Congratulations to Leamington on retaining the Birmingham Senior Cup, well done Paul Holleran and the team. Let's use it as a platform for next season.
To my regret, poor health meant that I could not go. A match report here: https://www.vavel.com/en/football/2022/05/04/1110586-leamington-3-1-stourbridge-brakes-secure-birmingham-senior-challenge-cup-at-villa-park.html
Unfortunately heavy rain which was at times ‘almost tropical in force’ kept the crowd at Old Warwick Road down to five or six hundred for the Birmingham Junior Cup semi-final against Bournville, a team from a higher level league.
They missed ‘a great game. The Town’s form against a team which is supposed to play a superior class of football was truly “an eye opener”. It was not, as frequently happens in cup matches, a case of the bigger team’s scientific play being at a discount against the less clever, if more successful, bustling, kick-and-rush tactics of the smaller side. Bournville had met in the Town a team quite equal to themselves in every department of the game and in some respects – forward work, for instance – their superior.’
The visitors won
the toss and chose to play with the wind in their favour in the first
half. Nevertheless, the Town had the
better of the opening exchanges.
Pritchard on the wing and star striker Gathercole were working together
well, but the first goal was scored by Reading in a ‘goalmouth scrimmage’. However, Bournville equalised, Allcock’s
dive being a fraction too late to make the save. Gathercole was unlucky not score from a free
kick outside the penalty area, but it remained 1-1 at half time.
In the second half, Town returned to the
attack. This opened them up at the
back, but Jonas was brilliant in defence.
Only Waters was thought to be below par.
The winning goal was scored 15 minutes from time by Reading, again from
a scrimmage. At this the Spa crowd lost
it and ‘there was an outburst of almost delirious applause which one rarely
hears from a Leamington crowd.’ Looker
On concluded, ‘I have never seen the Town play such a splendid game.’
There were concerns about whether the players might over indulge during the festive season. However, their performance away at Lord Street, this time in the league, allayed any concerns: ‘Judging by the way the Town forwards and halves rushed about, they must have rigidly eschewed the various good things with which we generally overburden our digestive organs at this period of the year. Whether the Leamington team’s obvious superiority was due to their absteimousness this festive season I do not know. At any event we know that boys will be boys, especially Coventry “bhoys”. ‘Nuff said.
’The next fixture was at home to Cradley Heath in the Birmingham Junior Cup. They were seen as being formidable opponents, having lost only one game in their league all season and having knocked out a team that won the cup twice in an earlier round. Town started to kick towards the Municipal School end and ‘it was one of the toughest struggles we have seen at Leamington this season.
It was not a brilliant or scientific game by any means. What was the point of trying to do clever things with a ball that rarely bounced, and utterly failed to respond to those delicate touches necessary for good dribbling?’ The score was 0-0 at half time, but in the second half Town ‘had the better end for shooting’ and their star striker Gathercole pounced to make it 1-0.
Then disaster
struck. The outside right for Cradley
had a violent collision with Jonas and broke his left leg. An immediate collection was taken for him
and raised £3-12-6d which was made up to £4 by Town players. (Nearly £500 at 2021 prices). However, Cradley then refused to continue
playing and the match had to be abandoned, to the considerable annoyance of the
large crowd of spectators. The referee
insisted that he had nothing to do with the decision.
Cradley refused to concede the fixture and it had to be played again. In the first half Leamington provided ‘a lot of clever passing’ and Gardner dribbled well. He might have scored if he had shown ‘more energy and dash’. However, both goalkeepers were on top form and there was little to choose between the two teams with the half ending goalless.
The crowd, however, remained quietly confident, knowing that Town were
‘great stayers’ and generally put in a better second half performance. ‘Leamington gradually asserted their
superiority after the interval and the ball was kept well within the visitors’
territory.
Town’s superior fitness levels decided the day
with them winning 2-0. ‘Cradley were
played almost to a standstill at the end of the game and the poor backs had
hardly a kick left in them. The Town
players, on the one hand, showed splendid stamina, keeping up the same fast
pace throughout the game.’
Town drew away in the Coventry Nursing Cup, but then went down to a surprise defeat in the replay at home. The opponents were Coventry Y.C.M.S., referred to as the ‘Catholics’ who apparently wore a green strip.
It should be remembered this was a period when many football clubs were started by churches or chapels or had religious affiliations. The Catholics were the first team to win on the Old Warwick Road ground in the 1912-13 season and the Courier admitted that ‘no question as to which was the superior team’.
There had been
something of a problem with Town players turning up on time for the start of
matches, but ‘On Saturday the Catholics were the delinquents, their non-arrival
causing the game to be 30 minutes late in starting. The result of this was that semi-darkness had
set in before the game ended, and it was only by watching the movements of the
dimly-distinguishable players that one could locate the ball’!
The visitors were
able to score two goals under cover of darkness: ‘It was during this state of
atmospherical gloom that the visitors scored the last two goals of the
match. From the stand, it was difficult
to see how these two goals were secured.
We saw the Catholics race up the field; some dim figures flitting about
in front of goal; then we saw two or three players shaking hands with each
other, and we knew that a goal had been scored.’
The report
suggests that Town were worse in the first half than in the second and were
lucky to go in 0-0 at half time.
Shortly after half time, they did manage to score, but this was the only
time they mounted a real attack and ‘none of the home forwards were up to the
mark’. The scoreline could have been
worse if it had not been for the efforts of the midfield, called ‘the
intermediate line’ but even they ‘had their work cut out in trying to check the
scientific assaults of the Catholics’ forwards.’
More cup heartache
They then
suffered a further blow from the same team when they were beaten 3-2 at the
Catholics’ ground in the second round of the Telegraph Cup in a match in which
the referee seems to have been a ‘homer’. This drop in what up to then had been
sparkling form had left supporters of the Magpies ‘flabbergasted’ according to
the Courier. The hopes of fans ‘had been raised high by
the splendid strides the local club has made in the Coventry and North
Warwickshire league this season.’
The Catholics
seemed to save their best performances for cup matches, as their league form
was much more indifferent. A large
contingent of Town supporters travelled to Coventry in the hope of a victory
for Leamington. Unfortunately, the team
was struck a blow when Jonas failed a late fitness test and hasty changes had
to be made in the line-up.
Back to the Junior Cup
They then had a
week without a match, giving them a chance to regain their form before they
faced Lord Street at home in the Birmingham Junior Cup. The Courier
reported, ‘The Town were in the best of form when they
did start; in fact, I don’t remember seeing them give a better display. True, Lord Street are not the formidable
team they once were, but they still have a reputation for being good
go-getters. The Town’s victory on
Saturday was due to the all-round improvement shown in the combination of the
team. There was a cohesion to the home
forward line which was refreshing to the spectators.’ In other words, they were playing together
more effectively.
The Courier seemed to be relaxing its
normally restrained reporting standards, referring to one player by his
nickname of ‘China’ and another as ‘Phil’.
Apparently, the dribbling was one of a high standard, but there were
also some fast individual runs with the ball.
The ‘intermediate line’ or midfield ‘would do credit to many a team in
higher football circles.’
Unfortunately, the game had to be abandoned some minutes before the end
because of bad light with Leamington leading 7-1. However, they were partly to blame for their
plight as once again the players turned up late.
Leamington then had another Saturday without a
match, before facing Lord Street again to play the abandoned match. The ‘Lords’ put out a much stronger team than
in the first encounter while Leamington were weakened by the absence of their
star player, Gathercole, who was ill.
‘Neither team
played a very scientific game, but the muddy state of the ground was not
conducive to good football. Play was of
the ding-dong order in the first half, and it was very difficult to say which
of the teams had the better of the exchanges.’
It was the visitors who went ahead, but Town responded by piling on the
pressure. They were making headway and
had scored an equaliser when the game had to be stopped because of an injury to
Checkley. Although Town were unquestionably
the better team, they only scored the winning goal in the last couple of
minutes when the bulk of the spectators were already leaving.
As we look forward to the cup final against Stourbridge at Villa Park, this is the first of a series of articles on the 1912-13 season when Leamington Town won the Birmingham Junior Cup at Villa Park.
Cups were also a challenge for Leamington Town in 1912. In fact it was evident that the obligation to
compete in the Birmingham Junior Cup caused some resentment among members of
the Coventry and North Warwickshire league.
The Courier noted, ‘Surprising
as the results of cup matches often are, one can hardly expect a Coventry and
North Warwickshire eleven to obtain much success in a competition open to
Birmingham Combination teams.’
Indeed, in the
preceding season Leamington Town had simply refused to turn up for ‘a match at
some out-of-the-way place near Birmingham’ – and if the destination was not
near a railway station, getting there would have been a real problem. However, ‘Looker On’ reported that ‘Leamington Town are going to make a bolder
bid for honours this year’.
They got off to a
good start by beating Newdigate Colliery 5-2, getting revenge for their recent
league defeat. Admittedly, the Colliers
lacked some of their regular players, but ‘they were smart on the ball, and
showed any amount of pluck and endurance’, not surprising when your working
life was spent down a mine.
These are extracts from a booklet I produced on the 1912-13 season. I will be pleased to send anyone interested the complete booklet free of charge.
[Extract from my programme article for the Brackley game]
In a decision that has contemporary relevance, ‘Leamington Town Council decided [in April 1972] to ring down the curtain on The Parade closure experiment. Traffic will be allowed to use the central section once again. The Parade between Warwick Street and Regent Street was closed three months ago to all traffic except buses. This was an extension of an experiment which was originally introduced on a Saturdays only basis.
The experiment proved controversial and Councillor John Neville said it had created traffic problems in other areas. Shopping in The Parade had been improved, but at the expense of other areas. Councillor Williams said that the idea had originally attracted wide support, but many had now changed their views.
Some members pressed for the closure to continue, including Councillor Mrs. Patricia Redmond who said she was against the chaos, fumes and confusion which would result when The Parade was reopened. Councillor Hopkins said that in other parts of the town which had to cope with increased traffic, there had been opposition to the scheme.
Alderman Swain said he
thought they were being cowardly in not allowing the experiment to continue to
early summer. The Mayor, Councillor
Stanley Birch, said that the borough engineer had been subject to a great deal
of abuse.’ The vote to end the scheme
was 19 to 10.
Plans to build a £1 million sports complex at Edmondscote were
shelved. The first phase was supposed
to be a multi-purpose sports hall, but road access was an issue. An alternative site at Shrubland Recreation
Ground, but the impending reorganisation of local government meant that no one
was prepared to commit any money.
[My contribution to the Leamington FC programme for the match against Darlington]
Education was the topic of the week in Leamington at the end of March 1922 and there
were complaints that the Education Committee chaired by Alderman Flavel were
spending too much money. Controversy
arose over payments to women teachers who had been off work for periods of up
to two-and-a-half months with influenza.
[My grandmother died from the ‘flu at this time leaving my father
without a mother at the age of twelve]. The amounts involved were around £3,500
each in today’s prices.
Alderman Davies ‘asked if the teachers were hard up. Ordinary working men and, in fact, almost
everyone had to make provision for illness, so why should teachers, who were
receiving good wages, be paid for the time they were ill. Was it a committee to dispense
charities? He would even go so far to
say that the teachers ought to be ashamed of themselves if they took the money. What would the unemployed think of this?’
Alderman Flavel
pointed out that the teachers had caught the virus while in school. ‘Councillor Heatley remarked that he had
heard Alderman Davis deliver that speech quite 40 times. It was not policy to have the reputation of
being the meanest committee in the county.
If they had such a reputation they could not get the better class of
teachers.’
A cause for civic celebration was the official opening of
Leamington College. ‘The buildings are not by any means new, having been used
for educational purposes for a number of years.
The old school had been closed many times, and it had seen many days of
financial depression, but not, alas, many of prosperity. During the war the school was used by the
Dover boys and called Dover College, but since they left the college at the end
of the war the old floors have not responded to the clatter of schoolboys’
feet. ‘
‘What was formerly the chapel is now converted into a dining
room for the boys, and if the schemes of the Governors mature, for the girls as
well. Temporarily, until the girls’
school is transferred to Binswood Avenue, the Headmaster’s office will be at
the eastern end of the main hall. The
chemical laboratory is situated at the west end of the main hall. Over the chemical laboratory is the physics
laboratory.’
Leamington Boys’ School had been established for 20 years,
at first as a small school. It had
encountered many difficulties, but now had 200 pupils. The Mayor noted that the school had a
football cup and a cricket cup and offered to add a swimming cup.
Alderman Holloway said that ‘Complaint had been made about
the local Education Committee spending too much. The control was now in the hands of the
County Council and he hoped that ratepayers would have no more cause for
legitimate complaint than before. In the
future, when secondary education was assessed at its proper value, people would
endorse the action which the Leamington authorities were celebrating that day.’
Our eldest, now in her fifties, was a pupil in the sixth
form of what was by the early 1980s Binswood Hall of North Leamington
school. The buildings now form part of
an up market retirement complex.
Leamington made short work of a Coventry City ‘A’ team which
visited the town for a friendly at the end of March 1922. The visitors ‘put up a very mediocre display
and deservedly lost 5-1. From
practically the start to the finish, Leamington Town pressed the City defence,
and with their forwards combining in delightful style they gave their visitors
an object lesson in the art of shooting.’
