100 Years Ago - Orient in 1919

[Rambling Man]

Saturday September 13th 1919

CLAPTON ORIENT 0 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 0

Orient have their first point of the season but have now not scored in nearly five and a half hours of play. Orient line up with three changes; Alf Worboys is back at centre half after his injury, while there are debuts for winger Owen Williams, in for Fred Parker and, at last, David Calderhead who comes in for Billy Hind.

Goalkeeper; Tommy Gray
Full backs; Jimmy Nicholls and Sam Tonner
Half backs; Jack Forrest, Alf Worboys, David Calderhead
Forwards; Owen Williams, Bob Dalrymple, Harry Smith, Tommy Bowyer, Ben Ives

It is described as a strenuous and gruelling game, with both teams attacking strongly from the start but with ‘little science in the play’ and the defenders well on top. Wolves are unbeaten and start the day in 3rd place, so this is regarded as a good showing for the Orient boys who might easily have won. Worboys goes off injured again for the last ten minutes after a collision with Needham of Wolves who leaves his mark on a number of the Orient players during the game. With appropriate understatement the Daily Herald reports that this made him ‘a mark for a section of the crowd, which voiced its disapproval of his play and tried to put him off his game whenever he got possession’.

Dalrymple, Smith, Bowyer and Ives all have chances for the O’s. Nicholls at full-back is very good indeed and new boy Williams does fairly well. Jones, the Wolves full back, almost puts through his own goal in slicing a clearance, but the game ends goalless.

O’s remain 21st as Coventry are beaten yet again, 4-1 by Birmingham.

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Tottenham win again, at home to South Shields 2-0 and a top by two points with five wins from five. Bristol City, Wolves and Stoke follow on 8 points apiece. West Brom remain top of Division 1 after a 4-3 win at home to Everton.

The big news in the papers concerns the banning of the Irish Parliament, the Dail Eireann. After the General Election at the end of last year, the 73 elected Sinn Fein MPs refused to taken their seats and began meeting in Dublin in their own informal Parliament. Following the murder of a police detective, the British government has suppressed the gathering.

At the TUC conference, delegates vote for an end to conscription and for the withdrawal of troops from Russia. Meanwhile the Government announces a scheme to require employers to make up 5% of the ranks of disabled ex-servicemen.

[Rambling Man]

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 15th 1919

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO

FULHAM 2 CLAPTON ORIENT 1


After more than three and a half games without a goal, the inevitable happens. Orient score straight from the kick-off in their Monday night game in hand at Craven Cottage against Fullham. Ives cross is met by BOWYER with his head and the O’s are ahead. Of course, the last time Bowyer scored back on the first day of the season, it gave Orient a lead that we then relinquished, and the same thing happens again. For twenty minutes, Os do most of the attacking, before Fulham centre-half COX equalises and then the same player gives them the lead just before the interval. After the break the game is vigorously contested with Fulham doing most of the threatening, and the Orient goal has some narrow escapes.

Goalkeeper; Tommy Gray
Full backs; Jimmy Nicholls and Sam Tonner
Half backs; Jack Forrest, John Townrow, Joe Nicholson
Forwards; Owen Williams, Tommy Bowyer, Arthur Layton, Harry Smith, Ben Ives

It is a new look half-back line for the O’s with two debutants in the side. John Townrow, in for the injured Worboys, is a Stratford lad just 18 years old and Joe Nicholson, another signing from the Sunderland area, is only 21. Arthur Layton is back in up front for the veteran Bob Dalrymple, so it’s a younger looking Orient team, only six of whom were in the team that started the season at Huddersfield.

A local man from Stoke Newington, Percy Simpson, aged 33, was killed by lightning yesterday while sheltering under a tree in Finsbury Park. Simpson’s wife and a friend were unhurt, but for some reason the press consider it necessary to say that the tree was damaged.


Forward look: Half-back David Calderhead was dropped for this game. Arguably O’s marquee signing of the Summer, the Wolves game was in fact his only appearance for Orient. At some point later in the season Calderhead left the club to join his father at Chelsea as a coach and he later managed Lincoln City, another of Calderhead Senior’s old clubs, later resigning to become the proprietor of a hotel in the town.

[tuffers#1]

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 15th 1919

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO

FULHAM 2 CLAPTON ORIENT 1


After more than three and a half games without a goal, the inevitable happens. Orient score straight from the kick-off in their Monday night game in hand at Craven Cottage against Fullham. Ives cross is met by BOWYER with his head and the O’s are ahead. Of course, the last time Bowyer scored back on the first day of the season, it gave Orient a lead that we then relinquished, and the same thing happens again. For twenty minutes, Os do most of the attacking, before Fulham centre-half COX equalises and then the same player gives them the lead just before the interval. After the break the game is vigorously contested with Fulham doing most of the threatening, and the Orient goal has some narrow escapes.

Goalkeeper; Tommy Gray
Full backs; Jimmy Nicholls and Sam Tonner
Half backs; Jack Forrest, John Townrow, Joe Nicholson
Forwards; Owen Williams, Tommy Bowyer, Arthur Layton, Harry Smith, Ben Ives

It is a new look half-back line for the O’s with two debutants in the side. John Townrow, in for the injured Worboys, is a Stratford lad just 18 years old and Joe Nicholson, another signing from the Sunderland area, is only 21. Arthur Layton is back in up front for the veteran Bob Dalrymple, so it’s a younger looking Orient team, only six of whom were in the team that started the season at Huddersfield.

A local man from Stoke Newington, Percy Simpson, aged 33, was killed by lightning yesterday while sheltering under a tree in Finsbury Park. Simpson’s wife and a friend were unhurt, but for some reason the press consider it necessary to say that the tree was damaged.


Forward look: Half-back David Calderhead was dropped for this game. Arguably O’s marquee signing of the Summer, the Wolves game was in fact his only appearance for Orient. At some point later in the season Calderhead left the club to join his father at Chelsea as a coach and he later managed Lincoln City, another of Calderhead Senior’s old clubs, later resigning to become the proprietor of a hotel in the town.

That blooming 2-3-5 formation !!

Do they not know that 40 years later everybody starts to play 4-2-4

[F*ck The Poor & Fat]

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 15th 1919

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO

FULHAM 2 CLAPTON ORIENT 1


After more than three and a half games without a goal, the inevitable happens. Orient score straight from the kick-off in their Monday night game in hand at Craven Cottage against Fullham. Ives cross is met by BOWYER with his head and the O’s are ahead. Of course, the last time Bowyer scored back on the first day of the season, it gave Orient a lead that we then relinquished, and the same thing happens again. For twenty minutes, Os do most of the attacking, before Fulham centre-half COX equalises and then the same player gives them the lead just before the interval. After the break the game is vigorously contested with Fulham doing most of the threatening, and the Orient goal has some narrow escapes.

Goalkeeper; Tommy Gray
Full backs; Jimmy Nicholls and Sam Tonner
Half backs; Jack Forrest, John Townrow, Joe Nicholson
Forwards; Owen Williams, Tommy Bowyer, Arthur Layton, Harry Smith, Ben Ives

It is a new look half-back line for the O’s with two debutants in the side. John Townrow, in for the injured Worboys, is a Stratford lad just 18 years old and Joe Nicholson, another signing from the Sunderland area, is only 21. Arthur Layton is back in up front for the veteran Bob Dalrymple, so it’s a younger looking Orient team, only six of whom were in the team that started the season at Huddersfield.

A local man from Stoke Newington, Percy Simpson, aged 33, was killed by lightning yesterday while sheltering under a tree in Finsbury Park. Simpson’s wife and a friend were unhurt, but for some reason the press consider it necessary to say that the tree was damaged.


Forward look: Half-back David Calderhead was dropped for this game. Arguably O’s marquee signing of the Summer, the Wolves game was in fact his only appearance for Orient. At some point later in the season Calderhead left the club to join his father at Chelsea as a coach and he later managed Lincoln City, another of Calderhead Senior’s old clubs, later resigning to become the proprietor of a hotel in the town.

That blooming 2-3-5 formation !!

Do they not know that 40 years later everybody starts to play 4-2-4

The first formation I ever learned was the W formation. I think this is what they were playing long before people realised it was poo poo.

[o-no]

This is marvellous stuff

[Adz]

Very much enjoying this thread, keep it up RM

[TrickorTreat]

We finished 2 points behind Arsenal
WTF did we not apply ?
Shakes head in disbelief


Clapton Orient were extremely annoyed at what was going on and also complained to the Football League. The villain of the piece was Sir Henry Norris.

Norris bought his majority stake in Woolwich Arsenal in 1910, and he proposed a merger with Fulham and a permanent move to Craven Cottage to create a London ‘super-club’. He was blocked by the Football League but they couldn’t prevent him remaining a director of Fulham while also serving as Arsenal chairman.
One fan in Woolwich in 1913 said " Mr Norris has decided that financial gain is more important than protecting our local club. He is making a mistake. You cannot ‘franchise’ a football club – Woolwich Arsenal must stay near Woolwich. Would Norris advocate moving Liverpool to Manchester? People like him have no place in association football.” Representatives from Clapton Orient, Tottenham and Chelsea were quick to protest “in the strongest possible terms” about the move. They were appalled that another London club on our side of the river could erode their fanbases and also their revenues.

An FA management committee, anxious to get football back on its feet after the war in 1919, proposed that Division One be expanded from 20 to 22 clubs. This would not benefit Arsenal, who’d finished fifth in Division Two in the 1914/15 season, behind Birmingham and Wolves in third and fourth. It was widely believed that Division One’s relegated clubs, Chelsea and Tottenham, would obtain a reprieve.
But Norris got to work on his contacts within the committee, of whom none was more valuable to Norris than his close friend, the committee’s chairman John McKenna who was the owner of Liverpool.

Norris also claimed that Arsenal should be rewarded “for their long service to league football”, forgetting to mention that Wolves had actually been league members for longer. As for relegation-threatened Chelsea, Norris bribed the Stamford Bridge chairman, assuring him his club would be reprieved as long as Arsenal got promotion. Norris also corresponded with “a few financiers here and there” to guarantee the vote went his way.
When the vote was taken, Chelsea got their reprieve and Arsenal, staggeringly, were promoted – by 18 votes to Spurs’ eight.

It was rumoured that McKenna was immediately offered a plush house on the cheap in the Wimbledon area by Norris’s estate agency, but it was never proved. It was common knowledge that brown paper bags, stuffed with cash, were handed to other compliant club directors.

So you see history teaches us many things.

There was just as much cheating and corruption one hundred years ago as today and people like a certain Italian peasant who was formally the owner of Leyton Orient are nothing new.

Both Norris and Beelzebub were what my father would have called "spivs" although I would argue that Norris was way ahead of Beelzebub in the list of dodgy owners with dubious practises.

[OyinbO]

1919 was a fascinating year - often overlooked by historians as it falls between the Armistice, and before the "Roaring Twenties". Transitional in nature, just like Orient's season, and 2017/18 :-)

Lots of nasty race riots across the West that year, including on Cable Street - often overlooked by historians who focus on the much more glorious 1936 version.

Well done Rambling Man.

[OyinbO]

We finished 2 points behind Arsenal
WTF did we not apply ?
Shakes head in disbelief


Clapton Orient were extremely annoyed at what was going on and also complained to the Football League. The villain of the piece was Sir Henry Norris.

Norris bought his majority stake in Woolwich Arsenal in 1910, and he proposed a merger with Fulham and a permanent move to Craven Cottage to create a London ‘super-club’. He was blocked by the Football League but they couldn’t prevent him remaining a director of Fulham while also serving as Arsenal chairman.
One fan in Woolwich in 1913 said " Mr Norris has decided that financial gain is more important than protecting our local club. He is making a mistake. You cannot ‘franchise’ a football club – Woolwich Arsenal must stay near Woolwich. Would Norris advocate moving Liverpool to Manchester? People like him have no place in association football.” Representatives from Clapton Orient, Tottenham and Chelsea were quick to protest “in the strongest possible terms” about the move. They were appalled that another London club on our side of the river could erode their fanbases and also their revenues.

An FA management committee, anxious to get football back on its feet after the war in 1919, proposed that Division One be expanded from 20 to 22 clubs. This would not benefit Arsenal, who’d finished fifth in Division Two in the 1914/15 season, behind Birmingham and Wolves in third and fourth. It was widely believed that Division One’s relegated clubs, Chelsea and Tottenham, would obtain a reprieve.
But Norris got to work on his contacts within the committee, of whom none was more valuable to Norris than his close friend, the committee’s chairman John McKenna who was the owner of Liverpool.

Norris also claimed that Arsenal should be rewarded “for their long service to league football”, forgetting to mention that Wolves had actually been league members for longer. As for relegation-threatened Chelsea, Norris bribed the Stamford Bridge chairman, assuring him his club would be reprieved as long as Arsenal got promotion. Norris also corresponded with “a few financiers here and there” to guarantee the vote went his way.
When the vote was taken, Chelsea got their reprieve and Arsenal, staggeringly, were promoted – by 18 votes to Spurs’ eight.

It was rumoured that McKenna was immediately offered a plush house on the cheap in the Wimbledon area by Norris’s estate agency, but it was never proved. It was common knowledge that brown paper bags, stuffed with cash, were handed to other compliant club directors.

So you see history teaches us many things.

There was just as much cheating and corruption one hundred years ago as today and people like a certain Italian peasant who was formally the owner of Leyton Orient are nothing new.

Both Norris and Beelzebub were what my father would have called "spivs" although I would argue that Norris was way ahead of Beelzebub in the list of dodgy owners with dubious practises.

the modern parallel with this story is much more West Ham, the ennobling of Brady, our current PM, and the Olympic Stadium.

[Rambling Man]

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 20th 1919

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 1 CLAPTON ORIENT 2

O’s injury worries are starting to resolve. First choice keeper Hugall and captain Parker are back in the side for the trip to the Molyneux Grounds for the return against Wolves. In a late decision, last week’s debutante Nicholson is preferred to Calderhead.

Goalkeeper; Jimmy Hugall
Full backs; Jimmy Nicholls and Sam Tonner
Half backs; Jack Forrest, John Townrow, Joe Nicholson
Forwards; Fred Parker, Tommy Bowyer, Arthur Layton, Harry Smith, Ben Ives

There isn’t much optimism though as Orient, without a win, are away from home to the team in third place and without a defeat. In the event, on a showery day in front of 12000 fans, there is no need to worry as Orient outplay the Wolves from start to finish and score two fine goals. The lead comes on 35 minutes when Orient win a free kick thirty yards out and SAM TONNER scores straight from the kick, giving goalkeeper Peers no chance. Wolves manage a scrambled equaliser from a Harrison corner after about 60 minutes, the ball scrambled in by NEEDHAM, but justice is served six minutes from time when Ben IVES tries a long shot and it nestles in the far top corner. Wolves never look like winning.

There is huge press sympathy for the win as more than one paper reflects that Orient suffered more than virtually any other club during the war. Orient’s win lifts them to 18th.

The reserves team that loses 2-1 at home to QPR includes triallist Jack Tonner, 21 year old brother of the O’s full back, so all round a good day for the Tonners because Sam scores and Jack, an inside forward, helps himself towards winning a contract.

Elsewhere in Division 2, Spurs remain unstoppable, winning 3-0 at South Shields, but Bristol City are looking handy in second place after beating Lincoln 6-0. West Ham are in a comfortable mid table position after a 2-1 win against Rotherham County. Burnley move to the top of Division 1 after beating Blackburn 3-1. West Brom in second place on goal average are 5-2 winners at Everton. Preston and Aston Villa are still propping up the table. The latter, six times champions, have never played outside the top division.

A White Star troop ship, the Vedic, runs aground off Orkney with 1000 returning soliders from Russia on board. There are no fatalities and the ship is successfully refloated.

The famous comedian George Robey celebrates his fiftieth birthday by promising not to retire. He is so fit, he jokes, that he has just re-signed for Millwall. Robey had in fact been a handy amateur footballer in his day and played for Chelsea and Fulham as well as Millwall, and he is a member of the MCC for which he has also played. An extraordinarily talented man, Robey makes violins as a hobby.

A butcher from Streatham has become the first profiteer to go to jail for excessive charging. His 21 day sentence was handed down for charging 4d too much for a joint of veal.

It may have been showery and breezy in the Midlands but snow has fallen in Devon and there has been a sharp frost in London. Ten days ago it was 85 degrees, the papers point out.

[Rambling Man]

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 22nd 1919

LONDON CHALLENGE CUP 1st ROUND

CHELSEA 2 CLAPTON ORIENT 1

Chelsea went through in the London Cup at Stamford Bridge but the visitors were far from outplayed. The O's let in an early goal when Hugall let a close range effort by BRITTAN squirm through his hands and Chelsea added a second through BATES ten minutes before the interval. After the O's had missed a penalty given for handball, Fred PARKER pulled a goal back for Orient and although they pressed hard for an equaliser, this was to no avail. Chelsea are away to Nunhead in the next round.

Note: My initial impression of newspaper reports of matches in this period is that lots of goals are scored either in the first minutes or about ten minutes before half time. This is much more likely to be lazy reporting than some strange quirk of chronological fate. I have concluded that a first minute goal means at any rate a very early one and a 35th minute goal means a long way into the half but not yet very close to half-time. The fact that lots of papers report the same times shows that some form of convention is in play and that newspapermen talk to each other.

[Rambling Man]

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27th 1919

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO

CLAPTON ORIENT 4 SOUTH SHIELDS 0

The first challenge for many supporters may have been how to get to the match. A national railways strike started last night after negotiations with the government broke down and with no train or tube services, London’s streets are clogged with extra vehicle traffic which makes a bus ride difficult too. Fortunately in this era lots of home supporters will have lived within walking distance of the ground and 14,000 are reckoned to be there to greet the visit of South Shields.

The O’s are unchanged for the first time this season but South Shields make five changes from the side that lost 3-0 at home to Spurs last week.

Goalkeeper; Jimmy Hugall
Full backs; Jimmy Nicholls and Sam Tonner
Half backs; Jack Forrest, John Townrow, Joe Nicholson
Forwards; Fred Parker, Tommy Bowyer, Arthur Layton, Harry Smith, Ben Ives

Orient are buoyed by last week’s victory at Wolves and with only a minute on the clock they are ahead when a move down the left results in a pass from Bowyer finds Arthur LAYTON and the centre-forward hooks the ball into the net.

Shields come back strongly and hit the bar but less than fifteen minutes have elapsed when they are reduced to ten men after right winger Keenleyside is carried off with a broken ankle. After that it was uphill for the visitors and the second goal came on 35 minutes as a well placed centre by Bowyer was headed in by Ben IVES.

After the change of ends, IVES added two more goals within eight minutes of the restart and late on two further efforts are ruled out for offside. Shields are nearly reduced to nine when goalkeeper Mitchell is hurt in a collision, but after treatment he is able to carry on.

So a comfortable win for the O’s following which Shields are off to the London docks to catch a boat back to Tyneside. If anything the papers reckon crowds are slightly up although some matches in the lower leagues are called off because of the strike. Portsmouth have now gone to the top of the Southern League at least in part because former leaders Watford’s game at Exeter fell a victim to the industrial action. Ostensibly the strike is about pay and conditions but Prime Minister Lloyd George thinks he detects another angle. He describes the action as a ‘deliberate challenge to society and an anarchist conspiracy’.

In other news it is reported that Leeds City is under investigation by a joint Football League and FA Commission enquiring into allegations that the club made illegal payments to players in wartime. The problem is not so much the illegal payments – several clubs have been similarly guilty- but that the Elland Road club have failed to hand over their books for inspection.

In other matches, Spurs maintain their blistering pace with their seventh win in seven matches and inflict a second six goal defeat upon Lincoln in a week. There is slight improvement for the Imps – they lost 6-1 to Tottenham after 6-0 against Bristol City last week. Birmingham move second with a 4-2 win against Huddersfield and Coventry still can’t get a point, their latest reverse 1-0 against Leicester City.

In Division 1 West Brom take over at the top on goal average from Burnley after beating Bradford City 4-1. Burnley could only manage a 1-0 win at Chelsea. Aston Villa still cannot win and the great old club suffers a humiliating defeat losing 6-1 at Bradford (Park Avenue). Above them Preston win their first game 2-1 against Oldham and move above their fellow Lancastrians in the table

[F*ck The Poor & Fat]

Always interesting to look at league tables for years gone by. Some teams have prospered, other gone by the wayside.

[Rambling Man]

Here's Division 1 for good measure

[Rambling Man]

SATURDAY OCTOBER 4th 1919

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO

SOUTH SHIELDS 2 CLAPTON ORIENT 0

Oh dear! After two consecutive wins, Orient come crashing down with a poor performance and a defeat in the return game at South Shields.

Mind you, there may be extenuating circumstances as, with the railway strike still on, Os have to make the longest league journey of the weekend by motor charabanc. Expected to arrive at the Grand Hotel, Sunderland for dinner at 8pm on Friday, they eventually arrive several punctures later at 2am on Saturday morning.

Orient’s hotel, the Grand, is recovering from its own trauma since on 16th December 1914 it was hit by a barrage of thirty shells from a squadron of German destroyers which were presumably supposed to be aiming at Sunderland docks, not at the restaurant of a seafront hotel.

The news this Saturday morning is all about the continuing strike, with the left wing press raging at the Lloyd George’s perfidy as talks break down again (“8th day of strike. 295th day of a land fit for heroes” says the Daily Herald) and the right wing press full of stories of picketline intimidation, strike breaking and heroic journeys against the odds.

After their own heroic effort, O’s are unchanged for a third time running, but Shields make seven changes, including a debut for new signing George Lillycrop. Liilycrop, a 32 year old centre forward, signed from Bolton in the week after scoring 32 goals in 52 appearances for Wanderers before the war. It was reported in the week that Shields would be signing a third reserve goalkeeper ahead of the game.

Goalkeeper; Jimmy Hugall
Full backs; Jimmy Nicholls and Sam Tonner
Half backs; Jack Forrest, John Townrow, Joe Nicholson
Forwards; Fred Parker, Tommy Bowyer, Arthur Layton, Harry Smith, Ben Ives

In beautiful weather at the Horsley Hill stadium, Orient may as well not have turned up. Lillycrop, Woods and Smith all hit the woodwork and Hugall performs further heroics before Shields finally break through with a goal by centre-half DRIER five minutes before half time, with LILLYCROP adding a second five minutes after the restart.

But with the motor bus back to London not leaving until the morning, what do eleven footballers and their trainers do on a Saturday night in Sunderland? The answer is they head off to the Palatine Hotel for an impromptu smoking concert. A smoking concert is a male only entertainment at which men smoke (naturally), tell risqué stories and listen to music, but at an impromptu gathering they would have to have provide their own entertainment, so it’s likely each player was called upon to do some sort of turn. The journalist who was there was more impressed with the team’s singing than its football, reporting that manager Billy Holmes presided over some excellent harmonies and the evening ended with a rousing chorus of ‘God Save the King’.

Meanwhile the reserves were also losing, 4-2 at home to West Ham, with goals by Billy HIND (penalty) and Jack TONNER. A flattering result for the O’s, it is reported, in front of 3,000 spectators.

With the South Shields defeat, Orient drop back to 18th place, two points above the relegation places and next week face runaway leaders Tottenham at White Hart Lane. Perhaps some crumb of comfort is that Spurs have dropped their first point, in a 1-1 draw away at Lincoln. Happy days!

[LittleMate]

Keep up the good work!

[Rambling Man]

After a meeting of two and a half hours in Sheffield, the Special Commission of Inquiry into the wartime activities of Leeds City football club adjourned until next Monday. In the meantime Saturday's scheduled fixture between Leeds and South Shields will not be played. The board of directors of Leeds City submitted their resignations en masse during the course of the meeting, and Leeds Corporation has offered to take over the running of the club until a new company can be formed. The Elland Road club is accused of making illegal payments to players during the war and of not offering up its books and papers for inspection by the FA and the League. Leeds sits seventh in the Second Division table with 10 points from 8 games.

[Rambling Man]

SATURDAY OCTOBER 11th 1919

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 2 CLAPTON ORIENT 1

In contrast to last week’s difficult strike-bound journey to South Shields, this week’s travel arrangements are a whole lot easier, with a short step across North London to White Hart Lane. An immense crowd is in attendance estimated at 50,000 and the gates are closed ten minutes before kick off. A number of spectators have to be accommodated sitting on the grass around the pitch. There is useful advice in the paper on how to get to the match; book the underground as far as Finsbury Park and then take either a tram or the No 76 bus and alight at White Hart. Or just walk from Clapton, for heaven’s sake.

Travelling is further assisted by the fact that the national rail strike came to an end on Monday after nine days, but there was confusion at railways stations as passengers turned up as usual on Tuesday causing long queues while services slowly got back to normal. Industrial unrest continues, however; the railways are still on stroke in a few places over accusations of victimisation during the main dispute, while the miners are on the campaign trail again, stepping up their calls for full nationalisation of the industry.

There is one change for Orient with Alf Worboys back from injury and replacing Joe Nicholson at left-half.

Goalkeeper; Jimmy Hugall
Full backs; Jimmy Nicholls and Sam Tonner
Half backs; Jack Forrest, John Townrow, Alf Worboys
Forwards; Fred Parker, Tommy Bowyer, Arthur Layton, Harry Smith, Ben Ives

Orient must be approaching this game with some trepidation, after last week’s poor performance at South Shields. It’s not necessarily a great time to be playing Spurs, who are romping away with a three point lead at the top of the table and dropped their first point last week. The only positive from the O’s point of view is that Spurs captain, and England international half-back Arthur Grimsdell is injured.

Indeed the match is not the walk in the park the Spurs might have been expecting. Orient take a first half lead, when Arthur LAYTON scores. Receiving a pass from Fred Parker in what many thought was an offside position, he sends Bill Jacques the wrong way with his finish. But before half time Spurs are level through a goal by Charlie WILSON. In the second half, Tottenham struggle to break Orient down, The O’s full backs are both playing well again and Worboys is marking the home side’s diminutive winger ‘Fanny’ Walden out of the game. At the other end Parker puts in a number of good crosses while Jacques is lucky when he fumbles an Ives shot and the ball is cleared.

Orient fans would have known what was going to happen though. Caught upfield after an attack just before the end of the match, the O’s defence can’t get back when Bert BLISS gets the ball at his feet and dashes through to finish low and out of Hugall’s reach for his ninth goal of the season. He is the hero of the hour and is chaired from the field by his teammates at the final whistle.

So Spurs continue their near impeccable start to the season while Orient are back down to 19th just two points clear of Lincoln who we play in two weeks’ time.

Elsewhere the Victory International against Wales in Cardiff ends in an unexpected Welsh victory. It is only the third time in history that England has lost to the Welsh and the first time since 1882. England will have thought they had saved the game when West Ham forward Syd Puddefoot equalised Billy Meredith’s opener with only ten minutes to go, but Wynn scored again for Wales to win the game 2-1. The England team comprises only five first division players, with three from the second division and three from the Southern League. It is not regarded as a full international and caps are not awarded.

Good news that the butter, sugar and meat rations are to be increased over the winter, but the international situation remains tense. The latest development in the Latvian War of Independence is that the capital Riga has been captured by Russian forces. Germany has been helping the Latvian nationalists but German troops are now reported to have been involved in the offensive on the Russian side. Marshall Foch responds by threatening to reimpose a naval blockade.

And finally…. ‘Bobs’, a black and white terrier is saved! The black and white terrier, who was ordered to be destroyed by West London magistrates for being out of control earns his reprieve after a further hearing and a 21,000 name national petition. It can’t have been bad for Bobs’ cause that he behaved himself impeccably in the dock.


Foresight:

In the week that Leeds City was suspended for wartime irregularities, it is of interest to note that Spurs scorer Charlie Wilson played several times for the club during the war under the names Williams and Forshaw. They were all at it, but Leeds were punished mainly for obstructing the investigation.

Arthur Grimsdell, the Spurs captain who missed the match, later played for Orient eleven times at the end of his career and spent the best part of a season as O’s manager in 1929/30 before parting company amicably with the club.

Fred 'Fanny' Walden, the Tottenham outside-right was only five foot two in height. It is not known whether Spurs fans had a special chant for Tiny Fred.

[Admin]

Excellent stuff.

[Disoriented]

Marvellous.

[Rambling Man]

MONDAY OCTOBER 13th 1919

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO

HULL CITY 3 CLAPTON ORIENT 1


There are two Division Two matches today, but the big football news concerns the suspension of Leeds City Football Club and its expulsion from the League. The club is suspended from all football until the books and papers relating to its alleged illegal payments to players have been provided. Leeds’ loss is Central League Port Vale’s gain. The Burslem club missed out on election to the League by one vote in March, but now it gets the nod and will take Leeds’ place in Division Two, also taking over the points and league position achieved by the Elland Road club thus far. Since Leeds mustered ten points from eight games before expulsion, this gives Port Vale a solid base on which to build.

Meanwhile in Hull, the O’s are playing another of those awkward Monday afternoon fixtures. With the game following so quickly after the encounter with Tottenham on Saturday, O’s make several changes. The full-back pairing of Tonner and Nicholls that attracted rave reviews at Spurs is split up with Tonner absent, and centre-half John Townrow is unavailable too. Billy Hind fits in at right full back and Nicholson returns to the half-back line.

But the side is not Tonner-less, because Sam’s brother Jack who has been doing well in the reserves makes his debut, replacing Tommy Bowyer up front

Goalkeeper; Jimmy Hugall
Full backs; Billy Hind and Jimmy Nicholls
Half backs; Jack Forrest, Alf Worboys, Joe Nicholson
Forwards; Fred Parker, Jack Tonner, Arthur Layton, Harry Smith, Ben Ives

After Saturday’s sell-out gate at White Hart Lane, only 6000 make it along to a wet and windy Anlaby Road, the weather and the early midweek start being blamed. Hull start well but on six minutes it’s the O’s who take the lead when JACK TONNER fires a long shot that Harding fails to judge and the ball goes in at the corner. The Hull Daily Mail is inclined to blame the cross-wind for a swerve on the ball, but it’s a great start for Jack on his debut.

Eight minutes later, however, Hull are level when STEVENS converts a cross and then Hugall is called upon twice to fist the ball away. Hugall is involved again when he is charged in possession by Stevens but fortunately for Orient no Hull forward is on hand to finish off the loose ball.

Then on 30 minutes Hughes beats Nicholls down the left and swings in a centre that MERCER turns into the net, and just before half time, with rain falling in torrents, a good passing move by Hull is finished off by LEE to make it 3-1 at half time.

The second half is largely spoiled by the weather, with the crowd on the Anlaby Road Spion Cop seeking shelter in the South Stand. Jack Forrest is injured and moves to outside right, swapping places with Fred Parker. Nicholls goes down in a collision and has to be carried off but within two minutes Bell for the home side is laid out in a clash with Parker. Both players are able to return after treatment but there is no further scoring.

So remarkably for a fourth time this season in just ten games, Orient have taken the lead in a match and failed to come away with a point. Orient fans will be reflecting that It’s beginning to look a bit of a problem.

In the day's other game, Fulham go second above Birmingham after drawing 1-1 at home to Bristol City, although of course they have played a game more than those around them.

The following message from His Majesty the King has been read out at a meeting of the League of Nations Union at the Mansion House;

"We fought to gain a lasting peace, and it is our supreme duty to take every measure to secure it. For that, nothing is more important than a strong and enduring League of Nations. I commend the cause to all citizens of my Empire, so that with the help of all men of goodwill a buttress and a sure defence of peace to the glory of God and the lasting fame of our age and country can be established".

[tuffers#1]

SATURDAY OCTOBER 11th 1919

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 2 CLAPTON ORIENT 1

In contrast to last week’s difficult strike-bound journey to South Shields, this week’s travel arrangements are a whole lot easier, with a short step across North London to White Hart Lane. An immense crowd is in attendance estimated at 50,000 and the gates are closed ten minutes before kick off. A number of spectators have to be accommodated sitting on the grass around the pitch. There is useful advice in the paper on how to get to the match; book the underground as far as Finsbury Park and then take either a tram or the No 76 bus and alight at White Hart. Or just walk from Clapton, for heaven’s sake.

Travelling is further assisted by the fact that the national rail strike came to an end on Monday after nine days, but there was confusion at railways stations as passengers turned up as usual on Tuesday causing long queues while services slowly got back to normal. Industrial unrest continues, however; the railways are still on stroke in a few places over accusations of victimisation during the main dispute, while the miners are on the campaign trail again, stepping up their calls for full nationalisation of the industry.

There is one change for Orient with Alf Worboys back from injury and replacing Joe Nicholson at left-half.

Goalkeeper; Jimmy Hugall
Full backs; Jimmy Nicholls and Sam Tonner
Half backs; Jack Forrest, John Townrow, Alf Worboys
Forwards; Fred Parker, Tommy Bowyer, Arthur Layton, Harry Smith, Ben Ives

Orient must be approaching this game with some trepidation, after last week’s poor performance at South Shields. It’s not necessarily a great time to be playing Spurs, who are romping away with a three point lead at the top of the table and dropped their first point last week. The only positive from the O’s point of view is that Spurs captain, and England international half-back Arthur Grimsdell is injured.

Indeed the match is not the walk in the park the Spurs might have been expecting. Orient take a first half lead, when Arthur LAYTON scores. Receiving a pass from Fred Parker in what many thought was an offside position, he sends Bill Jacques the wrong way with his finish. But before half time Spurs are level through a goal by Charlie WILSON. In the second half, Tottenham struggle to break Orient down, The O’s full backs are both playing well again and Worboys is marking the home side’s diminutive winger ‘Fanny’ Walden out of the game. At the other end Parker puts in a number of good crosses while Jacques is lucky when he fumbles an Ives shot and the ball is cleared.

Orient fans would have known what was going to happen though. Caught upfield after an attack just before the end of the match, the O’s defence can’t get back when Bert BLISS gets the ball at his feet and dashes through to finish low and out of Hugall’s reach for his ninth goal of the season. He is the hero of the hour and is chaired from the field by his teammates at the final whistle.

So Spurs continue their near impeccable start to the season while Orient are back down to 19th just two points clear of Lincoln who we play in two weeks’ time.

Elsewhere the Victory International against Wales in Cardiff ends in an unexpected Welsh victory. It is only the third time in history that England has lost to the Welsh and the first time since 1882. England will have thought they had saved the game when West Ham forward Syd Puddefoot equalised Billy Meredith’s opener with only ten minutes to go, but Wynn scored again for Wales to win the game 2-1. The England team comprises only five first division players, with three from the second division and three from the Southern League. It is not regarded as a full international and caps are not awarded.

Good news that the butter, sugar and meat rations are to be increased over the winter, but the international situation remains tense. The latest development in the Latvian War of Independence is that the capital Riga has been captured by Russian forces. Germany has been helping the Latvian nationalists but German troops are now reported to have been involved in the offensive on the Russian side. Marshall Foch responds by threatening to reimpose a naval blockade.

And finally…. ‘Bobs’, a black and white terrier is saved! The black and white terrier, who was ordered to be destroyed by West London magistrates for being out of control earns his reprieve after a further hearing and a 21,000 name national petition. It can’t have been bad for Bobs’ cause that he behaved himself impeccably in the dock.


Foresight:

In the week that Leeds City was suspended for wartime irregularities, it is of interest to note that Spurs scorer Charlie Wilson played several times for the club during the war under the names Williams and Forshaw. They were all at it, but Leeds were punished mainly for obstructing the investigation.

Arthur Grimsdell, the Spurs captain who missed the match, later played for Orient eleven times at the end of his career and spent the best part of a season as O’s manager in 1929/30 before parting company amicably with the club.

Fred 'Fanny' Walden, the Tottenham outside-right was only five foot two in height. It is not known whether Spurs fans had a special chant for Tiny Fred.

Id love to know the biggest attendance that ever watched an O's match.

This must be very close .

Not bad for a 2nd division London derby.

[Rambling Man]

SATURDAY OCTOBER 18th 1919

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO

CLAPTON ORIENT 0 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 4

Maybe the runaway leaders were below par last week, but no mistakes in the return leg as Spurs take a 2-0 lead in 10 minutes and never look back.

There is a huge crowd at Homerton, quite possibly breaking all gate records, and it is estimated that as many as 20,000 of those were already waiting outside the ground an hour before the gates opened. After the torrents at Hull, the weather is kinder as no more than a slight haze hangs over the ground.

Take bus 22 and alight at the Homerton Terminus, says the travel advice in the paper, or any of bus numbers 35, 35A, 38, 38A, 38B, 42 or 106 and get off at Median Road, but be there early to grab your spot.

Sam Tonner is back after missing the Hull game injured and takes the field for the first time with brother Jack. Jack Forrest hasn’t recovered from his injury sustained at Hull and Bob Spottiswood makes his O’s debut in his place. Spottiswood is 35 years old and experienced at Southern League level with Crystal Palace. Townrow is back at centre-half and the front row is reshuffled as Layton drops out through illness, Harry Smith moves to centre forward, Jack Tonner to inside left and Tommy Bowyer comes back in at inside right.

Goalkeeper; Jimmy Hugall
Full backs; Sam Tonner and Jimmy Nicholls
Half backs; Bob Spottiswood, John Townrow, Alf Worboys
Forwards; Fred Parker, Tommy Bowyer, Harry Smith, Jack Tonner, Ben Ives

A bright start for O’s as Parker shoots straight into the arms of Jacques in the Spurs goal, and the Tottenham goalkeeper clears straight to Harry Smith whose shot grazes the post. But on 5 minutes Tottenham go ahead when Bert BLISS coverts a cross from Walden, and then five minutes later from an identical move involving the same two players, Spurs score again.

Billy MINTER adds a third for the visitors just before half time with a header from a corner kick and it’s effectively game over.

Both teams lose their right back early in the second half, Sam Tonner for the O’s with a twisted knee and Tommy Clay for Spurs. BLISS adds a fourth for Spurs from 25 yards to complete his hattrick and that’s four goals in two games now for the striker against Orient. The Daily Herald report makes you wonder how many it could have been; it says the Orient defence played well and Hugall was at his best.

The return international takes place against Wales at Stoke. England put out a completely different eleven from the one beaten last week and win 2-0 with goals by Whittingham of Chelsea and Smith of Bolton.

And a strange outcome to the game at Molyneux between Wolves and Bury. Bury take the lead eight minutes from time and then win a penalty, but a segment of the Wolves crowd disagrees and chases the referee off the pitch. Unwilling to leave the dressing room, the referee calls time and a 1-0 win to Bury is recorded.

Os fans probably don’t want to dwell on the football reports in this Monday’s papers, but if you take The Globe it is unlikely you are going to get past page one anyway. Scandalous stories of lax morals in the Women’s RAF during the war, girls given free passes and taken to London by fast car for improper behaviour with male officers. One witness says they heard about it from the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Houses of Parliament are getting a fresh coat of paint and varnish to freshen them up after the war. Perhaps they will look at their best on Wednesday for the Prime Minister’s statement on the economy, when Mr Lloyd-George is expected to set out plans to reduce expenditure by government departments to an absolute minimum.



Foresight:

The crowd for the match was later officially announced to be 32,644 which was the largest crowd ever recorded at Millfields.

Bob Spottiswood never played for Orient again. His future was in coaching and he became the only former Orient player ever to become manager of Inter Milan, whom he managed between 1922 and 1924.

[Rambling Man]

Following the liquidation of the Leeds City club last week, things are moving fast. The League met with the club's twenty-five professional players last week to organise transfers to new clubs. The players themselves will be able to choose where they go. The League is paying players wages and transfer fees will be paid into a fund towards the cost of unmet players wages, with the surplus returned to the administrators of the club. Four players have been valued at £1000 each, but despite these prices thirty clubs are said to be interested in signing players from the defunct club.

As for the future of football in Leeds, the lease of the Elland Road ground, which lasts until August 1921, has been taken over for the time being by Yorkshire Amateurs FC. In due course, however, the backers of a new club to be called Leeds United, who met last week in Leeds, are hoping to purchase the lease and gain readmission to Division Two, if not to the Central League.

[Still's Carenae]

We finished 2 points behind Arsenal
WTF did we not apply ?
Shakes head in disbelief


Clapton Orient were extremely annoyed at what was going on and also complained to the Football League. The villain of the piece was Sir Henry Norris.

Norris bought his majority stake in Woolwich Arsenal in 1910, and he proposed a merger with Fulham and a permanent move to Craven Cottage to create a London ‘super-club’. He was blocked by the Football League but they couldn’t prevent him remaining a director of Fulham while also serving as Arsenal chairman.
One fan in Woolwich in 1913 said " Mr Norris has decided that financial gain is more important than protecting our local club. He is making a mistake. You cannot ‘franchise’ a football club – Woolwich Arsenal must stay near Woolwich. Would Norris advocate moving Liverpool to Manchester? People like him have no place in association football.” Representatives from Clapton Orient, Tottenham and Chelsea were quick to protest “in the strongest possible terms” about the move. They were appalled that another London club on our side of the river could erode their fanbases and also their revenues.

An FA management committee, anxious to get football back on its feet after the war in 1919, proposed that Division One be expanded from 20 to 22 clubs. This would not benefit Arsenal, who’d finished fifth in Division Two in the 1914/15 season, behind Birmingham and Wolves in third and fourth. It was widely believed that Division One’s relegated clubs, Chelsea and Tottenham, would obtain a reprieve.
But Norris got to work on his contacts within the committee, of whom none was more valuable to Norris than his close friend, the committee’s chairman John McKenna who was the owner of Liverpool.

Norris also claimed that Arsenal should be rewarded “for their long service to league football”, forgetting to mention that Wolves had actually been league members for longer. As for relegation-threatened Chelsea, Norris bribed the Stamford Bridge chairman, assuring him his club would be reprieved as long as Arsenal got promotion. Norris also corresponded with “a few financiers here and there” to guarantee the vote went his way.
When the vote was taken, Chelsea got their reprieve and Arsenal, staggeringly, were promoted – by 18 votes to Spurs’ eight.

It was rumoured that McKenna was immediately offered a plush house on the cheap in the Wimbledon area by Norris’s estate agency, but it was never proved. It was common knowledge that brown paper bags, stuffed with cash, were handed to other compliant club directors.

So you see history teaches us many things.

There was just as much cheating and corruption one hundred years ago as today and people like a certain Italian peasant who was formally the owner of Leyton Orient are nothing new.

Both Norris and Beelzebub were what my father would have called "spivs" although I would argue that Norris was way ahead of Beelzebub in the list of dodgy owners with dubious practises.

What is amazing is that Arsenal twice in such a short space of time, bribed the FA committee.

I think that both of these should be looked at and Arsenal return to Woolwich and kicked out of the league.