Colin Purdew
 
Colin is a lifelong U’s fan, currently based out at Mildenhall and he contacted Coconuts a couple of months ago. Colin and his partner were in the throes of relocating and basically having a bit of a clear out and essentially downsizing the amount of ‘stuff’ they had to take with them. Colin grew up in Chesterton , not quite in sight of the floodlights but not far away. His Grandparents lived on Newmarket Road(and in turn his Dad) just doors up from the Abbey in what were known as ‘Gasworks Houses’ given their ownership by the firm several hundred yards more centrally up the main road.

He then moved to Sawston a couple of years before Utd got in to the League. He then journeyed through various Cambs villages before pitching up in Mildenhall for the first time in the 1990s. A two year ‘distraction’ down in Surrey followed before returning to Mildenhall where he has been for the past 25 years.
 
Colin has always been a huge collector of Utd memorabilia and in fact was an original member of the Cambridge United Collectors’ Club (headed by Denis Cooper, son of Arthur, esteemed landlord of the Royal Standard in Romsey) which met regularly in the early 90s.

I did know Colin’s name vaguely from his renowned metal pin badge collection which is available to see on the worldwide web and in fact it’s fair to say he inspired me to take up my obsession with the so-called “United in Endeavour” badge, the gold and white circular coffer item, featured as a badge of course on the recent much vaunted 50th anniversary shirt.(see below)

Colin was very keen to donate certain items to Coconuts and our museum and on the strict understanding that nothing would ultimately fall into private hands. And I gave assurances to him they would not. In early March we met in the salubrious surroundings of the car park at Tesco in Newmarket, right by the car wash, and Colin handed over two plastic crates of gear comprising everything from t-shirts, figurines, season ticket booklets, scarves, Marvin the moose dressed as Sooty(!), a signed football, a half and half(guess which), a raft of pen pics and stickers through to Colin’s much lauded collection of pennants going back to 1970 and a CEN Light Blue scrapbook to boot.
 
When I last spoke to Colin it seems they had settled on a property in Grantham, they had been looking as far north as Sheffield, and he was happy that excursions to the Abbey were still doable from there, whether by car or train, so we haven’t lost him yet! Let’s hope we can all share Colin’s donations on show in “The Story of the U’s” in time to come and, who knows, in League One too.
 AF

MEMORIES DOWN CUT THROAT LANE WAY
 
Evening, Happy Harry here. Port Vale then. A curious bunch of opponents in a way in that we have only met 20 times since 1970. And in the future what may the statisticians make of us only meeting once in the 2019/20 season, eh…..lest we forget. Personally I have always been a little dubious of sides wearing white and black but that might be a Cambridge City thing going back to the 1960s. A mate did tell me that Vale’s third colour is amber so not all bad.
 
20 October is actually worth mining down Cut Throat Lane for.  In terms of our league history we first saw action in 1971, our second season in D4. if you come away from the north west wilds of Borough Park and Workington then a 1-0 victory would have always seemed the sweeter. We have been in home action eight times on this day, the most recent being v the Hatters back in 2012, not a happy day. With local derbies in mind we’re concentrating on 1972 and another set of U’s who were disposed of comfortably 3-0. A Bobby Noble own goal set us on our way and John Collins and Bobby Ross finished things off in front of 4,465. Given the trauma inflicted upon us by Col U in our early days of D4 life then a welcome about turn. 

Finally,  fancy a bit of trainspotting some time? Well be grateful for Danny Boyle. He’s 64 on the 20th. Raise a flag!
 
Bye for now,
Harry

Click on the photo below to read The Beautiful
History of  Workington

Below see Peter Phillips who scored the winner against Workington in 1971. Click on the photo to read his story

The match day programme below is here for your indulgence. Click on the cover and re-visit 1973

Greetings from Coconuts! Just remember if we won every game it would get boring…..
 
This weekend we welcome our visitors from Gwent. Ahh, the black & ambers v the black and ambers, doesn’t happen very happen, does it? Fair dues to Newport, they have been pretty constant with their shade of amber over the years, if we were honest better than us as I don’t recall them playing in primrose which we have been guilty of over the years. I did suggest to an Exile fan once that actually they played more in tangerine in their halcyon days of the late 70s and early 80s (a la Dundee Utd) but he wouldn’t have it.

The photo below is 1981. hat do you think? Amber or Tangerine?

I’ve been back down Cut Throat Lane to check out our form on this date, 10 October. A few interesting fixtures, a 2-2 draw at Fleetwood in 2010 saw a certain R Willmott get a brace for us and Magno Vieira popped one in for the Cods. Five years later Pompey were in town for an eventful fixture which saw two red cards, the U’s take the lead after five minutes but somehow we conspired to lose 1-3. We did only have 42% possession mind, apparently. It would be churlish though not to highlight  this day in 1987 when we stuffed this weekend’s visitors 4-0 in front of a meagre 1,847 crowd. David Crown, Wolfie, Mr Beck and Neil Horwood scored that day. An up and down season saw us finish the campaign in 15th, Newport bless them were bottom, 19 points adrift. The programme for that day is attached for your indulgence and indeed memory, if you’re old enough! 
 
Bye for now,
Harry

 Greetings from Coconuts! What a start! Can we finish the season now?
 
Hope you enjoyed the first digital programme offering, lots of positive feedback so far. Somebody said last week it was a hundred days to Christmas so with that in mind, if you weren't one of the 200 people to buy The Moose that Roared, volume 4 of Celery & Coconuts, then we are hoping to print some more copies, if not for you then dad or grandad even (eek)so get your pre-order in on the CFU website as soon as you can.
 
Last time round we delved down Cut Throat Lane for historic fixtures on that day. 26 September is probably a bit more interesting and living memory records show we have played nine competitive fixtures going back to 1959 when we entertained Trowbridge Town in the Southern Football League. And yes it was 0-0.  Bit of a mixed bag overall, a 1-0 win v Worcester in 1964, 2-1 v the Shaymen in 1987 and who could forget our first non-league encounter v Luton Town in 2009, although I have tried to.

Today we are concentrating, again, on our inaugural season in the Football League in 1970/71. Hartlepool Utd were the visitors, managed by a certain John Simpson who the following year joined the U's as trainer/physio and oversaw two promotions in 1973 and 1977. The programme that day is linked below for your indulgence. Oh and we won by the way, 2-0 with goals from John McKinven and Ron Howell in front of a very healthy 5,225, our fourth league victory of that campaign.  Neither McKinven nor Howell scored again for the U’s and by 1971 had moved on to pastures new.

Is there an opposite to a bogey team? Well Hartlepool were one such for us. We were unbeaten for 14 games from 1970, the run coming to an end at the Victoria Ground(as was) on a very dank January afternoon in 1986. Which probably felt a lot danker come 5pm.

Bye for now,

Harry

100yearsofcoconuts was recently contacted by the family of .Rex Brimicombe MBE
 
Rex had been a supporter of the club for many years and the family have kindly donated two badges to the group to be displayed within the Coconuts museum sited in the Cambridge United Supporters Club
 
Colin Proctor who knew Rex for over fifty years gives his memories below

I first met Rex in the Supporters Club around 1967, he was a member of the S/C and lived in Ditton Walk.

When the VPC was formed in 1969 he was one of the original members joining the original of fourteen. I joined in 1970.

Rex served in the RAF for over 38 years and became a WO2 looking after the special functions that took place in his last 10 years of service.

He was with Douglas Barder for many years although not as a pilot. He was also present at a  few very dignified functions attended by the Queen Mum.

Rex along with his wife Helga were members of the Joint Service Club in Barnwell Rd and was in charge of running same for many years.

When we went to Wembley for the 1990 play offs against Chesterfield, Rex purchased the football for £500 and it was hung in the Vice Presidents Club for many years.

Every November 11th, Rex would head the march of ex-servicemen parading at the Unknown Soldier in Hills Road

I travelled away watching Cambridge United with Rex for many years until his last two years but he still listened on the radio.

When Rex was unable to watch his club any longer. I would go sit with him and explain how we got on home and away.

Rex passed away on Monday 18th April 2016, aged 89 years

United’s debut in the League Cup quickly brought the club down to earth with a 5-0 defeat at Colchester United. Colchester had been criticised for playing percentage football, of getting the ball into the box quickly which was very similar to the tactics employed by United under John Beck 20 years later. The first League away match also ended in defeat by 2 goals to 1 at Northampton Dennis Walker scoring United’s second League goal. The next two matches were at home and provide the U’s with their first two Football League wins. The first a 3-1 victory over Oldham Athletic, who were to win promotion at the end of the season, Peter Leggett, George Harris and Bill Cassidy the scorers in front of 5,435. Then a 1-0 victory under the Abbey Stadium lights over Brentford, Meldrum the scorer, began a run of six games without defeat, including the first League away win at Crewe Alexandra. A John McKinven penalty and an 83rd minute goal from Malcolm Lindsay giving the U’s a 2-1 win. The run included a 4-2 victory over Wimbledon (the original Wimbledon FC, that is.) in the Southern League Championship match, which was played annually between the previous season’s League Champions and the SL Cup winners. Two goals from Roly Horrey and one each from Bill Cassidy and Ron Howell gave United a comfortable win and their last Non-League trophy, for 40 years anyway! A attendance of only 1,768 showed the Cambridge public were more interested in League football than the past Non-League days.
Football League status was coming at a price though. Following on from the unwanted visit of “skinhead” hooligans from Lincoln for the opening match, more incidents followed this time initiated by so called United supporters. Visiting Oldham supporters had their coach windows smashed in and police with dogs had to intervene to prevent Oldham fans exacting revenge. Later on nine arrests were made on Newmarket Road.  Manager Bill Leivers appealed to the trouble makers to stop saying “I am sure these people are not Cambridge United fans but hooligans using football as protection while they cause trouble”. He went on to say he sympathised with  those who advocated the return of the birch ( a method of corporal punishment carried out with a birch rod) and would like to see the return of national service.

A bad knee injury to George Harris in the Oldham match was looking like it would cause him to be out until November. When Leivers found out much travelled striker Tony Hateley had been transfer listed by Birmingham City he made enquiries, thinking that at the age of 29 Hateley wouldn’t be carrying a six figure fee he had in the past. The £50,000 price tag was way outside United’s budget though and Hateley went to Notts County.
It wasn’t just on the pitch that United had to adjust to Football League status. There were complaints about matchday congestion on Newmarket Road and at the turnstiles. With regular attendances of 4-5,000 United appealed for fans to adjust their routines and try to arrive earlier. There were also PA announcements for fans to refrain from running on the pitch  during and after matches and not to climb the walls and floodlight pylons (believed to be the tallest in the League, by the way).  
Hard to believe these days but it wasn’t until the eighth match into the season that United received their first League booking (Yellow Card). Dennis Walker having the dubious honour in the 2-1 defeat at Chester on 23rd September. How times have changed.
For myself this was the beginning of a period of great change. My final year at school and lots of deliberations about choosing a career. After endless visits to career fairs I was beginning to think about a career in the police force. But to be honest careers and GCSE’s (O-Levels) were not exactly top of my priorities. Girls, youth club, music, playing snooker and football both badly and of course Cambridge United were taking up most of thoughts and time, not to mention the little money I was earning as a evening waiter at Selwyn College.
My daily routine was School, home for tea, then cycling to Selwyn to spill soup over students, then cycling to Comberton for the youth club or village disco. What time was there for home work. Someone once said “youth is wasted on the young!” Well they may be right.
Nigel Browne.

In Paul Mullin, for the first time in many years, Cambridge United have a striker making a legitimate challenge for David Crown’s goalscoring record. A very appropriate time, then, to take a close look at David’s time at the Abbey Stadium and that record-breaking season.
 
I’m plenty old enough to remember David Crown at United so some of this is drawn from memory, but for the facts and figures I have dipped into Kevin Palmer’s book “Cambridge United: The League era a complete record” and Andrew Bennet’s “The Moose That Roared”.  By a neat quirk of fate, however, I also managed to have a chat with David in his office in Leigh-on-Sea.
 
David Crown holds the Cambridge United record for the highest number of Football League goals scored in a season - 24 in 1985-86.  Or is it 25?  We’ll come back to that.  He was at United for only two and a bit seasons, between 1985 and 1987.  This was a twilight period for the football club, we were fighting for survival.  He was signed by probably United’s worst ever manager, Ken Shellito. That’s quite a claim; there are a fair few creditable challengers for that particular title (points in the direction of John Ryan, Steve Thompson and Martin Ling). Nevertheless, by bringing David Crown to the club, Shellito at least left one positive legacy to mark his car-crash period in charge.
 
Crown signed for United from Reading on a free transfer, aged 27, in the summer of 1985.  He was a regular starter at Reading in the old third division but had been deployed mainly as a winger, scoring 14 goals in 88 league appearances over two seasons. This was a successful period for Reading and included promotion from the fourth division in 1983-84. Crown started all but one game for Reading that season, scoring seven goals.  He had previously played for Brentford, Portsmouth, and Exeter on loan, all in the third division.  Considering these credentials and given that United had just suffered a second successive relegation, were skint and were predicted to struggle in the fourth division, the more I look back on the signing of David Crown, the more of a coup it appears to be. 
 
On signing Crown, Shellito said he intended to play him as a central striker.  That decision may well have been based on DC’s performance for the Royals against Shellito’s United in April the previous season when, switched from the wing to centre forward, he scored both the goals that beat the already-relegated U’s at the Abbey. In an interview for the United fanzine “The Abbey Rabbit” in 1989 Crown explained that the pitch at his first club, Walthamstow, was so boggy through the middle he was moved out wide, hence his early days were spent as a winger. Northampton wanted to sign him from Reading, he told “The Abbey Rabbit”, and offered a fee, but he didn’t fancy their manager or their ground (shared with Northamptonshire Cricket Club back then) so he chose United.

He joined a rag-tag United squad that included Alan Comfort, David Moyes and Andy Sinton (still only 19 years old) and three members of John Docherty’s great team (Tom Finney, Steve Spriggs and Steve Fallon) whose best days were behind them (Fallon’s due to injuries). It would be misleading to say it was a squad in transition as that would imply there was some kind of plan on the club’s part.
 
United started the 1985-86 season true to the form of the previous two and were quickly scraping along the bottom of the table. It took Crown seven games to score his first United goal, a consolation in a 4-1 loss at Colchester.  Let’s count his goals as they go in.

(1) Colchester United (a)
 
By the time David Crown opened his account United had already sunk to 23rd.  It was clearly going to be a long, hard, miserable season, the third in a row.    
 
(2) Exeter (h) (3) Halifax (a)
 
I’ll confess, I stayed away from the Abbey at the start of that season.  My first sighting of David Crown in a United shirt was against Mansfield on 5th October. I was prompted to go that afternoon by the genuine thought that our days in the Football League were numbered. Such was my sense of dread that I took a camera with me, to record some of the action before it was too late.  In another sign of the shambles around the club at the time, a steward spotted me at the front of the NRE with my Zenith and asked why, as a member of the press, I wasn’t sitting on the perimeter? I said nothing and allowed him to open a gate for me before taking up a prime spot next to Roger Hansbury’s left hand post. True story. Three late goals, including David Crown’s fourth in five games, saw United to a fine 4-2 win. Perhaps all was not lost after all, especially if Crown could keep on scoring. He did.
 
(4) Mansfield (h) (5) Wrexham (a) (6) Orient (h) (7)(8) Boro (h) (9) Crewe (a)
(10) Northampton (h) (11) Tranmere (h)
 
By the end of 1985 David Crown had 11 league goals, not at all shabby given our form and lowly league position. Scoring a brace in a 3-1 victory over Boro really started to endear him to the Abbey faithful. When wouldn’t it? 
 
Shellito resigned in December. He was replaced by Chris Turner, but even he wasn’t able to stop United slipping back into the re-election zone. David Crown missed a couple of games with an ankle injury late in the year, but he scored on his return against Hereford in January.
 
(12) Hereford (h) (13)(14) Wrexham (h) (15) Preston (a)
 
By the end of March, with only a month of the season remaining, Crown had scored 15 league goals. That’s a very decent return, but not record-shattering form. United were 22nd in the table and looked nailed on to have to apply for re-election.  We had won only 11 of 39 games. But then David Crown caught fire. 
 
(16) Swindon (h) (17)(18)(19) Halifax (h) (20) Burnley (a) (21) Crewe (h) (22) Northampton (a)
 
Crown’s 22nd league goal of the season at Northampton took him past Alan Biley’s United record, set in 1977-78.  Curiously, I don’t remember any great celebrations when he broke the record, either on the terraces or in the media (ie the Cambridge Evening News, that’s all there was). I guess it was because the prevailing mood around the club was still one of despondency, following another rotten season. David Crown wasn’t finished yet, though.
 
(23) Colchester (h) (24) Torquay (h)
 
United won four and drew one of the last six games of the season, Crown scoring nine in the last seven, and lost only one of their last 11. Sadly, it didn’t manage to lift United out of the re-election zone and we finished 22nd, but it took us to 54 points, level with Exeter, Halifax and Tranmere, the latter two above the dotted line on goal difference. A few weeks later the 92 league chairmen voted for United to stay in the Football League. 
 
There was only one guy to thank for this achievement: David Crown. By my reckoning his goals won us 19 points that season.  It doesn’t bear thinking about where United would have been without him. To break your club’s goalscoring record, by three goals, is a great achievement. To do it in such a rank season, in such a rank team, is the stuff of legend.  There were only three penalties amongst his goal tally (Steve Massey was the U’s penalty taker until late in the season).
 
To confirm, then, David Crown’s Cambridge United Football League goalscoring record is 24.  I stress this as, for many years, I thought it was 25 - because that’s what it says in Kevin Palmer’s book. “The Moose That Roared” doesn’t clarify matters; it notes that Crown broke the record but doesn’t specify how many goals he scored that season. I have cross-checked each of his goals in Kevin’s and Andrew’s books and found no contradictions. I guess there was just some wayward arithmetic on Kevin’s part. I have always considered Kevin’s book my bible on United stats … and still do!  I think we can allow him one error. Sorry to labour this point, but if Paul Mullin is going to get close to David Crown’s record it’s crucial we all know what the record is!

In all competitions Crown scored 27 that season, and this too is a United record.  His 24 league goals were supplemented by our consolation in a horrible 2-1 FA Cup first round defeat at non-league Dagenham and by a brace against Boro (again) in the Freight Rover Trophy.  This all-competitions total is confirmed in Brian Attmore and Graham Nurse’s piece on David Crown in their book “Cambridge United 100 Greats”.
 
The following season, 1986-87, was less prolific for David Crown, scoring 12 league goals, 16 in all competitions.  That might have spelt trouble for United if Mark Cooper, just 19 years old, hadn’t stepped up to share the goalscoring burden, outscoring Crown with 13 league goals. The two struck up a great partnership. Crown told “The Abbey Rabbit” their styles complemented each other (not unlike the Mullin and Ironside pairing that we are enjoying right now).

There were clear signs of a recovery at the Abbey Stadium and, although Chris Turner’s team did not manage promotion in 1986-87, it embarked on a cracking League Cup run to the fourth round, where we were finally knocked out by a frighteningly strong Tottenham team. Along the way Crown scored the only goal of the game to beat second division Ipswich, set up by Mark Cooper.  Watch the goal here (from a very weird Abbey camera angle):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuGRDGbbPBI
 
This, sadly, appears to be the only available online footage of DC in black and amber.    
 
The 1987-88 season was to be David’s last at the Abbey. He started in cracking form, netting a hat-trick against Crewe in August.  According to “The Moose That Roared”, scouts from Arsenal, QPR and Newcastle watched him score the two goals that beat Halifax in late September.

In early November 1987 David Crown was sold. We were shocked on two fronts:  first, the fee, a measly £30,000, and second, his destination, third division Southend. There was a third point, too:  what did the sale of our record goalscorer say about the ambition of the club?