Norfolk & Suffolk League

Once the decision had been taken to form 'a new City club' at the Criterion Cafe in June 1902, they needed a competition to play in, and six weeks later the fledgling Norwich City Football Club joined the Norfolk & Suffolk League. It was the premier footballing set up in the area and City's opponents in that first season in 1902-03 were (in order of their final placing) Lowestoft Town, Ipswich Town, Norwich CEYMS, Yarmouth Town, Lynn Town, Kirkley and Beccles Caxton.

The first league match for the Citizens saw them up against Beccles Caxton away on 27th September 1902. Happily, it ended in a 4-2 victory, thanks to goals from Bertie Playford, captain Bob Collinson and a brace from Jimmy Shields (in the only competitive game he ever played for Norwich City).

The next league match did not occur until the 15th November and it was the occasion of the very first encounter with Ipswich Town. A reported crowd of 1,700 people at Newmarket Road saw a 1-0 win to City, courtesy of a Fred Witham goal. Our third game of the campaign on 13th December was the return fixture which was again won, 2-1. It should be noted that matches in the Norfolk & Suffolk League were often weeks apart - in between Norwich City played friendly games.

An even bigger event than those meetings with Ipswich Town was the hugely awaited Norwich Derby, which took place on Boxing Day in front of 4,500 people. Norwich CEYMS were the well established and prominent football club in Norwich, and had been more than a little miffed at the formation of Norwich City, not least because it had cost them the services of a number of players and officials. City made it four wins out of four for the perfect start to league life, beating CEYMS 4-2 with Playford and Collinson both scoring twice. An indication of the needle surrounding this game may be illustrated by the fact that both of Collinson's goals came from second half penalties !

Early in the New Year, the Citizens were brought down to earth with a 7-0 drubbing at Kirkley. However a third place finish in their very first league season was considered a good start.

In 1903-04, they again finished in third place, once more behind Lowestoft Town who finished as champions, and runners up Kirkley. The only change in the make up of the Norfolk & Suffolk League that year was the introduction of Cromer FC in place of Beccles Caxton, who had finished the previous season with only a single point. Cromer followed suit in their first season by finishing bottom of the league, though they did secure 5 wins from 14 games in a very competitive division.

1904-05 was to prove to be a very special and dramatic year for Norwich City. They built on their two previous campaigns and by virtue of winning ten of their sixteen matches (Beccles Caxton re-entered the competition) were duly crowned Norfolk & Suffolk League champions. One hero was Herbert Vigar, who in his only season in blue and white halves netted 12 times. Significantly, they beat Lowestoft Town 3-1 away where Vigar scored twice. The only slight disappointment was a 1-0 away defeat to Ipswich Town on the last day of the season - though it should be said that Norwich had already secured the championship by then, and it was Ipswich's only ever win over Norwich in the Norfolk & Suffolk League.

The drama came in the form of an FA Commission investigation in December 1904 that looked into the financial affairs of the club. They were not alone, both Lowestoft and Kirkley were also put under the same examination. Even in those days, there was always a temptation to slip the odd payment to players in order to retain their services, help with travelling expenses, or even entice a star from another club. Norwich City were found guilty of being a professional business. Their continued presence in the Norfolk & Suffolk League was therefore put into question, though thankfully it was decided they could continue competing to the end of the season and duly lifted their first ever trophy after only three years in existence.

A way forward for the club needed to be found and a decision was soon taken that they should turn professional. At the end of the 1904-05 season they withdrew from the Norfolk & Suffolk League and on 30th May 1905, they were successful in gaining entry into the Southern League. The amateur days of Norwich City Football Club were over.

The Norfolk & Suffolk League had been formed in 1897 and continued until 1964-65 when it merged with the East Anglian League to form the Anglian Combination, which is still of course going strong to this day. It is interesting to note that all of the other main clubs in the area were established before Norwich City and were therefore much stronger in the early 1900's. Lowestoft Town were originally East Suffolk FC and were playing as early as 1884, and they won six of the first seven Norfolk & Suffolk championships. Lynn Town go back even earlier to 1879 and a club in the town had gone out of business before then. It is widely acknowledged that King's Lynn was the dominant place of East Anglian football at the time. They were N & S League champions eight times.

Great Yarmouth Town FC were formed in the same year as the Norfolk & Suffolk League and joined it straight away, becoming champions in 1913-14, 26-27 and 27-28. Gorleston Town joined soon after Norwich City left and were champions seven times up to 1921. Norwich CEYMS also go back to the late 1800's and they were champions in 1900 and 1907. Cromer Town had a year of glory in 1908-09, winning the Sterry Cup for finishing as champions. The trophy is still awarded to the top club now the competition is called the Anglian Combination, with the champions also qualifying for promotion to the Eastern Counties League.

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Time To Say Goodbye

The following player has recently left Norwich City FC :




Rhoys Wiggins  
2009-2010    3 appearances 0 goals


He departs with our best wishes, and thanks for his service to the club.
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98th Competitive Season - Bring It On !

The forthcoming season, which starts for Norwich City with a Championship game against Watford on Friday 6th August, will be their 98th competitive league campaign. It all started in 1902 in amateur football and the club have competed in a league every year since, apart from war years. Here is a breakdown of their time spent at each level of English football before this season :




Top Level - (Division One/Premier League) 21 seasons

Level 2 - (Division One/Division Two/Championship) 33 seasons

Level 3 - (Division Three/Division Three South) 29 seasons

Non League - (Southern League/Norfolk & Suffolk League) 14 seasons


note : this post was updated an re-published on 2nd August 2011
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Final League Placings 1912-1913

Southern League 1912-1913
First Division







Plymouth Argyle   50
Swindon Town   48
West Ham United   48
Queens Park Rangers   46
Crystal Palace   45
Millwall   45
Exeter City   44
Reading   42
Brighton & Hove Albion 38
Northampton Town   36
Portsmouth   36
Merthyr Town   36
Coventry City   34
Watford   34
Gillingham   34
Bristol Rovers   33
Southampton   31
Norwich City   29
Brentford   27
Stoke City   24

Full City Record :   P38  W10  D9  L19 F39  A50 PTS 29          Manager : Bert Stansfield

Sunderland were English champions
Aston Villa won the FA Cup

In this year :  Emmeline Pankhurst is sentenced to three years in prison

The British Board of Film Censors is established

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army dies

Final league placings will be posted on a regular basis until every table is listed - click on label below for years posted so far

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One Hundred Times Four

I spend a fair amount of time looking at appearance figures, concentrating mainly on how many games players have turned out in for Norwich City.

In doing this, I note that two players who represented the Canaries in over 100 league matches, also topped a century of appearances for three other clubs during their careers : 

Kevin Bond (a Canary between 1974 and 1981)

Norwich (142)  Manchester City (110)  Southampton (140)  Bournemouth (126)

Phil Boyer (a Canary between 1974 and 1977)

York (109)  Bournemouth (140)  Norwich (116)  Southampton (138)

Whilst this feat isn't totally unique (in fact there have been a few instances of players making 100 league appearances for five clubs - Peter Shilton and Kenny Swain as examples) it is quite rare. It takes around two and a half years to reach a hundred games, so to do so with four clubs requires ten years in the game as a minimum. Then in addition to longevity, the player must not have nomadic tendencies, but must have the ambition to want to meet new challenges by changing clubs. Hence, it doesn't happen too often !

I believe the first player to achieve the distinction was Alan Ball (Blackpool, Everton, Arsenal, Southampton).

Interestingly with Kevin Bond and Phil Boyer, they shared three of the same clubs.

I may find other Norwich City players who have achieved the same landmarks, and will update this post if I do.

Roy Waller

Tributes have been paid today to one of Norwich City's greatest fans, following the announcement of the death of Roy Waller at the age of 69. He was of course 'the voice of Carrow Road', having provided commentaries of City games since 1980 on BBC Radio Norfolk. He was a self taught football commentator - using a style that only a true Canary fan could possibly get away with. He was unashamedly yellow and green. His popularity meanwhile, led to a daily show on the station where he built a large following as the self styled 'daftest broadcaster in the world'.

In 2008 he was made Sheriff of Norwich. Not bad for a Mile Cross boy, and even better considering he was a Norman lad and not from the Dowson ! Following early careers in estate agency and insurance, his broadcasting work experience came via the AA, reading out the traffic reports, and hospital radio. He persuaded the powers that be at Radio Norfolk to let him cover Norwich City games - a job that lasted for over 25 years.

I remember the days before BBC Radio Norfolk, and just how difficult it was to get regular City news from anywhere. Roy Waller was a pioneer of radio football coverage in the region. As well as being fun, he was a vital messenger for the people of Norfolk. And he was Norwich City through and through.

Update : On 8th September 2010, the club announced that the commentary position at Carrow Road will carry a plaque naming it as the 'Roy Waller Commentary Box' in his honour.

Time To Say Goodbye

The following players have recently left Norwich City FC :

Michael Rose
2010 (on loan from Stockport County)  12 appearances 1 goal

Gary Doherty
2004 to 2010   227 appearances  14 goals

Paul McVeigh
2000 to 2007  & 2009 to 2010  245 appearances  39 goals

Jamie Cureton 
1993 to 1996  & 2007 to 2010  108 appearances  24 goals

Michael Spillane
2006 to 2010  34 appearances 1 goal

Darel Russell
1997 to 2003 & 2007 to 2010  271 appearances 19 goals


They depart with our best wishes, and thanks for their service to the club.

Managers In The Middle

Having already recorded Norwich City managers with a winning percentage over 40% (Winning Managers - 28 February 2010) and under 30% (Losing Managers - 13 June 2010), here now is a list of managers whose achievements fell between the two :


John Bowman 1905-1907 78 games 39.7%
David Stringer 1987-1992 229 games 38.9%
James Kerr 1929-1933 168 games 38.7%
Mike Walker 1992-1994 & 1996-1998 179 games 38.5%
Tom Parker 1933-1937 & 1955-1957 271 games 38.4%
Ron Saunders 1969-1973 221 games 38.0%
Ron Ashman 1962-1966 162 games 36.4%
Lol Morgan 1966-1969 127 games 35.4%
Major Frank Buckley 1919-1920 43 games 34.9%
Bob Young 1937-38 & 1939-1946 78 games 33.3%
Peter Grant 2006-2007 54 games 33.3%
Bruce Rioch 1998-2000 93 games 32.3%
Bert Stansfield 1910-1915 & 1926 248 games 31.5%
Arthur Turner 1908-1910 86 games 31.4%
John Bond 1973-1980 340 games 30.9%
Glenn Roeder 2007-2009 65 games 30.8%
James McEwen 1907-1908 43 games 30.2%
Jimmy Jewell 1939 20 games 30.0%

Pictured : Bruce Rioch, Norwich City's first manager this century

The Third Pioneers

When Norwich City joined the Football League in 1920-21 it was during the period when the competition made its greatest expansion. Founded in 1888-89, and with a Second Division added in 1892, it was not until after WW1 that things really took off in terms of the size of the league. Norwich City were one of many teams invited to join between 1920 and 1922 - in fact the Division Three competition for 1920-21 was made up almost entirely of Southern League members that transferred over and the Canaries were one of them. The following year it was re-named Third Division South and a further group of clubs from the north and midlands joined to form the Third Division North.

In a post last month (All Time Football League Record - June 22nd 2010), I said that if you produce a league table of all points won by each Football League club in history, Norwich City sit 60th out of 136. However, I also pointed out that that analysis was not entirely scientific. Firstly teams that have largely plied their trade in the lower divisions have played more games and have therefore had the chance to gain more points. Secondly, the change from two points for a win to three benefitted teams who had been more successful during the last thirty years.

It got me wondering as to whether or not there was a better way of putting the Football League achievements of Norwich City into historical perspective. So I decided to analyse all those clubs that found themselves at the third level for the first two years after football resumed following the Great War and measure how many seasons each has spent in the top flight since then. I will call them 'The Third Pioneers'. Putting aside the actual winning of trophies for a moment, I felt it would give some overall feeling as to how each club had progressed and developed during the next 90 years. Some had played in the league before 1914 but many were newcomers. In any case the ravages of war no doubt put them all on fairly even terms with regard to finance and playing structure.

The results of my analysis makes interesting reading. The first thing to say is that only three of the 43 clubs have bettered Norwich City's 21 years at the top level. Southampton have been the best with 35 years, followed by Portsmouth (33) and Charlton Athletic (26). So, you have to say that from this group of 'similar clubs', City have actually done quite well. Whilst Canary supporters have been disappointed with the recent decline in fortune (until last season), it has to be said that even third level status was better than the outcome for many - 23 of the clubs are now at fourth level, non league level or, even worse, gone altogether. Not one single club from the 43 can boast Premier League existence for the 2010-11 season.

Another quite extraordinary fact is that of the northern clubs, only Grimsby Town ever reached top level (as an aside, they were actually the only northern team in the division for the 1920-21 season, and were one of the sides that had played at a higher level before the war). No other original Third Division North club ever made it to the top. Given that the two most successful clubs of the 43 (Southampton and Portsmouth) come from just about as far south as you can go in England and that Charlton Athletic and QPR from London also feature strongly, it would seem that the economic divide between south and north has also had a great bearing on fortunes.

The 43 clubs may have started out on reasonably similar financial footings but clearly it was much harder to develop a club in the north of England, where money was tighter and investment harder to secure. More than half of the northern teams no longer have league status whereas three of the four southern clubs to suffer that same fate came not from England but the economically depressed area of South Wales (the exception being Luton Town).

Historical facts can often be manipulated to win any argument and this analysis is no different ! However, when measuring the all time performance of a football club there are many methods available and a look at 'The Third Pioneers' is as legitimate as any other. Based on my findings, Norwich City can be relatively proud of their achievements and standing in English football. Apart from a short spell in the thirties, it took us a long time to get established above the third tier.

It is a fact that we were for many years a lower level Football League club. We did though go on to succeed where many others failed. All of our top flight seasons have come in the last forty of the ninety years - a fact largely overlooked, or unknown to those who do not follow the history of football. However low we fell in recent times, it was still nowhere near as bad as most from our peer group, and a quick look at those other clubs would certainly suggest we have reasons to be thankful for our past, and should be optimistic for our immediate future.

Here are The Third Pioneers, their total years in the top flight, and a breakdown of where they start the 2010-11 season :

Years In Top Flight

Southampton 35, Portsmouth 33, Charlton Athletic 26, Norwich City 21, QPR 20, Luton Town 16, Crystal Palace 13, Grimsby Town 10, Watford 8, Brentford 5, Brighton 4, Millwall 2, Reading 2, Swansea 2, Swindon Town 1, Northampton Town 1, Merthyr Town 0, Bristol Rovers 0, Plymouth Argyle 0, Newport County 0, Southend United 0, Exeter City 0, Gillingham 0, Aberdare Athletic 0, Stockport County 0, Darlington 0, Hartlepool 0, Accrington Stanley 0, Crewe Alexandra 0 Stalybridge Celtic 0 Walsall 0 Southport 0, Ashington 0, Durham City 0, Wrexham 0 Chesterfield 0, Lincoln City 0, Barrow 0, Nelson 0, Wigan Borough 0, Tranmere Rovers 0, Halifax Town 0, Rochdale 0.

Where Are They Now ?

Level One  -  0
Level Two  -  8
Level Three - 12
Level Four - 7
Non League/ De-funct - 16

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