Amateur Cup Wembley 1968

Celebrating Chesham United’s FA Amateur Cup run to Wembley in 1967/1968
Wembley 40 years on
A collection of articles originally written for the Chesham United matchday programme 2007/2008
Foreword by Tony White
On a murky November afternoon
in 1967 I heard a shout from the
newsroom: “Where the bloody
hell’s Soham?” A few moments
silence, then: “I’ve got it. It’s near
Peterborough, but it’s only a
village.” That village team, which
played in one of the
Peterborough
local
leagues, was the next
hurdle for Chesham
United in a football
story that will forever
live in the memories of
those involved, in however small a way, a run
in the FA Amateur Cup
that has been described
by a leading football
writer, Tony Williams,
as “one of the finest a
non-league
knockout
competition has seen”.
followed by replay victories at home
against some of the non-league giants
of the day – Dulwich Hamlet, Corinthian Casuals, and Oxford City. More
than 4,000 were at the Meadow for the
Oxford replay – and United were in
the Craven Cottage semi-final on
March 16th, against Wealdstone,
another of the non-league legends.
Held to a draw at Soham, Chesham
brought them back to the Meadow and
a Les Burgess goal secured victory.
Then came three games against Maidenhead before victory in a second
replay at Loakes Park, then away draws
Day by day in the town shop
after shop announced they
would be closed on Saturday
April 20th to allow staff to
attend the final. Well over
20,000 tickets were sold
through Chesham United, a
marathon effort for club secretary Sid MacDonnell. Practically
every coach in Buckinghamshire
was hired to take fans to Wembley, more than 60 in all, and
Underground trains leaving the
station were decorated in claret
and blue.
The game itself has been well
documented. Suffice to say that
the agony of seeing Kenny Kent
miss a penalty and for Chesham
to lose 1-0 could have destroyed the day. But it didn’t.
Chesham United, their fans, and
thousands who became fans for
the day, had experienced something special, something which
put them on a par with supporters of the Liverpools and Manchester Uniteds, Arsenals and
Tottenhams.
Chesham, then playing in
the Athenian League Division One, had entered the
competition in the preliminary round and, 16 matches
later, and against all the
odds, found themselves in a
Wembley final, the dream of
every footballer.
The significance of the
Soham game for me? I had
just joined the Bucks Examiner as editor, my only
encounter with Chesham
United coming when travelling to the Meadow several
years earlier to cover a
game for one of the Aylesbury newspapers. On the
way to the Soham encounter United had beaten
Hemel Hempstead, Didcot,
Hazells and Marlow in reaching the
fourth qualifying round. These had
been straight victories, the last until the
semi-final in March.
Leytonstone. A colour supplement was
planned and press credentials arranged
for our new young sports editor. We
engaged the services of two photographers for the day, one of them a young
lady with long blonde hair whose
appearance in the stadium caused quite
a stir among the press pack.
My wife and I spent the weekend at my
mother’s home in Hampshire. I remember falling asleep on the Saturday
afternoon with sport on television and
being woken by my wife: “Look.
Chesham have done it.” Through
bleary eyes I saw the score, Chesham
United 2 Wealdstone 0.
Preparations then had to be made at
the Examiner prior to the final against
Wembley 40 Years On
“This is the most worrying start
to a season we have had for many
years”. That was chairman Alan
Moore’s pre-season assessment in
August 1967 as Chesham United
prepared for the opening Athenian League fixtures.
The previous year a host of top players
had been attracted to play under high
profile manager Sid Prosser and, despite winning the Berks & Bucks Cup, a
disappointing league season saw
Chesham remaining in the 1st Division
of the Athenian League. A subsequent
exodus saw just three first team players remaining at The Meadow (keeper
Alan Binfield, full-back Mick McCaffrey
and midfielder Paul Savina) as new boss
John Reardon stepped up from reserve
manager to begin his re-building exercise. Reardon had been with United
since making his debut as a player in
1961.
As the season got under way Chesham
was, well, Chesham. Forty years ago
the fear was that the population of
19,000 was threatening to escalate
uncontrollably with new house-building
(we are currently around 23,000) and
Christopher Rowland Estate Agents
announced that a new development of
3-bedroom homes complete with
garages and gardens within a mile of
the station was on the market for a
princely £5,950 each.
The main arguments in the town were
about whether a new supermarket
should be built on the High Street and
what could be done to solve the traffic
problem. The supermarket eventually
opened as Waitrose in what is now the
M&Co / Track Records site and the
traffic argument finally led to pedestrianisation and the town centre bypass.
Today’s lawyers would have a field day
with the job advertising in the Examiner at the time. The Radiochemical
Centre (subsequently to become
Amersham International and GE
Healthcare, the area’s largest employer) was looking for Scientific Assistants and invited “Applications for
varied and interesting work on the
development and production of radioactive chemicals for use throughout the
world. The posts are open to married
and single women aged between 25 and
50. Adequate training will be given”.
Anyone else feel slightly disturbed by
seeing the phrases “radioactive chemicals” and “adequate training” in the
same job specification?
After 4 league games Chesham were
undefeated—opening draws against
Harlow (1-1) and Eastbourne United (2
-2) were followed by a 3-1 victory at
Ware and a1-0 home defeat of Wokingham. In the meantime new players
continued to arrive. Brian Caterer,
signed from Southall, was to form a
strong defensive partnership with club
captain Les Burgess, and new forwards
David Black and Ron Fruen came from
Wokingham and Walton & Hersham
respectively.
Before the Amateur Cup run even got
under way there was a glimpse of our
When the team returned to
town that evening, thousands
crammed The Broadway, which
earlier in the day had been
deserted, to give a huge welcome back to their heroes,
even though they had lost.
Captain Les Burgess said, to a
huge cheer: “We will be back next
season.”
But they were empty words. Many of
that team left for pastures new and, the
final act, manager John Reardon, who
had built a team of winners and taken
them to Wembley, left to join the staff
of Wycombe Wanderers, where he
remained for many years.
Ron Fruen, heading goalward at Hemel’s old Crabtree Lane ground,
joined Chesham for the ‘67-68 season
eventual final opponents as, on the
16th September, Leytonstone came to
The Meadow in the 1st Qualifying
Round of the FA Cup. There was little
sign then that the clubs would meet
again in a Wembley final as the visitors
ran out comfortable 3-0 winners.
The following week an estimated
crowd of 500 gathered at Crabtree
Lane, Hemel Hempstead for the Preliminary Round of the Amateur Cup.
At this stage Chesham were quoted as
1000-1 outsiders for the competition
but with Fruen scoring after just 7
minutes, and Black adding a second on
67 minutes, the new pairing led the
way as Chesham easily saw off their
local rivals. Even so, it would have
taken a brave pundit to predict that
this would be the first game of a 17
match cup run leading to a Wembley
appearance.
Elsewhere at the club the youngsters
were progressing in the FA Youth Cup
having beaten Carlton from St Albans
at St Albans City’s Clarence Park. In
those days Pioneer Scouts, who were
to become stalwarts of the Chesham
Sunday League, provided the Chesham
United Youth Team. The first team
were bolstered by the signing of Dave
Ellis from Ilford, having trained with
Chesham in pre-season then signing for
Southall but subsequently joining Ilford
without playing a game for the west
London team. It was a return home to
Chesham for the Kings Langley based
player who had left The Meadow a
couple of years previously after 18
months with United.
Next out of the hat in the Amateur
Cup was a home tie against Didcot
Town from the Hellenic League on
7th October in the 1st Qualifying
Round. After warming up with a 2-2
league draw against Grays, Chesham
ended up with a straightforward victory against the Oxfordshire club. Dave
Ellis went straight into the team and
celebrated his return with goals in the
76th and 84th minutes to wrap up
victory after Ron Fruen had given
Chesham a first half lead. The margin
could have been greater if it were not
for a fine performance by the Didcot
goalkeeper, including a heavily disputed
“save” where the camera caught the
ball on the line with many of the
Chesham fans in the 700 strong crowd
convinced it then went just over for a
4th goal.
Celebrating Chesham United’s FA Amateur Cup run to Wembley in 1967/1968
United.” Even the sports reporter from
the local Cambridge News admitted he
had never really known they existed:
“The only description I can give you is
that it’s miles from anywhere and you’ll
need a compass to find it” before going
on to describe their ground as “a field.”
Meanwhile, back in the world outside
football, those adequately trained
radioactive married and single women
between 25 and 50 must have been
doing something right as the Radiochemical Centre won a Queens Award
for Industry after reaching £2.5M
turnover.
Amersham joined the swinging sixties
as the Examiner reported , “The exit
sign was not the only thing that was
‘way out’ about Amersham’s first
discotheque, Twang, which opened this
week.” Chesham still had the marvelous Embassy cinema, if only it had
managed to survive a few more years it
would be a goldmine now, which was
playing host to films like Zulu and You
Only Live Twice.
If watching Chesham put three goals
past Didcot was not entertainment
enough, on the evening of the game the
Co-op Hall played host to a Hipsters &
Miniskirts Unite Two Band Special
featuring Ebony Keys supported by
“The recording group that’s mistaken
for The Beach Boys” Candy Bus.
Victory over Didcot was rewarded by a
visit to another Hellenic League side,
the Hazells factory-based club from
Aylesbury, in the 2nd Qualifying Round.
A trip to coast at Worthing to take
Wembley 40 Years On
Didcot’s keeper saves on the line but reports say the ball subsequently
crossed - 3-0 to Chesham anyway!
the points in a 3-0 league win was the
perfect preparation as they went to
Aylesbury on 21st October for what
was billed as an easy game for
Chesham. 500 fans saw that it proved
anything but easy as both teams resorted to a spoiling game with fouls
leaving the entertainment to a minimum.
Hazells frustrated the Chesham team in
the opening period and it was only
after half time that Fruen
blocked a failed clearance from
the home keeper allowing Dave
Ellis to give United the lead.
Despite this Hazells continued
to hold out and it was only in
the dying seconds that George
Goode added another goal to
make the result look easier than
it was.
In more local news, it was
announced in the week of the
Hazells game that a certain Mr
Anthony White was to take
over as editor of the Bucks
Examiner. Tony of course is still
to be seen supporting us every
week and has played crucial
roles in helping the club over
the years. Fascinating to read
that that he joined the Examiner shortly after covering the
Great Train Robbery story.
Chesham are kept out by Marlow but Ron
Fruen scored the 2nd moments later
So, onto our final round for this
episode of the cup run story.
Another local derby was set for
the 3rd Qualifying Round on
4th November as Marlow were drawn
to visit Chesham. In the intervening
week Hertford Town visited in the
league and, despite scoring their first
ever goal at The Meadow, left with no
points after a 2-1 defeat. That gave
Chesham a league position of 4th with
11 points from 8 games (only 2 points
for a win back then for any younger
readers). 750 fans saw Mick McCaffrey
put Chesham ahead after only 4 minutes and a Ron Fruen header doubled
the lead by half time. Ten minutes into
the second half Chesham’s defence lost
track of the Marlow attack to let them
back into the game. However, the
comeback lasted just 3 minutes as
McCaffrey stepped up from midfield to
add his 2nd and seal a 3-1 win.
So four rounds down, seven rounds
and thirteen matches (replays, replays,
replays!) still to go.
Rather hopefully the report finishes:
“Chesham may apply for the venue to
be switched.” That hope was to be
dashed a couple of weeks later—not
surprisingly Soham felt they would have
an advantage playing the game at home
despite the loss of income that would
most likely have been gained by playing
the tie at The Meadow—so the game
was all set for an early 2pm kick off on
9th December due to the lack of
floodlights at the Cambridgeshire
ground.
Floodlighting was to prove contentious
later on in this round and Chesham’s
own Boxing Day fixture at home to
Wembley had already been in doubt
for what seems now to be the rather
unusual reason that the club were not
sure they could guarantee an electricity
supply during the holiday period.
Thankfully they were able to announce
that all was well on that front by the
end of November.
It seems some things never change and
the lead story in the run up to this
game was the effect that Britain’s worst
ever outbreak of foot and mouth
disease was having on the farming
community in Bucks. Livestock markets
in Aylesbury, Tring and Thame all had
Chesham skipper Les Burgess (left) and his father (right) with match
referee Mr Squirrell at the postponed Soham game
to be closed leading up to Christmas.
Meanwhile Nashleigh Nurseries were
selling two feet tall Christmas Trees for
the princely sum of five shillings (25p)
or a more extravagant six feet tree for
20 shillings. Headlining the bill at The
Embassy cinema was Clint Eastwood in
For A Few Dollars More.
On the 9th December the Supporters’
Club had arranged coach travel to
Soham at a cost of 8 shillings per
person. The journey was to be in vain
as the Examiner reported “It was
Snowham not Soham” following a midmorning blizzard. The referee had no
choice but to call the game off, despite
apparent attempts at gentle
persuasion by Chesham
captain Les Burgess and his
father, and “Both teams had
to be content with throwing snowballs at each
other.”
Having already seen off Hemel in
the Preliminary round, then Didcot, Hazells of Aylesbury and
Marlow, hopes were high that
Chesham would pull an attractive
fixture out of the hat for the 4th
and final Qualifying round tie of
the FA Amateur Cup in December 1967.
They were to be disappointed. As the
Examiner reported, “Far from their
expectations they have been drawn
away to play a ‘village green’ team
somewhere in the wild fenlands between Newmarket and Ely - Soham
Dave Ellis fires in a cross at Soham as
Chesham force an equaliser
The game finally got under
way the following Saturday
in front of 234 spectators
and it took a Ron Fruen
header just five minutes
from time to secure a 1-1
draw and avoid a humiliating defeat. Maybe Chesham
had taken them too
lightly—certainly there is
something rather patronising in the contemporary
descriptions of Soham
being only the second best
side in a village of 5,000
people and, having conceded 21 goals
in their previous 4 matches, Chesham
would certainly have expected to make
easier work of the task. The locals
seemed to have enjoyed their day
though, jeering the Chesham team as
“rubbish” at the final whistle. Apparently Mick McCaffrey didn’t find any
takers though when he offered “£5 to
say you’ll be rubbish next week” as he
left the field.
With a replay now due Soham refused
to play the game under floodlights at
The Meadow as their players had never
competed in night games. This enraged
the Chesham committee who had
already had an abortive trip and felt
their crowd was likely to reduced with
an earlier kick off to see the match
completed in daylight. But Soham
would not move and the game was
scheduled for 2pm the following Saturday 16th December. It was an explosive affair, even if not necessarily a
wonderful advert for the beautiful
game.
Once again Chesham failed to make
their seniority in League positions
count and only a solitary goal from
centre half Les Burgess after 75 minutes enabled the home side to finally
progress. Whether there was any bad
feeling remaining from the first encounter or the disagreement over the
staging of the match is not clear but the
game was reported as being, “littered
with fouls, arguments and blundering
tackles.” Finally everything boiled over
Celebrating Chesham United’s FA Amateur Cup run to Wembley in 1967/1968
Wembley 40 Years On
Scenes at The Meadow as a foot deep snow drift covers the pitch and old wooden stand before the thaw
completely as in the aftermath of the
goal the visiting keeper was felt to have
kicked out. Ron Fruen ended up bundled into the back of the net and with a
both teams squaring one of the 786
fans present rushed onto the pitch to
berate the keeper. Thankfully he found
himself forced aside by the players but
the ill feeling continued at the end of
the game with the Examiner reporting
fighting among fans and the police sadly
being called to the ground.
Chesham fans were no doubt interested to hear at this time that former
Meadow favourite Stewart Scullion was
being placed on the transfer market by
Watford for £30,000 having joined via
Charlton. As the year came to an end
the crowds were flocking to Chesham
in response to their cup run and excellent league form. By the turn of the
year the generals had lost just 4 of the
25 matches played and the Boxing Day
fixture with Wembley, complete with
successfully powered floodlights, attracted over 1,100 to The Meadow.
Meanwhile the draw for the First
Round Proper had paired Chesham
with local rivals Maidenhead United,
then playing a division above us in the
Athenian League.
to be lost to the weather Chesham
were thankful for the new drainage
system installed at the ground the
previous summer, at a cost of some
£300. This was tested to the full when
a full foot of snow cover the pitch only
to thaw and be followed by 48 hours of
rain immediately before a match which
was successfully staged.
Around Chesham the January sales
were in full swing with Brandons in the
Broadway offering a three piece lounge
suite (attractively in green moquette
whatever that may be) reduced from
£66 and 18 shillings to £39 and 19
shillings. Number One in the charts
were The Beatles with Hello Goodbye
and cinema-goers were being treated
to Those Magnificent Men In Their
Flying Machines at the Embassy.
Early in January 1968 Chesham signed
winger Kenny Kent from Slough Town.
A former Maidenhead player, Kent had
been left on the sidelines so far this
season as an FA enquiry found Slough
had made an illegal approach and
banned him from turning out for the
Rebels in addition to fining them five
guineas. He was to play a crucial role in
later stages of the competition but his
signing was too late to make him
eligible for the forthcoming match with
his old club.
The Maidenhead tie commenced at The
Meadow on 20th January, and it was to
be the first of three matches needed to
find a winner. After 20 minutes
Chesham went ahead as Mick
McCaffrey fought off two challenges to
pick out Harper for the first. On 43
minutes Maidenhead were level with a
header from a free kick near the
Chesham box. Ten minutes into the
second half Fruen made it 2-1 to the
home side after Thackrayy had broken
down the right flank before crossing
for the striker to head home. However, almost immediately another
Maidenhead free kick around the
penalty area was finished off at close
range to bring the game level. Chesham
still almost sneaked the win as substitute Frost came on to see his shot
come cross bounce off the bar with ten
minutes left, much to the disappointment of the bulk of the 820 strong
crowd.
With a harsh winter still causing games
A week later the sides met again at
Maidenhead’s ground. That week it was
also announced that Chesham’s Kent,
Ellis and Thackray had been selected
for the Bucks FA representative side to
face Surrey. In the charts The Beatles
had been replaced by Love Affair with
Everlasting Love—incidentally for
anyone who doesn’t know the band
responsible for the Bringing on Back
the Good Times song frequently heard
at The Meadow (that got to Number
10 in July 1969 for the anoraks
amongst you).
In the replay the first advantage went
to Maidenhead who went a goal up
after 27 minutes. On the stroke of half
time Fruen bundled home a Thackray
cross and with the home players appealing vigorously for a foul on the
keeper the referee awarded Chesham’s
equaliser. Just three into the second
half Chesham went ahead as Dave Ellis
set up Harper. Just as it looked like
they would hold out for victory a
Casuals’ keeper beats Ron Fruen to the ball in the 3rd round draw
at Champion Hill
dramatic late penalty on 87 minutes
dashed their hopes. With no further
goals in extra time a second replay was
required, don’t you miss the delights of
extra replays instead of the penalty
shoot out?
So, the following Wednesday 31st
January fans from Chesham and Maidenhead descended on the neutral
venue of Wycombe Wanderers’
Loakes Park for what proved to be the
deciding match. A bumper crowd of
1,624 made the trip for what proved a
tense and close fought battle once
more.
David Black goal at Wycombe’s
Loakes Park to set up a visit to
Dulwich Hamlet. In theory that
left four games until any possible
Wembley trip - but Chesham
were not ready to make things
that easy for themselves.
Dulwich Hamlet were one of the big
names in non-league football. Four time
winners of the Amateur Cup and with
frequent Isthmian League championships from the 1920s to 1960s (when
this represented the top flight of the
non-professional game), they had even
provided two full England internationals
during the inter-war years. As
Chesham prepared to visit Champion
Hill on 3rd February the local area was
its usual hive of activity. Councillor
Woodstock made it onto the front
page of the Examiner by giving his 50th
pint of blood in a donor session at the
Co-Op Hall, which must have horrified
Tony Hancock (sorry kids, it’s an old
TV reference). The newly appointed
district scout commissioner was claiming that if you weren’t a boy scout then
you had may as well give up all hope of
a meaningful life as, “The IQ of local
scouts was higher than most” resulting
in most proceeding to executive positions in industry due to their superior
leadership skills. Clearly, these superhero tendencies didn’t extend to the
footballing talents of Pioneer Scouts as
they went down 2-3 to Chesham
North End and lost 3-0 to Chalfont
Wasps in the Wycombe Combination
Premier Division.
Over in Dulwich it was the 4th Amateur
Cup game in a fortnight for Chesham
and, maybe to no-one’s surprise, it
ended in another away draw, in front
of 1,100 spectators. Ron Fruen had
given United a first half lead before the
Harper was to open the scoring for
Chesham in only the 8th minute but an
equaliser after 30 minutes brought
Maidenhead back into the game. It
looked like another half hour of extra
time and potentially yet another replay
was certain as the game went into its
final seconds. Then, just as the referee
appeared preparing to
Blow the final whistle David Black
smashed a rare opportunity past
keeper Ray Smith to send Chesham
through to a Second Round tie away at
Dulwich Hamlet.
By the end of January 1968
Chesham United had already
played nine FA Amateur Cup
matches just to get to the second
round. The three match marathon with Maidenhead United had
finally been won with a last gasp
Ron Fruen heading home a Dave Ellis cross for the 15th minute 3rd
round replay winner against Corinthian Casuals
Celebrating Chesham United’s FA Amateur Cup run to Wembley in 1967/1968
Hamlet captain, Ted Shepherd, forced a
replay with a penalty just three minutes
before the end. Final score 1-1 and the
replay was set for the following Saturday back at The Meadow.
Supporters returning to Buckinghamshire could have made a trip over to
Wycombe Town Hall to celebrate as a
pre-Tiger Feet band made an appearance with the marvellous advertising
strapline, “Their name is MUD but
their sound is sensational!” Or you
could have turned up the record player
with your new purchase from Chesham
record shop and decide if you agreed
that “some of the most avant garde
pop entertainment today undoubtedly
comes from The Who”.
The 2nd round replay was set for The
Meadow on the following Saturday,
10th February. With interest growing
in the town the game brought a crowd
of 1,200 for what was seen as one of
the best Chesham performances for
many years. Frost opened the scoring
for the home side as “the Hamlet
keeper grabbed like a drowning man
for the ball but missed the straw”
according to one contemporary match
report! After half an hour it was 2-0 as
Harper lashed home from near the
penalty spot before Dulwich got a goal
back three minutes before half time.
After 52 minutes Kenny Kent set up
Joe Harper who scored his second
from the edge of the area. A few
minutes later, with Chesham now
completely on top against their higher
division visitors, Harper turned provider for Fruen who “pounded it for
the top left of the goal. The Chesham
terraces erupted.” Despite pulling a
goal back from a 70th minute penalty
Hamlet never looked like getting back
into the game and it finished as a comprehensive 4-2 win for United.
The Amateur Cup was now completely
dominating the fixture list and the third
round tie was already scheduled for the
following week against another then
well known side - Corinthian Casuals
- again away from home. (As an aside,
the stature of Corinthian Casuals is
being celebrated on Sunday 13th April
this year with a match commemorating
the 125th anniversary of their two
founding clubs, the Corinthians and the
Casuals, with a game at the new Wembley Stadium against AFC Wimbledon).
Corinthian Casuals coincidentally also
played their games at Dulwich’s Champion Hill ground and six coaches were
booked for the journey on 17th February. Things did not look too promising
when Wimbledon came to Chesham a
few days before the match and left with
a 1-0 victory against a full strength
United in the Premier Floodlit League.
However, the Chesham management
claimed they were using the game as a
warm up and that they were confident
going into the Amateur Cup game.
The game turned out to be a disappointment for the 1,250 strong crowd,
turning out into a goal-less draw. So, it
was time for what by now was becoming the regular prospect of another
replay at The Meadow and this was
duly set up for the following Saturday.
With Chesham expecting a crowd of
up to 2,000 for the game it was announced that prices were to be 2
shillings 6 pence or 3 and 6 for the
stand, an increase on usual prices to
bring them in line with what Corinthians charged. In the intervening week
another Premier Floodlit game was lost
to St Albans City and one local taxi
firm was getting quite irate as the
Wembley 40 Years On
interest in the game led to a huge
increase in phone calls as the Club
telephone number had been printed
incorrectly in their entry in the local
phone directory.
It was already known that the winners
of this tie would face another huge task
with a visit to Oxford City in the
Quarter Final but this seemed to act as
an incentive for the Chesham team. By
now The Meadow had become a
fortress for teams being forced back
here for replays and the return match
with Casuals was no exception.
An excellent crowd of 1,400 was a
little below the ambitious expectations
of officials and they were rewarded as
early as the 15th minute as Dave Ellis
went down the right wing before
sending over a perfect cross for Ron
Fruen to head home. Hundreds of
young fans invaded the pitch to congratulate the scorer and, once order
was restored, that proved to be the
only goal of the game so it was all set
up for the big trip to Oxford.
As we’re celebrating a 40th anniversary
I’m sure that somewhere a certain
Oxford’s keeper Shippey can do nothing to stop Dave Ellis’ opening goal as a packed Popular Stand
enjoys the 2-0 replay victory over Oxford City
Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt have
recently been remembering that on the
19th February 1968 Status Quo played
Chesham Co-Op Hall, no doubt getting
a rapturous response to “their current
top 20 single Pictures of Matchstick
Men”. Further up the chart Manfred
Mann’s Mighty Quinn was number one
in Chesham thus providing a fan’s
soundtrack to serenade Jimmy, Mickey,
Niall or any other player called Quinn
for the next four decades and beyond.
Oxford had beaten St Albans City,
Tow Law Town and Prestwich in
straight wins to reach this stage so had
played just three games to get to the
Quarter Final compared to Chesham’s
twelve. As another big side they were
able to say that were not expecting a
large crowd for the visit of Chesham maybe as little as 3,000! - because
Oxford United were also at home that
day. Meanwhile United’s Joe Harper
was the subject of transfer speculation
as it was known that Brighton had been
regular visitors to watch him in recent
weeks.
Chesham’s Fruen and Harper challenge the Oxford goal during the
4th round replay victory at The Meadow
The actual attendance at Oxford on
2nd March was 3,482, boosted by a
huge Chesham travelling support, with
the Isthmian League hosts expected to
see off their Athenian visitors. However, in a tense cup tie Chesham created just as many scoring chances
before the game finished 0-0. City had
the best opportunity to reach the semi
final after half an hour when Kenny
Kent punched the ball out of his own
penalty area only for Oxford captain,
Bob Jackson, to blast the resulting
penalty well wide of Dennis Wells’
goal.
The return at The Meadow was set for
the following Saturday with Chesham
optimistic once more of a decent
crowd - again some 2,000 fans were
expected. The reward was to be a visit
to Fulham’s Craven Cottage for a tie
with non-league giants Wealdstone and
just a possible 90 minutes away from a
visit to Wembley. For Chesham this
was almost unimaginable. 1000-1 outsiders at the start of the competition
they were about to embark on their
15th game in the cup run. Prices were
again raised, this time to 3 shillings, to
match those charged by City, but this
had no effect on the crowd as prematch estimates proved wildly cautious. On the day a 4,150 crowd gathered at The Meadow - the biggest
seen at the ground since 1936 for the
visit of defunct Tunbridge Wells Rangers.
City made the crucial mistake of underestimating Chesham. The previous
week United played a containing game
but on their own pitch forced more
men forward and were rewarded in the
9th minute when Fruen crossed from
the left and, with keeper Shippey
stranded on his six yard line, Dave Ellis
drove home from the edge of the box.
With Mick McCaffrey and Joe Harper
putting in blistering tackles in midfield,
whilst Les Burgess and Brian Caterer
held the defence firm, Chesham prevented Oxford producing threats on
goal. In the 80th minute a memorable
win was confirmed. Peter Frost had
replaced Harper just 5 minutes earlier
and when Shippey failed to hold a
Some of the 4,150 who crowded into The Meadow to cheer Chesham
onto a famous 2-0 Quarter Final replay win over Oxford City
Celebrating Chesham United’s FA Amateur Cup run to Wembley in 1967/1968
Football special trains ran from Chesham to London to get fans to
Craven Cottage whilst at The Meadow 23 coaches prepared to carry
1,000 of the 3,000 plus United fans at the game
Fruen volley he hooked the ball high
into the net.
Cue scenes of delirium according to
press reports. Dozens of toilet rolls
thrown on to the pitch produced a
stern warning from the club’s loudspeaker system and the pitch was
swamped with supporters running on
to congratulate the men in claret in
blue The team had to run a gauntlet of
backslapping fans as they made their
way to the waiting champagne in the
changing room. Now Wealdstone were
all that stood between Chesham
United and a unique visit to Wembley
Stadium.
With the Quarter Final tie against
Oxford City having gone to a
replay before Chesham went
through, there was only one week
to prepare for the next FA Amateur Cup game and a visit to First
Division Fulham’s Craven Cottage
ground on the banks of the
Thames in West London.
and Wealdstone and the supporters’
committee wasted no time in distributing them to the eager hoards expected
to travel on Saturday 16th March 1968.
Special offers were announced for train
travel into London on the day with
tickets for departures between
11.33am and 1.29pm priced at nine
shillings and sixpence. A dedicated
Football Special was laid on for fans
leaving at 12.40pm and a fleet of 23
coaches was organised to pick up a
further thousand supporters at The
Meadow for the road journey.
In the days leading up to the tie
Chesham were hit with injury and
illness worries. Surely this would be
the last time when the front page main
headline of the paper was “Chesham
Skipper down with flu” but although
missing training Les Burgess was expected to recover for the big game.
Meanwhile, goalkeeper Dennis Wells
was hospitalised after “studding” himself in the foot during the win over
Oxford but was also expected to make
the trip to Fulham. By contrast Wealdstone had no fitness problems and
were fully expected to field their
strongest line up for what was the
club’s second Amateur Cup semi-final
appearance in three years. The trio of
Charlie Townsend, Hugh Lindsay and
Bernie Bremer had all played in their
1966 Cup winning side whilst a fourth
player, David Swain, had joined them
from the Hendon side beaten in that
game. Chesham boss John Reardon was
upbeat though, “This is the hardest
game we will have played - but I think
we can do it”.
Wembley 40 Years On
Whereas Chesham had played a record
-breaking fifteen matches in their run
to this stage, involving twenty three
hours of football, Wealdstone’s progress had been comparatively straightforward. Chesham, as an Athenian
League side had entered the competition at the Preliminary round stage and
then gone through four additional
Qualifying rounds to reach the First
Round Proper. The Isthmian Leaguers,
by contrast, only entered the Cup at
this stage and had come through just
four ties to reach the Semi-Final. In
round one Torpoint were beaten 4-2
and Eastwood also went out 4-2 in a
second replay after the first game had
been drawn 1-1. The third round saw
Kingstonian beaten 2-0 whilst in the
Quarter Final Wealdstone saw off
Barking 3-1. All told then just seven
and a half hours of football - around a
third of the time it had taken Chesham.
In the event of a draw in the Semi-Final
the replay was set up for Luton Town’s
Kenilworth Road ground the following
week and, with Chesham already
having fought their way through six
replays, the likelihood seemed quite
high.
As the Bucks Examiner said in their
front page editorial, “The eyes of the
soccer world will be on them”, and
with ITV’s World of Sport and the BBC
covering the pre-match preparation
and planning to have cameras at Fulham
that was certainly true. The national
press had also started to take an interest in “little Chesham” though none
honestly seemed to expect their journey to last any further than a noble
defeat on their big day out. The London Evening Standard produced a
double page spread Semi-Final preview.
Unfortunately, having tried to track
down the TV footage from the broadcasters’ archives, it appears that it no
longer exists - if anyone reading this
knows differently please let me know.
Whilst many were understandably
obsessed with the football, life did go
on. Chesham and Amersham were to
get a dozen more primary schools and
it was announced that the Queen
would be visiting the Joint Services Staff
College at Latimer. Kenton’s record
shop was just receiving new releases
from The Beatles (Lady Madonna local
paper review: “It’s Paul McCartney
singing and sounding like Ringo” which
must have cheered young Paul up),
Cilla Black with Step Inside Love and
Simon & Garfunkle’s Scarborough Fair.
But at number one was Cinderella
Rockefella, and so the tradition of
dodgy night club names was born.
On the social side the mighty Chesham
Co-Op Hall had come up trumps again.
Starting at 8pm on the night of the
game was a certain “Jeff Beck and his
group with Rod Stewart”, admission
ten shillings. So, just enough time to get
to the game and back to Chesham in
time to join in with the chart-topping
Hi Ho Silver Lining before it became
the backing track for a million embarrassing Dad wedding performances
over the next four decades.
On the day of the game the exodus
from Chesham began as fans made
their way to Fulham by train, coach and
car. The crowd at Craven Cottage was
a slightly disappointing 8,500 but the
Chesham support was impressive.
Initial estimates had suggested that
around 2,000 would make the trip
from Bucks but in the end it is thought
there were nearer 3,500 - not bad
from a town with only 19,000 residents
back in 1968. As the game kicked off
some were still struggling to get there
- several of the 23 coaches were held
Such was the rush that tickets had
already been printed indicating a tie
between either Oxford or Chesham
Dave Ellis wheels triumphantly away after making it 2-0 at Craven Cottage
Back: Brian Caterer, Brian Thackeray, Ron Fruen, Dennis Wells, Les Burgess, Kenny Kent, Peter Frost
Front: Derek Smith, Joe Harper, David Black, Mick McCaffrey, Dave Ellis
Celebrating Chesham United’s FA Amateur Cup run to Wembley in 1967/1968
up by traffic problems in Hammersmith
and some fans did not get there until
half time. Chesham were in good
company visiting Craven Cottage at
that time. Visiting the following week
to play Fulham in the First Division
were Arsenal with Manchester United
due to play on the same stage as the
Generals on April 12th.
Losing the toss, Chesham kicked off
into a fierce wind and Wealdstone
dominated the early exchanges but
failed to create a serious threat on
goal. Weathering the storm in every
sense United’s defence held firm with
the favourite’s only real chance in the
whole game coming when Dennis
Wells in the Chesham goal had to
scramble backwards to clear a dropped
cross a few inches from his line. Wells
had performed heroically during the
cup run and he was to keep another
clean-sheet in this most important
game. Coincidentally, both Wells and
Wealdstone’s Charlie Townsend were
both working together on the same
Finchley building site at the time of the
fixture.
Having contained the Stones for half an
hour, Chesham then proceeded to rip
out of defence and, much against the
expectation of the football pundits,
started to dominate play. Before the
match, in addition to the ‘little
Chesham’ goodwill there had been
some rather more barbed comments
about the team of ‘rejects’ from Buckinghamshire would be humbled by their
far-superior opponents.
It is to be hoped that most of the late
arrivals had managed to get through
Wembley 40 Years On
the Hammersmith traffic chaos
by the 41st minute. Dave Ellis
swung over a corner that was
punched clear by Andy Williams
in the Wealdstone goal only for
Ellis to immediately regain
possession. His chip to the far
post was perfect for Ron Fruen
who headed home off the post.
Against the odds (and those
odds had been a staggeringly
1000 to 1 at the start of the
Cup run) Chesham were ahead.
Only 45 minutes to hold out
but they were expecting a
fightback and needed the support of all those 3,000 travelling
fans.
Good luck messages flooded
in from exiled Chesham
people and football fans from
around the country. The
following came into the Bucks
Examiner from England and
Spurs star Jimmy Greaves
who was also a Vice President
of Chesham United:
“Well done Chesham United!
And good luck tomorrow. I have
long been a fan of Chesham’s
football club and as a vice –
president of the club I would
like to join in with everyone else
in the congratulations to them
for their cup run this year.
As one contemporary report
says, “A stranger to Fulham
might be excused for thinking
Craven Cottage was Chesham’s
home ground. The almost nonRon Fruen in white makes his presence felt
stop roar of ‘Chesham’ from
at Craven Cottage
the terraces spurred them on”.
The fightback never happened because
Chesham did not allow it happen. Hugh
Lindsay, thought to be Wealdstone’s
most threatening player, was marked
out of the game by Brian Thackeray in
the second half. On 65 minutes the
game was sewn up. A long Wealdstone
back pass to Williams was chased
down by Dave Ellis. He took control of
the ball and was able to slot it home
into an empty net for United’s second
goal to seal a shock victory. As had
become usual, Peter Frost came on as
substitute after 75 minutes to help
Chesham see out time with Joe Harper
leaving the field to a standing ovation.
Frost still had time to skim the opposition bar in the final minutes but as the
whistle blew the travelling claret and
blue draped fans rushed onto the pitch
in their hundreds to mob the team on
their way back to the changing rooms
where captain Les Burgess received a
rousing rendition of “For He’s A Jolly
Good Fellow” from his team.
It was cups of tea rather than champagne in the Chesham changing room
but that did nothing to lessen the
satisfaction. The players left Fulham to
start the celebrations proper with a
meal at Hampton Court before going
3,000 Chesham fans celebrate Fruen’s first goal against Wealdstone
on to a party in Ron Fruen’s home
village of Englefield Green, but without
manager John Reardon who went to be
with his wife who was expecting a
baby.
Man of the match, Dave Ellis, explained
his winning goal, “I followed up the
back pass as part of the procedure and
when I saw the keeper muff the pass I
nipped in and scored. It was a wonderful feeling scoring and I am looking
forward to Wembley”. Captain Les
Burgess summed up the feelings of the
whole team, “It’s hard to believe we
are going to Wembley. Wembley! It
sounds marvellous”.
Club officials were equally satisfied.
Secretary Sid McDonnell said, “It’s
marvellous, just to think we have won
our way to Wembley” whilst Club
Chairman, Alan Moore, commented,
“Our performance was fantastic. But I
still can’t believe it, I’m overwhelmed”.
Two angles on the opening goal at Craven Cottage - on the right, Ron Fruen in white raises his arm to
celebrate as his header loops past the helpless Wealdstone keeper
When the players had left the field at
Craven Cottage their first question
was, “Who have we got in the Final?”.
The answer to that one would have to
wait for a while as the other Semi-Final
between Sutton United and Leytonstone had ended in a draw with a
replay scheduled for Brentford’s Griffin
Park.
The following week the tributes for
Chesham’s achievement started to
pour in. A writer from Dewsbury in
Yorkshire congratulated the team on,
“...a marvelous achievement. Cheers
and congratulations to all down in the
south from one up here isolated in the
middle of lots of Rugby League enthusiasts”.
A local, un-named, woman was reported as making a £100 donation to
the team with a request that they visit
her home “for sherry”. More innocent
times perhaps but I do hope that’s not
a euphemism.
Somehow the Queen’s visit to Latimer
managed to get on the front page but
the Fulham win got equal billing with
the news that the Chesham team were
to be honoured with a civic reception
whatever the outcome of their day out
at Wembley though there was disappointment that the game itself was not
going to be televised. Local businesses
were quick off the mark with Brandons
department store straight in with the
rather tortuous, “Good Luck Chesham
for the Amateur Cup. But it doesn’t
need luck to find the Bargains in Uphol-
I can’t help feeling that United
have a tremendous chance of
winning tomorrow and I will be
as happy as anyone else in the
town if they do.
Unfortunately, although I
planned to be at Wembley Stadium to cheer them on, I must
play for the Spurs tomorrow
against Coventry City. You can
all be sure I will be thinking of
them when the time comes for
the team to run out on to the
pitch.
It’s a ground I know very well
and despite the number of times
I have played there I still feel
nervous while waiting with the
rest of the boys in the dressing
room. Heaven only knows what
it will be like for the Chesham
team who haven’t played there
before!
I know Chesham United will put
up a good performance against
Leytonstone and let’s hope they
come away with that fabulous
Amateur Cup.
All the best,
Jimmy Greaves”
Celebrating Chesham United’s FA Amateur Cup run to Wembley in 1967/1968
stery”! Much more to the point was
Chittendens. “Congratulations to
Chesham United FC. We shall close at
noon on April 20th to support you at
Wembley”.
As Sid McDonnell set about distributing
the first batch of 6,000 Final tickets
rather aptly “Congratulations” by Cliff
Richard entered the chart in the same
week. By the time April 20th came
along that 6,000 would have grown to
over 20,000 tickets sold to support
United at Wembley, more than the
town itself. And whilst Cliff would only
reach number 2 in time for Wembley
the song that kept him off the top spot
was just as appropriate. Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”.
If the interest in Chesham
United’s run in the 1967/68 Amateur Cup had seemed high before
the semi-final with Wealdstone,
the victory at Craven Cottage
took it to another level entirely.
The club who the national media
Chesham manager, John Reardon (left) leads his team out
now dubbed ‘Little Chesham’
prepared to deal with an unprecedented demand for tickets for a
town of just 18,000 people.
Work started straight after the game
on the 16th March and,
by the time the Final
took place at Wembley
on 20th April 1968,
over 20,000 tickets had
been distributed from
the club and a network
of Chesham United
agents throughout the
town and across the
Chilterns. An estimated 14,000 were
sold in Chesham itself.
Chesham’s opponents
were Isthmian League
high-flyers Leytonstone, another much
higher ranked club than
United. They had
already won the Amateur Cup twice, in
1947 at Arsenal’s
Highbury and the
following year at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge
stadium. But they were
determined to win the
trophy for the first
time at Wembley itself.
Entering the competition in the First Round
Proper (five rounds
later than Chesham)
their progress to the
Go on, we’d all do it given the chance! Striker
fourth round Quarter
Ron Fruen poses with ‘The Cup’ at the top of the Final stage was quite
straightforward. Sucold Wembley’s famous steps.
cessive victories away to Clapton (2-0),
then home to Southall (1-0) and Bishops Stortford (7-2) gave them a tough
away fixture against Enfield. Following
two goal-less draws they finally won
the second replay 1-0 at Orient’s
Brisbane Road to set up another clash
of non-league giants against Sutton
United at Crystal Palace. Once more
the first meeting ended in a no score
stalemate but Leytonstone went on to
win the replay held at Griffin Park
Brentford 3-1 to confirm their place at
Wembley.
Whereas Chesham had played sixteen
matches involving over 24 hours of
football to get there, despite their
replays late in the competition it had
taken Leytonstone just eight games to
reach the Final.
Wembley 40 Years On
In the weeks leading up the Wembley
game player after player from the
Chesham team picked up injuries as the
backlog of League and County Cup
matches started to take its toll. Playing
at least two games a week. At the end
of March both Dave Ellis and Joe
Harper were put out for at least two
weeks with leg damage and the local
press started featuring regular league
match reports as front page news
stories when the local heroes were in
danger of missing the big game. One of
the main news stories a fortnight
before the big match was a report of
the game with Tilbury: “Chesham
United were very lucky not to receive
any serious injuries in their league clash
with Tilbury for nearly every player
received treatment at some stage.”
Like most other games at this stage the
result went against Chesham (a 3-0
loss). In the meantime Chesham had
finally got around to playing their much
delayed Berks & Bucks Cup 3rd round
tie with Slough. Yet another drawn
game (0-0) didn’t help the fixture chaos
in the least though the sporting nature
of the game at this level was exemplified as Slough’s team formed a guard of
honour to welcome their visitors in
recognition of the remarkable Amateur
Cup run. Slough’s 2-0 replay win at
The Meadow gave them a semi-final
against Aylesbury with the prospect of
the winners facing Wycombe Wanderers in the final.
Off the field, preparations were in full
flow. The town had already decided
that a civic reception would be held for
the team on the Monday after the big
match. The Chiltern Co-Operative
Society donated use of the town’s main
venue, the Co-Op Hall, to stage the
event, Darvells Bakers agreed to provide all the catering free of charge,
Climpsons Wine Merchants provided
all drink at cost and Chesham Press did
all the invitations for nothing. Local
members of the National
Farmers Union pitched in
and announced that they
would provide enough
turkeys to feed all the
guests. In amongst all this
both the BBC and ITV
sent camera crews to The
Meadow in the run up to
the Final and Kenny Kent
joined the ranks of the
walking wounded ahead
of the game.
An employee of George
Tutill flag makers in the
town found himself surprisingly having to pay up
on a bet placed the year
before. With Chesham at
1000 to 1 to win the Cup
he had promised to make
a flag for the Club if they
got to Wembley. They
had and he duly repaid his
bet, presenting a new flag
for the occasion to the
supporters’ club before
the game. By now those
odds had tumbled. W.
Reading Turf Accountants
was advertising the match
Chesham skipper Les Burgess in white
odds as Chesham 6-4,
Leytonstone 5-6. The exchanges pennants before kick off at Wembley
minimum stake they
would accept was 6d with a £2 maxithe driver and conductress thought
mum bet.
proper at 11.30pm and when the song
deteriorated into something more
Amateur Cup fever did have it’s drawbawdy (yep, think we know that verbacks and there were reports of
sion too) they acted”. Cue the police
“enthusiastic Chesham youths” spendcar, three warnings to stop resulting in,
ing their time waiting for the last bus
according to the report, the classic
home from Amersham by breaking into
“You and ’ose mates?” response and it
“a spot of community singing” at the
was the long walk home.
London Transport Garage. This took
the form of “We’ll be running round
They really should have stayed in
Wembley with the Cup” to the tune of
Chesham and gone to the Embassy
“She’ll be coming round the moundouble header - The Pure Hell of St
tains” (yep, think we know that one).
Trinians and Blue Murder at St TriniHowever, when they stepped on the
ans. Or saved their pennies for the
bus, “it was a few decibels more than
“Cup Final Special, 2 Group, 4 Hour
non-stop Rock ’n’ Roll Show”
being put at the mighty Co-Op
Hall.
Chesham’s defence is stranded as Ken Gray’s crucial 69th minute goal goes in
By the day of the game Chesham
United had commandeered practically ever available coach in the
county - some 68 of them made
up the official travelling fan contingent by road - and London Underground laid on football special
trains from Chesham direct to
Wembley. The day before the
Celebrating Chesham United’s FA Amateur Cup run to Wembley in 1967/1968
game they were clearly a little apprehensive as an appeal went out for fans
to make sure they had advance tickets
as only 300 had so far been sold and
chaos was anticipated in the booking
hall. Final training for the United players took place at Ley Hill Golf Club as,
apparently, the turf there was remarkably similar to that at Wembley Stadium!
By the 20th April all Chesham’s injury
doubts had been resolved but in the
meantime the cup exploits had taken
their toll as they went into the Final
without a win in 13 games that had to
be squeezed in to the schedule. The
team at Wembley was that which had
seen United through the later rounds
of the competition: Dennis Wells, Brian
Thackray, Dereck Smith, Brian Caterer,
Les Burgess (captain), Mick McCaffrey,
Dave Ellis, Dave Black, Ron Fruen, Joe
Harper, Kenny Kent and substitute
Peter Frost.
The pre-match formalities saw them
introduced, in their change strip of all
white, to the guest of honour, Viscount
Montgomerey, and as the game kicked
off Chesham followers made up around
half the 54,000 crowd inside Wembley,
desperately hoping that the expert
predictions of a rout by Leytonstone
could be overturned. For the favourites’ 19 year old left back, Bobby
Hames, the game last just 3 minutes as
he was injured in the opening exchanges to be replaced by the even
more unfortunate John Albon. Leytonstone found themselves reduced to 10
men in these days before multiple
substitutes as Albon brought a hush
over Wembley as he broke his leg
shortly after coming on. Although
United enjoyed a territorial advantage
Wembley 40 Years On
for a defeated team to undertake in
those days.
Whilst the players recovered from the
game the exodus from Wembley back
to Chesham got underway. From
5.30pm the crowds started to gather in
Chesham Broadway, boosted as each
returning train emptied its passengers
just a few yards away. By the time the
team got back to the town some 5,000
had gathered in front of what was then
the Brandon’s store where a ‘Welcome
Home’ platform had been set up on the
balcony. The coach bringing the team
home struggled to make it’s way
through the throng of well-wishers.
The final chance: it’s all over for Chesham as Kenny Kent’s 75th
minute penalty is saved
for the remainder of the opening half
they were unable to take advantage.
Leytonstone’s ten dropped back into a
defensive unit and the counter-acting
play which taken Chesham so far
became impossible as, despite being on
the attack for most of the time they
were unable to exploit any of the space
they may have expected to find at
Wembley had their opponents been
able to be more adventurous.
Half time 0-0, and despite the man
advantage few had realistically expected
the men from Bucks to be on even
terms at this stage. As the game wore
on and Chesham tired the individual
talents of the much higher placed
Leytonstone team started to become
more dominant. But it was not until the
69th minute that they managed to take
advantage. A waist-high cross into the
Chesham box was not claimed cleanly
and when the ball fell to feet of striker
Ken Gray he was able to manoeuvre
into position and fire past the defenders on the Chesham line.
Although exhausted, United continued
to compete and had a glorious chance
to get back into the game after 75
minutes. Stone’s defender Roy Walker
“kicked Joe Harper off the ground”
according to a contemporary report
leading to a Chesham penalty kick.
Kenny Kent was the unfortunate
Chesham player as Billy Hadlow in the
Leytonstone goal dived well to his left
to keep the spot kick out. The chance
to get back into contention was gone
and Leytonstone saw out the remaining
time to take the trophy at Wembley
for the first time.
Chesham’s team at the Royal Box collecting medals from Viscount Montgomery
So, the journey had ended for
Chesham, at least on the field of
play. They may have lost the game
that day but for the achievement
in getting there at all they were
winners before the Final even
started. The crowd at Wembley
seemed to sense this as Leytonstone collected their fully expected medals to a somewhat
restrained response whilst the
crowd reserved the biggest applause for when Les Burgess led
his team up to collect their runners up medals and then led them
on a lap of honour around the old
stadium - something of a rarity
Finally, after leading his team onto the
balcony, the normally quiet manager
John Reardon reflected on the day:
“After the game I was disappointed,
and all the way back we were a little
downhearted, but when I saw all these
people . . . I have never seen anything
like this. We did well to get to Wembley and I feel satisfied now I have seen
all these marvellous people. . . when
we didn’t get a goal, I think we fell
down there, but don’t forget we got
beaten by one of the best sides in the
country. Look at those crowds, and
hear them. They are marvellous aren’t
they?”
Club President, Leo Chittenden, spoke
of a “wonderful” day and expressed his
immense pride “for these twelve boys
who have given such a magnificent
show today.” A tearful Les Burgess told
the crowd: “The players have given of
their all today and this reception is
Back in Chesham 5,000 fans pack The Broadway to welcome the team home
something more than we deserve. We
did our best and we are sorry we
couldn’t bring the cup home for you
all.”
With more receptions at the club that
night and the civic reception the following Monday the team’s performances were well recognised at the time
and this continued over the next few
weeks. 1200 Chesham fans voted for
the Cup Final Man of the Match,
awarded at the last home game. 25
year old midfielder David Black was the
clear winner with 493 votes with his
nearest challenger captain Les Burgess
on 245 votes.
But the non-league award for that year
surely went to the Chesham squad as a
whole. Charles Buchan’s Football Year
Book for 1968 featured the cup run:
“Chesham began their march to Wembley as 1000 to 1 outsiders in September 1967. But 16 cup ties later they
were the wonders of the amateur
world, toppling such giants as Maidenhead, Dulwich Hamlet, Corinthian
Casuals, Oxford City and Wealdstone
on the way. . . Always the odds were
against them but each time but each
time they were dramatically upset as
what had seemed no more than an idle
dream became more and more a
reality. . .Chesham’s cup glory ended in
bitter-sweet disappointment on Wembley’s lush green turf. But they had
achieved near miracles.”
This history is a reproduction of a series of five articles written
for the Chesham United matchday programme throughout the
2007/2008 season. I am indebted to Paul Vockins for providing
access to the archive maintained by former Club Secretary, Sid
MacDonnell, throughout the 1967/1968 season and for all the
reports in the Bucks Examiner records held by Chesham Library.
Thanks also to Tony White, Chesham fan and former Examiner
editor, for providing the Foreword to this piece.
Most of all, thanks to all the players, management and officials
associated with Chesham United Football Club during that cup
run to the Wembley Final in 1968. With the modern world
insisting on penalties rather than replays such a tremendous
achievement is unlikely to be equalled.
David Jeffrey
April 2008