Football

Following The Albion, 1950-57, from  Les Simson (Photo is Les' Dad's Ticket)
Being one of some ninety boys who started Burton Grammar School in 1950, many of whom had played and enjoyed soccer at their junior schools, it was a bit of a disappointment, to say the least, to find that football really meant rugby football and that soccer was a dirty word. I recall that the imposition I had at my first DT in the first year was 'Why rugby football is a better team game than soccer'.  

1950 was a year also remembered in Burton for the formation of Burton Albion Football Club (soccer!). Burton had boasted not one but two teams in the Football League in the 1890's, Burton Swifts being a founder member of Football League Division 2 in 1892, Burton Wanderers joining in 1894. The two teams merged to become Burton United in 1901 playing in Div 2 until 1907 when they were relegated and ceased to exist. Burton Town FC was formed from All Saints in 1924 playing in the Birmingham & District League, but folded just before the outbreak of WW2.  

Most boys starting BGS had never really seen rugby being played so it was a bit of a novelty to start with, learning new rules and kicking the odd shaped ball over the bar instead of under and catching the ball instead of trapping it, although a few of us did the latter more than once in that first year, much to the audible annoyance of Taffy Davies, Jack Adams or Bill Read. But despite the novelty, some soccer stalwarts vowed that rugby would never take the place of proper football in our sporting lives, (most of whom reneged on that later, playing for the 1st or 2nd XV, Toff Neal probably being a notable exception) so we would get out of the dressing room early on games afternoons and play 'popping in' using the oval ball H posts and aiming under the bar of course.

 The formation of 'The Albion' in the 1950/51 season gave those of us at BGS who had been actively involved with football at our Junior Schools, some continuation with the game 'in the flesh' as it were, because inter school football was the only route to continue in an organised way between the ages of 11 and 15. Several first year boys were noticeable in their navy blue and red caps among the estimated 5,000 crowd at the Lloyd's Foundry Football Club's ground down the Wellington Street Extension for the Albion's first home league game against Gloucester City. The ground was used by The Albion for the duration of their stay in the Birmingham League. There was only one small seated stand called the Director's Box sited in the corner where the players entered and left the pitch, ( the dressing rooms being inside Lloyd's ) the rest of that side of the ground being terraced but uncovered. The goals were at the Railway and Wellington St. Ends, both terraced but only the Railway End was covered. The other side was terraced and half covered. There were of course a couple of huts where one could buy a mug of tea or Bovril and a packet something to eat. The toilets as I remember were corrugated tin enclosures about 10 ft high with about fifteen or so 10 gallon metal drums around the inside perimeter!   

There were several boys in the first year who loved football more than rugby and were also open about it, being highly visible fans of Burton Albion, in our BGS caps and raincoats but with black and amber scarves, usually congregating behind the goal at the Railway End of Albion's Home (Lloyd's) ground, watching the likes of Bert 'Nobby' Hadfield, the stalwart centre half who had won an amateur cup medal with Bishop Aukland, and galloping Maurice Hodgkin, the centre forward who most knew from seeing him deliver the Co-op bread by horse and cart during the week. Geoff Tye worked magic on the wing and Dave McAdam was the thinking man's footballer at half back.

 The little gang of supporters from BGS (Toff Neal, Bob Fletcher, Slim Mason, Chris Powell, Gordon Blackwell, Colin Norris, myself, and probably Roger Haines, Ian Robertson, Barry Bourne, Tony Grief, Tony Prevett and others) usually paid their 1/- (5p) to watch the First Team one week and 6d (2.5p) to see the Reserves the next. We would turn up for the occasional mid-week pre-season game when neighbouring Football League teams played to give an airing to their new players and put a few quid into the poorer relations' coffers. Evening games were limited to the pre-season (August) because floodlights were a luxury only the big league clubs could afford in those days. One of the England Internationals that appeared in a guest XI in a pre-season game was Jimmy Mullen. I remember him running rings around everyone down the right side that night. The England goalkeeper Bert 'The Cat' Williams was another international we were fortunate to see playing for the Wolves' 2nd or 3rd team in a cup match after he had recovered an injury and was getting back to match fitness.

 It was very rarely that we got to see the Black and Ambers play away as most of the teams in the Birmingham League were too far away to be reached by bicycle, the common means of travel for most of us in those days. We did visit Gresley a few times, I recall, when Albion played the Rovers in Cup matches and I remember it cost us 6d to store our bikes in someone's yard as there was always the danger of them going missing from outside the ground. We also went on a special train to Nuneaton, (for a crunch match I assume, as specials were very few and far between) leaving Burton in dense fog wondering if it was really worth it and coming out the other side of Gresley Tunnel into glorious sunshine! Nuneaton was to become a team that was often a stumbling block over the years and some really hard matches have been played between the two sides, always attracting a large crowd, the ground record at Wellington Street - 7,600 - was in fact against Nuneaton Borough in the Birmingham Senior Cup in September 1951.

 As time went by things went pretty well for the Albion and they strengthened the team with three notable ex Derby County players, Reg Weston, a tall, tough and mobile centre half who became player manager and team captain, Billy Townsend a rather portly but deceptively agile goalkeeper and probably the better known of the three, Jackie Stamps who scored 2 goals for the Rams' FA Cup winning side of 1946 ( I'm not sure if one of the goals figured in the opening of Movietone News at the cinema in the 50's ) as a goal scoring inside left. Other players that I recall were the Russell brothers, Mick Betteridge, Ray Bowering, and Bertie Mee, the latter played on the wing, a chiropodist by profession and was destined to become the double winning manager of Arsenal FC.

 In 1954 Albion won their first notable piece of silverware beating Brierley Hill in the final of the Birmingham Senior Cup, but I suppose the Lloyd's Ground era will be most remembered for the Albion's progression to the 3rd round proper of the FA Challenge Cup in the 1955/56 season losing 7-0 to 1st division's Charlton Athletic at the Valley in January 1956. In the previous round Albion forced Halifax Town to a replay back at Wellington Street, the kick-off being 2pm on 14th December 1955, the same afternoon as the annual School v Old Boys' Rugby match on Peel Croft. Now Horace (Pitchford) let it be known that any boy absenting himself from school that afternoon would need to bring written notification from a parent stating the reason for the absence or there would be hell to pay - or words to that effect,

one of our 'gang', Bob Fletcher, who must have been in the sixth form at that time, decided to chance it and went to see the Cup Replay. I seem to remember that it teemed with rain all morning and into the afternoon so there was a danger of the match being called off or abandoned due to the state of the pitch, many local firms gave employees the chance of time off to watch the match but several decided to stay at work because of the weather, anyhow Bob was still willing to take the risk along with 5,126 others. The match, while not being a showpiece obviously ended in the right result, a win for Albion 1-0, a penalty scored in the 17th minute by Jack Barker, it left 73 minutes of do or die defending to secure the result. We could hear the cheers, oohs and aahs and the huge cheer at the final whistle, which we echoed on Peel Croft. History was made, The Albion would be playing a 1st Division club - a good pay-day. Bob Fletcher got six of the best the next day but he felt it was all worth it.

 The match against Charlton Athletic was played on 7th January 1956 and a special train was laid on to take supporters down to The Smoke. It was an early start on a typical dark dismal 50's January morning, but that didn't dampen our spirits as we boarded the train and found a seat determined to enjoy the day and naively believing that Albion had a bit of a chance. We caught the Tube from whichever mainline station we arrived at and that was pretty full of Charlton supporters although there wasn't the sort of behaviour between rival fans those days that is experienced today, although we were only sixteen, from the Provinces and a little bit wary of the wily Londoners. We got a place standing behind the goal but toward the right corner and duly cheered the lads on to a 7-0 thrashing, but who cared, they'd done well to get so far, we had a trip (only my second up to then) to London, and we'd still got a few hours to explore the Capital before the train left, so I didn't really mind, as in the crush to get out, with my hands on my money, (instructions from my parents) some London youth nicked my Albion rosette!

Derby St, Albert St, Princess St, Victoria St. &  Little Burton Bridge F.C.

I looked at the item on Toff Neal's 500th appearance for Winshill FC and the photo of the Grange St Junior School 1st Team 1949/50 ('Football comes to BGS') and noticed that there were two other BGS boys on the photo I recognised - Roger Haynes and Chris Powell (both sitting at the front). There was a David Mier went to BGS but the image next to Toff doesn't ring any bells, so maybe that is not the one.

That photo reminded me of one that I unearthed recently which was taken around 1950 and was of the team representing the area I lived in and played in some competition organised by, I think, Burton Daily Mail and may have been something to do with the formation of Burton Albion. I know the players had to be within a certain age spread and live in the areas laid down by the organisers. I seem to remember playing some, if not all, of the matches on the Belvoir Rd (behind Belvedere Rd) football pitches and I think we progressed some way into the competition. There are at least two ex BGS pupils on the photo, Ian Robertson (kneeling 1st left) and myself (standing 3rd left). Perhaps Toff or some other can recall what it was all about? From Les Simpson elay.simmy@speed-mail.co.uk

 (On being asked for the name of the team, Les says) The nearest I can get to a name for the team could well have been those representing the Victoria electoral ward as there were boys in the team from Derby St, Albert St, Princess St, Victoria St, Little Burton Bridge and those around that area. As I said I can't remember what the reason for the competition was other than it may have had something to do with the formation of Burton Albion FC in 1950. I know there were teams entered from all over Burton and I think we also played some matches on the Ox Hay.