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NUNHEAD FOOTBALL CLUB 1888-1949
By Mick Blakeman
Yore Publications, £8.95 plus £1.00 postage - Reviewed by Vince Taylor
Just a short distance from Nunhead Station in South East London one
comes across an unremarkable looking sports field. Wedged in between a
row of houses on one side, and a railway line on the other, this nondescript
assortment of sports pitches and modern changing rooms gives few clues as
to its previous incarnation. Though every last vestige of the club has now
gone, this site was formerly the home to Nunhead FC, one of amateur football’s biggest names between the wars. Twice winners of the Isthmian
League, Nunhead FC played at what was then called Brown’s Ground from
1908 to 1940. As one of the few clubs of their status not to emerge after the
end of the Second World War, Nunhead’s name has since acquired a poignant ring to it. It has not been until now however that anyone has attempted
to document their short time in the non-league football limelight.
Author Mick Blakeman traces the history of the club from their origins as a team representing a home for working boys in the late 1880s, to their sad passing away in 1949. Each season is comprehensively covered, with
full results and league tables, fleshed out with a fascinating commentary of notable matches and events.
There are numerous team groups, match action shots, programme covers and other illustrations included
amongst the book’s 80 pages, as well as an exhaustive history of the Brown’s Ground itself. Across the front
cover, and almost worth the price of the book alone, is an astonishing panoramic view of the ground, taken, it
is believed, during a match against great local rivals Dulwich Hamlet in or around 1920. The book concludes
with a list of all the players to have worn the Nunhead shirt, the most famous of whom is Dennis Compton,
who played a few games for the club as a seventeen year old. An amazing feat of research, as well as a
thoroughly fascinating read, Mick Blakeman has with this book put Nunhead firmly back on the footballing
map.
Available from: Yore Publications, 12 The Furrows, Harefield, UB9 6AT.
AEROFILMS GUIDE TO FOOTBALL GROUNDS - 8TH EDITION
Published by Dial House, 192 pages, £15.99 - Reviewed by Colin Peel
The eighth annual Aerofilms guide is in the shops now, at a pound dearer
than last year. 27 grounds have new pictures, and Aggborough replaces the
deposed Deva Stadium. The quality of the new material is as brilliant as
ever, with Newcastle a definite highlight. The sheer imbalance of this stadium
is graphically revealed. Aerofilms are to be commended for continuing to
track developments in the lower divisions - of the 27 "refreshed" venues, 17
are in Divisions Two or Three, and the information concerning future developments is almost as up to date as this magazine!
Another welcome development is the substitution of action photos for some
basic ground plans - the photos used to cut across the stadium shot, but the
plans are kept well clear. On the minus side, the reproduction of many re-used photos is poor, and Scottish
venues have still not reappeared.
Groundtastic
page 53
Issue 23