In my previous piece for the Birmingham game I wrote of crazy Christmas scores, fixture congestion and some punishing trips for our part-time and small squad, which was often no more than a core of fifteen at times in the 1960s. And in some ways this Christmas has seemed very similar, albeit with a current squad who are full-time professionals.

Even allowing for that, and without wishing to excuse our dire performance at Orient or the 2^nd half at Exeter, somebody with a sadistic streak must have drawn our fixtures, with a game at home to an in-form Charlton followed by another long trip to Barnsley just three days later.

Just my opinion, but I think modern-day footballers (particularly those in the full-time game) do have it easier than in days gone by, with many advantages that were not available to players in the past (I’m thinking of the pitches, back-up staff, diet, all the facilities on offer, etc), but at least they could be given some semblance of parity in the fixtures doled out over the festive season.

All that, and I am still wary of spending several hours putting this piece together bearing in mind the forecast for high winds on New Year’s Day, the same weather which caused the postponement of the Stevenage game due to the lack of airworthiness of our East Stand.

I have written before of postponements over the Christmas period in our Town Meadow days but cannot remember a game called off due to the wind, although I do remember the covered terrace at the “bottom” corner of the Town Meadow ground being damaged by high winds (I think maybe around 1980?) and having to be pulled down.

Mind you, as can be seen in the picture from the mid 1970s of Ali West scoring at the Fire Station End, the stand – seen in the background – was already in a pretty poor state. Looking closely, large holes can be seen in the cladding (asbestos sheets, maybe?) at the back of the stand as well as loose rubble underfoot. Having said that, it did allow some of us who liked to change ends at half-time to at least keep ourselves relatively dry when the Red Devils were kicking towards the “fire station end”. I am not certain who the game is against but I would suspect, with minimal grass on the baked mud pitch, that it is late in the season. It looks to me very much like present GH Coaches supremo Alain Harper (and maybe Steve Leake?) amongst the few hardy souls who ventured down to that “exclusive” area.

I would often use that covered stand myself, though as I had spent a summer cutting a few steps in the grass bank behind the goal, that would always be my preferred location.

Town Meadow bottom covered Terrace – Ali West scoring

For any new readers of these articles (and apologies to regular readers), while I am on the topic of spectator facilities I thought I would add a selection of pictures based around the main stand (I hesitate to call it a “grandstand”) at Town Meadow to show how things changed over time.

Let’s start by going back to 1949, the year the club, then just Crawley FC, would move from Yetman’s Field (and it was pretty much a field, located in West Green, just off the High Street, roughly where Sunnymead flats are now).

My dad (topically a Charlton fan!) was playing in goal for the club (Brighton League level for the first team) at both the old and the new grounds but doesn’t feature unfortunately in this next shot, from 1949, of both teams before a friendly match when we entertained workers and their families from the Youngman’s company who would shortly be moving to their new factory in Manor Royal.

Crawley 10 Youngmans 0 December 1949 Town Meadow

Moving forward a short time and this picture shows Ifield Avenue under construction, probably in the very early 1950s, with the ground and white clubhouse in place but minimal other facilities and no main stand, or even a fence.

Ifield Avenue Construction and a “basic” Town Meadow

It would be 1953 before any major work was carried out on the ground, with the club now playing in the Sussex County League and the building of the New Town very much in full swing. This next picture shows the foundations of the new main stand in place, while in the background can be seen shiny new properties located at Town Mead (on the other side of Ifield Avenue and still standing today). I believe the taller of the two gents surveying the foundations is Sir Norman Longley, a long-time servant of the club and head of the building firm that bore the family name.

1953-54 Construction of Main Stand at Town Meadow

The club had actually moved out of Town Meadow for the season 1953-54 to allow this building work and some repair work on the pitch to take place, and would spend the season playing on Ifield Green. I don’t believe any great work was done at Ifield to accommodate the club for the season, as can be seen from a picture from a Sussex Senior Cup tie at Ifield against Eastbourne United (drew 3-3) with the Ifield Steam Mill in the background (it’s still there but minus the chimney). Quite an impressive crowd lining the touchline, though.

Ifield Green Sussex Senior Cup v Eastbourne United

We would return to Town Meadow fully for the 1954-55 season and the official opening of the new stand would take place on 1^st September 1954 with a match against Brighton (we won 1-0). As can be seen from the picture – which also shows the area at the bottom corner where the aforementioned covered terrace stood in later years – a very good crowd had come along for the match. I also remember that in that bottom corner we had a secondary entrance with just a gate in the fence and a tiny wooden kiosk where entrance money was taken.

Town Meadow (or Mead) mid 1990s Very smart!

I will finish off by moving on to what was probably the low point of the club’s existence at Town Meadow, the late 1970s to early 1980s, when little money was available to spend on spectator facilities, although there were scarcely a couple of hundred of them. Mind you, when you look at the sadly derelict state of the main stand (by now minus the covered bottom terrace), you can understand it wasn’t a place to draw people in and certainly would not have impressed any young football fans dragged along by their parents keen to get them watching their local club.

Early 1980s Derelict but still open just! Town Meadow.

But thanks to the tireless work of a small but dedicated bunch of fans and club officials, led largely by Les Turnbull (with Stan Markham, Jim Green and Bruce Winfield, amongst others) and with John Maggs finally getting together a decent squad of players, the club slowly dragged itself back to be a half-decent non-league outfit. By the time the council were looking to relocate us in the mid 1990s, Town Meadow (by then known by many as Town Mead) was arguably one of the best non-league grounds around.

Town Meadow (or Mead) mid 1990s Very smart!

Apologies for there not being much actual football in this edition but hopefully we all get some at the Charlton game, wind permitting – a good gust might even blow some of our hangovers away!

Hang on to your hats, and a Happy New Year to all Red Devils fans!

Mick Fox – mjfjo@yahoo.co.uk

All my pictures and much more should be up on Ian Mulcahy’s excellent club history website here – https://www.ctfchistory.co.uk/