Memories Down CUT THROAT LANE Afternoon, all. This feels like a big game, especially when you hear the opposition are running coaches to the Abbey from East Anglia. Well I keep saying this but it has been a while since we last crossed swords. Given the size and history of Sunderland AFC our record isn’t so bad but it is probably not worth mentioning the last time we met, in the League Cup at home on 1st October 2002. I always liked that fizzy lemon and lime concoction, mind. If 2002 seems like a long while ago, then how about 27 November 1965? The Linnets from King’s Lynn were in town for a Southern League Premier fixture. A fascinating programme, not least the cover featuring the original United in Endeavour badge. Why, oh why did the badge never feature on a U’s shirt? One spectacularly unusual feature of the programme in that era was that you had to turn to the centre-fold for the basic match details including date, opposition and line-ups. I have never seen that before or since. I know ads are boring but somehow when you look back to those days there is a certain air
of romanticism. Some cracking pubs in there, some still with us, some not. I particularly like Mr and Mrs Prong at the King’s Head in Fen Ditton. The pub’s still there and funnily enough sits on a fork in the road off the High Street. Think about it. And no King’s Lynn team of the 60s can go without mentioning Malcolm Lindsay, idol of the Walks and later of course of the Abbey. He scored 321 goals for the Linnets in a career spanning 740 games. He joined the U’s in February 1970 for £750 at the age of 29 and made an important contribution to the gaining of Football League status with eight goals in 17 Southern League appearances. He had returned to the Walks following a spell at Boston after leaving the Abbey at the end of 1970. Finally, on this date in 1920 English actor Buster Merryfield was born in Battersea. Known most popularly as ‘Uncle Albert’ in Only Fools & Horses, Merryfield learnt his trade as a fitter but later became a bank manager! A big Millwall fan, he died in Dorset in 1999, aged 78. Enjoy yourselves. ■
Harry
CLICK here TO READ THE ARCHIVE PROGRAMME www.cambridge-united.co.uk
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