WELCOME.....

.....to my blog dedicated to the history of Chelmsford City Football Club. I will be bloging regularly with request for information, updates on what progress has been made and other interesting tit bits relating to City's days gone by. This will be augmented by statistical and trivia postings. In this way I hope that the Blog can contribute to the compilation of a complete history of the Club. Look out too for the first issue of 'The Chelmsford City Historian' my quarterly newsletter for all those who have an interest in the history of our great Club. Finally, a plea. Please contribute if you can and help make both the Blog and the newsletter a resounding success.

Sunday 13 June 2010

BLOG Dated 13th June 2010


END OF SEASON REVIEW Part Two

Included in this latest Blog are statistics for the Reserve team for last season along with updates on several accumulated statistical records for the Club.

RESERVE TEAM APPEARANCES AND GOALSCORERS 2009-2010

Those who follow the Club’s fortunes closely enough will know that the Reserve Team’s fixture schedule became somewhat unbalanced with only four league matches having been completed by the end of February. Despite this the side managed to complete it’s fixtures and it was only sterling work by Club Secretary Alan Brown that saw the final fourteen matches squeezed into March, April and a final game in May.

I trust that the Club will realise next season that if you are going to run a Reserve team, which is not and inexpensive venture, then a balanced fixture list is of paramount importance if value for money for the Club is to be realised.

Listed below is the full list of appearances and goalscorers for last season.

APPEARANCES AND GOALSCORERS 2009-2010 SEASON

LGE CUPS TOTAL

APS GLS APS GLS APS GLS

ACKIM Ben 14 0 0 0 14 0
APPIAH Phillip 1 0 0 0 1 0
ARTHUR Chris 0 0 1 0 1 0
BATCHFORD Lewis 15 0 1 0 16 0
BATCHFORD Ryan 17 3 3 0 20 3
BRANSON Lee 5 0 0 0 5 0
BROWN Carl 8 0 1 0 9 0
BROWN Josh 10 0 1 0 11 0
BROWN Jake 6 0 0 0 6 0
CLARKE Pearce 10 0 3 0 13 0
COOPER Grant 1 0 0 0 1 0
COOPER Ryan 3 0 0 0 3 0
CRICK Mark 5 0 0 0 5 0
EDMANS Robert 1 0 2 5 3 5
ELAD Chris 0 0 1 0 1 0
ELGAR Andrew 7 1 2 0 9 1
ELSEY Dan 6 1 1 0 7 1
FATAI-SOMUNYIWA Junior 1 1 3 0 4 1
FOLKES James 0 0 1 0 1 0
GAGE Jamie 1 0 0 0 1 0
GLOVER Simon 3 0 1 0 4 0
HAINES Mark 1 0 0 0 1 0
HARRISON Ashley 0 0 1 0 1 0
HAXELL Peter 2 0 0 0 2 0
HORWOOD Paul 1 0 0 1 1 1
HUNTER Brad 12 3 2 1 14 4
HUSSEY Dave 1 0 0 0 1 0
JACKSON Sean 5 1 0 0 5 1
JOHNSON Max 15 0 1 0 16 0
KIRBY Christopher 5 1 0 0 5 1
LAMB Ross 10 3 0 0 10 3
LATIMER Stuart 9 0 3 0 12 0
LEVETT Albert 4 0 0 0 4 0
MARTIN B Ben 0 0 1 0 1 0
MARTIN J John 1 0 0 0 1 0
MASON Ben 2 0 2 0 4 0
MAYER Joe 14 6 1 0 15 6
MODESTE Ricky 6 4 1 0 7 4
MONK Lee 1 0 0 0 1 0
MUIR Nicholas 2 1 0 0 2 1
O'SULLIVAN Louis 5 2 0 0 5 2
PATTERSON Marlon 1 0 1 0 2 0
PAVETT Jordan 1 0 0 0 1 0
PAYNE Luke 5 1 0 0 5 1
PROTHEROE Lee 0 0 1 0 1 0
REAKES Adam 2 0 3 0 5 0
SAUNDERS Liam 5 0 1 0 6 0
SCARLETT Tyrone 10 3 1 0 11 3
SCOTT Bradley 1 0 0 0 1 0
SHIELDS Sean 1 0 0 0 1 0
SINFIELD Taylor 4 1 0 0 4 1
TIFFEN Paul 3 1 1 0 4 1
VYSE Adam 3 1 1 0 4 1
WHITE Jordan 2 1 0 0 2 1
WILLIAMS Brad 1 1 0 0 1 1

Congratulations to Joe Mayer who ended the season as top goalscorer with six goals and to skipper Ryan Batchford who missed just one game during the season.

GLENN PENNYFATHER – How Does He Rate?

So Glenn Pennyfather’s first season in charge of the Club came to a disappointing end with defeat in the Play Offs. However I have to say that after a moderate start to the season it was to Glenn’s credit that he managed to turn things around and get the Club into the Play Offs with a realistic chance of getting into the Football Conference National for the first time ever.

So after one season where does Glenn rank amongst his predecessors? Obviously it was a fairly successful season so it will come as no surprise to learn that only seven of City’s former Managers have a better record in league games than Glenn, one, of course, being Jeff King. Also I must mention that top of the pile is Aidan Boxall, who had just two games in charge. Of those who managed for a substantial number of games Gary Bellamy ranks first, if you discount his period as joint Manager with Colin Norman, with Jeff King next in line.

Here is the full list of City Managers and their league records whilst in charge:

P W D L F A S/R F/GM A/GM G/GM

AIDAN BOXALL 2 2 0 0 3 1 100.00 1.50 0.50 2.00
ALAN SLIMAN 19 13 0 6 38 24 68.42 2.00 1.26 3.26
GARY BELLAMY 126 71 29 26 267 134 67.86 2.12 1.06 3.18
JEFF KING 126 72 25 29 252 142 67.06 2.00 1.13 3.13
BILLY FRITH 80 45 15 20 175 121 65.63 2.19 1.51 3.70
ARTHUR ROWE 125 73 18 34 333 206 65.60 2.66 1.65 4.31
DAVE BUMPSTEAD 160 88 32 40 302 159 65.00 1.89 0.99 2.88
GLENN PENNYFATHER 42 22 9 11 62 48 63.10 1.48 1.14 2.62
PETER HARBURN 50 24 15 11 86 63 63.00 1.72 1.26 2.98
JACK TRESADERN 64 32 15 17 149 88 61.72 2.33 1.38 3.70
JOHN NEWMAN 32 15 9 8 48 44 60.94 1.50 1.38 2.88
HARRY FERRIER 270 127 62 81 496 386 58.52 1.84 1.43 3.27
GARY BELLAMY & COLIN NORMAN 71 33 17 21 117 81 58.45 1.65 1.14 2.79
MICK LOUGHTON 166 75 43 48 258 193 58.13 1.55 1.16 2.72
CRAIG EDWARDS 62 28 15 19 85 84 57.26 1.37 1.35 2.73
GEOFF WALKER 60 25 17 18 100 79 55.83 1.67 1.32 2.98
BILL LEIVERS 35 15 9 11 53 46 55.71 1.51 1.31 2.83
FRANK GRICE 168 71 38 59 316 288 53.57 1.88 1.71 3.60
CHRIS SYMES 85 39 13 33 161 124 53.53 1.89 1.46 3.35
JOE O'SULLIVAN 258 106 64 88 366 336 53.49 1.42 1.30 2.72
HARRY WARREN 21 9 4 8 51 31 52.38 2.43 1.48 3.90
DON STEWART 7 3 1 3 12 12 50.00 1.71 1.71 3.43
OLLIE HOPKINS 9 4 1 4 18 14 50.00 2.00 1.56 3.56
BILLY WALSH 30 11 7 12 44 54 48.33 1.47 1.80 3.27
ROBBIE GARVEY & PAUL WATTS 18 4 9 5 18 22 47.22 1.00 1.22 2.22
PAUL PARKER 84 28 23 33 128 138 47.02 1.52 1.64 3.17
SID PROSSER 32 9 11 12 37 41 45.31 1.16 1.28 2.44
GEORGE BORG 37 12 9 16 48 59 44.59 1.30 1.59 2.89
STEVE MOSELY 62 16 22 24 78 88 43.55 1.26 1.42 2.68
DANNY O'LEARY 74 20 24 30 96 109 43.24 1.30 1.47 2.77
COLIN HARPER 49 14 13 22 59 83 41.84 1.20 1.69 2.90
PAUL DELEA 6 2 1 3 9 10 41.67 1.50 1.67 3.17
DON WALKER 50 12 17 21 51 73 41.00 1.02 1.46 2.48
BEN BURLEY 105 30 21 54 155 219 38.57 1.48 2.09 3.56
BOBBY KELLARD 61 14 19 28 80 94 38.52 1.31 1.54 2.85
ROY McDONOUGH 13 2 5 6 18 28 34.62 1.38 2.15 3.54
BILLY WALKER 11 1 4 6 14 27 27.27 1.27 2.45 3.73
BRIAN HONEYWOOD 1 0 0 1 0 5 0.00 0.00 5.00 5.00
DIRECTORS 49 28 10 11 115 70 67.35 2.35 1.43 3.78

TOTALS 2720 1195 646 879 4698 3824 55.81 1.73 1.41 3.13

Gary Bellamy's overall record 197 104 46 47 384 215 64.47 1.95 1.09 3.04

Notes:

S/R - Success rate expressed as a percentage of points won against points available based
on 2 points for a win.
F/GM - Average number of goal scored per game.
A/GM - Average number of goals conceded per game.
G/GM - Average number of goals, in total, per game.

SATURDAY HOME GAMES

John Perry, a City supporter since 1962, has e-mailed me with a question relating to Saturday home games. “Can you tell me in which season we've played the fewest number of competitive Saturday home matches? This query is prompted by our experience last season when we were eliminated from the FA Cup and FA Trophy in our opening matches, both of which were away from home, and we also played a number of home league games on a Monday evening or a bank holiday. I think we were left with something like 13 home games on a Saturday, which seems very low in a season that covers a minimum of 21 home matches.

I sent John a spreadsheet detailing the breakdown of Saturday games season by season together with the following text – “John, attached is a spreadsheet showing the number of home games played on a Saturday for each season since 1938-1939. You will see from this that both 1997-1998 and 1999-2000 had the least games with 11, discounting 1939-1940 that is. In the case of 1997-1998 we played 4 home games on a Sunday whilst in 1999-2000 it was just the 1, although we did enter the FA Cup at the Preliminary Round stage and played 6 games that season, of which 5 were away from home. Interesting to note also that in the season just finished we played 21 such games, the second highest total ever after 1953-1954 when we played 22, 4 of which were FA Cup games.”

If you would like a copy of the spreadsheet then please e-mail at the address at the end of this Blog.

John was also able to correct the days on which a couple of games were played in the 1971-1972 season having read a piece I did about Sunday games. Many thanks John for pointing this out to me. It just emphasises the fact that there is a lot of checking to be done with regards to the Club’s history.

CITY’S ALL TIME PLAYING RECORD

P. W. D. L. F. A. %

AIT 6 0 2 4 7 18 16.67 ANGLO-ITALIAN TOURNAMENT
CHP 6 1 1 4 10 20 25.00 SOUTHERN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
EAC 5 1 0 4 4 13 20.00 EAST ANGLIAN CUP
EFC 310 151 64 95 581 420 59.03 EASTERN FLOODLIGHT COMPETITION
EPC 49 20 5 24 102 93 45.92 ESSEX PROFESSIONAL CUP
ESC 84 50 6 28 188 119 63.10 ESSEX SENIOR CUP
ETT 35 19 5 11 62 55 61.43 ESSEX THAMES-SIDE TROPHY
FAC 225 111 47 67 412 290 59.78 F.A. CUP
FAT 93 39 13 41 161 156 48.92 F.A. TROPHY
LCP 284 138 54 92 580 403 58.10 LEAGUE CUP
LGE 2720 1195 646 879 4698 3824 55.81 LEAGUE
MCP 4 1 1 2 4 7 37.50 MITHRAS CUP
NLC 2 1 1 0 3 2 75.00 NON LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
POF 6 0 2 4 2 8 16.67 PLAY OFFS
PIC 7 2 1 4 10 16 35.71 PREMIER INTER LEAGUE CHALLENGE CUP
ZON 8 3 4 1 16 14 62.50 SOUTHERN LEAGUE INTER ZONE COMPETITION

TOTALS 3844 1732 852 1260 6840 5458 56.14

NB

Includes both Essex Senior Cup games against Braintree Town in 2003-2004
Does not include the game v Braintree Town in 2005-2006 which was abandoned and not replayed.

Interesting to note that with the exception of the Essex Professional Cup and the FA Trophy the Club have a success rate of over 50% in competitions where they have played a reasonable number of games. Whilst with the exception of the Non League Championship match and the Inter Zone Competition they have a losing record in competitions where only a nominal number of games have been played, including, and I’m sorry to keep harping on about this, the Play Offs!

WALTZING BUGLE BOY

In response to my earlier piece on City’s tune Kevin McCarthy has been undertaking some research, particularly focusing on my statement that it was released on the album ‘Presenting Frank Chacksfield’ in 1951. Kevin has unearthed the fact that the tune was written by one Ray Martin but it would appear that Frank Chacksfield and his Orchestra first released the tune in 1953, although this would seem to be a cover version of the original Ray Martin and his Orchestra release, which again was in 1953.

Kevin’s research has indicated that the album ‘Presenting Frank Chacksfield’ was released by the London Label, number LL1041, in 1953 and that the 7” single (for those of us old enough to remember these vinyl releases), backed with ‘Ebb Tide’, was also released in 1953, catalogue number 45-1538.

I think that we can safely assume therefore that the 1951 release date that I quoted was wrong and that 1953 is the correct date. Accordingly we can also say that 1953-1954 was the first season that it was used by City. It would be interesting to know who selected the tune and why. If I was to guess I would say that someone had it in their collection and brought it down to play and it went from there.

Of course this all leads to another question. When did City first use a PA system, and how were team changes and the like communicated to the crowd before they had one? Anyone got any answers to that one?

ROY WOOLCOTT IN THE FA CUP 1972-1973

Whilst working on my Club records recently I came across City’s 1972-1973 FA Cup run and in particular Roy Woolcott’s contribution. In that season City started off in the Fourth Qualifying round beating Crawley Town 2-0 away. This earned them a First Round Proper tie with Hillingdon Borough, which City again won 2-0, the game being played at New Writtle Street. City were again drawn at home in the Second Round sailing through courtesy of a 5-0 win over Telford United. As luck would have it not only did City get another home tie in the Third round but they were drawn against First Division Ipswich Town, managed at the time by Bobby Robson. City went down 3-1 in front of 15,557 fans with Woolcott scoring City’s goal.

Originally with Tottenham Hotspur Woolcott had a superb season with City scoring 39 goals although injury brought a rapid end to his City career and he was to make just 18 appearances the following season before the curtain came down on his time at New Writtle Street.

He made his mark in the 1972-1973 season’s FA Cup though because not only did he score City’s consolation against Ipswich Town but he scored twice at Crawley, twice in the home win over Hillingdon and a hat trick against Telford United. That brought his season’s total to 8 goals in just 4 appearances, scoring in every game, remembering of course that City did not play any ‘minnows’ in the early Qualifying Rounds.

Those 8 goals equalled the efforts of Tony Butcher in 1967-1968 and Roy Stroud in 1957-1958 but fell short of Jack Palethorpe’s Club record of 12 FA Cup goals set in 1938-1939.

AVERAGE HOME ATTENDANCES

Whilst I touched on this last time here are the average League attendances for every season going back to 1957-1958.

SEASON GAMES TOTAL AVERAGE

57-8 21 55,036 2,621
58-9 16 36,401 2,275
59-0 21 62,908 2,996
60-1 21 93,191 4,438
61-2 21 84,695 4,033
62-3 20 74,628 3,731
63-4 21 81,218 3,868
64-5 21 64,102 3,052
65-6 21 59,041 2,811
66-7 21 52,281 2,490
67-8 21 59,650 2,840
68-9 21 48,303 2,300
69-0 21 44,072 2,099
70-1 21 50,181 2,390
71-2 21 66,315 3,158
72-3 21 59,383 2,828
73-4 21 44,774 2,132
74-5 21 35,918 1,710
75-6 21 21,241 1,011
76-7 21 21,605 1,029
77-8 19 13,246 697
78-9 20 11,272 564
79-0 23 8,345 363
80-1 23 11,042 480
81-2 23 10,618 462
82-3 19 8,903 469
83-4 19 11,729 617
84-5 19 11,091 584
85-6 19 12,911 680
86-7 21 13,876 661
87-8 21 11,902 567
88-9 21 20,311 967
89-0 21 19,886 947
90-1 21 15,994 762
91-2 21 13,501 643
92-3 20 13,111 656
93-4 21 12,138 578
94-5 21 20,416 972
95-6 21 17,018 810
96-7 21 15,971 761
97-8 21 11,472 546
98-9 21 8,429 401
99-0 21 8,721 415
00-01 21 11,775 561
01-2 21 11,816 563
02-3 21 10,503 500
03-4 21 8,845 421
04-5 21 9,546 455
05-6 21 17,552 836
06-7 21 21,018 1,001
07-8 21 28,476 1,356
08-9 21 27,808 1,324
09-10 21 22,629 1,078

PLEASE NOTE…

….that if you do not to want keep checking whether I have posted a new Blog then please e-mail me at the address below and I will add you to my distribution list. I will then e-mail you as soon as I have Blogged!

AND FINALLY….

…..don’t forget that if you want to contact me with any help, feedback or requests you can e-mail me at chelmsfordcityhistory@googlemail.com.

1 comment:

  1. I need a photo of Woolcott for the Clapton fc ksblog, than

    ReplyDelete