Category: Bob Bishop

Bishop's place in history

5/24/2018

We're obliged to the generous Rod Bishop, who has donated the framed display on the right to The Story of the U's, the Coconuts mini-museum in Cambridge United Supporters' Club's Abbey Lounge home.

It represents an important piece of U's history, for it contains what is believed to be the first full-time professional contract offered to a United player – at a weekly wage of £3 plus another £1 'when playing for the first team'.

Signed by full back Bob Bishop (Rod's father) and club secretary Fred Ward, and witnessed by player-manager Bill Whittaker, it dates to 16 August 1952, when ambitious United were playing in the Eastern Counties League but planning for bigger things.

The display also features Bob among the team that took on Bradford Park Avenue in the FA Cup second round on 12 December 1953, and the biography that appeared in Brian Attmore and Graham Nurse's '100 Greats' book published in 2002.

Bob, an athletic, versatile and influential player who was equally comfortable at right or left back, played 202 games for the U's between 1947 and 1956, when he hung up his boots to take on the role of trainer. He got forward occasionally, as his tally of six goals shows.

His United career spanned three eras: he joined when the club was competing in the United Counties League and stepped back from the trainer role when it was playing in the Southern League, in 1959.

It's a splendid addition to The Story of the U's for which we thank Rod – a long-term United follower and no mean sportsman himself in his day, although he showed a puzzling preference for the oval ball.

To arrange a visit to The Story of the U's, email 100yearsofcoconuts@gmail.com.

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Men of the cloth

10/19/2017

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An edited version of this article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the game against Yeovil Town on 17 October 2017.

On the rare occasions when there’s not much happening at Coconuts Towers and the only alternative would be watching Strictly – not a prospect to set the average Coconutter’s heart racing – we often amuse ourselves with a little parlour game.

As the fire blazes merrily and the Cinzano bottle does the rounds, we fall to composing make-believe XIs – for example, dreaming up a team of past and present United players with the same initials for forename and family name. Brendon Batson and Dave Donaldson are guaranteed starters, and Efon Elad often sneaks in.

A side of craftsmen might feature Les Cartwright, Stephen Smith and Tony Fletcher, while the Body Parts XI would include Brian Hart, Chris Foote and Peter Leggett. Or how about a Clergy XI?

The history of the U’s (described by Andrew Bennett in Celery & Coconuts, whose second volume, Risen from the Dust, is published this month; order online at the CFU store or at the caravan on a match day) throws up two reverend gentlemen who graced the Abbey pitch.

Winger Alan Comfort was at the Abbey between 1984 and 1986 and has been chaplain at Leyton Orient for many years, following a lengthy and popular playing career at Brisbane Road. He studied for the Anglican priesthood at Ridley Hall, the theological college in Sidgwick Avenue, and is now rector of three churches clustered around the A10 near Puckeridge, Herts. Son Henry continues the U's connection – he's the club's chief operating officer.

The Rev A Keenan was described as ‘a grand centre half’ on his Abbey United debut in 1945, but was happy to deputise between the sticks when United were needed. There was a war on and keepers, like oranges, were in short supply. He turned out 11 times for the U's in all.

But what of those players whose names qualify them for a place in the Clergy XI? We were obliged to rule as ineligible, because of their tenuous ecclesiastical connections, the likes of Phil Chapple, Christian Smith and Les Serman and Alan Lord.

But local lad Nick Pope, a very welcome addition to the United ranks on loan from Charlton in 2013, is a shoo-in for the goalkeeper’s jersey, leaving Rev Keenan free to fill a centre-back spot. Nick is now doing very well for himself in the Premier League at Burnley.

Left back is David Deacon, who was signed by manager Alan Moore in the summer of 1960. A six-footer who had played around 70 games over eight seasons at Ipswich, he went on to make 31 appearances for the U’s.

Above, Jill and Alan Comfort; below left, Nick Pope in his Charlton days; below right, Bob Bishop in his role as United trainer in 1959.

Lining up at right back we have the ever-dependable Bob Bishop, a man who became Abbey’s first professional player when, in 1947, he signed for the ambitious little club embarking on its first season in the United Counties League. He eventually played 202 games in two spells before spending three years as trainer. His last manager, Bert Johnson, described him as ‘a never-say-die player; a real fighter’.

Another of the Bishop clan, skilful left winger Jack, is also an automatic choice. He joined United from Bury Town for the start of the 1951-52 season and, like his brother, amply demonstrated his dedication to the cause. An ambulance was called during a game against Tottenham Hotspur ‘A’ after Jack suffered suspected concussion, but he insisted on leaving the ground the same way he had arrived: wheeling his bike.

Striker Dean Neal didn’t pull up any trees during his 1986/87 stint at the Abbey, but he makes the Clergy XI by default. We’re short of a defender, a couple of midfielders and a forward; write to 100yearsofcoconuts@gmail.com with your suggestions.

Cheerio
Harry

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Jack Bishop 1923-2017

1/20/2017

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100 Years of Coconuts is sorry to report another recent death in the Cambridge United family: that of Jack Bishop, a skilful outside left who, with his full-back brother Bob, played for the U’s in the 1950s.

When the Bishops played in Jack’s debut game, the club’s first ever in the Eastern Counties League, against Great Yarmouth Town on 18 August 1951, they lined up with another sibling pair: Antonio ('Tony') and Jose ('Joe') Gallego. Jack went on to play 47 times for United, contributing five goals. His career in football followed wartime army service that saw him survive detention in a notorious prisoner of war camp and a forced march of hundreds of miles.

Born in 1923 at Southminster in Essex, the youngest of three sons, Jack Bishop showed his talent at football and cricket on a local level at an early age. In 1941 he joined the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, where his training as a tank driver included work on Duplex Drive ‘swimming’ vehicles, equipped with flotation screens enabling them to be launched at sea.

Six-thirty on the morning of D-Day (6 June 1944) found Jack in the first wave of tanks landing on Gold Beach to assault the Normandy settlement of La Rivière. He had been ashore for three weeks when his tank was hit and blown up by an 88mm armour-piercing shell near Caen. Jack tried to help his captain, who had been wounded, but he was captured and transferred to the infamous Stalag VIII PoW camp in Silesia.

With the approach of the Red Army in late 1944, prisoners were evacuated from many camps in order to delay their liberation, and forced to march westwards. Jack’s route took him through Czechoslovakia and Bavaria, then north through Germany before, after 1,500 miles, he was finally freed by British troops in Hamburg. After being flown home and then sent to serve in the 1945-47 Palestine conflict, he was demobbed in 1948.

Jack Bishop is pictured front left in this team photo, taken at Newmarket Road in 1951/52. Brother Bob is second from the left in the top row.

Brothers in arms: from left, Bob, Archie and Jack Bishop.

Back in England, he resumed his sporting career with Bury Town, from whom he joined United, with Bob, for the club’s first ECL season. The older brother earned £4 a week while Jack made do with a pound less.

He went on to establish himself as first-choice left winger for most of the season, with Joe Gallego playing inside him at inside left, and demonstrated his commitment during a 3-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur ‘A’ in October. He insisted on continuing after receiving treatment for a head injury in the first half, but after the match an ambulance was called as concussion was suspected. Jack refused it and left the ground the way he had arrived: wheeling his bicycle.

United finished fourth in their first ECL season, but then Gallego was switched to the left wing and Jack’s first-team outings were scarce until he rejoined Bury Town in March 1953. He later played for March Town United and continued to show his talents as a cricketer.

Jack was married to Audrey, who survives him, They lived in Bury St Edmunds, where Jack worked as an engineer. He died on January 18.

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Percy's progress

1/6/2017

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In the old days, if you left a Newmarket Road pub only to realise you’d still got a bit of a thirst on, you didn’t have to go far to put the matter right. Around the time Abbey United was formed, early in the last century, there was a boozer every 36 yards on an average stretch of the fabled thoroughfare.

Nowadays you’ll need stout walking boots if you want to visit the only three pubs that remain: the Wrestlers, the Corner House and the Burleigh Arms. But renovations at the old Seven Stars promise to bring a lost hostelry back to life – and reawaken memories of the shop that once nestled alongside the pub.

The fishing tackle emporium of the larger than life Percy Anderson met the needs of generations of Cambridge anglers, and it was for that pursuit that Percy was best known. Crowned UK national champion in 1974 and Europe’s top angler three years later, he rejoiced in passing on his skills and knowledge, running his legendary summer teach-ins for local kids for 40 years until shortly before his death, aged 75, in 2006.

Everyone who knew Percy has a story to tell; ask the likes of Ian Darler or Rodney Slack if you need to flex your chuckle muscle. Ian’s tale of the exposed rump is a belter, as is Rodney’s colourful recounting of the mannequin incident, and there’s plenty more where they came from.

But Percy’s competitive exploits were not confined to the riverbank: he competed at county level at indoor and outdoor bowls, snooker, pool and table tennis, and he was a very useful centre forward who flirted with football’s big time.

After rising through the Abbey ranks, he made his United Counties League debut in a 2-2 home draw with Corby Town in September 1950. The goals didn’t flow too freely – he scored three in 11 first team games – but First Division West Brom were interested and in May 1951, after netting four times in three trial matches, the 20-year-old Percy signed a professional contract. As you’ll see when you visit The Story of the U’s in the Supporters’ Club, the Throstles promised to reward United if ‘the boy Anderson’ made the grade.

Sad to say, he didn’t. After missing out on the Albion’s first team for two seasons, he moved on to Stockport County of Division Three North, for whom he played his only Football League game during the 1953/54 season.
Perhaps pining for the Cam, he returned to the Abbey in May 1954 and enjoyed a run in the side in the first half

Percy Armstrong (second right) listens to player-manager Bill Whittaker's dressing room talk before Cambridge United's FA Cup first round proper match at Torquay United on 20 November 1954. Others, back from left: Teddy Bowd, Peter Dobson, Harry Bullen; lower from left: Bob Bishop, Len Crowe, Russell Crane, Arthur Morgan, Jack Thomas. Torquay won 4-0.

The Seven Stars, Newmarket Road, probably 1920s. Occasion unknown.

of the following season. The goals again proved hard to come by, however, and after a 1-0 defeat at Clacton in January 1955 he was loaned out to Great Yarmouth Town of the Eastern Counties League, his U’s career at an end. The United career stats: seven goals in 29 games.

Percy made many a keepnet bulge in angling matches, but the Newmarket Road goal nets were often empty. When he did score he made sure everyone knew about it, and in later life he was fond of recreating his successes on the Abbey pitch. If you get a chance, ask Ian. Bet you can’t keep a straight face.

This article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the game against Notts County on 2 January 2017.

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Bishop's place in history

Men of the cloth

Jack Bishop 1923-2017

Percy's progress

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