The Isthmian Years- 1963-64

The 1963-64 Isthmian season kicked off on August 24th with reigning champions Wimbledon looking to be victorious for a third time in a row, and with Hendon, Enfield, Sutton United and Hitchin Town amongst our ranks for the very first time. In the professional game, Everton were still celebrating their sixth League Championship, whilst Manchester United were FA Cup holders, and Jimmy Greaves was looking to quickly find his shooting boots after top scoring with thirty seven goals in the previous campaign.

The Great Train robbers were still being hunted, whilst Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas had the number one single with ‘Bad to Me,’ a song written by Lennon & McCartney.

Isthmian League

The opening day fixtures were as follows:

Enfield 3 Barking 2
St Albans City 2 Corinthian-Casuals 0
Clapton 1 Hendon 2
Kingstonian 6 Hitchin Town 2
Dulwich Hamlet 2 Leytonstone 3
Ilford 3 Sutton United 1
Walthamstow Avenue 0 Tooting & Mitcham Utd 1
Maidstone United 3 Wycombe Wanderers 2

Kingstonian had the biggest win on the opening day, and eventually finished the season in third place, eight points off the summit. Newcomers Hendon finished second, six points behind Wimbledon, who took their eighth and final title. At the other end, Dulwich Hamlet and Clapton had to apply for re-election, which both did, successfully. Wealdstone would replace Wimbledon as members of the league, perhaps because it wouldn’t ruin the alphabetical order! They were voted in ahead of Barnet and Finchley, and other clubs who applied for membership unsuccessfully were Croydon Amateurs, Erith & Belvedere and Hertford Town.

The Dons took four points from four against the K’s, and against Hendon both matches ended in home victory. Hendon scored an incredible one hundred and twenty four goals- Wimbledon got ‘only’ eighty seven, which made the champions the sixth-highest scorers. Clapton conceded a then- record one hundred and twenty goals, whilst Hitchin Town finished fourteenth despite conceding one hundred times. Dulwich Hamlet’s views on Hendon- see below- were not recorded.

Notable results:

Hendon 10 Dulwich Hamlet 1
Dulwich Hamlet 1 Hendon 9
Hendon 8 Hitchin Town 2
Hendon 7 Corinthian-Casuals 0
Walthamstow Ave 7 Hitchin Town 0
Kingstonian 7 Woking 0
Kingstonian 7 Ilford 1
Ilford 1 Hendon 7
Hitchin Town 7 Ilford 2
Ilford 6 Clapton 0
Sutton Utd 6 Clapton 1
Tooting &MU 6 Corinthian-Casuals 1
Tooting & MU 6 Hitchin Town 1
Kingstonian 6 Corinthian-Casuals 1
Wimbledon 6 Dulwich Hamlet 1
Sutton Utd 6 Oxford City 1
Woking 1 Hendon 6
Maidstone Utd 1 Oxford City 6

We don’t have attendance figures for most of the matches, sadly- but the highest we have is three thousand, two hundred and fifty three who watched the derby between Enfield and Hendon on March 21st- a match which ended one-nil to the hosts.
FA Cup

We had four teams left in the competition as the First Round got underway on November 16th. Sutton United went down four-nil at home to Aldershot, Enfield went out to Reading four-two in a replay after a two-all draw, Tooting & Mitcham United fell two-one at home to Gravesend and Northfleet, whilst Wimbledon were the only side to be successful, winning five-one at Bexley United.

The Dons drew Bath City in the Second Round, and after a two-two draw lost the replay by four goals to nil.

FA Amateur Cup

Three of the Quarter Finalists of the FA Amateur Cup of 1963-64 were Isthmian sides. Enfield produced a fine victory over Whitby Town of the Northern League, winning three-nil, whilst Kingstonian made the long, long trip to face another Northern League side, the now sadly defunct Ferryhill Athletic, and came away with a one-nil victory.

Walthamstow Avenue held Crook Town one-one, but were demolished three-nil in the replay.

The Semi-Final draw guaranteed us a finalist, as our two remaining sides drew each other. Kingstonian and Enfield met at Stamford Bridge in a match that ended goalless, although the K’s had most of the play. The replay was at Craven Cottage, and Kingstonian opened the scoring and then got the second goal too, but sadly for the K’s the second goal was an own goal, drawing Enfield level. Into extra time and Enfield took the lead from the spot, only for the K’s to draw level- but just when it seemed a second replay beckoned, Enfield got the winner to head to Wembley for the first time- where they would face Northern League favourites Crook Town. They would go on to appear at the old stadium six times in total.

The Final took place on April 18th 1964, in front of thirty seven thousand spectators. Crook Town were looking to win their fifth FA Amateur Cup, and were appearing at Wembley for the fourth time. They had never reached the Final and lost.

Crook Town lined up as follows:

Ray Snowball, Daniel McCourt, Ian Reid, Barry Storey, Peter Garbutt, Allen Brown, John Weir, James Goodfellow, Derek Dowson, William Roughley, James McMillan

Snowball had already won the Cup twice with Crook, whilst Storey was part of their winning side in 1962, as was Garbutt, who also previously played for the other famous Northern League side, Bishop Auckland. Brown had previously played for Blackpool, whilst McMillan was part of Town’s Cup winning side on three previous occasions.

Enfield lined up as follows:

Malcolm Mitchell, Peter Terry, Jeff Harris, Malcolm Neale, Alf D’Arcy, Bob Cantwell, Roy Thomas, Bill Broomfield, Tony Edwards, Roger Day, Terry Howard

Terry and Harris were England internationals, and the latter was an Amateur Cup winner with Hendon a few years earlier. D’Arcy was an England international and had been an Olympian too, with Great Britain, Thomas was a Welsh international, whilst Broomfield knew Crook well as he previously played for Northern League rivals West Auckland. Howard had also won the Cup with Hendon in 1960.

Crook may have understandably been favourites, but they were handed a scare as Roger Day put Enfield ahead in the first half. But then, disaster. Goalkeeper Malcolm Mitchell managed to break his arm, and as these were the days prior to the introduction of substitutes, that meant that Roy Thomas had to go in goal and Enfield had to play the majority of the match not only with ten men but with a winger trying to keep the ball out of the net. After the break Crook managed to break their resistance, and James Goodfellow and Allen Brown managed to find a way past Thomas to take the trophy back to the North East. It was Town’s last ever Final- indeed there was only one more North East winner of the competition after 1964, North Shields taking the trophy in 1969.

Enfield were to go on and lift the Cup on two occasions- but those stories are for another time!

Check out our Isthmian Archive site, here- that's where we got the table and much of the other information.

Watch brief highlights of the Amateur Cup Final here.