SING UP THE RIVER END !: The United League

Friday, 18 February 2011

The United League

The United League was a short lived competition in the early part of the last century, which Norwich City entered for the first time in the 1906-07 season, their second year of professional football. The idea of the league was that it would enable clubs to increase their earnings by playing additional games during the week. The Citizens turned out on a Monday, Wednesday or Thursday afternoon, with an early kick off required, and whilst the enterprise brought in extra revenue, gates generally were much lower than traditional Saturday games. Presumably few people would have been able to get time off work to attend. The United League was not a reserve team competition - by and large Norwich fielded full strength sides which meant the star players played two matches a week for part of the season, alongside their Southern League commitments.

In 1906-07, eight clubs contested the competition. As well as the Citizens, Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace, Hastings & St Leonards, Leyton, Luton Town, New Brompton and Watford also took part. Norwich's first game was on Monday the 3rd of September 1906, a 4-2 away win against Leyton. Willie Wood scored twice with one each from Duncan Ronaldson and Alexander Birnie. Six games out of fourteen were won as the club finished fourth in the final league table.

The following season 1907-08, the club did not enter the competition. It was a summer of discontent, with Norwich managerless following the resignation of John Bowman and many boardroom upheavals. However in 1908-09, with Norwich now known as the Canaries and re-located from Newmarket Road to The Nest, they played in the United League once again. By this time it was made up of Midlands based sides, namely Coventry City, Grantham Avenue, Lincoln City, Peterborough City, Rotherham Town and Walsall. Poor attendances however continued to be a problem and after taking into consideration the distance that Norwich had to travel to away matches, it could barely have been worth it financially. Increasingly trial players were given a chance - eight players used during the campaign appeared in the United League but not in the Southern League. City finished in third place, though only a point adrift of winners Rotherham. The last match they ever played in this league was on the 29th of April 1909 at home to Grantham Avenue. The score was 7-0 to Norwich, with Sam Gunton scoring five times, plus others from S Bacon and W Silor.

Thereafter City reverted back to playing just in the Southern League, with crowds and interest in football steadily increasing despite fewer matches being on offer.
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I will probably never tell the whole story of Norwich City here, but intend to have a real good go ! I post items randomly, as they come to mind, and the slow feed of information is intentional. Taken in large doses, history can be boring. As nobody can possibly read everything on this site in one visit, I hope readers will return often to explore the archives. For some the site has become a resource for NCFC information. For others it is a memory jogger. Either way, I hope you enjoy your visit.

Please remember when reading facts and figures on Sing Up The River End! that they were accurate at time of writing. Life moves on and sometimes events change things. Whilst I endeavour to update articles and re-publish where I can, the sheer volume of information on the site makes this an almost impossible task.

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Seen It Before ?

The total content of Sing Up The River End! has now reached such a high level that updating old items has become an issue. Therefore I am dedicating part of my time to putting this right. It does mean slightly less new material appearing as there are only so many hours in the day available for my hobby. But hopefully visitors will enjoy reading articles for a second time. Some items will never be re-published as they need to sit on the site in chronological order. But for all others that are worthy of re-publication, I intend to put them back on the front page every 12 to 15 months, with updated information added where necessary.

Mike Davage

The deeper I go with this project, the more I realise the importance and extent of the work carried out by Mike Davage. Much of what is known about NCFC in the past comes from his books Canary Citizens and Glorious Canaries. This includes things you read elsewhere on the internet and in other people's books, as well as here on Sing Up The River End! This fact is further acknowledged in the sources section at the top of this blog. The truth is, without his painstaking historical and statistical research, little would be recorded. I try to bring new things to the attention of Norwich City supporters, and often the information to do this is extracted from those resources Mike Davage brought to the world. I spend many hours analysing, listing and interpreting. Often this results in facts about our great club, Norwich City, being presented in a different and refreshing way, not seen anywhere else before now. As with Mike Davage, I cannot write history or make it happen. Hopefully though, I am, like him, succeeding in passing the baton on to the next generation, in my case via the power of the internet. I spend a lot of time on this site talking about NCFC legends. As far as writing about the club is concerned, Mike Davage is as legendary as they come.

SING UP THE RIVER END !

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Friday, 18 February 2011

The United League

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