Blog Archives

David Hallett reported for Cambridge News. Here is Part 2 of his memories

5/13/2020

Comments

In 2007 Cambridge Evening News sports desk reporter David Hallett retired after 43 years with the company. He was a well respected journalist who joined the paper in 1964 reporting on a number of sports during this period.

Former England cricket captain Tony Lewis said at the time. “I did not understand how good a sports reporter David was until I myself took up his trade. “I returned to Fenner’s regularly and depended on him and sought a tutorial.”

Then Director of Elite Rugby Rob Andrew said: “David has been a great servant to rugby and cricket in Cambridge. He is a very knowledgeable, trustworthy and diplomatic man and I wish him well.”

Gavin Hastings, the former British Lion, added: “David was one of the old-school type of journalists who tried to get to know the type of people he was working with. He got to know the person first before trying to do the piece on him. That was the mark of the man.

Read Part 1 press here

Then the News was publishing the Light Blue sports paper on a Saturday which appeared within an hour of the final whistle. I reported by running copy not easy when in those days there as no telephone available in the old wooden Abbey Stadium stand. I had to write by hand and legibly enough for a runner who would rush up the the Board Room situated in the Cut Throat Lane corner of the stadium where abided the club’s only telephone.

Eventually a press box on stilts was built, later to become the police ground control post. With a News installed telephone.

Other Southern League grounds were often no better. Take Margate for instance where I covered my first Saturday away game, or Weymouth.

The Kent club had their only phone in a portacabin with only fanlight windows at the top of the walls. That required putting a chair on top of a table to be able to see the match while phoning the news back to office in Newmarket Road

At Weymouth the press box was perched on top of covered terracing accessed by a ladder at the back of the terrace and a wooden cat walk over the corrugated roof. Not sure what Health and Safety would make of that.

Football was fun at the Abbey Stadium during the sixties despite the authoritarian stance of Bill Leivers, perhaps because of it.

The manager, quite apart from his wider vision for the club, was an astute tactician and was continually looking to improve his side which was not such a difficult task when players were often queuing up to join the club.

Despite his emphasis on a solid defence his side were scoring goals for fun and much was down the the technical ability of midfield players like Alan O’Neill and Brian Greenhalgh, a particularly favourite with the fans who packed the Newmarket Road end terracing.

Another Leivers’ masterstroke was the signing of Ian Hutchinson from Burton Albion. The manager saw something in the shy strikers than others had missed and it was not long before United were having to fight off the attention of top Football League clubs.

Soon the clamour for the services of the lanky striker became too much and he was sold to Chelsea which part of the Transfer fee being a home friendly with the West London club.

It was a shrewd move for very quickly 14000 tickets were sold, something more than the then capacity of the Abbey Stadium. As events would have it Chelsea won the FA Cup in a final replay on the day set for game which was put back two days. Chelsea duly arrived with the FA Cup for a Friday night game only hours before United were due to play the final crucial Southern League game fo the season needing the beat Margate to ensure the title.

So it was agreed United’s first team would play the first half against the Londoner’s cup winning side and Chelsea reserves would oppose their senior in the second half.

It was a strange evening with the Southern League title very much in everybody’s mind. Strange also because it also established a remarkable professional football first where a clubs record attendance was for a friendly.

It went well and even better when United comfortably beat Margate the following afternoon to take the title. Onwards and upwards.

United pushed boundaries further afield arranging a four match tour to Germany meaning they would be away when the election for places to the Football League took place.

When the news filtered through to the tourists it was the end of a dream for Proctor, Woolley Leivers and all those officials and supporters who had done so much to fuel the dream of Football League status.

But at the same time it proved not to be the end of the journey but just another chapter in the rise of Cambridge United.

Another chapter but the most crucial so far in the story of a club that was to continue the grow

Click here to read the 60's scrapbooks

Click Here to read the Cambridge News Sports papers

David
Thank you for providing your memories
From the team at Coconuts

Comments

Abbey United's last match before World War 2

5/11/2020

Comments

On the 11th May 1939 Abbey United took part in their last competitive match before war commenced with Germany in the September of that year.

The match taking place was for the Creake Charity Shield against Histon Institute at Milton Road in front of 1200 spectators

It resulted in victory for United 2-1.

Both Abbey United goals that day were scored by Herbert Smart who was father of the future Cambridge United Chairman Reg Smart.

I wonder how many players who took part that day would have known how events were going to turn out over the coming months and how their lives would change forever?

Above is a photo produced by the Cambridge Daily News of the Abbey United team that played on the day

Back from left: Herbert Smart, Reg Kimberley, A 'Buck' Arnold, Herbert 'Tickle' Sanderson, Ernie Caston, Reg Wilson. Front: Fred Mansfield, Monty Bull, Wally Wilson, Bob Brown, Joe Richardson, Jim Langford.

Comments

Remembering Fifty & Thirty Years Ago This Week - we continue the story into February 1970 & 1990

5/11/2020

Comments

This season marks the 50th anniversary of Cambridge United’s last season in the Southern League which concluded in being elected into the Football League. Week by week we will look back on events of that memorable season and also 30 years ago, a season which saw the U’s win the first ever play off final at Wembley

1969/70 Early February saw manager Bill Leivers continuing to rearrange his squad. Alan Doyle had been loaned to Stevenage but recalled after a week to be permanently transferred to Chelmsford City. A few days later, surpisingly, Tony Butcher followed him to New Writtle Street. Leivers stated at the time that he allowed Butcher to return home to be closer to home because of his wife’s illness. But back in 2013 Butcher recalled that Leivers had criticised him for lack of effort and told him that the Clarets were interested in having him back. He took that as he wasn’t wanted at the Abbey and agreed to re-join Chelmsford. Butcher also went on to say that he did regret missing his last chance to play in the Football League. Lincoln asked to keep Peter Leggett on loan for another month but the player preferred to return to the Abbey and fight for his place, which said a lot for the strength of United’s Southern league squad compared to that of forth division Lincoln. Meanwhile John Saunders turned down yet another move to Nuneaton, saying he wanted to live in London. His contract was cancelled by mutual consent and he sign for Cambridge City!

Robin Hardy was restored as sweeper for the goalless draw away to Dover on Wednesday 4th February. Three days later on a mud bath of a Abbey Stadium pitch United slaughtered Crawley Town 8-0 a Gilchrist hat-trick was added to by goals from Meldrum, Hardy, McKinven, Harris and Brian grant with his first ever goal for the club. It turned out to be Paul Gilchrist’s last game for the club as he had to return to Charlton after his months loan. He had scored six goals in five games for the U’s and went on to over 200 League games for six different clubs and a FA Cup winners medal with Southampton in 1976. This was the first time United played in the all white with amber and black collars and cuffs strip. Wonder what the kit man thought of that on the mud bath? The folloe Thursday evening United went out of the Southern League Cup in an exciting contest by 1-0 away to Wimbledon despite having six shot cleared of the goal line.

1989/90 Second placed Exeter City came to the Abbey on 10th February for a Division 4 match and were 2-0 up before half time. After half time inspiring team talk by manager John Beck the U’s took the game to the Grecians and scored through Michael Cheetham in the 52nd minute before Lee Phillpott equalised in the 72nd minute. Cheetham again scored in the 82nd minute to give United all 3 points. Liam Daish dedicated the win to previous manager Chris Turner who had just been sacked as general manager.

The next week United were in FA Cup 5th Round action away at Bristol City. The kick-off is delayed because the chartered train carrying U’s fans was late. United gave a gutsy display and were only denied victory when Bristol’s John Bailey pulled Chris Leadbitter back when he was clean through on goal. The replay at the Abbey the following Wednesday also ends 0-0 after 90 minutes. Extra time also fails to separate the teams after Dion Dublin gave United the lead on 91 minutes Bob Taylor equalised 3 minutes later. John Beck won the toss of a coin to decide the venue for the second replay a week later.

Photograph courtesy of Cambridge News

Tony Butcher, goal-poacher extraordinary, will always be remembered for the hat-trick he scored in 1969 to give Cambridge United the Southern League championship for the first time. This interview is in three parts: part 2, part 3 can be watched below

Comments

David Hallett reported for Cambridge News. Here is Part 1 of his memories

5/8/2020

Comments

In 2007 Cambridge Evening News sports desk reporter David Hallett retired after 43 years with the company. He was a well respected journalist who joined the paper in 1964 reporting on a number of sports during this period.

Broadcaster Mark Saggers said at the time: “David watched and reported on me as a sporstman in Cambridge. He instinctively knew the story and asked the questions in the right way.“He mixed Town sport with gown, county with village and was also trusted. When Rob Andrew and Michael Atherton still ask about him, you know he did a great job. He is a true Cambridgeshire sportsman.”

David has kindly written the following recalling his time following the U's at the News for 100yearsofcoconuts

Arliss is not a name you readily associate with the creation of the modern Cambridge United. Proctor, Woolley, Leivers yes. Even Slack, Hardy, Meldrum but, Arliss I do not think so (although he was an early inductee to the club Hall of Fame.

Yet Dudley Arliss was a key figure at the heart and the rise and rise of Cambridge United in the 1960’s.

Let us investigate. As United were nearing the end of the Alan Moore era of the early Sixties having played second fiddle to neighbours and Southern League champions Cambridge City Jack Woolley, owner of Abbey Tyres, and shopkeeper Geoff Proctor were largely paying the playing wages out of their own pockets.

As City were to discover only temporary success could be bought through the largess of football club directors. Woolley and Proctor, in turn chairman and vice-chairman of United, released this and took the far sighted, some may say inspirational decision to invest what little money there was into employing a professional fund raiser and thus Arliss arrived at the Abbey Stadium.

It did not take long for him to get his feet under the table and rags began to turn into riches.

He established the United lottery and an army of sellers, not just in Cambridge but across the whole of East Anglia and beyond and it did not take long for the money to pour into the Abbey Stadium coffers.

The money was not always wisely spent and under manager Roy Kirk United learned that buying the best players from other, often Non League clubs, did not guarantee the success officials and the growing number of supporters craved.

But some was invested wisely and United signed some local players as apprentices, the first club outside the Football League to do so and Habbin, Harley and Robinson were employed.

And ironically it was this trio that were to enable the next major step and, to my eyes, the most significant, in the club’s history.

The novelty of apprentices in the non league world attracted attention from far and wide even as far as the northern outpost of Workington where their young and thrustful manager, always with the eye on a bargain, decided he better have a look and thus Bill Leivers arrived at the Abbey Stadium for a midweek match the run the rule over the trio.

He liked what he saw but Habbin, Harley and Robinson did to set off the Cumbria but rather Leivers moved the other way and his reign, arguably the most significant in United history, began.

The new manager quickly showed he could motivate his players to get the best out of them besides being tactically astute and a shrewd judge of talent. Thus the likes of Robin Hardy, a key component in that as to follow arrived from up’t North.

Other signings followed as Leivers followed previous mangers to pick the best from Chelmsford whence came Terry Eades, Bill Cassidy, Tony Butcher, Peter Leggett et all.

On the field United were on the up but it was not just the Southern League title in Leivers’ sights but also promotion to the Football League.

Now there was no promotion and relegation in those days and the get a place at the top table outsiders needed someone to fall by the wayside. What was known as the Old Boys Network made sure there was no other way in.

The United manager had to find anther route and like the recruitment of Arliss almost decade before he played a master stroke by employing a Public Relations consultant to sell his club to the establishment ie member clubs of Football League.

Meanwhile the football life of the club continued under the stern eye of Bill Leivers. Stern, but it was often fun, as I discovered when I sometimes trained and even once played in a match with a full time professional squad.

Much of the intense training took place behind the Habbin Stand in a small area bordered by the stand and the brook that marked the boundary of Coldhams Common. The brook was shielded by a corrugated iron fence hence the area was known as The Tins.

Intense yes, ferocious sometimes. But there was always a player to lift the spirits. Often that person was Bill Cassidy who took a delight in lighten the mood, just as he did many times in the heat of battle or Southern League points.

I recall a Midland Floodlit League match at Worcester when the the lights failed momentarily as United defended resolutely but as the stadium burst back into life Cassidy was about the boot the ball into the back of the Worcester net. How he got there was known only to the player himself although it seemed some illegal method had been employed and the “goal” was rightly rule out.

Players, now joined by the shrewd acquisition of George Harris and Colin Meldrum, from Reading.

Theses were heady days as progress continued both and off the field.

Reporting these events was changing two. My first match was in March 1964, a home defeat to Yeovil followed by a 6-2 victory at Rugby when Johnny Haas helped himself to four of the United goals.

To read Part 2 click here

Below is the Cambridge United v Yeovil report from March 1964

Click here to read the 60's scrapbooks

Comments

The story continues from 1970 and 1990 on the U's journey up the leagues we reach the end of Janaury

5/5/2020

Comments

This season marks the 50th anniversary of Cambridge United’s last season in the Southern League which concluded in being elected into the Football League. Week by week we will look back on events of that memorable season and also 30 years ago, a season which saw the U’s win the first ever play off final at Wembley.

1969/70 Saturday 24th January saw the U’s travel to bottom placed Burton Albion for a Southern league Premiership match. It was on loan striker Paul Gilchrist who gave the U’s a 1-0 win in what was described as a “robust encounter”. Amazing to think that the match was watched by only 890 people, how times have changed at Burton! United were now in third place three points behind leaders Wimbledon with four games in hand.

Next match up was the second round FA Trophy tie away to Bromsgrove Rovers who were managed by ex England goalkeeper Gil Merrick. Bromsgrove, who played in the West Midlands League, took the lead through a Brian Grant own goal and despite Keith Barker saving a penalty from ex England winger Mike Hallawell his brother John doubled the hosts’ lead. A late Gilchrist goal was small consolation for the large and expectant away following.
Off the field United started to make preparations for the annual push for votes from the Football League clubs for election into the League at the end of season meeting in May. Roy Peskett a PR and marketing consultant was appointed. He had promised to half his fee if the campaign was unsuccessful.

1989/90 On Saturday 27th January United travelled to Millwall for the FA Cup 4th round tie. John Beck, managing in the FA Cup for the first time, moved full-back Colin Bailie into midfield and introduced Andy Fensome at right-back. Bailie, who had been the target of the Corona Kop boo-boys, was to go on to make himself a firm favourite of all the fans. Just before half time Tony Cascarino turned sharply to score for the top division hosts. John Taylor equalised soon after the break and the tie went to a replay on the following Tuesday evening at the Abbey. Over nine thousand attended the replay at a windswept Abbey Stadium and a match that was full of midfield action was settled by an own goal when Millwall’s David Thompson, later to play for the U’s, turned a wind assisted back pass into his own goal.

After only three games since taking over from Chris Turner, John Beck had managed to transform the team and managed to a style of play that suited the player’s abilities. A back four of Andy Fensome, Liam Daish, Phil Chapple and Alan Kimble in front of goalkeeping legend John Vaughan were performing as a unit. Colin Bailie and Chris Leadbitter making up the centre of midfield with Lee Philpott and Michael Cheetham providing the crosses for John Taylor and Dion Dublin who by now had Steve Claridge waiting in the wings to take their place.

On Friday 2nd February the U’s travelled to Halifax for a forth division match. Both teams had featured in FA Cup replays that went into extra time in midweek. So it was not surprising that both sets of players tired quickly and the match ended goalless. John Beck stated that he was happy with the point. United were now in 13th place, 12 points behind the leaders Carlisle.

Comments

Forward>>

David Hallett reported for Cambridge News. Here is Part 2 of his memories

Abbey United's last match before World War 2

Remembering Fifty & Thirty Years Ago This Week - we continue the story into February 1970 & 1990

David Hallett reported for Cambridge News. Here is Part 1 of his memories

To read Part 2 click here

The story continues from 1970 and 1990 on the U's journey up the leagues we reach the end of Janaury

Happy Harry's blog

Archives

Categories