Post by Budleigh on Feb 5, 2010 16:21:08 GMT
This has got to be one of my favourite programmes in my collection and dates from the late-thirties…
It’s big, flamboyant and expensive-looking with twenty-four pages! More like a theatre programme of the period than a football one.
It is actually a lot larger than it has scanned, I couldn’t have fitted it on the page without reducing it somewhat… but it still takes a while to load.
The front cover is a delight, and the content is quite fantastic.
Great cartoon showing how Ipswich needed to ‘shoot down’ little Torquay before having a chance at the big boys in the next round!
There’s much of interest to read in this programme; the bit of history about the Third Division (South); the apologies for not having enough grandstand seats for all those who want them; the away trips; the ‘Art of Giving’, etc.
And in the ‘Southern Sections’ leading scorers list; in second place ‘Morton’ with thirteen goals, being the Ben Morton whose autograph I placed in the History Room last week and who we had previously sold to Swindon, and following him in fourth, with ten goals, Haycox whom we had just sold to Northampton in the deal that brought the day's goalscorer, Ralph Allen, to Plainmoor.
There’s a distinguished line-up of Ipswich Town directors, including Robert Cobbold, a member of the family who went on to dominate the Town boardroom for so many years and who were so instrumental in their further rise up the ladder after the war.
On to the match itself....
This is for the FA Cup 2nd Round game against Ipswich Town, played at Portman Road on the 10th of December, 1938. A game we lost 4-1, in front of a crowd of 16,354, with our goal coming from Allen, a player who, due to the onset of war, made few appearances for United but who scored in both our cup games that season.
This was, of course, one of the last games before the Football league was suspended for the Second World War, with just the second half of this league season to be concluded, and would be the reasoning behind many of the newer players not making many appearances. It’s interesting reading the profiles of our players in the programme and realising how many weren’t able to realise their potential and footballing ambitions.
The team lined up as per the programme (note how the players are numbered not from 1 to 11, but 12 to 22 as the away team) with the exception of Herbert Dyer coming in for Walter Davies having returned from injury although he only played one more Football League game before his later retirement. (Note: Davies initials are in as ‘H’ and not ‘W’)
By coincidence our next FA Cup game, which was played at the end of hostilities on the 30th of November, 1946, some eight years later, was also a loss away to Ipswich.
It must be remembered that at this time Ipswich Town weren’t the big club they were to become, indeed this was their first season in the Football League coming from the Southern League, and they had only turned professional two years earlier after leaving the Eastern Counties League.
That they produced such wonderful programmes, and had the attendances to match, says a lot about the clubs ambitions and standing in Suffolk football.
Detail
It’s big, flamboyant and expensive-looking with twenty-four pages! More like a theatre programme of the period than a football one.
It is actually a lot larger than it has scanned, I couldn’t have fitted it on the page without reducing it somewhat… but it still takes a while to load.
The front cover is a delight, and the content is quite fantastic.
Great cartoon showing how Ipswich needed to ‘shoot down’ little Torquay before having a chance at the big boys in the next round!
There’s much of interest to read in this programme; the bit of history about the Third Division (South); the apologies for not having enough grandstand seats for all those who want them; the away trips; the ‘Art of Giving’, etc.
And in the ‘Southern Sections’ leading scorers list; in second place ‘Morton’ with thirteen goals, being the Ben Morton whose autograph I placed in the History Room last week and who we had previously sold to Swindon, and following him in fourth, with ten goals, Haycox whom we had just sold to Northampton in the deal that brought the day's goalscorer, Ralph Allen, to Plainmoor.
There’s a distinguished line-up of Ipswich Town directors, including Robert Cobbold, a member of the family who went on to dominate the Town boardroom for so many years and who were so instrumental in their further rise up the ladder after the war.
On to the match itself....
This is for the FA Cup 2nd Round game against Ipswich Town, played at Portman Road on the 10th of December, 1938. A game we lost 4-1, in front of a crowd of 16,354, with our goal coming from Allen, a player who, due to the onset of war, made few appearances for United but who scored in both our cup games that season.
This was, of course, one of the last games before the Football league was suspended for the Second World War, with just the second half of this league season to be concluded, and would be the reasoning behind many of the newer players not making many appearances. It’s interesting reading the profiles of our players in the programme and realising how many weren’t able to realise their potential and footballing ambitions.
The team lined up as per the programme (note how the players are numbered not from 1 to 11, but 12 to 22 as the away team) with the exception of Herbert Dyer coming in for Walter Davies having returned from injury although he only played one more Football League game before his later retirement. (Note: Davies initials are in as ‘H’ and not ‘W’)
By coincidence our next FA Cup game, which was played at the end of hostilities on the 30th of November, 1946, some eight years later, was also a loss away to Ipswich.
It must be remembered that at this time Ipswich Town weren’t the big club they were to become, indeed this was their first season in the Football League coming from the Southern League, and they had only turned professional two years earlier after leaving the Eastern Counties League.
That they produced such wonderful programmes, and had the attendances to match, says a lot about the clubs ambitions and standing in Suffolk football.
Detail
So does that mean that I'll have to stop calling Chelston Chelston and stop calling Barton Barton? It's a novel idea, 
