FOOTBALL HISTORY ON THE DOORSTEP

Mike Ebdy shares with us some of the football secrets hidden in our City’s streets

Most sports fans are well aware of the prominent role that Preston North End played in the early years of the Football League. In the League’s first season, 1888-89, North End won the League without losing a match and the FA Cup without conceding a goal. Champions again the following year, they finished second in each of the next three seasons. Sadly, such glories have been in short supply in recent years.

The drinkers in the wine bars in the City may well be watching the football on the big screens, but very few of them will know that their watering hole played a crucial role in the early years of the league. In the first years the league secretary was Harry Lockett of Stoke City, but in 1902 the job was taken on by Tom Charnley of North End. He worked from his home at 248 St Paul’s Road, but soon found that larger premises were needed. In 1903 the league moved to 13, Winckley Street, just off Fishergate. The building is currently taking shape as an upmarket bar.

After ten years in Winckley Street, the League moved to Castle Chambers in Market Street, and then successively to 30 Winckley Square, 102 Fishergate, and 6 Starkie Street. In 1959 the headquarters moved to Lytham St Annes, coincidentally next door to the League’s secretary Alan Hardaker.

However, in 1999 the EFL moved back to Preston Docks, and finally, in 2017, to brand-new purpose-built premises at the junction of West Cliff and Fishergate Hill. Remarkably, of the nine Headquarters in the history of the League, eight are in Preston and one in Lytham, which illustrates the importance of this area in the genesis of the game. Here is a quote from the Lilywhite magic website which sums this up nicely: “As a Preston man and PNE fan I take special pride relating how Preston North End played a leading role in forming the Football League and how the town of Preston itself was the cradle of a league now copied throughout the world” – Dave Bond.

Even before all this happened, Preston was at the centre of the major football controversy of the day, which was professionalism. The early years of the game were dominated by public school teams, Royal Engineers and Oxford University, whose players were either gentlemen of leisure or professional salaried men who

could take time away from work whenever they chose. Naturally enough, this put the Northern working man, paid by the hour, at a considerable disadvantage. The upper class amateurs who founded the FA believed that money would damage the sporting ideals of the game, but this stance was undermined by the advent of the FA Cup. So great was the desire of every team to win “The little tin idol”, that the subversive growth of professionalism began.

In 1867 a young man called Billy Sudell joined a rugby club called Preston Nelson. They moved to play on Moor Park, and thus became Preston North End. In 1875 they moved again and from then played their home games at Deepdale Farm, where they remain to this day. In time they switched from the oval ball to a round one, possibly due to competition from Preston Grasshoppers. Sudell had graduated from player to Chairman. By 1881 he was scouring the big Scottish clubs for players, mainly in Edinburgh, and offering them money to come South. This was strictly against the rules of the time, but the Football Association seemed powerless to stop it, hard though they tried.

In 1882 a rule was brought in prohibiting any player receiving any payment other than strictly controlled expenses, with offending clubs being expelled from the FA. This was an alarming prospect, but Sudell was determined to bring about change, and stood firm. Perhaps the biggest factor in his favour was that everyone was paying players, and “shamateurism” was widely practised but completely ignored. Along with other clubs, North End were barred from entering the FA Cup, but Sudell responded by threatening to lead a breakaway organisation and merge with Scottish clubs in a British FA.

This could have produced a similar situation to the split in the Rugby football, with a professional League and an amateur Union, but payments were so widespread that the FA capitulated. On 20th July 1885, at a meeting in Fleet Street, London, Sudell’s triumph was complete, as the FA voted to legalise professionalism by 55 votes to 15. It is no coincidence that 1885 was also the last time that an amateur club (Queen’s Park, Glasgow) reached the FA Cup final. Again, Preston had played a major role in shaping the greatest sport in the world. n

For more information go to: lilywhitemagic.co.uk

Whalley-born Chris Henry has been credited by a Ryder Cup player and several snooker world champions as a key component in their success. He talks to David Fearnhead about how he came to create his Neural Rewiring process and its life-changing potential

Could it really be 40 years since John McEnroe uttered his immortal line, ‘You cannot be serious!’ Modern technology may have proven him right, the ball was indeed ‘on the line’, but one question remains. How good could he have been if, like Roger Federer, he had learned to curb his volcanic temper?

The answer could surprisingly be not as good. What’s worth remembering is that his most quoted outburst came in the first round of Wimbledon 1981 – a championship he would go on to win by finally beating his great rival Björn Borg. Only in recent years did McEnroe re-evaluate and reveal that perhaps he knew what he was doing all along. That his loss of temper was actually a benefit.

“He was changing the neurotransmitters and chemicals in the brain,” explains Neural Rewiring coach Chris Henry. “Dopamine and endorphins are preferred brain hormones for performance rather than cortisol.

Cortisol is anxiety, stress and fight-flight state related leading to increased heart rate, brainwaves and also promotes negative thoughts. So what McEnroe was doing was to change that state.”

However, there’s more to it than just yelling at the linesman. “To play at your optimal level you need to be in what we call alpha brainwave state, which is a calm state. So, it’s alright letting it blast, but in that blast needs to be positive reminders of process keys that promote high levels of performance, but you quickly need to calm yourself down. It’s a bit like tuning into the right radio frequency allowing the optimum brainwave state to communicate with the physical body via electrical impulses.”

In order to do that requires, at risk of sounding like Liam Neeson, a very special set of skills. Skills which Chris has studied, honed and now teaches. Speaking to Chris is a fascinating insight into the human mind. His passion for neuroscience is clear and so too is his desire to awaken others to its practical application.

His own journey of discovery started in an unlikely venue – a snooker hall toilet. Chris was on a hot streak at the 1988 Dutch championship. He’d looked comfortable in both the quarters and semis, but the final was different. It was being televised live all over Europe and in the 80’s snooker drew viewers by their millions. “I couldn’t hold my cue, I was that nervous and anxious. I didn’t even want to be in the room,” confesses Chris.

After losing the first two frames he took a toilet break. “I just let rip at myself, not realising that that was actually a good thing to do. By doing so I’d managed to change the chemicals in my brain and as a result, my emotional state.”

What happened next would be life changing. He went on to win 5-4. “I did an interview after the final and mentioned I was going down to Antwerp for a couple of days to do some coaching. There was a Belgian businessman watching on television who owned the club that I was going to, along with 11 other clubs. He introduced himself to me, congratulated me on the win and offered me a contract.”

The 12-month contract came with a salary, a car, and a house for his use.

“I was 24 at the time, so I was interested,” says Chris with a wry smile. The house turned out to be in the stunning medieval city of Bruges – a place he calls home today: “It grabbed hold of me straight away and I accepted.”

Losing his mother Sheila through cancer a year later saw him return home to live with his father, Thomas, in Accrington. Then after two years in England he decided to head back to Belgium.

However, he never forgot that moment in the toilet of a Dutch snooker hall. He was curious as to why he felt so nervous and what had changed. It led him first to study psychology and then eventually into neuroscience. It brought a deep understanding of what actually happened to him and if you can understand it, you can replicate it and teach it to others.

Key to his understanding is that the subconscious brain doesn’t know the difference between fantasy and reality. “A neuroscientist I met in San Diego explained to me that belief and habit are the two things that control performance and that there are clusters of neurons and connections in your brain caused by repetition. The exciting thing is you can design your neurons and connections with what you choose to wire in there via the five senses plus motion and visualisation.”

It’s this neural rewiring process, an upgrade in brain software, that has seen Chris guide professional golfer Rafa Cabrera Bello to be a leading European point scorer in the 2016 Ryder Cup and Rolex series winner in 2017. This year Chris made history by coaching both players in the World Professional Snooker Championship final. His accomplishments as a coach are many but his process is not exclusive to sport.

“It’s a technique that anyone can use,” says Chris. “Everything we’ve been through with the pandemic has resulted in a lot more fear and anxiety than normal. There’s a lot of people getting into a more depressed state of mind. Beliefs and habits are the two keys and I’m now looking to get in front of people via corporate training and open seminars to explain and teach this subconscious emotion-controlling process.” n