Holker's heroes
LOCAL football historian, Terry Ainsworth has joined the Nostalgia team.
For some time Terry has been writing about the football teams of yesteryear for Guardian Sport but now he's been transferred to Guardian Nostalgia and will be writing on this page every month. Anyone with memories of the teams he features can get in touch at guardian@lmnews.co.uk
THE journey through the archives this month takes us across the bay to Flookburgh and the exploits of their football team, Lower Holker, in 1956-57.
Lower Holker joined the North Lancashire League in season 1952-53 after playing in the Furness League.
They had a meteoric rise to Division One in three seasons by winning the 4th Division, followed by the 3rd Division title and finally gaining promotion to the top league after the 1954-55 season by finishing in third place behind Bentham Wanderers and Bulk St. Anne's.
Last season they just missed out on the Division 1 title when Lancaster Moor Hospital beat them on goal average so they were confident of producing a serious challenge in 1956-57.
They opened the season in confident fashion by winning nine and drawing one of their first 11 games, their only loss being 2-3 away to Lancaster Lads' Club Old Boys.
As the season progressed into November Lower Holker found their fixture list composed almost entirely of cup games and although they polished off both Askham United in the Lancashire Junior Shield and Holker Central in the Furness Cup they suffered a heavy league defeat-2-6 away to Bentham Wanderers.
Two Grange members of the team, Dougie Burrell and Lloyd Saunders, used to catch the bus to Flookburgh before changing at the YMCA and walking half a mile to the ground. After the game they walked back to the YMCA for a mug of tea and a bath with no hot water-the good old days!
Another Grange-over-Sands native was in the news at this time when Jack Crayston was appointed manager of Arsenal, one of the most coveted jobs in football.
Jack had started with Grange and then went to Ulverston Town, Barrow and Bradford Park Avenue before being transferred to Arsenal. In the five years he spent at Arsenal before the outbreak of World War Two he won a League Championship medal, two FA Cup winning medals and eight caps for England.
A leg operation ended his career and he returned to Arsenal as assistant manager to George Allison and then Tom Whittaker before landing the top job.
From Christmas 1956 to the middle of March 1957 Lower Holker played nine games, eight of them in cup competitions notably the Lancashire Junior Shield where they reached the semi-final and were drawn away to Atherton Colleries losing by 4-2.
Their two goal scoring brothers were missing however from this game as Derek Porter got married and Ken was best man, possibly making a crucial difference.
A 7-1 victory over Ulverston Rangers with goals from D. Porter (3), K. Porter (2), Pearce and Saunders took them into the final of the Furness Cup where they defeated Askham United 6–2 at Holker Street, Barrow.
The backlog of fixtures was now starting to tell on the Holker team when they lost 0-2 at home to L.L.C.O.B's in the 5th round of the Senior Challenge Cup and 1 –2 at Quarry Park, Carnforth, in the semi-final of the Senior Charity Cup against Bolton-le-Sands.
In early April Bentham Wanderers had completed their league programme and topped the division with 34 points from 22 games and Lower Holker had 29 points from 17 games so an exciting climax was anticipated.
Holker had to improve after playing below par in recent weeks and a 2-3 defeat at home to Caton United meant their final week would decide the title. They travelled to Caton and recorded a terrific win against the odds by 3-2 and then beat both the Lads Club, 3-1, and Bolton-le-Sands 2-1 at home to clinch a well deserved title.
p If any readers wish to see what the sportsmen from the Fifties and Sixties are doing now to help the Royal Lancaster Infirmary please visit terry66.moonfruit.com
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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