Erith & Belvedere   12        Ruddy 2, O’Hara pen, Urpeth 3, Gurr, Batchelour, Aldous,

Scott 2, Barron pen

Woking                        1        ?         

South East Combination Cup semi-final, 21 March 1942

Continuing the series counting down the 100 most memorable games in our history.  Today, possibly our most dominant day of a dominant season.

It’s been recorded before that the Deres’ 1941-42 season was the product of very favourable conditions of history and geography.  While many other clubs had closed down for the duration of hostilities, the Deres had carried on and joined the South East Combination along with eight other amateur clubs: Bromley, Dulwich Hamlet, Epsom, Met Police, Sutton United, Tooting & Mitcham, Walton-on-Thames and Woking. 

Generally speaking, the other clubs were from leafier areas of London and the Home Counties, whereas Deres were located in a more industrial area, and drew our players from workplaces such as Woolwich Arsenal and Callenders Cables which were important to the war effort.  Consequently, at least during this period, we lost fewer of our players to Forces call-ups, and also picked up players from clubs such as Dartford which had closed down.

So 1941-42 was a season where everything came together and the Deres steamrollered the league, dropping only one point in 16 games, as well as picking up two cups.  And no period showed our strength more clearly than a six-game sequence in late winter and early spring beginning with the first round of the South East Combination Cup.

On 21 February 1942 we played Epsom in the first round of the SEC knockout tournament and won 11-0, with forward Martin Ruddy scoring 4 to take his tally up to 51 for the season, just ahead of Bob Collins on 46.  On the 28th Collins scored 3 and Ruddy 2 as Sutton were beaten 8-1, and a week later another 8-1 pasting was inflicted on Woking, although the scorers’ names were not recorded.  This left Deres needing just 3 points from 4 games to clinch the league title.  On 14 March a smaller club, Orpington, were put to the sword in the Kent Senior Cup second round to the tune of 14-1, although again the scorers were not recorded.

The 21 March tie was maybe the peak of this team, with a 12-1 win in a semi-final.  Jack Urpeth led the way with a hat-trick, and a club record eight different players got on the scoresheet.  Three of these recorded their first goals of the season – bit-part players Maurice Batchelour and Stan Aldous (who went on to captain Leyton Orient for many seasons after the war) and goalkeeper George Barron, who chipped in with a penalty.  The Deres’ 7th goal, scored by Ruddy, was our 200th of the season in all competitions.  And for good measure it was reported that after the match Woking’s goalkeeper fell into the team bath fully clothed!  What a lousy awayday for him.

A week later we won 6-1 in a friendly against a Scots Guards team featuring eight professionals including players from both Hearts and Hibernian.  At that stage our last six matches had all been won with an aggregate score of 59-5!  However, we’d won nothing yet.  The next match was the SEC Cup Final against the old enemy Bromley – and that’s to be covered later in the series.

Deres v Woking (from): George Barron; Bill Kitchener, Pat O’Hara, Bob Prescott, Stan Randle, Tom Jenner, Len Scott, Martin Ruddy, Harold Gurr, Jack Urpeth, Stan Aldous, Maurice Batchelour.