It’s FA Cup final week! Or at least it should be anyway. What was previously one of my favourite sporting days of the year when growing up is now seen as almost an inconvenience by many of the bigger sides. The obvious attraction of finishing fourth in the premier league being far preferable to an actual cup final win not being helped by having such crunch games as Fleetwood vs Portsmouth in round three moved to a 1735 kick off time on a Saturday by the FA for overseas television. I’m not entirely sure that people in either Fleetwood or Portsmouth were that excited by the prospect of playing each other, so I can’t see viewers in Estonia or China being that bothered either.
Obviously we at Dorchester are a million miles away from the glamour of an FA Cup final and our more recent campaigns have seen us knocked out in the early qualifying rounds by such footballing powerhouses as Blackfield & Langley, AFC Portchester and Cirencester. But that said, it wasn’t always the way. So once again with the help of programmes, memories and a Google search history which is even stranger than usual, we invite you to get your old style rattles, tin foil FA Cups and Bovril at the ready as we go back to look at some of the more memorable FA Cup campaigns we’ve had over the years.
(The magpies side in this era before heading off to a footballing twinning match in Bayeux)
For the first of these two parts (a TSOF first: a two parter) we’ll focus on the earlier cup successes we had. From what can be found when researching, since formation in 1880, the club had no notable runs in the FA Cup in the first 70 plus years. (Notable, for the purpose of this piece will be reaching the first round proper.) In fact in the immediate post war era, our best performance in the first seven years was a fourth qualifying round round defeat at home to Glastonbury by a 4-1 score line in the 1950-51 season. Either side of that we would be knocked out in earlier qualifying rounds by Cowes (IoW), Weymouth, Portland and Ryde, as well as not entering in 1947-48. Hardly the glamour that has been associated with the oldest national football competition in the world.
However the arrival of former Bournemouth goalkeeper, Ken Bird, in 1954 would change all that. In his first full season as manager, we’d overcome both Poole Town 2-1 and Bournemouth Gasworks Athletic FC (yes, that was a real team) 4-1 at home in the early qualifying rounds, before wins away at Portland and Winchester, by a 5-1 and a 1-0 margin respectively. This would see us in the hat for the first round draw for the first time ever. Our reward was a home tie against fellow non-league side Bedford and a crowd of over 3,500 would see us overcome them 2-0 as our history making cup campaign continued into the second round for our first ever appearance at that stage.
Our reward was a home tie against Third Division outfit York City – our first ever competitive game against league opposition. York would travel down and stay overnight before and after the game, and the club would put up a marquee for the occasion with the Dorset Regiment Band playing to entertain before the game. A record crowd of 5,750 would pack the old ground out with many fans stood on wooden beer crates from the local Eldridge and Pope Brewery. An early goal from club legend Dinky Curtis would stun our much higher ranked visitors. This goal would be the one that Curtis remembers most fondly, quite the accolade from a man who scored 235 in 458 appearances for the club.
Curtis would later comment in an interview with the echo on the goal:
“We kicked up the slope at the old Avenue in the first half. I played inside right and a pass came through from our right half Derek Presley and I went through as their full back came at me. I still held on to it and when I stopped I thought ‘why the hell didn’t I shoot when I had the chance?’ Anyway two minutes later there was an identical attack and this time I just hit it and it went into the corner. It was a great feeling.”
York would recover and equalise before half time, but it was early in the second half that our luck would change and the course of the match with it. Centre half Ron Cox would sustain a nasty cut to his head which would in today’s game see him substituted immediately. However there were no substitutes in these days, so rather than replace the literal walking wounded, Cox would have to return to play as nuisance value on the right wing. York would take advantage with a hat trick from the quite brilliantly named ‘Arthur Bottom’ to score 4 further goals, but that was not without reply as Tony Spink would net our second goal of the game. Given the circumstance and the gulf in class between the two sides, there was no shame in the 5-2 defeat. This was proved by the fact that York would reach the semifinals of that years competition, defeating a Stanley Matthews led Blackpool on their way to that stage. The FA Cup run was certainly not a hindrance. We would win the league that season scoring 103 goals in the process. It would give us a taste of the ‘magic’ of the FA Cup and we’d soon be out looking for further cup progress.
Dorchester line us vs York: Bird, Gale, Symes, Presley, Cox, West, Curtis, Dobson, Spink, Dare, Moscrop.
The following season in 1955-56, we would be at it again. Exempted from the early rounds of the qualification process, we’d advance into the first round after a 3-0 home win over Newport IoW, we would be drawn away to Third Divison South side Norwich City. Five coaches deported the County Town at midnight with 170 fan on board as they would arrive in Norwich at 1030 for the game, so next time a train journey from Dorchester South to Waterloo to get to Chesham seems a bit much, be thankful for the smoother and shorter ride compared to 65 years ago. Some rare footage of this day was shot on an old nine-five cine camera of the players arriving and some pre-fading light match footage, and that can be found at the following link. https://youtu.be/IlHkjym5wYE
The quality of opposition would prove too much for us as Norwich eased to a 4-0 victory, but it would be another decent season for the club as we finished third in the Western League, bettering our previously seasons tally with 106 goals but finishing an agonising 4 points off winners Trowbridge. Our line up that day would include club legend Dinky Curtis, Derek Stroud, Ken Bird as well as former football league players Reg Dare and Eric Bryant. Dare and Bryant aren’t names known to modern day fans, but with Bryant’s record of 48 goals in 47 appearances and Dare’s of 54 goals in 74 appearances, now is as good a time as any to respectfully nod to those quite staggering goals to game ratios.
Dorchester line up vs Norwich, 19/11/1955: Bird, Gale, Symes, West, Cox, Targett, Curtis, Stroud, Bryant, Dare, Greening.
The following year would be the third in succession that Ken Bird would guide us to the first round proper, but we can find curiously little about it. We would overcome Bideford 3-0 at home in a replay after a 1-1 draw on the road in the fourth qualifying round, but our visit to Loftus Road as we were drawn away to Queens Park Rangers in round one would end our interest in the cup for another year. QPR were in the Third Division South at that point and we would endure a slightly disappointing, albeit high scoring, season finishing seventh in the Western League 1956-57.
1957-58 is a campaign more is known about. Our FA Cup campaign would start once more in the fourth qualifying round and as often was the case in these times, we’d be drawn against Weymouth. Bobby Barker and Charlie Purves would help us get a 2-2 draw away at the Rec, before another strike from Purves and an own goal from Weymouth’s McGuinness would see us advance 2-1 in the replay at home.
The then famous amateurs, Wycombe Wanderers, at home would be our reward in the first round. A goal from Denis Cheney and two strikes (one penalty) from Derek Stroud would see us advance to the second round by a 3-2 score line, and the reward for that would be a tie away at Third Division South high-fliers, Plymouth Argyle. Cheered on by over 1,000 travelling supporters, we would find ourselves outclassed in the first 45 minutes as Plymouth raced into a 3-0 lead, but after halftime, a powerful 56th minute strike from the edge of the box by Bobby Barker would reduce the arrears. This seemed to anger Plymouth as they would score twice more to make it 5-1, but we would have the last word as a Derek Stroud penalty would see the final score be 5-2 to our hosts. We would very much play the long game when it came to extracting our FA Cup revenge…
Dorchester side vs Plymouth Argyle, 07/12/1957; Bird, Targett, Cunningham, O’Boyle, Walbridge, MacDonald, Curtis, Stroud, Cheney, Purves, Barker.
A fourth qualifying round defeat to Weymouth the following year would see our run of four successive seasons in the first round proper come to an end. However, under new manager Arthur Proudler, we’d return to that stage again in the 1959-60 season. A single goal in the fourth qualifying round from Dinky Curtis would see us avenge the defeat from the previous season and our first round opponents would once again come from the Third Division, this time in the form of Port Vale. We’d fall behind to an 8th minute goal but would equalise just before the half hour through a Bill Gillett strike. Sadly, the game would be settled in the 56th minute by Vale’s Graham Barnett and that would see an end to our cup exploits for the decade.
After making the first round in five out of six seasons, I’m sure no one thought it would take us so long to get back to that stage.
Dorchester side vs Port Vale, 14/11/1959; Turner, Targett, Black, Kell, Proudler, MacDonald, Stroud, Curtis, Gillett, Way, Noakes.
In part two we once again hop in the TARDIS and move forward to examine the more recent cup exploits. We will pick back up properly in 1981 after quickly glossing over the years in between. This is because we didn’t make the first round once in that time. Wash those hands folks, back with part two soon. SV.
Leave a Reply