As we look forward to a Kent Senior Cup Final against Maidstone, we go back in time to take a look at the two occasions Angels have lifted the trophy.
Firstly, on a day punctuated by stormy Easter showers, Tonbridge outclass Bexley United on a slippery quagmire.
It’s April 1965 and Cliff Richard has just hit the top of the charts with the slightly cloying, country and western ballad, The Minute You’re Gone.
This is the year folk goes electric and the charts are dominated by The Beatles, The Stones and The Byrds’ electrified version of Bob Dylan’s Mr Tambourine Man.
Though somewhat jarringly, while the top selling single of the year does come from Liverpool, it’s not The Beatles, but rather tousled-haired comic Ken Dodd, sans tickling stick, with the saccharine Tears.
Closer to home, Harry Haslam’s Tonbridge are gearing up for their third Kent Senior Trophy final at Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium hoping for an elusive victory having lost to Folkestone Town in 1956/57 and Ashford Town two years later.
Haslam’s side have beaten Dartford, Deal Town and Ramsgate Athletic to reach the final but are treading water in the Southern League and come into the Final on the back of a 4-0 reverse at Nuneaton Borough just 48 hours earlier, missing a hatload of chances in swirling winds which at one point in the second half forces the referee to take the players off the pitch during what one reporter describes as a ‘cyclonic hailstorm.’
And while modern players might complain about the number of games being played, consider this. The day before the Nuneaton game, Haslam’s men entertain Hastings United at the old Angel ground in the town in a league fixture which ends 2-2 in front of a healthy crowd of 1,981.
Under the captaincy of former Busby Babe Joe Carolan, a future Tonbridge manager, they have earned a reputation as an entertaining side to watch with the likes of Ray Kemp, Bobby Taylor, Allan Jones, the prolific half back Geoff Truett and the legendary Gerry Francis, who was the first black South African to play in the English First Division, all with an eye for goal. Francis and Kemp scored the goals in that Hastings game.
Heavy storms and rainfall ruin the plans of daytrippers and seaside traders on Easter Monday 19 April when Haslam’s men travel to Gillingham to meet Bexley United, a club nestling beside Danson Park on the site where the current Welling United plies its trade.
A slippery, wet pitch with the centre inches deep in mud greets both sides making conditions treacherous. The poor weather has kept the attendance down to a disappointing 2,020.
Yet it is Angels who adapt far better to a surface ill-suited to flowing football and, after an uncertain start, begin playing with a style belying the conditions.
Their efforts are rewarded on 28 minutes when skipper Carolan carries the ball upfield before playing in Francis who befuddles the Bexley defence with some unpredictable manoeuvering before driving a swirling shot into the net from 20 yards past ‘keeper Ray O’Dell.
Six minutes later it is two, after left winger Billy Wright produces a perfect cross for Kemp to glance home the ball with his head.
Tonbridge dominate the second period with Jones, Taylor and Francis all going close with only O’Dell keeping the scoreline respectable.
Yet even O’Dell’s acrobatics can’t keep out that man Francis who grabs his second and Tonbridge’s third. And it is a goal worthy of sealing the win.
The brilliant South African again tricks a trio of Bexley defenders with some great footwork before firing a rocket, straight as an arrow into the net to make it three nil and claim victory in the Kent Senior Cup at the third attempt.
Shortly after Carolan receives the trophy and is chaired aloft by happy teammates, caked in the mud of battle. Back in the dressing room there is the obligatory guzzling champagne out of the Cup, de rigeur for 1960s Cup winners.
Post match reaction:
Tonbridge chairman Sidney Berwick tells reporters: “The whole team played very well. I am very pleased with their performances. It is our third time in the final and we have succeeded at last.”
Manager Haslam, a Mancunian, who will later win promotion to the old first division with Luton Town and then manage Sheffield United, adds: “The lads played very well indeed. There is no doubt about it. It was a day when the tension was off and they could play in their own way. I don’t think anybody can be disappointed at the result.”
Next: World Cup Winner George Cohen steers Angels to Kent success
