CCFC Programme History 30: Season 1936-37b – Blades Beaten During First Time Back In Div.Two

CCFPA’s Jim Brown and Mike Young have been building up a collection of full programme images from CCFC issues pre 1945. We have currently exceeded 700 full programme images -home and away! All images are taken from the collection and copyright CCFPA (and must not be reproduced without permission). Last time in this series we looked at a teamsheet for one of the pre-season public practice matches. Now we turn to the ‘normal’ CCFC publication for League and Cup home games which had been redesigned and extended to a 20 page effort for the first season back at the higher level.

The front page of the programme (above right) featured a snazzy stylised depiction of the club’s then nickname/mascot a Bantam confidently crowing in front of a football and interleaved with the club’s name and location, Highfield Road. The programme was numbered for the match prize draw each home game boosting a reasonable circulation among the decent crowds of the time. The bottom of the page (as usual in previous seasons) was an ad from local brewer M&B and the back page featured a full paage ad from another Ansells.

Season 1936-37 was an important one for our legendary long-term manager Harry Storer and his players. For several 1930’s seasons the club had been knocking on the door of promotion back to the Second Division after losing their foothold there in 1925-26.   Storer had built a series of attractive, high scoring teams regularly knocking in (literally) a ton of goals and 1935-36 saw their dreams fulfilled with promotion as Champions of Division Three South with a 2-1 home win over Torquay United in May 1936. So far Storer’s Boys were doing more than just consolidating their first season back in Division Two having been in the top half all season, as high as third (and currently ninth).  We feature a programme, still priced at tuppence, from the back end of the season with five D2 games to go:-

CCFC 2-0 Sheffield United 3rd April 1937 Att. 19,162

The inside front Page is filled with three adverts one of which for ‘Carters Little Liver Pills’ has a somewhat risque headline for the time and advises readers to listen to ‘Radio Luxembourg’ on their wireless for more information! More importantly on Page One, apart from the club crest and list of officials the standard ‘From the Boardroom’ feature makes some useful and fair-minded points. The writer describes the team’s progress back at the higher level as ‘satisfactory’, notes the recent fall-back in results for both first team and reserves but remais positive about future progress. Pages Two and Three have plentiful adverts (with one slot still ‘to let’) as well as an alphabetical list of the club’s 38 players and their first team appearances (still described as ‘attendances’) and goals.

Page Four has two ads, one for the Venetian Cafe in Broadgate and the other for ‘Savage’s Famous Bread‘ from Coventry’s Enterprise Baker ‘Often Buttered, Never Bettered‘! Page Five (illustrated left) provides a review of opponents Sheffield United, an ad for the Bantam’s Reserves upcoming game against Clapton (i.e.Leyton) Orient. Page Six (illustrated right) advertises upcoming films at the Gaumont Cinema as well as the latest in a regular portraits of CCFC players, in this case new signing, prolific young striker Ted Roberts who had already scored twice in his first three games since signing from Derby County in mid March! Ted’s son Dudley Roberts would later go on to be a 1960s Sky Blues centre forward (and current CCFPA member)! Amongst other ads Page Seven advertises a LMS rail excursion to City’s upcoming game at Tottenham Hotspur (cost 5s/6d) and also outings by coach from Coventry’s RHMS (Red House Motor Services).

Les Jones in cartoon form

Clarrie Bourton at HR

The centre pages (Pages 8 and 9) as usual depicts the opposing teams surrounded by more adverts. The CCFC and Sheffield United teams shown were the ones that played except the Blades inside right (No.15) was F.Graham not Richardson.

CCFC were 2-0 up at half-time thanks to goals from our Welsh international Les Jones after 22 minutes and another from perennial ‘goal machine’ Clarrie Bourton a minute before the break. That’s how the score stayed at the final whistle! City rose one place to eighth (thier final position at season’s end) and by then Clarrie had slipped from his usual scoring top spot to second with ten goals and Les third with nine. That season our Irish international Jackie Brown was the club’s ‘Golden Boot’ with fourteen goals!

Page Ten was taken up with ‘Topical Notes’ by ‘Supporter’. Interestingly this covered  not just information on the long and successful history of the Blades but two big matches involving local teams. First was the Annual Midland Daily Telegraph Cup Final at HR tied between Warwick Mental Hospital and Leamington St Johns followed by welcoming Morris Motors 2-0 victory over Leicester Nomads in the Central Amateur League.

There was also small ad for moving and removal services by Morton’s of Hertford Street including supplying ‘coal for health’! Page eleven had a half page ad for Hansons, also of Hertford Street suppliers of amplifying equipment to CCFC!  

Page Twelve has adverts and Page Thirteen (illustrated) shows the current state of play in four league tables relevant to CCFC teams. The Reserves were currently sixth in the London Combination.

To complete our review of this 1936-37 programme (as well as more ads) Pages 14 and 15 have a look very familair to CCFC programme readers in those years consisting, across the top, of an alphabet coded list of key games to allow fans to write in half-time scores when annonced/ displayed on the ground. Page 14 has a full list of results and remaining fixtures for both the first team (Division Two) and Reserves (London Combination) whist Page 15 has adverts for ‘C.G.Davies’, Coventry Sports Outfitter on Far Gosford Street and the ‘Coventry & District Co-op’ at West Orchard.

As illustrated above a third of Page 16 advertises a presumed forerunner of the Coventry Building Society namely the Coventry & District Permanent Money Society! Above that the usual ‘Supporters Club Notes’ by ‘The Sec’ discusses, amongst othr things,  the Club’s AGM at the Mercers Arms and the Coronation Eve dance at the Ritz Ballroom, both upcoming in May. The inside back page has a full page ad for the timber merchant firm of future CCFC Chairman Erle Shanks.

Nest time we will look at a programme for 1937-38 as the UK football start to slip into uncertain times as war in Europe starts to rise up the agenda.

Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young for researching the review and sourcing the images.