1953/4-Rooke's reign turns sour
From a very early stage it was clear that the club would face problems building on its most successful season so far. They started with the retained list, when the directors insisted on economies in the wage bill. A six-hour board meeting in May 1953 produced “sharply divided opinions”, but ended with the release of Butler, Millbank and Summers, who had all been regular first team players at various times, and deferred a decision on Gage, who eventually decided to leave to concentrate on the pub he ran in Essex. It was also decided to scrap the “A” team and even in May, Rooke was telling reporters that the directors were insisting that he reduce the wages of the men retained. The amount he had to spend was, he said, “stupid and ridiculously small”; he needed to strengthen the squad because, in his view, the exhaustion of several players at the end of the previous season, notably Gardiner and Garwood, had cost Bedford the championship.
Such public conflict between the manager and the board hardly gave much encouragement for the new season. Things got worse in July, when Rooke told the AGM that potential signings had “laughed” at the money he was able to offer; Taft and Dubois, like Gage, had already refused terms, Murphy had been forced to return to Ireland because he had been evicted from his Crystal Palace club house and could not afford to rent a house in Bedford, and with a month to go to the start of the season, Rooke had only four professionals on the books. It sounded as if he was daring the board to sack him on the spot, but the directors had troubles of their own.
The meeting, which was attended by 500 shareholders and lasted for four hours, was told that the club had lost money-albeit only £359-in the period from January 1952 to May 1953 despite the playing successes. An enormous £2,500 had been paid in Entertainment Tax, which was levied at up to 25% on the price of admission and was very unpopular with theatres and cinemas as well as sporting organisations (it was not abolished until 1957). The wage bill for 1952/3 had clearly increased, possibly by over 40%, and seems to have been accounting for more than 70% of revenues[1]. But things really livened up when the chairman, William Hobkirk, publicly resigned, claiming that he had been the only director to subscribe to the share issue the previous summer and accusing his colleagues of a lack of support. One of them, Cyril Symes, who ran a motor coach business, replied that Hobkirk seemed to think he was the only director to have bankrolled the club, reminding the meeting that other directors had loans of over £700 outstanding and that his own company had transported the players for the whole previous season free of charge. There was also a clear antipathy between Hobkirk and several other directors whose re-nomination he opposed. The proceedings ended with the election as chairman of Cyril Folkes, aged only 38, who had been secretary when the new company started and had been a wartime colleague of Rooke in the Army PT instructorate.
This seemed to settle the boardroom feuds and, if only temporarily, the quarrel with Rooke, who may well have been on the point of leaving. Enough money was found to persuade the other retained players to re-sign (including Summers, whose release was reversed) and recruit three more: Charlie Bumstead, a goalkeeper and another old Rooke colleague at Crystal Palace, Frank Morrad, a veteran defender from Brentford, and Johnny Jordan, a much-travelled inside forward who holds the distinction of being the only man to play both for the Eagles and Juventus (in the late 1940s). The new board also reversed its predecessor’s decision to increase season tickets from £2 2s to £2 15s (£2.75), or £4 including a stand seat and car parking space. Ground admission was pegged at 1s 9d.
On the opening Saturday of the 1953/4 season Bedford lost 2-3 at Whaddon Road, Cheltenham. Here new goalkeeper Charlie Bumstead is challenged by Cheltenham’s Ray Warne with Bedford’s centre-half and captain Jack Wilkins looking on.
Over 5,000 people saw this league match at Joseph’s Road, Guildford on the evening of 26 August 1953, but Bedford went down 0-1, thanks to a hotly disputed last minute penalty, to a team that would prove to be a “bogey” on their own ground almost to the end of the 1950s. Here Guildford’s centre-forward Jenkins is in an aerial tussle with Bedford’s Peter Hancock, watched by two new signings-goalkeeper Charlie Bumstead (left) and full-back Frank Morrad. This was the team’s third successive defeat at the start of the season, and they would win only one of their first eight matches.
Hancock had been another Arsenal reserve player recruited by Rooke from one of his old clubs, and despite staying three seasons he never really established himself. Bumstead had played for Rooke at Crystal Palace, while Morrad had been a colleague at Fulham, and later ran a chain of West London betting shops
In the same match, Guildford keeper Ray Drinkwater, later a regular at QPR, beats Bedford’s Don Wade in the air, with Johnny Jordan in the distance. Bedford were unlucky in that the fixture list compelled them to start with three successive away fixtures, and they were still without Ronnie Rooke, recovering from tonsillitis.
The season started ominously, with Rooke having an operation for “quinsy” (a form of tonsillitis), defeats in the first three matches and no win until the sixth. The first home Saturday match, against Exeter Reserves on 29 August, attracted only 3,800 people. This had dropped by another 500 when Gravesend gave the team their first success a week later. Luck seemed in short supply; in the second match, at Cheltenham, captain Wilkins became a passenger with a cut head, the following week at Guildford came a 0-1 defeat thanks to a controversial last minute penalty, and at Kidderminster in the league cup the team did well to secure a draw after losing Dennis Adams, a young local defender who had recently turned professional, for the whole second half. But on 12 September came a 0-8 away thumping by Barry Town, despite Bedford playing their strongest available team. It could have been even worse since Barry missed two of the four penalties they were given. Rooke claimed that three of the goals were at least six yards offside and that three of the penalties were for offences well outside the area, but his official complaint about the refereeing ended rather unconvincingly: “I bear no grudge because we lost the match.....” He may have felt better after hitting a hat-trick a few days later against his first club, Guildford, in a 4-0 home win.
Jimmy Ayton is foiled by the Potton United defenders in this attack in Bedford’s 5-1 win at The Hollow in the first qualifying round of the FA Cup on 26 September 1953. The UCL side held their own in the first half, equalising at one point, but were gradually overwhelmed and were left to count the substantial gate as a consolation. Far left is Potton' s keeper Jack Bichener, who had played for the Eagles in the 1940s.
Ayton was a Scottish inside forward who was in and out of the side during his two seasons, competing with Rooke’s other expensive signings. He scored the two second half goals that finally sunk Potton.
I’ve included this match because it was probably the first Eagles game I attended, but my only memory is of getting lost somewhere in what seemed like a huge crowd on the open side of the ground, and being rescued by my father. Perhaps, at three and a half, I was a bit young to appreciate the scene.
In the second qualifying round of the FA Cup against Biggleswade at their Fairfield ground on 10 October 1953, Bedford drew a record attendance of 2,330, but were also nearly embarrassed by their United Counties League hosts who held them to a goalless draw. It was a match where both attacks missed chances, and this one was missed by Bedford’s Johnny Jordan (left), seen here advancing on the Waders’ keeper Morrison. Bedford won the replay comfortably enough, 5-0.
Jordan had been with a bizarre variety of clubs, including Juventus, since the end of the war, and his signing from Tonbridge was one of the few a cash-strapped Rooke (seen here with hands on hips to Jordan’s right) could afford in the summer of 1953. He hit 15 goals in 44 appearances but was released at the season’s end by new manager Fred Stansfield.
On 12 September 1953, Bedford’s troubled start to the season had turned disastrous when they were beaten by eight clear goals by Barry Town in South Wales, one of the worst defeats in their history. The return match at home on 17 October was therefore very important, especially after the previous week’s wobble at Biggleswade in the FA Cup, and 4,695, the best attendance of the season so far, saw them gain revenge 2-1 despite being a goal down after four minutes. Here, Jimmy Ayton (centre), scorer of one of the goals, has escaped his marker but his effort was saved by goalkeeper Nethercott. Either side of Ayton are Vivian Woodward and Ronnie Rooke. “Play was so gripping”, wrote the local scribe, “that onlookers made no mass shuffling towards the exits before the final whistle-they stayed to the end”.
Charlie Bumstead saves from Gorleston Town’s Neville Coleman-who later had a long league career with Stoke City- in the fourth qualifying round FA Cup tie at the Norfolk club’s ground on 7 November 1953. He later made another vital save from the same player when Gorleston were awarded a penalty 20 minutes from time, after Jimmy Gray had punched the ball off his own line. Nowadays, of course, that would have reduced the team to ten men, regardless of the outcome of the kick. Against their Eastern Counties League opponents the Eagles eased through 2-0 with goals from Jordan and Holland, both in the first half, watched by over 4,000.
The FA Cup provided a temporary distraction, but even here there was a scare when Biggleswade held Bedford to a goalless draw in the second qualifying round before going down in the replay. The 4-2 win at Dunstable in the next round was hardly convincing either, since the scores were level with four minutes to go. A 2-0 win at Gorleston, from the Eastern Counties League, owed much to a penalty save by Bumstead, who had established himself in place of Gage. But the draw for the first round proper did the Eagles no favours with a long and not very lucrative trip to Weymouth. They did at least help to achieve a local attendance record of 6,652, but rarely looked like winning as they went down 0-2, one of the goals coming from Andy Easton who was to join them four years later. Ayton was off injured for much of the second half and Rooke’s troubles continued, missing a “sitter” when the score was only 0-1; he told scribes that it was the kind of goal he used to score in his sleep.
Bedford’s reward for reaching the competition proper of the FA Cup for only the third time was a long trip to meet familiar Southern League opponents at Weymouth’s Recreation Ground on 21 November 1953. Once again they helped to create a record attendance, 6,552, but went down 0-2 in a disappointing display. In this early Bedford attack wing-half Ken Fisher (left) has joined Jimmy Ayton, but Ayton’s header from Ian McPherson’s cross hit the bar-the nearest the Eagles came to scoring. They were unable to pick Ted Duggan, their high-scoring recent signing, because he had already played for Worcester in an earlier round. Weymouth were dumped out of the competition 0-4 in the next round away to Leyton Orient.
Weymouth’s centre-forward Dave Massart hammers home his team’s second goal from close range, past the despairing defenders Ken Fisher, Jack Wilkins (on ground), Charlie Bumstead and (on the line) Jimmy Gray, who was much better known as a very long-serving batsman for Hampshire, and was not available at the start or end of the football season. Weymouth’s first goal had come from Andy Easton, a key member of Bedford’s championship side five years later.
Here Weymouth’s Belgian winger Marcel Gaillard, who had helped Portsmouth to win the First Division title in 1950, has outjumped Eagles centre-half and captain Jack Wilkins, who missed only two matches in his two seasons with the club, only to be discarded by Fred Stansfield. He and Dougie Gardiner were soon to take over team selection after Ronnie Rooke’s departure, and Wilkins rejoined Rooke the following summer at Hayward’s Heath.
In fact, the manager’s time was running out. After their cup exit on 21 November Bedford had sunk to fourth from bottom in the league. Hints of discontent and disorganisation were already evident; earlier in the month they had been forced to play a whole game, away to the Newport club Lovells Athletic[2], with ten men after Tommy Rudkin, an elderly winger from Peterborough who had recently been signed, had missed the coach. A five-goal defeat was followed by a £25 fine by the League and much disgruntled comment by supporters. Rooke had recently signed two more experienced forwards, Ted Duggan from Worcester and Ian McPherson, another old Arsenal colleague, from Brentford, but Duggan was cup-tied and neither could make much impact in the short term. There were unseemly allegations (firmly rejected) that a regular donation of £400 by the Supporters’ Club had been used to fund an under-the-table payment to McPherson. More defeats followed and in the first week of December the national press carried speculation that Rooke had resigned or been sacked. The following week chairman Folkes announced that the board had decided not to renew his contract when it expired the following summer; soon afterwards he was given what would now be called gardening leave for the rest of the season. Jack Wilkins and Dougie Gardiner, the first and second team captains, were put in charge of team selection for the time being.
“It had been clear for a few weeks that all was not well”, said the Bedfordshire Times with much restraint. Folkes said that the board had decided to look “for a younger player-manager”. Rooke protested that he’d made clear when he arrived that he would not be able to play on indefinitely (in fact he’d made 136 appearances in just under three years) and claimed that he’d received “300 to 400” letters of support. Meanwhile troubles on the field continued, and defender Bernard Lawson broke his leg, in those days a career-threatening injury, in the one-goal defeat at Bath just before Rooke’s exit.
After Ronnie Rooke’s effective dismissal early in December, the captain, Jack Wilkins, was put in charge of selecting the first team and Dougie Gardiner the reserves. Perhaps they should have been given these jobs permanently because the team now embarked on a run of seven wins in their next eight matches, taking them well into the top half of the table. The run started on 12 December 1953 with a 3-1 home win against Gloucester, and here visiting keeper Ron Coltman saves from Bedford’s Ted Duggan, whose marksmanship was a key element in the revival-he scored twice in this game and hit five of the six which beat Cheltenham the following week. By the end of the season he had hit 25 in 33 matches. Johnny Jordan is nearest the camera.
Two scenes from Bedford’s 2-0 defeat of Lovell’s Athletic at The Eyrie on 16 January 1954, before a crowd of just over 5,000, which continued the excellent recovery following Ronnie Rooke’s departure. (Top) Ted Duggan, who score both goals, in a race with Lovell’s defender Sillett. (Below) Lovell’s goalkeeper Ray Cross punches clear under a dual assault by Frank Faulkner (in air) and Vivian Woodward. Lovell’s were effectively a works team, sponsored by a Newport toffee manufacturing firm, but managed to give a good account of themselves for many years and often included several Welsh amateur internationals. During World War II they played in the wartime western section of the Football League.
The recovery continued with this 3-1 win against Weymouth on 20 February 1954, in which for once Duggan didn’t score. Here (far right) he has climbed above the defenders and his header ended up in the net but the effort was disallowed for a foul. Frank Faulkner, who scored the second goal, looks on.
Now, however, the tide turned. Six of the next seven matches were won, sending the team well out of the re-election zone and into the top half of the table. Duggan’s goalscoring was a key factor; he scored in all seven, and against Cheltenham at home just before Christmas he hit a new postwar club record of five in a 6-0 win. Frank Faulkner, a local product who’d rarely got a chance under Rooke despite having been around since 1949, came in on the right wing and the same forward line, Faulkner, Woodward, Duggan, Jordan and Holland, appeared in the next 17 matches. The fact that the experienced McPherson was dropped for several weeks from both the first team and the reserves may suggest that he did not see eye to eye with the temporary bosses. This sequence of matches was certainly eventful; a 6-1 defeat of Chelmsford in early February put the team into fifth place, although this was to prove the limit of the recovery and was followed by a 0-7 defeat by Headington in the league cup and a 4-4 draw at Llanelly in which the team had been 1-3 down and later 4-3 up.
The Headington match at the Manor Ground was Bedford’s first under floodlights, attended by 3,600 people, far more than could have seen an afternoon match in midweek, and such was their novelty that Bedford supporters criticised the management for agreeing to play an important fixture under these conditions. The players were, said the press report, “consulted first” before the evening kick-off was agreed. Headington installed their lights long before many bigger clubs had even considered them-at this stage neither Football League matches nor FA Cup ties were permissible under lights.
Bedford’s outside chance of extending their recovery to have a chance of the league title ended with a 2-3 defeat by Kettering at The Eyrie on 13 March 1954, watched by 5,303. In the lower scene, Ted Duggan tries to burst between Kettering defenders Bill Barron (left) and Ken Walker, while in the top view, Kettering keeper George Nimmo fists away from the airborne Johnny Holland while Duggan waits, with Barron-whose son Roger played in goal for Bedford from 1969 to 1971- on the goal line.
All five goals in the Kettering match came in the last 23 minutes. Here Holland (third from left) catches Nimmo out of position to convert a cross from Vivian Woodward (second from right on goal line) for Bedford’s second goal, in the final few minutes, which reduced the arrears to 2-3, but they were unable to force an equaliser and lost at home for the first time since the end of October. Duggan (left) and Jordan are the other Bedford forwards. The Bedford Record’s reporter thought that some of the tackling was excessive even for a local derby and wrote: “On one occasion the spectators were treated to a brief display of fisticuffs without the slightest intervention from the referee”.
This picture is rare example of one taken from the eastern side of the ground and the crowd in view are standing to the Ford End Road side of the small original stand, out of shot to the left.
On 8 March the board ended their search for a “younger player-manager” by appointing Fred Stansfield, formerly of Cardiff and Newport, who was certainly six years younger than Rooke but had stopped playing three years earlier. There had been 112 applications to pick from. Perhaps some people wondered whether the club should have stuck with the Wilkins/Gardiner arrangement when only three of the remaining ten league matches in the season were won, although a 1-0 defeat of Luton in the County Invitation Cup was some consolation.
The final league placing of eighth was actually the second highest the club had achieved, and many would have settled for it when Rooke left, but it was perceived as something of a disappointment after the good run at the turn of the year. Duggan’s 25 goals in only 33 matches made him the biggest success of the year on the field; otherwise only Jordan, Woodward and Rooke (who did not play after December) reached double figures. Wilkins, Bumstead, Garwood, Gray and Ken Fisher had been the key men of the defence, but Garwood now decided to emigrate to Canada and Gray opted to move to Salisbury, so as to be nearer his home and cricketing base in Southampton.
Any remaining illusions supporters may have had about league honours were ended on 27 March 1954, when 5,200 saw Bedford go down 1-3 to Merthyr Tydfil, who were already almost assured of their fifth post-war Southern League title. The Welsh side were held to 0-0 at half time but two goals by centre-forward Reynolds in the first ten minutes of the second half settled matters. Here Merthyr keeper Bert Sellick catches a corner with some ease, watched by Bedford’s Ian McPherson (second from right). McPherson had won the Distinguished Flying Cross in the war before moving south from Rangers to Arsenal where he played alongside Ronnie Rooke. After being released at the end of the season he rejoined the RAF. This was to be the last season of Merthyr’s golden epoch before they embarked on many years in the lower reaches of the table.
Acrobatics on Good Friday, 1954 before 6,300, the best league crowd of the season, as Ted Duggan (centre) tangles with the Yeovil defence, watched by Ian McPherson (right) and Ken Fisher in the background. McPherson hit a hat-trick as Bedford won 3-0. The airborne defender to the left of Duggan is Mick Nagy, a Hungarian centre-half who was a regular in Yeovil’s side throughout this period but made just a single first team appearance when Tim Kelly brought him to Bedford in 1958, and no 4, with his back to the camera, is Brian Edwards, who was signed by Ronnie Rooke in his second spell as manager in 1959, but likewise rarely figured in the first team.
The season ended with the satisfaction of a first outright win for Bedford against Luton in the County Invitation Trophy on 22 April 1954 before just over 7,000. Ian McPherson, who ended the season strongly but wasn’t retained, scored the only goal against a Luton team including nine of their regular Second Division line-up. This is the successful Bedford team.
Back row: Charlie Bicknell (trainer), Jimmy Gray, Len Garwood, Charlie Bumstead, Frank Morrad, Ken Fisher.
Front row: Frank Faulkner, Ian McPherson, Ted Duggan, Jack Wilkins, Johnny Jordan, Johnny Holland.
Stansfield surprised many by releasing Wilkins, who had missed only two first team matches in two years and left to rejoin Rooke at his next club, Hayward’s Heath, as well as Jordan, and with McPherson deciding to rejoin the RAF, and the departures of Gray and Garwood, only eight professionals were retained. The club had budgeted for weekly gate receipts of £350, but actual weekly takings were nearer £250, against running costs of £300-so the Supporters’ Club’s donations of over £6,000 were even more vital than previously, and the new manager would be unable to splash out on players. Gates over the year averaged 4,372, down for the third season running, and the financial result of the reserve team’s visit to British Timken at Duston in January had been minus 16 shillings (80p), since their travelling expenses exceeded their share of the takings! Remarkably, though, the club for the first time made a profit of £1,973 on the season.
To continue the story go to 1954/5 -back in the basement
For full results and teams go to Results and teams, 1950-67
LEAGUE TABLE 1953-1954
1. Merthyr Tydfil 42 27 8 7 97 55 62
2. Headington United 42 22 9 11 68 43 53
3. Yeovil Town 42 20 8 14 87 76 48
4. Bath City 42 17 12 13 73 67 46
5. Kidderminster Harriers 42 18 9 15 62 59 45
6. Weymouth 42 18 8 16 83 72 44
7. Barry Town 42 17 9 16 108 91 43
8. Bedford Town 42 19 5 18 80 84 43
9. Gloucester City 42 16 11 15 69 77 43
10. Hastings United 42 16 10 16 73 67 42
11. Kettering Town 42 15 12 15 65 63 42
12. Hereford United 42 16 9 17 66 62 41
13. Llanelly 42 16 9 17 80 85 41
14. Guildford City 42 15 11 16 56 60 41
15. Gravesend & Northfleet 42 16 8 18 76 77 40
16. Worcester City 42 17 6 19 66 71 40
17. Lovells Athletic 42 14 11 17 62 60 39
18. Tonbridge 42 15 9 18 85 91 39
19. Chelmsford City 42 14 10 18 67 71 38
20. Exeter City Reserves 42 11 13 18 61 72 35
21. Cheltenham Town 42 11 12 19 56 83 34
22. Dartford 42 6 13 23 42 96 25