Matchday Memories: On This Day 1950 – Bradford Beaten By ‘Bantam’ Bryn’s Brace

Harry Storer

On this day (29th April) way back in 1950 Coventry City were a fair to middling Division Two side entering the final lap of the season in their penultimate match and riding a bit of a positive April wave. Since the beginning of this month they had experienced something of a revival, winning five and drawn one of their six games so far. Legendary thirties CCFC manager Harry Storer was again guiding Club’s fortunes since taking over from Billy Frith in November 1948. City had got a 2-2 draw at Bradford Park Avenue‘s ground back in December (with our scorers being Noel Simpson and Jack Marsh)  so were looking to go one better today. The ‘Bantams’ carried on in the same style today fairly easily winning 3-1 against their struggling visitors at Highfield Road in front of 12,609 fans (the lowest for two years), seeing off April undefeated.

Bryn Allen

CCFC had the goals of two forwards to thank for their victory. Welsh international Bryn Allen grabbed himself a brace and Irish international Norman Lockhart netted the other. Bryn’s goals were both spectacular first half efforts, the first from 25 yards after only four minutes profiting from the ball rebounding off the ref. and then another after 25 minutes. Bradford tried hard, but in vain, to make their offside tactics stymie City. Norman sealed the win with a penalty struck seventeen minutes before the end, cheekily nominating exactly where he would put it before clinically finishing. Bradford’s consolation came from their Lee Horsman just seven minutes from the final whistle.

Norman Lockhart

CCFC’s team on this day was:-

Alf Wood; Charlie Timmins & Dick Mason; Harry Barratt (c), Martin Mcdonnell & Les ‘Plum’ Warner; Bryn Allen, Ted Roberts, Ken Chisholm & Norman Lockhart.

Sadly all these CCFC stalwarts have since passed away. Charlie joined CCFPA in his latter years and Ted’s son, Dudley Roberts became a Sky Blues centre-forward for the in the 1960s and is a current CCFPA member

Bradford PA, managed by Fred Emery, took the field with the following XI:-

Chick Farr; Charlie Currie & Arthur Farrell; Jeff Suddards, Leon Leuty & Bill Deplidge; Jackie Smith, Don Hodgson, Les Horsman, Jack Haines & Billy Elliott       Referee:- C.H.Warburton (Scunthorpe)

As a side note, many of the crowd stayed after the game to watch the Minor League Challenge Cup Final at the ground. City’s youth setup was just as important in those days as the Academy is now for feeding talent into the first team. As it happened both finalists were City junior teams from their feeder side ‘Modern Machine Tools’. Their ‘A’ side beat the ‘B’ side 3-0 to take the trophy!  The ‘A’ side featured youngsters like future England goalkeeper Reg Matthews, Frank Austin, future CCFPA member Lol Harvey, John Wassall and Bill Bradbury who all went on to play for the City first team.

CCFC 1949-50 (aug)

The Bantams would go on to draw their remaining match in May 1-1 at home to Barnsley and therefore end the season undefeated in their last eight games finishing twelfth in Division Two. The Yorkshire team’s relegation at the bottom of the pile was confirmed by this defeat.

Tottenham Hotspur took the Division Two title by a mile (nine points) from Sheffield Wednesday.

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