Last updated at 11:52, Friday, 17 August 2012

A west Cumbrian Sunday League side is celebrating a remarkable achievement this season – 50 years of unbroken service in local football.

The Deer Orchard team in 1982

‘Remarkable’ because the club Deer Orchard was formed in 1962 by a group of schoolboys at Cockermouth Grammar School.

Originally formed as an Under-18’s team to play in the Derwent Valley Junior League they joined the Workington Sunday League briefly as Cockermouth Juniors before reverting to their old name of Deer Orchard.

The rest, as they say, is history and Deer Orchard is still going strong, playing at Wakefield Road in the town as they have done for the greater part of those 50 years.

To mark the occasion a special 50th Reunion get-together has been organised for Friday, September 14 in Cockermouth Conservative Club (7pm to midnight).

One of the founder members, News and Star sports writer John Walsh, said: “I don’t know how many we are going to get because half of Cockermouth will have played for Orchard over the 50 years.

“I think it’s a wonderful achievement for a local amateur club to keep going for 50 years. There won’t be many in the county with that amount of unbroken service to the game.

“We were all soccer mad and pupils at a rugby-only school and we used to meet up afterwards and kick around at Deer Orchard, some land near where the current Sports Centre is.

“Our first kit was all white PE gear from school and we were struggling for a home ground. The turning point was Jimmy Robinson getting involved. He was a former referee and an official of the County FA and an experienced administrator.

“We got our first proper kit – the old Blackburn Rovers blue and white squares and Jimmy arranged for us to play at RNAD. Later we moved to Wakefield Road and the team has been there ever since.

“I remember the first Cup we won as Under-18’s we took it round Cockermouth on the Sunday night and every pub (there was a lot in them days) filled it.

“Our biggest rivals in the early days were Coalesce from Workington and without exaggeration, although it was Under-18’s football, we had hundreds watching.

“I can recall at least a couple of games being abandoned for fighting but the one that sticks in the mind was at Prospect. Our left winger Joe Jackson was tearing down the touchline when a woman in the crowd whacked him with an umbrella. All hell broke loose after that. Funnily enough they never came to Wakefield Road for the return game.”

Jimmy Robinson, always with his trademark trilby, became the spirit of Deer Orchard, with solid back-up over the years from Stan Bewley and Fred Dandy.

Brian Perkins, one of the four founder members along with Tom Allen, Andy Gillespie and John, went on to play 25 years for the club – 22 of them as captain.

A prolific goal-scorer, his best season was in 1964 when he smashed over 70 goals for Orchard.

“I remember going round with Kenny Routledge to see Major Senhouse about using Sandair to play on. He said he had no objections as long as the cricket club hadn’t – but they had.

“We tried various places, had a spell using RNAD and also played on Derwent School before Billy Forsyth left land in his will to be used for Cockermouth people to use for sporting purposes. We were first in and that was Wakefield Road where the club still is today,” he recalls.

Tom Allen now lives in Cleethorpes but he is a regular visitor to Cockermouth and keeps up to date with Orchard’s progress season-to-season.

“I think it’s quite an achievement for a Sunday side to keep going for so long. When we started kicking about at Deer Orcghard, and had the idea of forming a team, little did we imagine it would last 50 years,” he said.

Andy Gillespie, the fourth founder member, is believed to be now living in South Africa.

All former players are warmly invited to the Cons Club in Cockermouth on September 14.

First published at 11:29, Friday, 17 August 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk