064 – 1950 FA Cup Final (part three)

A few post match scans today.

Rather than going for the nationals I thought I’d use some different clippings. First picture is the Cup Winners photo issued by Arsenal. Then are a few clippings from the ‘Birmingham Daily Post’ (29-04-1950) which I thought interesting for the column about people watching on those new fangled TV sets, and finally showing our enduring appeal abroad I’ve included the German magazine ‘Sport Magazin’ (03-05-1950).

063 – 1950 FA Cup Final (part two)

Today I’ve scanned some press photo’s from the match. As always the details below the photo’s are taken from the backslips. Although they have no slips the last four photo’s are stills produced by British paramount of the build up to the first goal.

Finally, an absolutely delightful Movietone clip of the game.

“Goalline save by Swindin in Cup Final.
Swindin, Arsenal goalkeeper, makes a save on the goalline from a shot by Payne, Loverpool outside-right during the Football Association Cup Final at Empire Stadium, Wembley, to-day (Saturday).
April 29th 1950”

“Prelude to goal. Sidlow, the Liverpool goalie comes out to punch away, leaving his net unguarded, while Arsenal attackers and liverpool all jump up to the ball. A split second after this The Gunners scored the opener, at the Wembley Cup Final today.
April 29 1950.”

“Arsenal win FA Cup.
Arsenal goalie George Swindin and left back Wally Barnes (3) combine to smash a Liverpool attack during the close of the FA Cup Final at London’s Wembley Stadium, April 29.
Arsenal won 2-0.”

“Mercer reaches heights with F.A.Cup.
Climax to the season in which he was voted Footballer of the Year, Arsenal captain Joe Mercer holds the Football Association Cup he has just received from the King as he is chaired by his team mates at Empire Stadium, Wembley to-day (Saturday).
Arsenal had defeated Liverpool by two goals to nil in the F.A. Cup Final.
April 29th 1950.”

062 – 1950 FA Cup Final (part one)

Thought I’d do this one in three parts.

Today some previews of the match.

The scans are from Sporting Mirror (28/04/1950) and Sport (04/05/1950).

061 – 1949 Flamengo

A couple of magazine articles from 1949 today. Firstly a piece by Laurie Scott in Tit-Bits (dtd 01/04/1949) and then some on our tour match v Flamengo in Brazil (from Sports 10/06/1949 and Sports Reporter (18/07/1949) which was marred by fighting. As usual the English press got all high and mighty about foreign football, but possibly with some cause this time!

060 – Old Boys and Behind the Scenes

Today we have a couple of magazine scans from 1948.

The first couple (from Picture Post dtd 10/04/1948) has one of my favourite Arsenal photo’s, showing a trio of old boys still supporting the team over half a century after playing. The rest (from Everybody’s dtd 20/11/1948) show a behind the scenes look at Highbury introduced by George Allison.

059 – 1948 Arsenal Players’ Souvenir Brochure

After winning the title in 1948 a brochure was produced to raise funds for the players’ pool. Below are scans of some of the pages from that brochure.

058 – Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris (part two)

Although obviously unplayable during the war years it didn’t take long for Arsenal and Racing Club de Paris to resume their annual matches. Originally played to raise money for those injured in World War I there was an added poignancy to these games now. The first set of scans below are from the French magazine Miroir Sprint dated 13/11/1946, the second set cover the England v France international held the next year at Highbury (Miroir Sprint dated 06/05/1947).

057 – …and Peace

As you will have seen from the last post even during the war Arsenal were receiving invitations to play abroad, but when peace came to Europe there was one invitation the club felt it couldn’t refuse so on the 12th of August 1945 Arsenal faced The British Land Army in Dusseldorf. Below are a scan of the match programme, and a short clip of the game. I’ve had this clip up on youtube for a while and from comments received from relatives this match obviously meant an awful lot to the Army players and supporters.

056 – War…

With the outbreak of World War II the Football League was suspended. Official records ignore the various regionalised competitions that were played but it would be a mistake to ignore them completely as the fans certainly didn’t. Despite all that was going on crowds were good and the football was taken very seriously although the number of players moved around due to war duties and serving in the forces meant that rules on registrations were relaxed and teams were allowed to use players stationed locally as guests. Amongst others Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen (who is listed as scoring 25 goals in 19 appearances) turned out in the Arsenal colours.

Highbury was closed to football to be used as an ARP stronghold and shelters, and the club played it’s home games at White Hart Lane. As a mark of gratitude our Directors presented our hosts with a plaque after the war, although whether they held an open top bus parade to celebrate this trophy is unknown.

Today’s scans are all from the war period. Rather than the official programmes for the two Cup Finals we played in I thought I’d scan tickets from the matches as they seem to be far rarer – indeed if you look at the second it asks for the ticket to be placed in a paper salvage receptacles after the match. Despite this, and other hardships, people still took any chance to make a few bob as can be seen by the pirate version of a programme shown. For our regular home games a single sheet programme was produced and that often featured, as this one does, updates on our players abroad. Interestingly, although the sheets were red, this was not because of our colours but was actually the colour they used for their programmes pre-war.

Finally, a clip featuring us in War Cup Finals.

055 – The Arsenal Stadium Mystery

Today’s scans feature iconic movie The Arsenal Stadium Mystery. Although an earlier film (The Lucky Number) had heavily featured Arsenal and Highbury to set the story this film was very much based at Highbury and featured a charity match between Arsenal and The Trojans (played by Brentford) with one of their players being murdered. First released in November 1939 the football action was from the last game of the 1938/39 season and the film featured a host of Arsenal’s stars, with George Allison having a speaking role.

The first couple of scans are from Picturegoer Weekly (10-2-40). Sadly neither of the pictures below have backslips (although both have ‘Newcastle City Hall release Feb 19th’ hand written on the back).