50 years go the press made fun of the Brakes

The local press ran feature articles on AP Leamington in the build up to the 1974 first round cup tie against Southend United, in part using it as an opportunity to create some ‘humour’ for their readers at the expense of the Brakes.  ‘It’s a sad fact of life that Leamington’s premier soccer team owes more to bingo for its existence than the game of Association Football.   For AP’s bingo sessions each week attract crowds six times bigger than that which occupies the Windmill ground terraces on Saturday afternoons.  There is a joke that the club should change its name to AP Bingo FC – but it is one they are more than happy to live with, since the major part of their business comes from the twice weekly “eyes down” nights at the Automotive Products works canteens.

 In any case, non-league clubs like AP have developed thick skins for protection against local wits, whose bumper fun books draw heavily on that source.   Although the name of the game’s the game, you will have gathered that the brand of football served up most weeks on TV bears little resemblance to the real world down among the non-Leaguers. 

 It’s a world where committeemen take the gate money; the hon. sec’s wife serves the tea; and the vice-chairman sells the tote tickets.  All this is done in the forlorn hope that maybe an extra half a dozen spectators will venture into the ground for the next home match.    This will at least help to swell a gate money which wouldn’t keep your average First Division club in a week’s supply of Moet Chandon.   AP are part of this harsh world where the size of the bingo crowd is more important than the number of fans on the terraces.

Moments of glory come all too rarely, so that is why AP are making the most of Saturday’s home tie with Southend United.   There is already talk of AP beating their opponents and heady suggestions that they could reach the Third Round, when the First and Second Division clubs join in.   But in reality they are just hoping for a crowd of about 3,000 – 2,750 more than average [?] – and that the lads put up a good show.

This is the biggest thing that’s happened at the Windmill Ground – particularly when you consider that the largest crowds the club has had to cope with were the 800 to 1,000 throngs they used to get when they were in the West Midlands League.   Vice-chairman Len Thomas was disappointed that there will be seating accommodation for only 400 in the main stand – a plea to erect a temporary stand at the Windmill End had to be scrapped because there was not enough room.  

The fact that the toilet facilities may be stretched to the limit if 3,000 turn up has also concerned the committee.   But now their application for a better tent licence has been turned down, the problem has to some extent been relieved.  [sic]   The police have put a crowd limit of 6,000 on the Windmill Ground – and that has caused some sniggers in Leamington – not noted for being one of the more fanatical soccer districts in the country.    The game has also been made all ticket, causing further hilarity.’   They interviewed the landlord of the Windmill who complained that a Corby supporter had broken a stool, ‘the start of something the townspeople of Leamington may have to learn to live with if their soccer club goes on to greater things.’