Fighting Talk by Mark Metcalf

Monday, 16 December 2024

Bacup Borough and Boxing Day 2024

HIGH ON THE HILLS & 35 MINUTES FROM BLACKBURN, BACUP BOROUGH FC WOULD WELCOME SUNDERLAND FANS PRIOR TO THE BOXING DAY FIXTURE

Just 35 minutes from Ewood Park, Bacup Borough FC’s West View Ground high on the Pennines is surrounded by stunning moorlands in a town described by English Heritage as the best-preserved cotton mill town in England. Small wonder that it is one of the 100 must see venues in Mike Bayly’s classic book British Football’s Greatest Grounds.

In the distant past Boro faced League Champions Manchester United in 1912 in the FA Cup. Today, they continue to battle for a play-off spot in the North West Counties League Northern section. Visitors are guaranteed a warm welcome and the club can accommodate 70 people in the bar with plenty of food and drink. Debbie O’Connor, whose Prem Pie became famous a few years back when it featured on Sky Sports Cameras, is the lass to contact if any SAFCSA branches would like to book their bus in for a pre match drink. Individuals too are welcome to make contact.

Debbie is on 07930 148400 manager@bacupboroughfc.com

The address of the ground is Cowfoot Lane, Bacup OL13 8EE

Sunderland fan Mark Metcalf who has enjoyed many a game at Bacup.

Wednesday, 20 November 2024

Charlie Hurley's European debut in the first English side to play in Europe

On a night when the Wembley floodlights were finally plugged in to allow the first English side to play in Europe a new teenage star in Charlie Hurley was born.

Still a teenager, Charlie Hurley’s form for Millwall was so good during the first few months of the 1955-56 season that despite playing for a Third Division South club he was picked as part of the London XI side that became the first English team to play in a European competition, the Inter-City Fairs Cup. In Scotland, Hibernian, by entering the European Cup, became the first British club side to play in Europe.

The London XI game took place at Wembley against Frankfurt on Wednesday October 26th 1955 when the floodlights at the stadium were also employed for a match for the first time.

The line-up gives some idea of just how good Hurley already was at just nineteen:

Ted Ditchburn [Tottenham], Peter Sillett [Chelsea], Stan Willemse [Chelsea], Danny Blanchflower [Tottenham], Charlie Hurley [Millwall], Cyril Hammond [Charlton], Vic Groves [Orient], Bobby Robson [Fulham], Bedford Jezzard [Fulham], Roy Bentley [Chelsea], Charlie Mitten [Fulham].

Hurley and Vic Groves, both from Division Three South clubs, were the only players selected from outside the top flight.

Hurley’s teammate John Shepherd recalls: “It was no surprise that Charlie got selected to play at Wembley as he was a great player. He was very good in the air but he was also good with his feet. He’d get the ball down and look up and play it; in those days you didn’t see many defenders do that.

“Also nothing got by him. He’d knock it down off his chest. You could see he was going to be a special player. I played against John Charles when I was in the forces; Charlie was on a par with him in my view. He was a class act, but he was no stuck-up git and off the pitch he’s a nice bloke,” says a man who made 170 League and Cup appearances for Millwall, scoring an impressive 82 goals.

At Wembley, London recovered from going two-nil down before half-time to win the match 3-2. Hurley had an impressive match with Roy Peskett, writing below a massive ‘HURLEY HOLDS GERMANS’ headline in the Daily Mail, proclaiming that “cool, elegant, at times almost classical in his action, Hurley I think is going to figure among the great ones of soccer within a few years.”

Charlie Hurley remembers: “The fact that it was reported I had a good game at Wembley was great. I saw being picked for the London XI as my first honour in professional football. I’d gone from playing for Rainham Youth Club to running out at Wembley in less than two years. It was mind-boggling and I was a nervous wreck before the game. I believe that Alan Brown was at that match and I think my performance must have planted a little seed in his mind that led to him later signing me for Sunderland.

“I played alongside Danny Blanchflower, a quiet man. He had tremendous vision. It was said of him that he rarely tackled and he was frail, but he was the best one-touch player I ever saw and I learnt a lot from playing next to him.”

Monday, 28 October 2024

1880: Sunderland Club Historian Rob Mason fails to back up his 1879 formation date

On Saturday 26 October 2024 Sunderland AFC beat Oxford United 2-0 to maintain top spot in the Championship. This marked the end of a great week for the Wearsiders who had thus taken 9 points from the three games following earlier victories at Hull City and Luton Town, struggling after being relegated from the Premier League at the end of last season.

Off the field the club had organised a Founders' Week contending that the club was founded sometime in mid October 1879.

The club historian Rob Mason has consistently defended this position but even he recognises that there is no information or newspaper reports from this time that would confirm the club was formed then or at any point in October 1879 or even in the year 1879. Nothing exists. That is a fact that cannot disputed.

In comparison, of course, there exists reports such as that of the Sunderland Echo of 27 September 1880, reporting that the Sunderland and District Teachers' Association - which was a local trade union affiliated to a larger national organisation - had formed a football club two days earlier. The report does not state where the meeting took place.

It was in 1887 that the first newspaper report that the club was formed in 1879 was written and then it was not until 1929 that this claim appeared again when, as in 1887, it was based entirely on the memories of people, who admittedly did play a role in setting up the club but who were now very elderly.

In the programme for the Oxford game, Mason uses the articles that were written by John Grayston in 1931 when he recalled his experiences of more than 50 years earlier.

What Mason does not state is that these articles are so full of inaccuracies that whatever Grayston states should be treated with great caution.

Keith Graham, who runs The Stat Cat website, which is the most comprehensive stats site online on Sunderland AFC, has written on this and his works are at:-

http://www.thestatcat.co.uk/PDFDocs/GraystonMemoirs1931.pdf

Keith believes that the 1879 claim is wrong:- http://www.thestatcat.co.uk/Article1.aspx

In this respect he is joined by Paul Days, who first discovered the Sunderland Echo report of 25-09-1880, and myself, author of the Charlie Hurley authorised biography and recognised football historian in concluding that it is time the club recognised the obvious and changed the founding date to 1880.

Paul, of course, can't be easily dismissed as he was one of the authors of the Official Club History book sent to all season ticket holders in 1999 and which actually includes an image of the 1884-85 season card that states the club was established in 1880.

Unsurprisingly, Mason prefers in his JUST THE TICKET article for the Oxford programme to ignore this and publish a season ticket for 1888 that does not state when club was established.

Paul, Keith and myself have a number of key supporters. Martin Westby was a recognised football historian who wrote the most comprehensive book to date in 2019 on the origins of football (and rugby) clubs and he was clear that Sunderland AFC was formed in 1880 and not 1879.

Going back to the 1880s, there were annual submissions from 1880 to 1908 by SAFC to Sunderland born Charles Alcock, the then FA Secretary. These submissions formed part of the contents of “The (yearly) Football Annual” and which from 1883 onwards stated the club was formed in 1880.

For more on this read this article from the Durham Miners' Gala 2023 magazine.