Matchday Memories: On This Day 1929 – CCFC Share Six At ‘The Nest’ & Claim Cup Replay
The Nest: Norwich City’s ground 1908 to 1935
CCFC Manager- James McIntyre
On this day (30th November) way back in 1929, ninety five years ago, CCFC took a break from Division Three South matters to take on Norwich City away in the First Round of the F.A.Cup. There were 12,469 punters at ‘The Nest’ (receipts = £700) to see the contest and, in terms of goals at least, they were not to be disappointed as the exciting tie finished with the teams sharing six goals!
City were managed by former player James McIntyre and had a pretty good league season finishing sixth in D3S and eventually progressing in the Cup to meet the ‘big boys’ in Round Three. They had already beaten the Canaries by 3-1 earlier in the month at Highfield Road in the league, so were quietly confident. There was added piquancy to the tie given that the Norwich City team were managed by former CCFC gaffer James Kerr and the Canaries also had former CCFC defender Bill Brown at No.4.
Jimmy Loughlin
However, things did not initially go to plan as the Canaries swept into a 2-0 lead. First, Jackie Slicer netted after fourteen minutes and seven minutes later Percy Varco grabbed their second.
The CCFC fightback was led by centre forward Jimmy Loughlin who helped himself to a twelve minute brace (31 and 43 minutes). Norwich were not to be denied and Jack Greenwell sent the home team in 3-2 up at half-time by scoring a minute before the break.
Bill Richards
However hard they tried City could not make a breakthrough and things looked all over when in the 75th minute the Bantams’ Billy Bell conceded a penalty but, thankfully the Canaries’ Joe Richmond missed it!
It wasn’t until the final minute that CCFC finally got their just desserts with an equaliser from Bill Richards. The game finished all square with the replay set for the following Saturday at Highfield Road.
McIntyre’s men that day were:-
Tommy Allen, Laurie Crown, Teddy Watson, Alf Stokes, Norman Dinsdale (c), Billy Bell, Bill Richards, Alf Widdowson, Jimmy Loughlin, Billy Lake and Billy Pick. (Tommy Bowen was travelling reserve)
The Canaries’ lined up as follows:-
‘Joe’ Hannah, Joe Richmond, Bill Brown, Jack Greenwell, Joe Jobling, Ernie Porter, George Anderson, Percy Varco, James Thompson and Jackie Slicer Referee: A.Broomfield (Colchester)
CCFC’s Norman Dinsdale
The ‘Bantams’ duly beat the Canaries 2-0 (goals from Jimmy Loughlin and Norman Dinsdale) in the replay on 5th December earning another home tie later in the month against non-league Bath City who they swept aside 7-1.
The Bantams’ Cup run ended in early January when, again at home, they were beaten by the odd goal in three by Sunderland in front of 31,673 fans, a gate so big ‘crowd packers’ had to be used for the first time to get them all into Highfield Road!
As said earlier CCFC finished sixth in the league this season a full 21 points behind promoted Division Three South Champions Plymouth Argyle.
CCFC team 1929-30 (December)
As usual the bottom two clubs were required to seek re-election to the Football League. Gillingham in 21st place were successful but Welsh club Merthyr Town at the very bottom were not re-elected!
Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young for sourcing the images.
