Category: George Alsop

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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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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A cabinet full of cups

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