Bromley                    1          Shevlin 50      

Erith & Belvedere   4          O'Hara pen 60, Gurr 70, Ruddy 80, Collins 87

South East Combination Cup Final, 4 April 1942 (at Bromley)

 

Continuing the series counting down the 100 most memorable games in our history.  Today, the first trophy in our phenomenal wartime season.

 

Number 39 in this series was the 12-1 thrashing of Woking in the semi-final of the wartime South-East Combination Cup.  This, and the quarter-final 11-0 beating of Epsom, came in the most dominant sequence of a season in which the advantages of having players on important war work, meaning that the team was unaffected by Forces call-ups, made us the top amateur team in the region.  From mid-February to the end of March we had a six-game aggregate score of 59-5.  Yet for all our prolific scoring, we hadn’t won anything yet.  As April started, we put that to rights with the first of an Easter double header.

 

BUSTLING FINAL TIE – ERITH AND BELVEDERE WIN LEAGUE CUP

 

Typical final tie football, open, bustling, even exciting, was seen at the Hayes-lane ground, Bromley, on Saturday, when the town club met Erith and Belvedere in the final of the South-Eastern Combination Cup.  A hot pace was maintained, and the lively exchanges aroused enthusiasm among the large crowd of spectators.  Play in the first half was of a most even character, and the teams crossed over without any goals having been scored.  Five minutes after the resumption Bromley took the lead, but after the visitors had equalised from the penalty mark, the fortunes of the game changed completely.  Erith and Belvedere beat the Bromley goalkeeper three more times and won by 4-1.  Nevertheless Gunner, in goal, had played a grand game for Bromley.

 

Under wartime conditions Bromley and Erith have taken a leading part in keeping the flag of amateur football flying in Kent.  The two clubs were the semi-finalists in the Kent Senior Cup competition, and this match was the Easter Monday attraction on Erith’s ground.  So the visitors came to Bromley on Easter Saturday with a determination to do their best to win, and then to return home to score another success against their old rivals on their own ground, this bringing off the coveted “double”.

 

It will be recalled that in the 1937-38 season Bromley won the Amateur Cup when they beat Erith and Belvedere by the only goal scored.  Since then Erith have taken revenge by defeating Bromley in many hard-fought games.  Before the match on Saturday Erith had met Bromley on three occasions this season, and emerged victorious each time.  They came to the Hayes-lane ground for the  S E Combination Cup final tie with the reputation of being the premier amateur club of the present day, with an outstanding record, and goalscoring achievements running into impressive figures.

 

Bromley were represented by the strongest side available.  Several of their finest players were prevented from turning out either by illness or by virtue of the call to more serious duties abroad.  Jimmy Marshall was missed, and at the last moment Bromley had another setback through the inability of S Reece to play.  S E Buckell, of Catford Wanderers, stepped into the breach at outside-left, although accustomed to playing at outside-right.

 

The game opened with a dashing attack by Bromley, in which Etherton was prominent.  Barron, the Erith goalkeeper, was kept busy in the opening few minutes.  Erith retaliated, and Gunner stopped a hot shot.  Reeves tackled boldly and Clark intercepted with judgment, but Scott, the speedy outside-right, forced his way through the Bromley defence and sent in a sharp shot straight for the goal.  Gunner cleared in his best style, Bromley went to the attack again, and the Erith goalkeeper found himself in a tight corner.  He managed to get out of it, and Ruddy then led the forward line to the other end, where there was a spirited struggle in front of the Bromley goal, but Gunner’s alertness saved the situation.  Even play continued, and both goals had narrow escapes.  When the half-time whistle sounded there were no goals.

 

Bromley opened the second half with a vigorous onslaught on the Erith goal.  Shevlin was in the thick of the attack, but Barron stopped his well-aimed shot.  After the visitors had forced a corner, Bromley returned to the attack, and this time Shevlin was successful, sending a shot just out of Barron’s reach, about five minutes after the restart.  This reverse seemed to spur on the visitors, who crowded round the Bromley goal.  An intense struggle for the mastery was stopped by the whistle, and when it became known that the referee had awarded a penalty kick to Erith there were protests by home players, but without effect.  O’Hara took the kick and scored the equalising goal (1-1). 

 

Bromley’s undoing started from this stage: they were not the same team afterwards.  Erith, on the other hand, played even better than before.  The forwards always looked dangerous, and the home defenders who had played so valiantly in the first half were now no longer able to keep the visitors in check.  Gunner met one attack by running out, but before he could reach it Gurr had pounced on the ball, and cleverly kicked over the goalkeeper’s head into the net. 

 

Erith maintained a strong pressure and Ruddy scored the third goal for his side.  At the other end Shevlin broke through the defence, and Barron ran out of goal to meet him.  The Bromley centre-forward eluded the goalkeeper and put the ball into the net, but Shevlin was surprisingly given offside.  Shortly before time was called Collins scored the fourth goal, and Erith gained a decisive victory by 4-1.

 

Brolmley: C Gunner; F J Mallett, G H Clark; F P Wade, R Holder, H Reeves; Captain G Allison, S Davies, J Shevlin, P Etherton, S E Buckell.

Erith and Belvedere: George Barron; Bill Kitchener, Pat O’Hara; Bob Prescott, Stan Randle, Stan Aldous; Len Scott, Bob Collins, Martin Ruddy, Harold Gurr, Jack Urpeth.

 

 

On Easter Monday Deres beat Bromley 3-0 in the Kent Senior Cup semi-final before a crowd of 2500 at Park View.  Bromley were handicapped by Shevlin being held up in London: they played the first ten minutes a man short in the hope of his turning up, but by the time he did they had reluctantly fielded a substitute.  Deres had now played Bromley five times in the season, winning all five with an aggregate of 20-3.

 

Bob Prescott was called up soon afterwards and managed only two further games for Deres during the war while home on leave.  He served as a corporal in the Hampshire Regiment in Italy, fitting in a Services game in September 1944 in the Roma Stadium (possibly the venue of the 1934 World Cup Final).  The following month he was wounded and taken as a PoW.  At the war’s end he returned to Erith and to the Deres, scoring in his comeback game in September 1945 and being fit enough to make 30 appearances in the 1945-46 season.