My one abiding memory of playing Shrewsbury took place on 27th February 2012, a rare Monday night game for us, when I watched the away match live on TV in Redz bar. We had already beaten them at home 2-1 (Sergio Torres and Dean Howell) on 15th October 2011, a win which had taken us back to the top of League Two and was our fifth straight win
Come February and both teams were still challenging at the top of the league, and with Shrewsbury unbeaten at home for a year, we were expecting a very difficult game. On recollection, the most difficult thing for us fans was watching us dominate a game from the start, take the lead after 15 minutes with a very rare John Akinde goal from a clever Billy Clarke pass, only to then miss countless chances, find a way to concede two goals and lose 2-1. All this has elements of our current woes, although more so in the amount of possession we have rather than in creating and missing chances (with Wrexham away the exception in chances created – and missed!).
The opposition manager Graeme Turner admitted we had outplayed them, but as now, I would be delighted for an opposing manager to bemoan how fortunate we were to escape with a lucky win with a miss-hit shot which ricocheted off the centre back’s behind!
Thankfully, that 2011-12 season would see us achieve promotion to League One with a nervy 1-0 win at Accrington Stanley on 5th May 2012 in front of nearly 700 travelling Red Devils fans. Another nervy win this Saturday would be perfectly acceptable!
Observer Promotion Headline 2011-12
But enough of our recent history. In the previous RRD (26), I looked back to our financial statements at the end of the 1933-34 season, when our debt of over £11 was causing great consternation amongst club officials.
As was mentioned in that article, the club – whilst having a strong social side (whist drives to the fore!) – was struggling to attract enough players to fill one team, let alone the two or three sides we had previously been fielding in leagues such as the West Sussex, Mid Sussex and local leagues. With competition for players coming from other local sides such as Crawley Rangers and Crawley Athletic (as well as Redhill and Horsham, which were the bigger clubs at the time), the club membership made the difficult decision to suspend the playing side.
Crawley FC would not resume playing activities until 1938, with Rangers and Athletic also joining us in representing the whole town, playing its matches in the Brighton League with a second side in the Horsham and District League. On the social side of things, activities had carried on regardless, with whist drives and dances as popular as ever. On the recommencement of playing, the newly formed Crawley Supporters Club would amalgamate with the Crawley Athletic Social Club, forming one body representing supporters of the “Town” (in everything but name) club.
Carrying on from that previous article, I thought I would include extracts from the annual report and balance sheet of that “combined” Town club from 1938-39 as it gives an insight into the finances and issues of a small club representing a small market town in those far-off days, as well as listing some of the names of those helping the club with financial donations – as well as gifts such as mowers and goal posts!
1938-39 – Balance Sheet excerpts
1938-39 Annual report
The annual report suggests that the gate receipts for the season were satisfactory, bearing in mind the higher-level football on offer at Redhill and Horsham. As can be seen on the balance sheet, the gate receipts of £78-11s-3d were a huge improvement on those of the 1933-34 season (only £4-14s-2d), even allowing for a bit of inflation.
Donations (see the list of some well-known local names in the list), players’ subscriptions and supporters’ coach fares also showed increases alongside the old favourite whist drives, plus some new revenue streams such as “Sale of Programmes” “Club Dinner” (see menu card pictures) and even “Club Mascots”.
1939 June 1st Club Dinner 1
1939 June 1st Club Dinner 2
1939 June 1st Club Dinner 3
On the expenditure side, travel expenses seem to have shot up in the intervening years, as had the payment for “Washing of Kit”, with Mr Freeman receiving the relatively large sum of £13-12s-0d, whereas players’ expenses amounted to a relatively paltry £1-9s-6d. There was also the sum of 10 shillings paid out for “Gateman’s Hut”. I’m not sure if that was for the purchase of a hut (seems very cheap, even for those days?) or the hut’s salary. Meanwhile, Messrs Longleys supplied some duckboards, presumably to stop the larger numbers of spectators from sinking into the Malthouse Road ground’s mud.
Briefly returning to the annual report, I notice that thanks were given to Mr H L Darling of the Brighton and Hove club for “general instruction in the finer points of the game”, so we can safely blame him for any future actions on the pitch (and he charged us £8-11s-0d!).
Another comment raised in the report is that the aforementioned Malthouse Road ground would no longer be available to the club as it had been taken over for a building contract. As a result, Mr F Yetman (of sausage fame) had generously provided the club with a new ground for matches, subsequently known as Yetmans Field, where we would play until the summer of 1949.
Obviously World War Two would curtail our involvement in any organised football from 1939, and it would not be until 1945 that we would start to use Yetmans Field in earnest. I have included a team photo from the early post-war period in which you can just see the Embassy Cinema in the top right corner of the picture, helping to give an idea of the ground’s location (roughly where the Sunnymead flats are in West Green, with access along the “Driftway” footpath which is still in place off the London Road, near the new Travelodge Hotel).
1945 Crawley FC at Yetmans Field
As mentioned earlier, we would only play at Yetmans Field for another four years before our move to Town Meadow, and I have included a page from the programme of the last league game played there, which was against Southwick, in May 1949, with my dad, John Fox, in goal for us (we drew 2-2). Some older fans may recognise some of the advertisers in the programme.
Last Yetmans Field League Game May 1949
I would like to thank Darren Hands for copies of the annual reports (as collected by his dad, Ian Hands) and Tony Pope, our club historian, for some of the ancient facts used in this article. Also, apologies if this article is more haphazard than usual, but I am writing it while away in The Lakes for a few days.
Mick Fox – mjfjo@yahoo.co.uk
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