An edited version of this article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the game against Notts County on 20 February 2018.

Half-close your eyes and squint at the fuzzy, poor-quality photograph on the right. There are some unforgettable faces there; award yourself five points if you can name them all.

Clue: you’re looking for the likes of John ‘Shaggy’ Taylor, Tom Youngs, Alex Russell, ‘Dancing’ Shaun Marshall, Paul ‘Captain Fantastic’ Wanless, Andy Duncan and Martin Butler.

There are several others; some of them achieved great things at United and elsewhere. It’s a talented group of young men and also, it appears, a happy bunch.

Why wouldn’t they be? They’ve obviously passed a fun half-hour in creating an imaginative backdrop and they’re grouped round one of England’s most respected players and managers of recent decades – a man who a few months later would lead them to promotion to Division Three.
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And Roy McFarland (for it is he) is showing off a rather handsome pot earned by the lads the previous season – the PFA Bobby Moore Fair Play Trophy for 1997/98 – topped by a black 'n' amber Father Christmas titfer.

Roy Mac, although proud of his charges for achieving the best disciplinary record in the Premier and Football Leagues, was at pains to stress the team’s fighting qualities when he spoke to reporters. ‘We are not a soft touch and not a lightweight side,’ he insisted.

It’s true that United, with battlers like Wanless, Duncan and Ian Ashbee in the side, could never have been accused of being softies. And the hefty presence up front of Trevor Benjamin ruled out any ‘lightweight’ jibes.
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Indeed, the U’s claimed the award despite seeing two players – Messrs Wanless and Butler – make early use of the showers in one game. Then again, that match was the infamous FA Cup second round replay at Stevenage Borough in December 1997, when United were eliminated thanks to one of the most ridiculously inept refereeing performances ever seen in the Home Counties.

You can inspect the Fair Play Trophy at close quarters when you visit The Story of the U’s, our little museum in the Supporters’ Club. Write to 100yearsofcoconuts@gmail.com to arrange that visit.  (To answer the disappointed punter who wrote words to the effect of ‘is that it?’ in the visitors’ book: yes, we know it’s small, but it’s a start.)

It's always a pleasure for 100 Years of Coconuts and Cambridge United Former Players' Association to welcome the families of ex-U's to the Abbey Stadium.

It's doubly delightful when the family is as lovely as that of the late Peter Leggett, the hugely talented winger who terrorised defences in the late 60s and early 70s.

​Peter's wife Margaret, daughter Michelle Hands and grandson Ethan were with us on Saturday for the Grimsby game, and they brought along Michelle's Mariners-supporting boyfriend, Jonathan Tabois.

It was wonderful to listen to Margaret's tales of the Leggetts' time in Cambridge, especially those from around the time that United were elected to the Football League in 1970.

After a quick tour of Coconuts' mini-museum, The Story of the U's, and a chat with fans' elected director Dave Matthew-Jones and former FED Colin Proctor – who remembers just about everyone who ever came through the Abbey gates – it was down to the serious stuff and that late Paul Lewis winner.

​We can't wait to see them all again.

There we were, minding our own business and showing supporters round The Story of the U's, Coconuts' mini-museum in the Supporters' Club.

The next minute, the tiny space was jam-packed with fashionable beards and tracksuits.

We were delighted to welcome the entire Cambridge United first-team squad to our display during the club's open day at the Abbey Stadium yesterday.

Gary 'Deegs' Deegan was particularly taken with the 1950s-vintage shinpads, and keepers Dimitar 'Dimi' Mitov and David 'Fordey' Forde could only marvel at their predecessor Rodney Slack's gloves, hand-crocheted in the 1960s.

The gloves were hand-crocheted, not Rodney.

Meanwhile, over by the Abbey Arms, Marvin 'Marv' the Moose was 'avin' a go at the coconuts, and many a child went home wondering what to do with their prize, the whiskery fruit of the Cocos nucifera.

Thanks to the Abbey Lounge/Cambridge United Supporters' Club and to Cambridge United and its community trust for their continued support for 100 Years of Coconuts.

See you all again next year. Meanwhile, if you'd like to visit The Story of the U's and learn more about the story of your club – or if you don't know what to do with the kids during the school holidays – contact us here or drop a line to 100yearsofcoconuts@gmail.com.

Nigel Fenner has more than a few sporty strings to his bow, which helps no end when he’s showing visitors some of Cambridge’s many sites of special sporting interest.

For starters, he’s a descendant of the tobacconist and cricketer Francis Fenner who, in the mid-19th century, created the famous Cambridge cricket ground that bears his name.

He earned his football Blue in 1982, playing in goal for the University against Oxford at Wembley, after making a name for himself with the Arsenal youth side.

He rowed for Downing College, played alongside Gareth Edwards in the oval ball game and worked as pre-season fitness trainer to Ian Botham’s Somerset cricketers. More recently, he cycled from Land’s End to John O’ Groats.

And he qualified as a sports scientist at Liverpool John Moores University, although it’s difficult to see how he found time for his studies.

It goes without saying that Nigel is an authority on Cambridge sports, yet we managed to teach him a thing or two about Barnwell’s contribution to history when he visited The Story of the U’s the other day.

100 Years of Coconuts' work with primary schools, telling the story of Abbey/Cambridge United, continues. The latest visitors to The Story of the U's mini-museum were Year 6 of Fen Ditton Primary, and it was a real pleasure to have them and their teachers with us.

This article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the Leyton Orient match on Saturday, 8 April 2017.

The United youth teams of the early- to mid-1960s produced a bountiful crop of players who made their mark at the Abbey and beyond. With the likes of manager Peter Reeve and trainer Wally Warren working hard behind the scenes, players such as Alan Payne, Bert Haggis and Peter Robinson made sure the first teamers knew there were youngsters ready and able to take their places.

Several of these young men went on to play in the Football League well before United made it into the Fourth Division: Graham Felton starred on the wing for many years at Northampton and elsewhere; Peter Bowstead’s promising career at Oxford was cut short by injury; Richard Habbin and John Harley became favourites at Reading.

Another player in and around the senior team at the time was Brian Whitmore, whom we welcome, with wife Maureen and friends Sandra and Fred Marshall, to today’s game. We’re hoping a look at the ground, a visit to his old teammate Rodney Slack, a chat with his old youth team manager Peter Reeve and a butcher’s at The Story of the U’s in the Supporters’ Club will stir some memories of happy times over half a century ago.

Brian was a promising striker who made his first-team debut against Histon in the East Anglian Cup on 7 October 1963 (the U’s won 3-0). Two more appearances followed that season, in the teams that beat Soham Town Rangers to win the Lakenheath British Legion Cup and claimed the Wymondham Charity Cup by overcoming Wymondham Town.

In the run-up to the 1964/65 season Brian scored in a 2-1 friendly defeat of Colchester United. During the season proper he played four times (netting one goal) in the Midland Floodlit League, four times in the late, lamented Mithras Cup, once in the East Anglian Cup and in the teams that retained the Lakenheath British Legion and Wymondham Charity cups. The following term he played twice in the East Anglian Cup – scoring twice in the first ten minutes of a 5-2 defeat of Dagenham – and his last first-team game came on 28 October 1965 in a 3-3 Midland Floodlit League draw with Wellington Town. Having scored three times in 15 games for the U’s, he left the Abbey and went on to play for Soham and Histon.

Brian’s short-term memory has been affected by Alzheimer’s, that most cruel of diseases. Some memories of his playing days remain with him, and Maureen, Fred and Sandra hope today’s visit to his old stamping ground will stir some reminiscences. It so happens that this ties in with a project for which 100 Years of Coconuts is seeking funding. We want to use the Coconuts collection and The Story of the U’s to help older people living with dementia and/or coping with depression and loneliness.

We’ve seen at first hand the amazing effect exposure to memorabilia, photographs, documents and other objects can have on people with dementia. We want to further the work of the Sporting Memories Foundation by sharing memories and helping people to connect with others and with their past. We know how well this can reawaken positive thoughts and feelings that might otherwise stay hidden.

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

​What a lovely bunch! The latest visitors to The Story of the U’s, 100 Years of Coconuts’ exhibit on the history of Cambridge United, were members of Barnwell & Fen Ditton Local History Society – and some even learned new things about their area. As usual, there was much discussion about the ladies’ pants.

The local historians were also the first visitors to see new exhibits including Under the Gaslamps, artist Paine Proffitt’s brilliant evocation of the first days of Abbey United. Also newly on display is the sheet music of the original I've Got A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.

The Story of the U’s is open to members of Cambridge United Supporters’ Club and their guests during normal club opening hours, and by appointment at other times. If you’re not a member and you would like to visit – and