A piece of family history

Good morning everyone,

I firstly need to apologise for invading your Cardiff City safe space, as I am in fact a Newcastle fan from the not-so-sunny North East. However, when my dear mother dug out a piece of family history, I felt sharing it here would be entirely worth the intrusion.

See my grandad Albert was by all accounts a hell of a player. And in his younger years came extremely close to playing for the Bluebirds. Half of my family are from the Bristol area, so he was in relative proximity to Cardiff. I'm led to believe he played a few reserve games, and stood out a mile. From what family have told me, he was two-footed and played very much in the 'Stanley Matthews' mould. Speaking to my mam about it I was told he very nearly ended up signing a professional contract. However, from what I can gather he was prevented from doing so by my great-grandfather who wanted him to focus on labouring work. I guess professional football didn't have the same draw at the time.

I thought I'd share pictures of this hand-written letter he received from manager at the time Cyril Spears, after shining in a reserve match, congratulating him on his performance. The letter, although tough to make out in places, I think invites him to play again for the reserve side against an R.A.F select 11, and performance depending, a call up to the first team to play against Swansea the following week (I apologise for the profanity).

I'm sure there's countless stories like this out there. It was very much a case of what could have been, he could have even been the Cardiff City 'Stan' of his time. But it's a piece of family history nonetheless, and one I'm pleased I can share with fans of the club he so nearly came to represent. I never got to spend a lot of time with my grandad, with the distance between us and his unfortunate illness in his later years. Sadly, he suffered from Alzheimers, that doctors even believed could have been caused from heading the old leather footballs. However, his memory lives on, and I always give him a thought when I pull on a pair of boots. Just a shame I don't have his talent!

Best of luck for the rest of this season, I'm sure you can beat the drop.

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Thanks very much for sharing that - really interesting. I can't imagine present day Managers writing hand written letters to prospective new players

Thanks for that, a lovely tale of football before all the nastiness set in. I had a lot of Geordie friends when in The RAF and I too wish you good luck in your relegation struggle this season.

Thanks very much for sharing that - really interesting. I can't imagine present day Managers writing hand written letters to prospective new players

Me neither! Instead they just throw an extra zero on the end of the bottom line and that seems to suffice.

Thanks for that, a lovely tale of football before all the nastiness set in. I had a lot of Geordie friends when in The RAF and I too wish you good luck in your relegation struggle this season.

My pleasure. And thank you for the sentiments. It's a strange time to be a Newcastle fan at the minute. Despite our precarious position, there's more optimism now than the previous 15 years under Ashley. However, I think there's a good portion of fans torn between the promise of new limitless ambition, and the human-rights record of our new owners. Maybe there's a point in the future we can go back to a simpler time, and like you say, remove the nastiness from football. But I fear that horse bolted long ago.

Really enjoyed reading all of it, Thanks

Really enjoyed reading all of it, Thanks

My pleasure. I'm going to get it framed and hung on the wall.

I am a City fan but have lived in the NE for 35yrs so the Toon are very much my second team.

The north east and South Wales are very similar areas indeed.

Thanks for sharing that letter. Interesting that it was written before the end of the war but when victory was assured so young guys would have been thinking of their future.

City was about to enter a burst of success and a period of very high crowds, like others in urban areas, NUFC included.

Thanks for sharing and for such a positive approach to another club site.

That’s a great story, lovely piece of history

nice story

Cheers.. seems Cyril was an incorrigible chatterbox compared to Vincent.

Like Newcastle, top stottys..

Really enjoyed reading all of it, Thanks

My pleasure. I'm going to get it framed and hung on the wall.

Def deserves that

I am a City fan but have lived in the NE for 35yrs so the Toon are very much my second team.

The north east and South Wales are very similar areas indeed.

Thanks for sharing that letter. Interesting that it was written before the end of the war but when victory was assured so young guys would have been thinking of their future.

City was about to enter a burst of success and a period of very high crowds, like others in urban areas, NUFC included.

Thanks for sharing and for such a positive approach to another club site.

It's a fantastic place to live, as I'm sure is the same in South Wales. Friendly, hard working people who don't turn their back on their neighbours.

Not a problem. At the end of the day, we're all football fans, we just wear different colours.

Cheers.. seems Cyril was an incorrigible chatterbox compared to Vincent.

Like Newcastle, top stottys..

Ham and pease pudding stotty! A local delicacy. Pease pudding isn't as a bad as it looks. Trust me

The letter is dated 6th March - we played Swansea away on the following Saturday losing 1-0, winning 6-2 at home the following Saturday.
This was the start of our climb back to the 1st division after falling down the leagues in the 1930's. Huge crowds on our return, averaging nearly 40,000, with 51,592 for the visit of Newcastle United on Dec 27th 1953.

Thanks for that, a lovely tale of football before all the nastiness set in. I had a lot of Geordie friends when in The RAF and I too wish you good luck in your relegation struggle this season.

My pleasure. And thank you for the sentiments. It's a strange time to be a Newcastle fan at the minute. Despite our precarious position, there's more optimism now than the previous 15 years under Ashley. However, I think there's a good portion of fans torn between the promise of new limitless ambition, and the human-rights record of our new owners. Maybe there's a point in the future we can go back to a simpler time, and like you say, remove the nastiness from football. But I fear that horse bolted long ago.

Rangers and City fan here, at least the gravy veined sociopath Ashley has gone, the bastards still dragging Rangers to court.

That’s why the Big Match reruns are enjoyable.. no messing about. Post match interviews, the players just seemed like ordinary guys, and you could understand them. Even the Northerners..

Worked with a Celtic fan jock, so got to half understand some of the strange noises he produced..

Worked with a Celtic fan jock, so got to half understand some of the strange noises he produced..

A working Celtic fan? Good grief.