Big scores, goalpost glitches and the feelgood factor: World Cup ‘66 and the the birth of the Chesterfield Sunday Football League
It all began on Sunday, August 28 1966, just 29 days after England won the World Cup on a glorious afternoon at Wembley.
Sixty years on, the Chesterfield and District Sunday Football League is reaching a special anniversary with the subject of the Three Lions and the World Cup being football’s buzzwords again.
The time in between has involved thousands of matches, thousand of players and no shortage of grassroots drama from pub teams, club teams and works teams, the Derbyshire Times among them.
The Chesterfield Sunday League is a survival story and it all began back in that inaugural season back in 1966.
Chris Roberts, the league’s referees appointments officer, has spent time trawling the DT archives for information for the many events lined up over the next 12 months to mark the anniversary.
"Sunday football was limited back then for religious reasons,” says Chris.
"Before then the playing of football had largely been a Saturday pastime for a limited number of the population.
"But once official sanction was granted to the Sunday game, the untapped potential that existed was soon realised and very quickly towns and cities began to form leagues and play on the Sabbath.”
They included Chesterfield, where a Roly Hutson of Birmingham mooted the idea of a grassroots league in Chesterfield at a meeting held in the Sun Inn on West Bars in the March of 1966 to which eight clubs attended.
"Of course there was that buzz from England winning the World Cup at the time but most of the planning was in place during and before the tournament,” says Chris.
"They managed to get 24 clubs for the first season, in Divisions A and B. and suddenly it was up and running.”
There were teething troubles.
Clay Cross FC, Old Taptonians and Poolsbrook were all denied entry because their applications came in too late for consideration.
When the action got underway teams were still unsure where they were going to play their home fixtures and for the first few months the home side were required to advise the away team exactly which ground the game would be played.
This was partly because clubs were unsure how to approach the local council and partly because of the overlap of the cricket season meant a number of grounds were unavailable.
The first match was on the aforementioned August 28 between Kennings Remoulds FC (later to become Brampton Rovers FC) and
Bolsover Middleton and Stewart FC at the Apperknowle Recreation Ground.
Kennings won 4-0 and the first goal ever scored in the league was by Malcolm Cupitt who went on to also register the first ever hat-trick in the league that day.
The first weekend of fixtures came the following Sunday and as the Derbyshire Times reported, it wasn’t without drama
The match between Beighton George & Dragon FC versus Old Whittington United FC was postponed because the home team had no kit. Whittington, peeved, put in a claim for travelling expenses.
Meanwhile, Derbyshire Times’ own match against Dronfield Hill Top was called off because there were no goal posts were erected at the ground.
Not longer after that clumsy oversight Beighton George and Dragon became the first team to fold, problems trying to get a settled home ground proving too much.
They were immediately replaced by Bowden FC, a team coming together from the workforce of Bowen’s Glassmakers and Dean’s Electrical companies.
The first season continued to throw up amusing stories.
The fixture between Hill Top and Middlecroft United had to be abandoned late on because the match ball got lost in long grass and the reserve ball was not sufficiently inflated for use.
The League Executive ordered a replay and Dronfield won it 4-3. No balls were lost this time.
Another first arrived that autumn when young referee, Graham Hutson, son of the League Secretary Roly, sent off two players in the match between Staveley UDC and Creswell Welfare Old Boys, the league's first to be sent for an early bath.
By November, in line with other leagues around the country, substitutes were allowed for the first time.
Meanwhile, the Derbyshire Times reported that Kennings Remoulds changed their name to Brampton Rovers. This is significant in that Brampton would go on to be the league’s most successful club.
The league had a knockout competition, the League Cup (now Alma Cup), still played for to this day.
Chris’s research unearthed the first draw, between Grangewood Sports and Old Whittington United.
The replay was squeezed in two days before Christmas Eve.
As 1967 arrived and the excitement of the World Cup subsided, other league records were broken in Chesterfield’s brand new league.
S. Berresford became the first player to score five goals in a game. He was the toast of his team-mates at Creswell Old Boys, who beat Tupton 6-0.
Mind you, that pales into insignificance beside New Whittington’s win over Chesterfield Mace Sports in February.
"It ended 22-0,” notes Chris. “Four players scored a hat-trick and one of them, a guy called D. Wilkins, who went on to get nine.”
For the record, the other scorers that day were Deacon (3), Shimwell (3), Clarke (3), Crooks, Cousins and Stocks.
By the time spring rolled around it was the business end of an eventful and colourful inaugural season.
New Whittington and Grassmoor Boot & Shoe finished level on points at the top of Division One.
Remember, this was in the days before Goals Difference and Goal Average, so the matter had to be decided by a play-off at Palterton Miners Welfare Ground.
New Whittington won it 2-1 to become the Chesterfield Sunday League’s first champions.
There was need for a play-off in Division B, where Dronfield Hill Top Social Club pipped Old Whittington United to top spot by a point.
New Whittington completed a double by winning the League Cup, beating Creswell Welfare Old Boys 2-0 in the final.
The presentation of the trophy was made by Eric Varley, the then MP for Chesterfield.
In these days when grassroots referees are so thin on the ground, it is remarkable to note that during the whole of that historic first season only one league game was played without an appointed referee.
Chris notes: “At the start of the season the league had to put out a message, via the Derbyshire Times, that they were looking for qualified referees to officiate at the games. They considered they would need 12 to manage the entire programme of games.
"All together 27 match officials appeared in the league games in the opening season but a gentleman called Peter Cluxton had the honour of refereeing the first ever game.”
As summer beckoned so the referees, the players, the selfless volunteers and the spectators disappeared off for their summer holidays in the knowledge a special little league had been born.
It would get establish and prosper and swell to 164 teams and 12 divisions at its peak.
These days there is less than half that number due to the demise of pubs, clubs, works teams and changing lifestyle habits.
The Chesterfield Sunday League is still alive and kicking though and ready to mark its 60th season over the coming weeks and months.
As Chris adds: "If England could win the World Cup again, just as we were celebrating our 60 years, that would be absolutely perfect.”
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David Beddows Iconic Media Group