The new ground was formally opened on Monday 4th September
1905 at 5.00pm sharp to allow kick-off at 5.15 pm which would then enable the
Southern League visitors, Plymouth, enough time to catch their train home.
At last the Town had a ground they could call their
own. Part of the agreement on purchase
was that the land would only be used for football purposes and everyone
connected with the club breathed a sigh of relief knowing that they would not
be asked to move again - at least not in the short term.
The old ground at Dunstable
Road was partly developed immediately with Hazelbury Crescent
and Avondale Road
being built and Kenilworth Road
itself further developed. Strangely, the
land fronting Dunstable Road,
which would presumably be the most valuable, was not built on until the late
1930’s when the Odeon cinema was erected and appeared to be used as a car park
in the interim with the local football fans taking advantage of it when big
matches were staged.
As mentioned previously, Plymouth were the first visitors to Kenilworth Road in
what quickly became known as the ‘Green Game’.
The Pilgrims, then as now, played in green, the referee was a Mr A.
Green, the formal opening was conducted by Mr J Green of local brewery fame,
the whole event had been orchestrated by secretary Charles Green and the pitch,
of course, was green.
----------------------------------------------
Kenilworth Road Classics
Luton Town 0 Plymouth
Argyle 0.
Southern League. September 4th
1905.
The first game at Kenilworth
Road was played out on a warm late summer evening
and attracted a healthy crowd of over 6,000 who paid £120 for the privilege of
taking part on an historic occasion.
Mr J. W. Green formally opened proceedings by kicking off
the contest but before doing so announced that he would be donating 25 guineas
(£26.25) to the club.
The contest itself was end to end from start to finish with
both sides hitting the woodwork. The
Town had a point to prove having finished second bottom of the Southern League
the previous season (fortunately they were re-elected with little fuss) and had
recruited some heavyweight players to take the place of some lightweights who
were ‘not able to withstand the rigours of competitive football.’ In other words the long ball and muscle were
to be the order of the day!
Although the Plymouth
match was end to end the referee had a huge task in preventing the contest from
developing into a ‘rough and tumble affair’ and more than once had to separate
brawling players. If the supporters were
to learn anything from the display it was that the players were not going to
roll over and die that season.
Luton Town: Platt,
Blackett, McCurdy, F.Hawkes, White, R.Hawkes, Gallacher, Warner, Brown, Pickering, Barnes.
Plymouth
Argyle: Sutcliffe, Saul, A.Clark, Leech,
C.Clark, Mortimer, Briercliffe, Buck, Willcox, Buchanan, Corrin.
----------------------------------------------
The new enclosure was smaller than the one left behind and
was already hemmed in by new houses in Ivy, Beech and Oak Roads as well as the
railway line. Behind the Oak Road goal
was wooden terracing with a high wooden fence behind while at the Kenilworth
Road end clinker banking had been built up to provide a reasonable vantage
point.
Beech Hill Path was a natural boundary for the ground and
along this side more wooden terracing was placed with a roof, part of the old
Dunstable Road ground stand, extending over the back few steps. On the opposite side a new wooden main stand
was built. With a standing paddock in front, this side of the ground was
reckoned to hold 1,500 out of a total capacity of 10,000.
To finish off, a ‘stout wooden fence’ enclosed the pitch
which was something that had not been present at either of the other two
grounds.
----------------------------------------------
Letter to the ‘Luton News’
Sir - I was one of those who witnessed the very fine opening
football match upon the new Town ground on Monday last. My pleasure, and that of many others was,
however, spoiled by the foul, disgusting language of two men of the baser sort
who stood near me. Their swearing was
vile in the extreme. Their mouths needed
washing and their hearts needed changing. Two or three remonstrance’s only made them worse. It is a great pity and shame too, that one of
our national games should be spoiled by men such as these. This gentleman who stood near me remarked “no
wonder people do not come to the matches.” I am sure there are scores if not hundreds of good clean living men, who
take pleasure in witnessing a good match, who’s consciences will condemn them
if they are obliged to listen to such language as I have referred to.
I am soliciting the help of the Press, believing it to be the best way to expose this great evil. I sincerely hope the Directors will take immediate steps to deal with such offenders in a very decided manner. Unless this is done the game is bound to suffer, and the ‘gates’ too.
Yours etc.
Mr A Hill
Chapel Street
Luton.
----------------------------------------------
After the poor showing during the 1904/05 season the team
were greatly improved over the following campaign, the first at their new
ground, and finished fourth in a strong division. They also managed to end up as top
goalscorers aided in no small part by ex-Scottish international centre-forward
Sandy Brown, ‘The Glenbuck Goalgetter’, who weighed in with 18 of the Town’s 64
goals.
Fourth position was again attained the following season but the novelty of the new ground had waned leading to a dip in match receipts but no such drop in players wages. As such, new recruits were not of the same calibre as before and the team slipped down the table to 18th in 1907/08.
Soon after the opening of the new ground a new entrance to
the Lane Stand (Beech Hill Path) was opened at the top of Beech Road while a large advertising
hoarding was erected over the Ivy
Road entrance which was let to Freeman, Hardy and
Willis for seven years.
Another piece of land next to the railway line (where the
club shop now stands) was purchased and the National Telephone Company was
allowed to erect a pole at the ground which gave the club their first direct
telephone line.
A further 5/- a season was earned by giving sole rights to a
Mr Stevens to take charge of bicycles at the ground.
----------------------------------------------
Kenilworth Road
Classics.
Luton Town 0 Sunderland
0.
F.A Cup Round Two. February 2nd 1907.
After disposing of Gainsborough Trinity after a replay in
the first round of the competition, cup fever hit the streets of the town when
the Strawplaiters were drawn against mighty Sunderland
at the next stage, equivalent to Round Four today.
This was to be the first serious test of the capacity of the
new ground and although top flight Sunderland offered £150 plus half of the
gate to switch the tie to Roker
Park the Town’s directors
stood firm.
As it turned out some 10,500 attended the tie generating
receipts of £571-9-6 (£571.47) both of which were records for the ground and
indeed football in Luton. Apparently, there was still room to spare
with the Kenilworth Road
banking the only section full to capacity.
With so many visitors to the town a great number of ‘Beware of
Pickpockets’ notices had been posted on all approaches to the ground.
Twenty constables were engaged for the game and ‘special
arrangements for keeping the players under control in the evenings leading up
to the match were to made by the secretary and a suitable hotel found’.
A huge hat in blue and white plait with the words ‘Play up Luton’ written on it
was placed in front of the main stand as the crowd was whipped up into a frenzy
as the game kicked off.
Sunderland, members of the Football League Division One
since 1890 and four times champions since then, were packed with international
players and it was one, England
centre-forward George Holley, who saw his fierce shot well saved by Peter Platt
in the Luton goal.
Luton half-back Bob Hawkes had to show all his experience in
robbing Angus McIntosh, who was ‘conspicuous by reason of his very short
knickers’, when the Sunderland forward was
through on goal.
It was not all Sunderland,
though, and the game ebbed and flowed with William Barnes firing just wide from
a free-kick and the same player just failing to get on the end of a cross from
Brown.
The excitement did not stop until the final whistle with the
directors no doubt happy with a replay which gave the chance to have another
slice of the gate money cake. In the
replay the Town went down narrowly 0-1 in front of 18,000 at Roker Park
. Sunderland, in turn, went out to the
eventual winners Sheffield Wednesday in the
next round.
Luton
Town: Platt, Hogg, McCurdy, F.Hawkes, White,
R.Hawkes, Murphy, Gittins, Brown, Fitzpatrick, Barnes.
Sunderland: Ward, Rhodes, Watson, Tait, McGhee,
McConnell, Raine, Gemmell, McIntosh, Holley, Bridgett.
----------------------------------------------
The period after the Sunderland
cup-tie was a particularly miserable time for the club with a gale taking off
part of the roof of the Lane Stand and causing damage to an adjacent house and
attendances falling away rapidly. The
club was once again in a parlous financial position and in March 1909 the
directors proposed two separate turnstiles at the ground be set aside for
supporters willing to pay 1/- (5p) for entrance rather than the normal
admission fee of half that. Predictably,
the idea was shelved two weeks later due to lack of use!
As matters got steadily worse a special meeting of the Board
was called to discuss the whole future of the club and it was resolved that 46
players would be placed on the open to transfer list and all players would be
asked to forego part of their wages for the remainder of the campaign.
As is always the case the only real bids came in for the
club’s few jewels and the sale of both John Quinn and John Smith to Millwall
for a ‘considerable sum’ gave rise to the directors being accused of harbouring
a selling club mentality for the first (and certainly not the last) time.
----------------------------------------------
In March 1907 the club’s secretary was ordered to post a notice in the dressing room indicating that no players dogs were to be allowed on the premises whilst training was going on. This was followed by another notice appealing to all the players to refrain from rough play.
In November 1908 special dispensation was received from the
Football Association to take a collection at a forthcoming match for the
benefit of old player Hugh Galbraith who was suffering from rheumatics of the
spine. The eventual collection made
£9-12-9 (£9.64).
----------------------------------------------
The sale of the two players to Millwall seemed to lift a
huge grey cloud from over Kenilworth
Road and the 1910/11 season started with a bang
and by October the team was in pole position in the league table. Unfortunately, the momentum could not be
maintained but a final position of ninth was a definite improvement and with it
brought extra income from the gate and a rare profit.
Rather than use the money to boost the squad the directors
instead merely re-signed the majority of the previous years team on increased
wages.
The ploy did not work and the Town struggled from the start
of the 1911/12 campaign which finished in relegation to Division Two. A run of poor luck with injuries did not help
but the death of 24 year old full back Sammy Wightman after being kicked in the
stomach at Brighton, as the season drew to a close, brought an abrupt end to a
sad chapter in the club’s history.
Wightman appeared to be winded from the kick and had to
leave the field as the Town went down 0-1 in the days before substitutes. He was given the all clear to travel back
with the squad but on the train from Brighton to London he became ill. He was rushed across the capital in a horse
drawn cab and put on a train to Luton where he was met and taken to the Bute Hospital
for an immediate operation. Unfortunately, he never regained consciousness and died a day later.
A great deal of soul searching went on behind the scenes at
Kenilworth Road, and at one stage it was touch and go as to whether the club
would take up the offer of Southern League Division Two football. Due to the great number of Welsh clubs at
this level a travel subsidy of £20 for each match played in the Principality
was demanded. The argument went back and
forth between the Town and the Southern League management committee and in the
end a compromise of £12-10-0 (£12.50) was reached. What the club would have done, had the
Southern League refused to entertain a subsidy, is not recorded.
At this time the Town’s first organised Supporters Club -
and probably one of the first in the country - was formed and they made £60
immediately available for the club’s coffers.
When the fact that several substantial transfer fees were
received for players who did not wish to step down a division was added to the
Southern League subsidy plus the hand-out from the Supporters Club, the Town
were actually not too badly off. Pity
the poor players though, as they had to make do with the cheapest rail
transport to far flung footballing outposts in Wales and then be expected to turn
on the style against agricultural footballers on pitches little better than cow
pastures.
The team made heavy weather of it during their first season
at this new level and could only finish fifth. The Supporters Club committee members were not only expected to find
volunteers to act as unpaid stewards and gatemen, but also provide a sum of
money to pay for the summer wages of the players and also help towards a
transfer fee pot.
For once, this pot of money was spent wisely as two players
were signed for the sum of £50 between them and who proved integral in the
club’s attempts to move back to Southern League Division One.
Ernie Simms was signed from Barnsley for £10 while Frank
Rollinson came from Portsmouth
for £40 with the hope that they would give the Town the additional firepower
lacking in the previous campaign. Between them they hit 45 goals as the Town won promotion at the second
attempt in glorious style, finishing runners-up on goal average to Croydon
Common.
If anything Southern League Division Two was, in 1913/14,
even more of a Welsh competition with the Town, Croydon, Brentford and Stoke
the only English sides represented.
Again, reports from that season indicated poor pitches and
less than friendly opposition with Mid-Rhondda typical, “an undersized pitch,
on a slope and full of lumps.” Despite
this the goals flowed and a 7-0 home win over Aberdare was bettered by an 8-1
victory over Mid-Rhondda at Kenilworth Road and a remarkable 9-0 thrashing of
Caerphilly in Wales.
A poor spell in November when defeats were suffered at
Llanelly and Pontypridd followed by a 0-2 ‘disaster’ at Newport on Christmas Day brought the only
reverses of the campaign. In the second
half of the season the defence was stiffened, with the result that no team
scored more than once against the Town and the perfect home record was
maintained until the end.
----------------------------------------------
Above: Ernie Simms (189 appearances, 130 goals 1913-1922)
----------------------------------------------
Kenilworth Road
Classics.
Luton
Town 2 Stoke 1.
Southern
League Division Two. 10th April 1914.
Mardy, Abertillery, Treharris, Barry, Llanelly, Pontypridd,
Ton Pentre, Mid-Rhondda, Aberdare, Newport, Swansea, Caerphilly and
Stoke. Stoke, I hear you ask, what were
they doing in the Southern League?
The old Stoke, founder members of the Football League in
1888, had resigned from the competition in 1908 and had entered into
liquidation having finally run out of money.
The new Stoke Football Club (1908) Ltd had risen from the ashes and
initially joined the Birmingham
and District League before joining the Southern League.
Stoke had missed the Town over the previous two seasons
having won promotion to Division One as the Town dropped out and then relegated
back to Division Two at the first time of asking.
The Town players were no respectors of past history and were looking to extend their unbeaten run that had begun the previous Christmas Day and now extended to 12 games. Another record crowd for Kenilworth Road of 12,000 turned up for the Good Friday fixture and were treated to a stirring struggle.
Frank Rollinson opened the scoring for the Town midway
through the first half and then netted twice more only to see the efforts
disallowed. Outside-right Arthur Durrant
then had to limp off and the ten men remaining were suddenly not so prominent.
Stoke missed two simple chances but it was the Town who
increased their lead when Simms thundered in number two shortly after the
interval totally against the run of play.
Stoke immediately replied through Dick Smith but the Luton
defence managed to hold firm until the end of a game that virtually ensured
promotion.
Stoke walked away with the championship the following season
but instead of accepting promotion to Division One decided to apply to the
Football League for their place back and were duly accepted!
Luton
Town: Mitchell, Elvey, Robinson, F.Hawkes, Frith,
R.Hawkes, Durrant, Wileman, Simms, Rollinson, Hoar.
Stoke: Gadsden, Turner, Milne,
Jones, Parker, Bradley, Hargreaves, Herbert, Smith, Ellis, Tempest.
----------------------------------------------
As the Town were building up to promotion an agreement was
struck with the Palace Theatre that, in return for an advertisement of
forthcoming Luton Town matches being shown on the theatre screen twice a week,
they in turn would be able to walk around the Kenilworth Road pitch at
half-time of each game with an advertising banner.
----------------------------------------------
Promotion was celebrated in style with a special dinner laid
on and a bonus of £125 handed out to the players to be split based on
appearances. Also, a glossy photographic
souvenir was published by the ‘Luton News’ which included the text of congratulatory
telegrams most of which were sent by clubs in Southern League Division One who
seemed genuinely pleased to have the Town back in the fold.
The 1914/15 season was played out with the increasing
backdrop of the Great War and at the end of April 1915 it was announced that
the Southern League competition would be suspended for the duration of the
hostilities. Unlike in the Second World
War when competitive football was looked on as vital to keep everyone’s spirits
up for helping with the war effort it was the complete opposite during the
Great War with all sports frowned upon as frivolous while men were dying in the
trenches of northern France and Belgium.
----------------------------------------------
Kenilworth Road
Classics.
Luton
Town 15 Gt Yarmouth
0.
F. A. Cup 4th Qualifying Round. 21st November 1914.
‘The absurd arrangement of the English Cup authorities in
putting a club such as Luton, which had won its way back to the first division
of the Southern League, into the fourth qualifying round, led on Saturday to a
sort of ‘game’ that can only take place when two sides are in such absolutely
different classes that they ought not to be put together unless they both want
a vacant date filled. When the better
club has to re-arrange first-class matches to make room for such a fixture,
then the affair is ridiculous.’ So wrote
a very miffed ‘Crusader’ (J.J.Hunt) in the ‘Luton News’.
A crowd of 4,000, including 1,000 soldiers, paid £88 on a
cold day to see this massively one-sided contest which remains the Town’s
record score in any competition.
Yarmouth were handicapped from the start with three of their regulars
missing due to being part of the Norfolk Cyclists Battalion whose duty it was
to guard the east coast, but in the eyes of the reporter they did give in
rather too easily and after conceding an early own goal, when Housego deflected
a cross into his own net after ten minutes, heads dropped.
The Town were five up at the interval and in the second
period ran in a further ten without reply.
The crowd were willing Yarmouth to cross
the half-way line but apart from two corners early on and a couple of long
shots, Joe Mitchell in the Luton goal was a
spectator.
The players used the second half as shooting practice but
most of the goals were simple tap-ins as they took it in turns to set each
other up. Some of the crowd went wild
when Ernie Simms and Arthur Wileman ran through with the ball shoulder to
shoulder ‘like a pair of horses attached to the same pole’ while other
spectators were disappointed to see the players show disrespect.
For the record the goalscorers were Simms with four,
including a penalty, Frank Rollinson with four, including a genuine hat-trick,
Wileman 2, an own goal and singles for Fred Hawkes, Robert Frith, Hugh Roberts
and Sid Hoar.
After the mauling of Yarmouth
the Town beat both Oxford City and Bromley in the competition before going out
0-3 to Southampton at the Dell in the first
round proper.
Luton
Town: Mitchell, Elvey, Dunn, F.Hawkes, Frith,
R.Hawkes, Roberts, Wileman, Simms, Rollinson, Hoar.
Gt Yarmouth: Gay,
Housego, Malachowski, Watts, Adams, Wade,
Turner, Millican, Perkins, Harris, Newson.
----------------------------------------------
In September 1914 the club’s directors resolved that the
players should attend the shooting range at the Luton Rifle Club once a week
with the club paying the membership fee of 10/6 (53p). The players would have to pay for their own
ammunition.
----------------------------------------------
Charles Green, the Town’s long serving secretary, kept the
club running throughout the period of the Great War almost single handed and
after arranging friendlies in the autumn of 1915, following the refusal of the
hastily formed London Combination not to consider clubs more that 18 miles from
London, he managed to talk the club into the competition for the back end of
that season for a run of 14 games.
Due to his efforts the Town took part in the London
Combination for the whole of the 1916/17 season and managed to score 101 goals
in only 39 games. Ernie Simms made even
more of a name for himself that season when he netted 40 times from 30 starts
which not only made him the record goal scorer for the season but also,
apparently, in football history at that time.
Even Green though, could not use his persuasive powers to convince the authorities that the Town should take part in the London Combination over the following two seasons as it was decreed that because of security and travel once more the competition should be restricted to clubs in the London area.
Friendly matches were all that could be arranged over the
next two seasons but Green tried to make them as varied, competitive and
interesting as possible although he did not always get it right with Simms
scoring six in four consecutive games in March 1919.
Sadly, the Town’s players did not escape the ‘war to end all
wars’ and Ernest Dodd, Arthur Wileman and Frank Gilder were all killed in
action while Ernie Simms, Frank Lindley, Westby Heath and Arthur Roe were
injured and Sid Hoar gassed. Two
ex-players Jack Jarvie and George Porter were also killed in action.
With the war finally over everyone tried to get back to
normality and all at Kenilworth Road were geared up to make the 1919/20 season
one to remember. Unfortunately, the
season became one to forget as the Town finished third from bottom with a team
that on paper was as good as anything else in the division. Although ex-Dunstable Road schoolboy forward
Jimmy Chipperfield was sold to Tottenham for £1,000 in June 1919 he was soon
replaced by Irish international Louis Bookman.
Bookman came to Luton for
£250 in what must have been one of the first deals to include a sell-on
clause. If Bookman were to be
transferred for more than £250 in the future, then the profit would be split
between the Town and West Bromwich Albion. It is interesting to note that the
Supporters Club was still handing out cash to the club with £50 being donated
towards Bookman’s transfer.
The deprivations of war seemed to affect the players with,
for example, Simms a pale shadow of his former self, but gradually fitness
returned and by the start of the 1920/21 campaign everyone was raring to go.
----------------------------------------------