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Swansea City v Lovells Athletic – 18th Nov 1944 |
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SWANS v PORTSMOUTH LEAGUE SOUTH 4th MAY 1946 At the end of the Second World War there was an agreement by the Football League clubs to delay the recommencement of competitive football for one season. This was to enable clubs to properly prepare their grounds for competitive matches, and to give players, who were stationed all over the world, a chance to rejoin their clubs now that hostilities had ended. The stop-gap measure agreed was to create two leagues from the clubs that made up divisions one and two prior to the outbreak of war – the result was a Northern division and a Southern/Midland division. This saw the Swans, for one season at least, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Arsenal, Tottenham, Derby and Aston Villa. The major impact of six long years without competitive football and the opportunity to see some of the biggest names in British football resulted in a packed out Vetch Field week after week. The football itself reflected the euphoric post war mood, producing free flowing and high scoring matches. This season saw one player stand out for the Swans, yet another local (Townhill) lad, who went on to score 40 goals in all competitions for the season. That man was Trevor Ford, who earned the nickname “Fearless” for the way he bravely, and often recklessly, charged at opposing goalkeepers of the day. Brave and reckless certainly, but always within the rules of the day, which allowed far greater licence in terms of physical contact than the non contact sport that football is inexorably becoming today. The main news story of local interest concerned the rebuilding of corporation houses in Mayhill which had been blitzed during the war – the development programme entailed the corporation taking on 48 apprentices between the ages of 15 ½ and 16 ½ as part of the major post war re-construction programme – this was viewed as a tremendous boost for the youngsters of the area. The featured programme from 1945-46 is for the final match of the season against Portsmouth. It measures 8.5 x 5.75 inches and is yellow in colour. The season’s programmes are notable for constant colour changes, varying from green to white to pink to yellow, all due to the paper rationing of the time. There are 8 pages, with the perennial Down & Sons advert taking a front cover placing. The centre pages have the team line-ups, surrounded by adverts, and these show how popular was the theatre and the cinema in the 1940’s. The Empire theatre featured “Britain’s Star Maker” Carroll Lewis and his BBC discoveries, whilst the Windsor cinema, Neath, was showing “They Died With Their Boots On”, starring Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland. The match finished in a 3-0 victory for the Swans, with the scorers being Comley (2) and Paul, before an attendance of 18000. The absence of Trevor Ford from the scorers was due to the fact that he was playing that same afternoon for Wales against Ireland at Ninian Park. It says something for the popularity of football in the immediate post war years that 18000 were attracted to the Vetch against the counter attraction of the international fixture at Ninian Park. Estimated value of a reasonable condition copy of this programme – £45 – 50 |
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Why not check out the latest Vetch Verdict on the BBC site? |
This article first appeared on JACKARMY.net.