Division I Caton United Bill Hodgson, Jimmy Till, Johnny Young, Bert Cartmel, Albert Robinson, R. Bowker.

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1 Caton United Caton United s third post-war season in the North Lancashire League turned out to be quite extraordinary and proved to be a huge success whilst in the football world the end of the season was marked with a disaster, In March 1946 Caton United Football Club was revived following World War II. After a meeting, with only a moderate attendance, that was held at the Victoria Institute, Caton, it was decided to enter a team in Division I of the North Lancashire and District Football League for the season. The year turned out to be very successful as they finished as runnersup to Galgate, another strong side who won the Division One title. Caton also won the Infirmary Senior Cup by beating Milnthorpe Corinthians 6-3 after extra time. The second season produced a 5th place finish in the league and victory over the County Mental Hospital in the Parkinson Cup played at Christie Park. Caton United had at least four outstanding players in their team. Joe Easterby was coveted by Football League clubs, Bolton Wanderers and Wolverhampton Wanderers, and was arguably the finest player produced in this area of the country. The Wolves manager, Major Frank Buckley, came to Morecambe to try and persuade Joe to sign with Wolves but Joe turned him down and instead went on to play for Morecambe. Bill Hodgson was on the books of Blackpool just after the war and although I don t remember him playing (I was four at the time) local football pundits rated him in the highest echelon of players. Ted Fairclough was another talented footballer who represented the league in Junior Internationals against Scotland and played in the league for many years at Caton and Ingleboro. Albert Robinson was an excellent athlete who played for Crystal Palace in 1946 and during the war boxed for the Marines as well as being an outstanding 800 yards runner at the Powderhall New Year Sprint event in Edinburgh. As a child Albert had, I believe, suffered from Rheumatic Fever and Gordon Mashiter used to say he always won his heats at Edinburgh but because of his childhood illness he could never recover in time to put in a winning performance in the finals. During 1946 Albert played for Lancaster City in six games and also for Crystal Palace against Queens Park Rangers. I spent a very enjoyable few hours talking to his widow who lived at Galgate and she showed me the postcards from these clubs inviting Albert to play for them. During 1947 he played for Poole Town, Lancaster City and two games for Morecambe against Netherfield as well as playing for Caton United. In January 1948 he also played for Bentham United against Williamsons. All these postcards came to Albert at various addresses including 13 Langdale, Caton, Sydenham, London, 36 Vale Road, Parkstone, Dorset, and Woodlands Hostel, Chorley. I believe he was in the 26th Battalion, Royal Marines, and I m only sorry now that I didn t get chance to talk to him about his life. Fortunately one of Albert s best friends was another well-known and talented local footballer, Eric Acton, also known as The Legend, and he has related many stories about Albert that at first I found hard to believe, mainly because I knew him as being a very quiet spoken, reserved gentleman. Eric remembers one game against Burton-in-Lonsdale when Albert was on the receiving end of some rough play from John Cochrane. Apparently Albert told him to cut it out as well as pointing out these indiscretions to the referee but John persisted. The conclusion of the story was that when the Burton goalkeeper cleared the ball into the Caton half of the field all the heads of players and spectators alike followed the flight of the ball and it was only when they looked back that they saw John Ginger Cochrane flat on his back with only Albert in the vicinity. The boxing talents he learned in the Marines were often in evidence according to Eric but Albert wasn t troubled

2 further in the game. Gordon Mashiter, another Caton footballer and athlete, introduced Albert to the Powderhall and he took part in the main event and ran races for many years all over the North of England. The New Year Sprint, formerly known as the "Powderhall", is a unique event in the annals of sporting history being the last of the old time pedestrian galas. It has been an annual New Year event since 1870, the heyday of pedestrianism (professional running) then the sport of the people. The format remains unchanged. All races are handicapped to ensure close finishes and betting fuels the enjoyment of the spectators. The days of huge betting coups and malpractice are long gone but the tradition, spirit and atmosphere remain. To win the "Big Sprint" remains the dream of all competitors no matter their age or ability. To give you an idea how prestigious this event was you only need to look at the record of Barney Ewell (U.S.A) who finished 2nd in the sprint, giving the winner 12 yards start, and went on to win a gold and two silver medals at the 1948 Olympics in London. He died in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in The season started with six victories including a 5-1 defeat of Williamsons in the Lancashire Junior Shield 1st round before a 1-2 defeat at current champions, Galgate. Five more victories and a 2nd round win at Milnthorpe in the Junior Shield brought them up against the villagers from Bolton-le-Sands in the 3rd round of the prestigious County competition. At this stage of the season reigning champions, Galgate, sat on top of the league with a 100% record after 10 games. Caton had beaten Bolton-le-Sands 3-0 in an earlier away league fixture but the tie at Caton turned out to a pulsating end-to-end battle that ended 4-4 after extra time. For some reason the replay took place on United s ground of Jowett s Field and another thrilling spectacle entertained the large crowd before Bolton-le-Sands emerged victorious after extra time by 3-2 and went on to lift the trophy by beating Mosley Common by 2-0 at Christie Park in front of 3,200 spectators in March In late January 1949 another local sportsman, Alfred Husband, celebrated his Golden Wedding Anniversary with a report of the event in the Lancaster Guardian. Well known in the City, Mr and Mrs Alfred Husband of Edenvale Crescent, Lancaster will celebrate their golden wedding anniversary on February 2nd with a party in the Friends Hall. A member of the Notts County First Division Club during season , Mr Husband is a native of Lancaster now aged 73 years. He worked as an engineer for James Williamson and Son Ltd for 30 years before joining the staff of Lansil Ltd. Mary Jane, his wife, worked for Storey Brothers before her marriage. Caton s impressive run of form continued with another seven victories and then a stunning home victory in the 2nd round of the Parkinson Cup against undefeated league leaders, Galgate, by 7-1 that set up a mouth-watering semi-final against old adversaries, Bolton-le-Sands. A fine 2-0 victory took them into the final against Division II leaders, G.P.O. Telephones who they successfully despatched by the same score on the Giant Axe. The next target was the Senior Challenge Cup, which was open to all-comers, and they had progressed to a semi-final encounter with Heysham after overcoming Caton Utd Reserves, 6-0, Carnforth Rangers Reserves, 8-3, Bentham Utd, 9-2, and Lancaster Moor Hospital, 2-0. A fine victory by 2-0 got them past Heysham at Bowerham Barracks and then an equally impressive defeat of Milnthorpe Corinthians in the final by 3-1 put a second trophy

3 in the cabinet. They completed this record breaking season by beating Bolton-le-Sands 4-3 on Jowett s Field in yet another thrilling encounter to capture the Division I title and make a clean sweep of all the trophies, a truly magnificent achievement. The disaster that I alluded to earlier took place on Wednesday, 4 May 1949, when a plane carrying almost the entire Torino A.C. football squad, popularly known as Il Grande Torino, crashed into the hill of Superga near Turin killing all 31 aboard including 18 players plus club officials and journalists accompanying the team as well as the plane's crew. The team was returning from a farewell match for Xico Ferreira against Benfica in Lisbon. The disaster was the big Italian news story of the week; the front cover of the popular Sunday paper, La Domenica del Corriere, provided an artist's interpretation of the crash. The Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines) Fiat G212CP carrying the team flew into a thunderstorm on the approach to Turin and encountered conditions of low cloud and poor visibility. They were forced to descend to be able to fly visually. While descending for Turin, the aircraft crashed against the base of the rear wall of the Basilica complex at the top of the hill of Superga. Italian authorities cited low cloud, poor radio aids and an error in navigation as factors contributing to the accident. The emotional impact the crash made on Italian sports fans was profound, as it claimed the lives of the players of a legendary team which had won the last Serie A title before the league play was interrupted in 1944 by World War II and had then returned after the conflict to win four consecutive titles ( ). At the time of the crash, Torino A.C. was leading Serie A with four games left to play in the season. The club carried on by fielding its youth team (Primavera) and in a sign of respect their opponents in each of these matches (Genoa, Palermo, Sampdoria, and Fiorentina) also fielded their youth sides. Primavera won each of the matches and the scudetto. The disaster seriously weakened the country's national side which had included up to ten Torino players. Torino itself would not claim another title until Of the entire squad only one player remained: Sauro Tomà missed the trip to Portugal due to injury. As well, the Hungarian star László Kubala, who was to give a guest performance in Lisbon, had just been re-united with his wife and son; the boy was ill and Kubala stayed back to help care for him, missing the fatal trip. Another youth team player, Luigi Giuliano, who played several games and scored 4 goals earlier in the season for the main squad, did not obtain his passport in time and also survived. The son of the captain Valentino Mazzola, Sandro, became a player of international fame in his own right in the 1960s playing with Inter Milan. Both father and son wore the number 10 shirt.

4 On May 26th, 1949 there was a charity game for the victim's families between the "Torino Simbolo" (symbolic Torino) made up of the remaining best of the Serie A against South American giants River Plate. "La Maquina" had such immortal players like Norberto Yacono, Alfredo di Stefano and Angel Labruna. The game ended in a 2-2 draw. Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) describes an accident in which an airworthy aircraft, under pilot control, is unintentionally flown into the ground, a mountain, water, or an obstacle. The term was coined by engineers at Boeing in the late 1970s. The pilots are generally unaware of the danger until it is too late. According to Boeing, CFIT "is a leading cause of airplane accidents involving the loss of life. There have been more than 9,000 deaths due to this since the beginning of the commercial jet age."

Division I 1948-49 P W D L F A Pts Caton United 26 22 2 2 108 32 46 Galgate 26 20 3 3 89 38 43 Milnthorpe Corinthians 26 19 4 3 109 44 42 Bolton-le-Sands 26 16 6 4 92 41 38 Arnside United 26 10 10 6

5 Division I P W D L F A Pts Caton United Galgate Milnthorpe Corinthians Bolton-le-Sands Arnside United Lancaster Lads Club Old Boys Carnforth Rangers Dry Dock United Bentham United Storeys of Lancaster Lancaster Moor Hospital Warton Lansil Williamsons Caton United Back Row (L- R) Front Row (L- R) Bill Hodgson, Jimmy Till, Johnny Young, Bert Cartmel, Albert Robinson, R. Bowker. Fred Robinson, Joe Easterby, Jock Kerr, Ted Fairclough, Cyril Gardner.

Caton United Galgate Lads Club Old Boys Bentham United Corinthians

Caton United Galgate Lads Club Old Boys Bentham United Corinthians Grand Slam winners Grand Slam usually refers to the sports of golf and tennis but it can also be applied to local football. Between 1946 and 1970 four teams in the North Lancashire & District Football