New Attendance Record Uncovered For Town
Wed 27th November 2013 | St Helens Town | By Ian Templeman
St Helens Town's club historian Glyn Jones has uncovered a new club record, which had previously lain undiscovered for over 60 years.
Glyn was carrying out some research for an article in the match programme issued for the club's recent Bert Trautmann Memorial Game, which was played against a Manchester City all stars team on 17th November, when he noticed that the club's record attendance has, up to now, been understated.
Glyn takes up the story.
"The club's record attendance in the League website, handbook and elsewhere up to now has been given as 4000 v Manchester City in 1950. In my recent visits to St. Helens library, I discovered this figure is very much wide of the mark.
"When Bert Trautmann signed for Manchester City from St. Helens Town in October 1949, it was part of the deal that the Sky Blues would return to Hoghton Road for a friendly game at the end of the season. That game took place on Thursday, 27th April 1950 and attracted a record crowd of between 8000 and 9000 people.
"Peter Smith’s account of the game in the St. Helens Newspaper stated that over 4000 people paid on the gate and, after pre-match ticket sales had been added in, the total gate was comfortably over 8000 “with still plenty of room for more”.
"The teams were presented to Cllr. Percy Griffiths, who was representing the Mayor and Saints’ rugby league club captain, Jimmy Stott, kicked-off proceedings. The Town team were boosted by a number of football league club players, all of whom were born in the St. Helens area. These players included Griffiths (Bury), Lynn (Manchester United), Morris (Stockport County), Murphy (Bolton Wanderers), Birkett (Manchester United), Crampton (Manchester City), and Anders (Preston North End).
"So successful had the first game been that the sides met again at Hoghton Road a year later on 3rd May 1951.
"Town were in the middle of clearing a huge fixture backlog, but a victory the following night over Bacup guaranteed promotion to Division 1 of the Lancashire Combination and a few days later, they were crowned Division 2 Champions. The crowd for this Wednesday evening fixture was given as a “satisfactory 4000 to 5000".
"The club record attendance for a league game was 3012 against Burscough in the Lancashire Combination on 2nd October 1948. I haven't seen a reported attendance bigger than this figure for a competitive home game, but when the club moved to City Road, the former St. Helens Recs. RL ground, in November 1952, there were several quite large attendances.
"However, they dropped down again as the months went by and, by the end of October 1953, Town re-located to Hoghton Road, where they remained until April 2000".
Town's record attendance details on their club page on the League website have now been updated, to reflect Glyn's findings.
New Attendance Record Uncovered For Town
Wed 27th November 2013 | St Helens Town
By Ian Templeman
St Helens Town's club historian Glyn Jones has uncovered a new club record, which had previously lain undiscovered for over 60 years.
Glyn was carrying out some research for an article in the match programme issued for the club's recent Bert Trautmann Memorial Game, which was played against a Manchester City all stars team on 17th November, when he noticed that the club's record attendance has, up to now, been understated.
Glyn takes up the story.
"The club's record attendance in the League website, handbook and elsewhere up to now has been given as 4000 v Manchester City in 1950. In my recent visits to St. Helens library, I discovered this figure is very much wide of the mark.
"When Bert Trautmann signed for Manchester City from St. Helens Town in October 1949, it was part of the deal that the Sky Blues would return to Hoghton Road for a friendly game at the end of the season. That game took place on Thursday, 27th April 1950 and attracted a record crowd of between 8000 and 9000 people.
"Peter Smith’s account of the game in the St. Helens Newspaper stated that over 4000 people paid on the gate and, after pre-match ticket sales had been added in, the total gate was comfortably over 8000 “with still plenty of room for more”.
"The teams were presented to Cllr. Percy Griffiths, who was representing the Mayor and Saints’ rugby league club captain, Jimmy Stott, kicked-off proceedings. The Town team were boosted by a number of football league club players, all of whom were born in the St. Helens area. These players included Griffiths (Bury), Lynn (Manchester United), Morris (Stockport County), Murphy (Bolton Wanderers), Birkett (Manchester United), Crampton (Manchester City), and Anders (Preston North End).
"So successful had the first game been that the sides met again at Hoghton Road a year later on 3rd May 1951.
"Town were in the middle of clearing a huge fixture backlog, but a victory the following night over Bacup guaranteed promotion to Division 1 of the Lancashire Combination and a few days later, they were crowned Division 2 Champions. The crowd for this Wednesday evening fixture was given as a “satisfactory 4000 to 5000".
"The club record attendance for a league game was 3012 against Burscough in the Lancashire Combination on 2nd October 1948. I haven't seen a reported attendance bigger than this figure for a competitive home game, but when the club moved to City Road, the former St. Helens Recs. RL ground, in November 1952, there were several quite large attendances.
"However, they dropped down again as the months went by and, by the end of October 1953, Town re-located to Hoghton Road, where they remained until April 2000".
Town's record attendance details on their club page on the League website have now been updated, to reflect Glyn's findings.
