity that he was signed by Chelsea about two years ago.

‘He was then a good shot, but he has not only benefited by his sojourn with the professionals in that direction, but in all-round football ability.’

Alsop’s career was punctuated by periods when he concentrated on Thursday league football, and there were times when he seemed to be on the verge of signing for Cambridge Town.

But he occupies a prominent place in the list of the most influential players United have ever had.

Purchase a copy of the Newmarket Roughs Book Here

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In the master's footsteps

8/25/2018

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George Alsop with the Cambs Challenge Cup, Milton Road, 18 April 1925. Photo: Cambridge Chronicle/Cambridgeshire Collection at Cambridge Central Library

An edited version of this article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the game against Cheltenham Town on Saturday, 25 August 2018.

In February of this year, 100 Years of Coconuts lost its greatest asset: a one-man information storehouse and author extraordinaire in the person of Andrew Bennett.

It was a tragically heavy blow for Andrew’s family and for his legions of friends and admirers. And for a while, Coconuts people wondered how they could carry on researching and communicating the story of our club.

Moves are afoot to ensure his name and achievements endure: stand by for the unveiling of a memorial plaque in the Habbin, for news of the Andrew Bennett Award and for the autumn publication of the third volume of his peerless Celery & Coconuts history of the club.

But how could we hope to carry on Andrew’s work – his tireless ferreting out of information in libraries and archives, his compilation of stats, facts and info in dozens of databases, his cheerful and speedy answering of queries from football fans far and wide – in short, his work as Cambridge United’s club historian?

The short answer is that we couldn’t. But what we can do is have a bash at providing a second-best service – a sort of Andrew Bennett Lite, if you like.

Luckily for us and you, Andrew bequeathed to Coconuts his entire, vast archive of U’s-related stuff.

When I say ‘vast’, I mean ‘flipping ginormous’. If you chopped down all the forests in Scandinavia to provide enough paper, printed everything out and laid the sheets end to end, the result would stretch seven times around the world and then on as far as Godalming.

The size of the task of bringing order to the archive, and coming close to understanding it, is gut-grippingly terrifying. Merely opening a folder at random, to reveal thousands upon thousands of sub-folders and individual files, would be enough to induce panic in the most placid of Zen practitioners.

I was browsing idly the other day, clicking on files here and there, when I came across the photograph on this page.

Although not in the best of nick – Andrew downloaded it from a microfiche reader (always a hit-and-miss procedure) during one of his countless visits to the Cambridgeshire Collection – it does provide a priceless snapshot of a precious moment in the early days of Abbey United. And I hadn’t seen it before.

Can you make out the object in George Alsop’s hands? It’s the Cambridgeshire Challenge Cup, and the Abbey team that Alsop captained had just won it.

The date is 18 April 1925, the venue is Cambridge Town’s Milton Road ground and the day’s events – Abbey’s trouncing of Girton United by six goals to one – are being reported by the long-gone Cambridge Chronicle.

The bearded gent to Alsop’s right is Major Oliver Papworth, who presented the cup, and to his left is Cambs FA secretary Charles Dennant.

The Wasps had lined up: R ‘Percy’ Wilson; Joe Livermore, Bill Walker; Jim Self, Alsop, Bill ‘Pim’ Stearn; Fred Stevens, Frank Luff, Harvey Cornwell, Tom Langford, William ‘Fanny’ Freeman (kids: teams played in the 2-3-5 formation in those days). Cornwell had scored a hat-trick and the other goals had come from Walker, Langford and Freeman.

The Challenge Cup was just one of three trophies claimed by Abbey United that season – and they shared a fourth. Read Andrew's Newmarket Road Roughs for the full detail.

Cheerio
Harry

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To the Bridge

7/28/2018

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An edited version of this article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the game against Luton Town on 3 March 2018.

When talk turns to big clubs’ practice of ‘stockpiling’ young players, whereby the closest most will ever get to first-team football is on loan at another club, the word ‘Chelsea’ often crops up.

With good reason: at the time of writing, Roman Abramovich’s pet project had 38 players out on loan, and goodness knows how many other youngsters queuing up behind them.

The West London giants have always had an eye for young talent, but there was no question of stockpiling when they snapped up the 19-year-old Ian Hutchinson from United in 1968. Nor is there any suggestion that the Pensioners had anything but the best of intentions for the career of Abbey United’s youthful George Alsop when he left for Stamford Bridge in the early 1920s.

George Alsop in 1925. Photo: Cambridgeshire Collection at Cambridge Central Library

We don’t know exactly when the Barnwell-born lad departed for the Smoke; nor do we know how Chelsea came to find out about young Alsop’s talent. He was after all playing his home games on Stourbridge Common, in the depths of Cambridgeshire League Division Three, when he came to their notice.

Nigel Browne’s research into Barnwell families of the early 20th century – part of a Coconuts team’s scrutiny of the everyday lives of people in east Cambridge during World War I – shows that our George Alsop was probably born in 1902 and was living with his parents at 481 Newmarket Road in 1911.

It’s possible that his dad sold his East Road wheelwright’s business to Donald Mackay, whose family still runs the engineering and hardware emporium. It’s also possible that his mum was one of the Ivett family who helped to found the Ivett & Reed stonemasonry company on Newmarket Road.

We are going to find out about other aspects of Alsop’s life. One thing we do know is that he was some player.

The late Andrew Bennett’s book Newmarket Road Roughs (available for purchase through the CFU online store) reveals that he marshalled the Abbey United defence in 1921/22, the club’s first season of competitive football. Then he was off to Chelsea.

You’ll search in vain for internet mentions of George Alsop in a Chelsea FC connection. We’re making enquiries of the club historian, but it seems that, having made the enormous leap from the Cambs League to Football League Division One, Alsop got no further than Blues’ reserves.

Restored to the Abbey team as centre half and captain by 1924, he made an immediate impact in the season’s opening Cambs League Division One match at St Ives, scoring both goals in a 2-0 win.

Two weeks later, after a 6-2 defeat of Cottenham in which he again scored twice, the Cambridge Daily News raved: ‘He was originally a forward, and it was in that capacity that he was signed by Chelsea about two years ago. He was then a good shot, but he has not only benefited by his sojourn with the professionals in that direction, but in all-round football ability.’

Alsop was prominent in Abbey’s progress over the next few seasons; he’s pictured below in the middle of the front row of the all-conquering 1924/25 team.

But by the early 30s his influence was declining and, having appeared 160 times and scored 62 goals, he played his last Wasps game in 1932.

We have much to discover about this fascinating personality, and perhaps you can help. If you have any information about George Alsop or his family, please email 100yearsofcoconuts@gmail.com.

Abbey United in 1924/25, location unknown. Captain George Alsop is sitting in the middle of the front row, behind the Creake Charity Shield.

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Mystery inside an enigma

6/26/2018

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This is an edited version of an article that appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the game against Bristol Rovers on 30 October 2015.

It’s as frustrating as trying to find Port Vale in an atlas and as mysterious as Donald Trump’s hairdo: when, how and why did Abbey United come into being?

Andrew Bennett’s masterly history of the club’s early years, which you can read in Newmarket Road Roughs (buy it here), the first volume of his Celery & Coconuts series, is probably as close to the truth as it’s possible to be at present, but there are still nagging questions that require definitive answers.

We all know that United was founded in 1912, don’t we? Do we?

There are those who swear that the club that emerged in 1919 and took its place in the Cambridgeshire League two years later had no connection with the pre-war Abbey United that played friendlies against the likes of the Sons of Temperance and Blossom Rovers.

Just two pieces of documentary evidence that connect the two and point to a foundation date of 1912 – some headed notepaper from 1926 and a report of the club’s annual dinner in the Cambridge Daily News of 28 May 1925 – have so far been unearthed. Apart from that, it’s all hearsay and anecdote.

It’s certain that Abbey United played MJ Drew’s XI on Midsummer Common on Saturday, 21 November 1913, isn’t it? The CDN had announced the fixture in its columns the previous day, after all – it appears to be the first mention of the club in the local press.

But here’s the thing: when the paper reported on the match the following Monday, the 7-0 losers were named as Abbey Juniors.

(By the way, MJ Drew was a local footballer who also played for Cam and Crescent, with no connection to the character portrayed by Joan Crawford in the 1942 screwball comedy They All Kissed The Bride; let’s not get carried away.)

Stourbridge Common in 1912: were Abbey United, or Abbey Juniors, playing nearby? Photo: Cambridgeshire Collection at Cambridge Central Library

There’s more. A trawl through the archives in pursuit of references to Abbey Juniors yields intriguing results.

First of all, no mention of a team with that name can be found after the MJ Drew game. But go back before 21 November 1913 and the mystery deepens – Abbey Juniors were reported to have lost 3-0 to University Press Juniors ten days before the Drew game.

Go even further back: there is no mention of an Abbey team in the 1912/13 or 1911/12 seasons, but on 19 November 1910, Abbey Juniors were reported to have beaten Press Juniors 2-1.

In the preceding season, the Abbey Crusaders club were reported to have played two friendly matches. A team of that name became Abbey United’s first ever Cambs League opponents in 1921, so they couldn’t be connected to the club we love, could they?

Perhaps you want the waters muddier still? Try this: a cricket team by the name of Abbey Crusaders was active in Cambridge as early as 1906.

Who were the Abbey Juniors of 1910? Did the crowd of that time – if there was one – chant: ‘Are you United in disguise?’ Is it possible that the Juniors became United and that our club dates from at least two years further back than we thought? Where, if anywhere, did Abbey Crusaders fit in?

At the moment, your guess is as good as ours. Coconutters continue to tunnel through the records, such as they are, and when we find an answer you’ll be the first to know. Meanwhile, as Andrew puts it, we’re left with an enigma wrapped up inside in a riddle.

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A foot in both camps

1/6/2018

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An edited version of this article first appeared in the 24-30 May 2017 issue of the Cambridge Independent.

Andrew Bennett’s definitive history of Cambridge United, Risen from the Dust (available from the CFU store) picks up where the first volume, Newmarket Road Roughs, left off in 1951, and ends with United being elected to the Football League in 1970.

It’s memory-stirring stuff for us old codgers for many reasons, but perhaps the most evocative passages are those that cover the old U’s-City rivalry.

Younger readers will probably struggle with this: back then, the battle for football supremacy in Cambridge meant just as much to supporters as those in Liverpool or Manchester. We lived in a divided city.

Eagerly awaited derbies drew massive crowds, and as a fan you were either a U or a Lilywhite. But there have always been players who were happy to be either.

It started in 1921, when Abbey United loaned top scorer Wally Wilson to Cambridge Town for a big FA Cup tie against Kettering. As United began to rise up the Cambs League, their players started to attract regular attention from the bigger, wealthier Town.

During the 1920s, Bert Langford, Bill ‘Pim’ Stearn, Tom Caldecote, Frank Luff, Cyril Morley, ‘Erstie’ Clements and Harold ‘Darley’ Watson were all tempted to cross the river; at a time of rising unemployment, Town could offer the players off-pitch jobs.

In 1936, striker Harry Mann scored hat-tricks in his first two games for United, whereupon Town snapped him up. The exodus continued before and after World War II as Reg Kimberley, Joe Richardson and Den Smith moved north of the Cam but, once the U’s turned semi-pro in 1947, the flow slowed to a trickle.

Former Town players Tony Gallego, Len Hartley, Fred Mansfield and Stan Thurston all signed for United, although not directly from Milton Road. A turning point came in 1950 when Town’s top scorer, Neville Haylock, defected to the U’s, and Bill O’Donnell, Ted Culver and Len Linturn also later crossed to Newmarket Road, the latter causing a minor sensation in turning pro.

Matt McVittie, who played for both Cambridge clubs, scores for United in a Southern League Premier Division local derby match on 29 September 1962. City won 2-1 in front of a crowd of 6,892. Photo: Cambridge Evening News.

In 1958 City turned professional too. They signed the skilful Eddie Robinson from United in 1959, and when the U’s began employing only full-timers in 1960, hitman Brian Moore, wanting to keep his job at Pye Telecom, moved to Milton Road.

During the 1960s the rivalry intensified but the player traffic continued. United signed City full back Dai Jones in 1962, and a year later City exchanged cash and Willie Devine for U’s forward Freddie Bunce. United captured Barry Smith, Roy Poole and Billy Wall from Milton Road, while Frank Allen, John Hiner, Norman Bleanch, Matt McVittie and Gerry Graham (signed by former U Roy Kirk) moved north.

The clubs’ paths diverged in 1968 when City experienced relegation for the first time. From now on, players signing for the Lilywhites, such as Gerry Baker (1969) and Wes Maughan (1970), were surplus to requirements at United. When the U’s were elected to the League, decades of rivalry effectively ended.

But cross-Cam dealings have continued. The clubs may now be four pyramid levels apart, but players will doubtless swap amber for white as long as they exist.

Cheerio
Harry

Tony Gallego saves for Cambridge United at King's Lynn. Photo: Lynn News & Advertiser.

It was apt that Joe and Tony Gallego should play for both senior Cambridge clubs – which, at the time that they first appeared, were known as Cambridge Town and Abbey United.

It was our city that welcomed the brothers as refugees in 1937, when they fled their native Basque country to escape Hitler’s deadly Condor Legion bombers.

The Legion, flying in support of Francisco Franco’s Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War, killed the Gallego children’s father when it bombed the Basque town of Guernica.

Their mother placed five of her kids in an orphanage, but they were soon on their way to Britain aboard the liner Habana. They settled well in Cambridge – and football played a big role in the process.

‘Football meant everything to us; it was the only thing we knew about,’ Antonio (known as Tony) told El Pais in 2012. ‘We got attached to Cambridge and made a lot of friends here through playing football.’

Goalkeeper Tony and winger José (Joe) signed for Town as teenagers. Tony moved to the Abbey in 1943 before rejoining Joe at Milton Road, spending time as a professional with Norwich and then returning to United in 1947.

Joe left Town for Brentford and went on to play for Southampton and Colchester, but came back to United in 1951.

The Gallegos stayed in Cambridge for the rest of their lives, Joe dying in 2006 at the age of 82 and 90-year-old Tony passing away in 2015. I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts rang out loud and proud at the funeral.

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Nick knack

10/3/2016

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This article appeared in the Cambridge United official programme for the game against Accrington Stanley on Saturday, 1 October 2016.

Footballers’ nicknames can be really boring, can’t they? Too often it’s just a case of adding a ‘y’ or an ‘o’ to a surname – Mooro, Bally, – or shortening the name and adding an ‘s’ – Becks, Blatts, Cholmondeley-Warns.

The U’s have been as guilty of this lazy practice as any other club. On the other hand, we have a proud history of nickname creativity: who was the genius who first dubbed John Taylor ‘Shaggy’? How did Gary Clayton become Hedgy? Was Lindsay Smith’s ‘Wolfie’ moniker the result of a Habbin wit’s contribution to a Saturday afternoon?

Go further back in U’s history and you’ll come across the likes of Buzzer, Cruncher and Scobie. But if you explore the period covered by Andrew Bennett’s wonderful book Newmarket Road Roughs, published this month by Lovely Bunch, you’ll be able to mine a fabulously rich seam of nickname gold.

Here are some of the mysteries 100 Years of Coconuts researchers hope to solve (if you know the answers, please get in touch at 100yearsofcoconuts@gmail.com): whence came the ‘Pop’ in Stan ‘Pop’ Ballard? Why was Harold Watson known as Darley? Who put the ‘Pim’ in Bill Stearn? What was the story behind Jim ‘Squatter’ Smith? Why did everyone call William Freeman ‘Fanny’? Was it a result of dressing room bants? I shudder to think.

Nice barnets, lads. Photo: Cambridge Evening News.

My favourite is the byname bestowed on Albert Dring, who was Abbey United’s top goalscorer in 1922/23 and finished his Wasps career with 34 goals from 46 appearances. I would love to know why he rejoiced in the nickname ‘Twitter’. We can rule out the suggestion that he spoke in sentences of 140 characters.

An extract from Newmarket Road Roughs (yours for £14.99, or £13.99 if you’re a CFU member, via the CFU online store or the caravan on a match day) shows how important Twitter was to the Abbey, and gives a flavour of the kind of football they were playing in the 20s: ‘In the Minor Cup, Abbey were favourites to beat Soham Comrades in the semi-final at Cambridge Town’s new Milton Road ground, but found themselves two goals down after 70 minutes. Wilson then swapped positions with Dring and converted a penalty to pull one back before Soham’s Talbot skied a spot kick that would surely have clinched it; duly encouraged, Dring headed an equaliser ten minutes from time and seconds later right winger Tom Langford snatched a dramatic winner.

‘The final at the same venue two weeks later was against Cambridge GER, whom the Abbey had already thrashed 10-2 and 5-1 in the league, but they were shocked when Cracknell fired the Railwaymen ahead inside the first minute. Dring soon equalised, but GER had a game plan that involved stopping the Abbey from playing their normal game and the nearest United came to scoring again was when Wilson hit the post in the second half.

‘United had no such difficulties in the league. In February they thrashed their nearest rivals, Newnham Institute, 6-0, with Wilson and Dring contributing two goals apiece. “Abbey played on the top of their form, and won with ease,” stated the match report. “They are a well-balanced side, and it will not be a surprise if some of their players find a way into higher class teams.”’

Recognise the players pictured above? Of course you do. Now, recall their nicknames, then order Newmarket Road Roughs here and enter a nickname wonderland.

Cheerio
Harry

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#thepastwillsoonbepresent

8/29/2016

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The past will soon be present … the first volume of Celery & Coconuts, Andrew Bennett’s definitive history of Abbey and Cambridge United, will be published in October by 100 Years of Coconuts. And you can preorder your copy of Newmarket Road Roughs at the CFU online store.

Newmarket Road Roughs, published under the Lovely Bunch imprint, examines in exhaustive detail the humble beginnings of Abbey United, the club that grew up in the back streets of Barnwell and went on to challenge the biggest names in English football. Andrew describes the background to the club’s formation, its pre-WWI friendlies, its post-war exploits in the Cambridgeshire League, its fight to stay alive during World War II and its subsequent move into the professional game.

The first volume of Celery & Coconuts ends in 1951, when our ambitious club changed its name to Cambridge United and embarked on its preparations for life in the Southern League and, finally in 1970, the Football League.

Order from cambridgefansunited.org/store/c4/Books.html or visit the CFU outlet on a match day.

Packed with the fascinating stories of the characters who saw our club, always firmly based in its community, through its formative years and on to the brink of national recognition, Newmarket Road Roughs comes with details of every game played by Abbey United in its first 40 years, plus league tables and playing records.

Those appendices alone are worth the cover price of £14.99 for this attractively designed hardback book – the first of many to come from Andrew Bennett and Lovely Bunch. To preorder your copy, go to cambridgefansunited.org/store/c4/Books.html or visit the CFU outlet on a match day. Alternatively, drop a line to 100yearsofcoconuts@gmail.com. Members of CFU enjoy a £1 discount.

We’ll let you know when your copy of Newmarket Road Roughs is available to pick up or is in the post. By choosing to collect from the CFU caravan you will avoid the postal charges of £2.99 for normal post and £5.99 for Royal Mail special delivery.

Happy reading! The past will soon be present.

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A cabinet full of cups

In the master's footsteps

To the Bridge

Mystery inside an enigma

A foot in both camps

Nick knack

#thepastwillsoonbepresent

Happy Harry's blog

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