Matchday Memories: On This Day 1966 – Mick & George’s Cobblers Testimonial Gets Great Gate

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On this Tuesday night (May 10th) in 1966, three days after finishing their Division Two season in third (after a 2-0 away win at Huddersfield Town) just short of promotion to the top flight, CCFC rewarded two of their Sky Blue stalwarts with a testimonial at Highfield Road. The game was played for the ‘Winston Churchill Remembrance Trophy‘ and a decent crowd stood in a minute’s silence before kick-off. The Trophy had been played for the previous year when Fulham beat the Sky Blues at Highfield Road.

Mick in the Sky Blue

Under innovative manager Jimmy Hill the ‘Sky Blue Express‘ was on its way to the very top (to be achieved at the end of the following season)! Both members of the defensive duo of Mick Kearns and their current captain ‘Iron Man’ George Curtis had begun their CCFC journey earlier on in the bottom tier of Division Four (under previous gaffer Billy Frith) and both would go on to play top flight football in 1967-68. The two men would also get a ‘Part Two’ of their testimonial almost exactly a year later with a prestigious game with Liverpool which they won 2-1. This game (which we covered on this site yesterday) raised almost £3,000 for their fund.

George in the Sky Blue

A more than respectable crowd of 13,576 turned up to watch the Sky Blues to pay tribute to their heroes in a match against Northampton Town. The Cobblers had just finished their sole season in the top flight and had come straight down in next-to-bottom slot, always a danger for newly promoted teams (as City would soon find out)!

Peter Denton

The game finished in a 2-2 draw with City’s goals coming from Peter Denton and new signing centre-forward Ray Pointer (both who were later to become CCFPA members prior to their passing). Peter scored after seventeen minutes and Ray made it 2-0 before half-time. The Cobblers scorers were Billy Best (from a rebound) and Jim Hall profiting from a mistake by Bill Glazier two minutes from the end.

Sky Blue Ray Pointer

Top referee Jim Finney officiated. An added interest in the game was the appearance in the Cobblers team of Sky Blue crowd favourite, former CCFC centre forward George Hudson (sadly fairly recently passed away and a long term CCFPA member) who JH had controversially transferred to them only in March 1966. Unusually, George was kept quiet by the Sky Blues defence this time but he was hampered by an earlier injury.

Mick Kearns leads out Brian Nicholas

One club man Mick Kearns went on to play 382 times for CCFC before retiring in after the end of the 1967-68 season and George Curtis played fifteen seasons from 1955 pulling on the first team shirt 538 times before moving to Aston Villa in December 1969. As all Sky Blues fans will know George later became CCFC’s managing director at the time of their 1987 F.A.Cup victory and later a Life President before his recent passing. Both men became CCFPA members and we were pleased to see Mick (along with other team members Dietmar, Ron and Bobby) at Legends Day 2019 in March just over four years ago prior to the COVID enforced hiatus. Mick, Dietmar and Bobby also pleasingly returned a few weeks ago for Legends Day 2023. Mick and Diet were back again a few days ago for LD24!

The two teams lined up as follows:-

Jimmy Hill

JH‘s Sky Blues:-

Bill Glazier, Mick Kearns, Dietmar Bruck, George Curtis*, Ron Farmer*, Peter Denton* (sub. Dudley Roberts -46), Ernie Machin*, Bobby Gould, Ray Pointer* and Dave Clements.

(*sadly since deceased). We are delighted to say that all the members of this team (as well as their late manager JH) later went on to join CCFPA (and Dietmar is a valued CCFPA committee member).

George Hudson in Sky Blue action

Northampton Town:-

Bryan Harvey, Mike Everitt, Vic Cockcroft, John Kurila, Terry Branston, Joe Kiernan, Billy Best, Don Martin, George Hudson*, Jim Hall and Harry Walden Referee: Jim Finney

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The ‘Winston Churchill Remembrance Trophy‘ was played for again at Highfield Road in March 1967 in a friendly against West Ham United (complete with England’s 1966 World Cup winners Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters). The Hammers took the trophy after winning an innovative penalty shoot out 9-7 after a 3-3 draw at half-time)!