Historic Barking programmes- Barking v Clapton at the Boleyn ground 7-12-1953

[Press Off]

HISTORIC BARKING PROGRAMMES NUMBER 12

 

7-12-1953 BARKING v CLAPTON ESSEX THAMESIDE TROPHY 1ST ROUND REPLAY

At the Boleyn Ground,Upton Park Won 5-3

 

This is a historic programme for two reasons. The game was played at the Boleyn Ground, Upton Park ie the home of West Ham United and ,as the programme says, “ it is our pleasure tonight to stage one of the first all-amateur floodlit matches.” In fact it was our second game under floodlights,the first having been played against Ilford under temporary lights in Barking Park on October 12th 1931 as part of the celebrations of the awarding of a charter and borough status to the town of Barking.

Floodlights were installed at the Vicarage Field in 1958 and Barking was the first club to play an Isthmian League match under its own lights.Our opponents in our inaugural home floodlit match were ,appropriately, West Ham United.

 

Our team was A. Paul, R. Howes, John Smith, J. Whates, D. Pryor, J. Barnard, Ken Regan, R. Batchelor, Johnny Tanner, W. Reay, Buddy Holmes and our scorers were Holmes 2, Reay, Tanner, Batchelor.The first match was drawn 1-1 at Clapton on September 2nd with A.Reed scoring our goal.Tanner scored 27 goals that season , Holmes 14,Reay 9 and Reed 5.

 

We were both members of the Isthmian League (we were in our second season in that competition) and in that season’s league matches we lost 3-2 at home and 1-0 away

The game kicked off at 7.30 and floodlights were sufficiently novel for the words “floodlit match” to appear on the cover. We played in our usual royal blue and Clapton in red and white stripes.

 

There were no advertisements in the programme which included brief histories of the two clubs.Ours included the fact that we were the current joint holders of the Essex Thameside Trophy , having drawn the previous season’s final with Leytonstone 3-3 ,despite having been leading 3-1 with 10 minutes left.It also referred to the disputed goal in the F A Amateur Cup semi final in 1950 which prevented us reaching Wembley.

 

Unfortunately in the second round of the ETT we lost 8-1 to Leytonstone. We reached the final of the East Anglian Cup by beating Harwich & Parkeston 6-2 and beat Romford 2-0 in the final replay after a 1-1 draw.

 

We struggled in the league,finishing 12th out of 15 ,despite winning 11 games but the reserves finished 5th.

League tables for season 1953-54

 

Isthmian League Senior Section

 

 

 

POS TEAM P W D L F A PTS

 

1 Bromley 28 18 3 7 76 45 39

2 Walthamstow Avenue 28 13 7 8 55 30 33

3 Wycombe Wanderers 28 15 3 10 65 44 33

4 Ilford 28 11 10 7 48 44 32

5 Corinthian Casuals 28 12 7 9 59 44 31

6 Woking 28 13 4 11 54 58 30

7 Leytonstone 28 12 5 11 58 48 29

8 St Albans City 28 11 6 11 54 55 28

9 Dulwich Hamlet 28 11 6 11 55 57 28

10 Romford 28 11 5 12 57 54 27

11 Clapton 28 11 5 12 42 56 27

12 BARKING 28 11 2 15 59 84 24

13 Kingstonian 28 8 7 13 59 71 23

14 Wimbledon 28 7 8 13 43 59 22

15 Oxford City 28 4 6 18 49 84 14

 

 

Isthmian League Reserve Section

 

 

 

POS TEAM P W D L F A PTS

 

1 Walthamstow Avenue 28 20 4 4 67 34 44

2 Dulwich Hamlet 28 18 5 5 81 46 41

3 Leytonstone 28 18 5 5 65 43 41

4 Wimbledon 28 17 3 8 72 49 37

5 BARKING RES 28 17 2 9 65 53 36

6 Wycombe Wanderers 28 14 4 10 78 55 32

7 Oxford City 28 12 5 11 57 49 29

8 Bromley 28 11 6 11 50 50 28

9 Corinthian-Casuals 28 10 7 11 62 68 27

10 Ilford 28 8 5 15 56 66 21

11 Woking 28 8 5 15 51 69 21

12 Kingstonian 28 7 6 15 42 56 20

13 St Albans City 28 6 4 18 45 72 16

14 Romford 28 5 4 19 51 100 14

15 Clapton 28 5 3 20 31 63 13