CLAPTON ORIENT 1905.1906 THE FIRST SEASONOF NO EXCIJSES ! It's 100years since the o's becamea fullv fledgedleaeue outfit. the Stripestersteps into the time tunnel and looks back at that trailblazins first season. 'appearance I'tspretty difficult tobelieve that the dearold O's (in money'every time they visited the oneform or another) have been a leagueclub for 100 smoke,Teams such as Leeds City (as was)would years.Nevertheless, lfeel it's time to honourthatfact havepicked up t20 (and usually all the points)from a bystepping back into the murky past to theyear of our tripto the capital and W,B.A a tasty[15. Not much Lord1905, To get a flavour of the times let's look at moneyyou would think, but seeing as Leeds City someof the events that made the headlines that year, purchasedtheentire Elland Road sitefortl,050 quid it AlbertEinstien produced his theory of relativity, the isn'ta paltrysum given the times. Later, in May 1905 Russianshad just lost a war with the Japanese and O'smanager Samuel Ormerod (Born in Accrington, SinnFien had just been founded, heheld managerial positions with both Manchester Cityand Stockport County) hired a hoteland signed GATECRASHINGTHE PARTY.... quitea few players like goalkeeper Joe Butlerfrom StockportCounty,Richard Bourne, anf 100signing Meanwhile,back in merry old England, Clapton fromPreston North End, Peter Boyle an lrish Orientwere having their application tojoin the international full back,Peter Proudfoot from Mi Ilwal I Southernleague first division blocked at every turn. In Athletic,(inlater years he spent many years as 0's early1905 the Directors ofClapton Orient Football manager),Walter Leighfrom New Brompton (later Clubwere disappointed men, having had their Gillingham)alltheplayers were on a fixed wage of [4. applicationturned down for entry into the First Division TheO's opened their League account with a visitto ofthe Southern League. There was pressure brought LeicesterFosse on 2 September1905, around 100 upn theSouthern League committee byTottenham O'sfans travelled with the team by train for the Hotspurwho stated that they would be financially 3.30pmkick off at Filbert Street. There around 6000 ruinedifClapton Orient were elected. Not to upset supportersatthe ground to welcome the two teams Spurs,Orient's application was rejected, Proof, if it ontothe field, with O's wearing red and green stripes wasever needed, that Spurs really are an outfit of git's withwhite shorts. The Orient were holding their own ofthe highest order! Attention was then turned to the buton sixty-two minutes the hometeam scored, their FootballLeague and in May 1905 atthe FfsAGM, leftwinger Durrant who centered for the former Luton O'sgained just a singlevote, however thirty minutes centrefonrvard Bert Moody to score, heading past latera motionwas passed to extend the Second Bulterin goal, In lhe second half saw the O's attack Divisiontotwenty clubs, O's gained 26 votes, six andon sixty{hree minutes, O's recorded theirfirst morethan Doncaster Rovers and it's thanks to the Leaguegoal, Winger Bourne beat full back Ashby and DirectorsofChelsea who canvassed quite a few crossedthe ball and there was Herbert Kingaby to notesforthe O's, as they wanted another London riseand head home powerfully past Walter Smith in basedclub in the League. So entry was gained along theFosse goal, A draw seemed certain when Cox let withChelsea, Leeds City and Stockport County, flyfrom thirty-yards Butlerfisted the ball away, it found Nowthis may have the appearance ofbeing pretty righthalf Billy Morgan who scored, before the boys straightforward,butif history teaches us anything fromHomerton could re-startthegame Referee blew abooutthe game of professional football it's that the thewhistle, dealsmade behind closed doors and at the bar are the onesthat really count. Apparently,Chelsea were REPORTINGTHE ACTION,... specificallyformed to kick startthe stadium develop- mentat Stamford bridge and with no other London club Welive in times where access tofootball reports and inthe league, went the extra mile to get the O's gossiphas never been so easy or varied. ltis a well elected.What probably swung our election more than knownfact around this club that the very mention of anyotherfactorwas thetwo clubs agreeing topay the thewords'Non league Papei is enough to give Northernteams .l certainOrient supporters erections the size of harpoons!Back in 1905 an esteemed organ by the title 'AthleticNews'was essential reading forthe discerningClapton Orient supporter. Here are a couple Ourfirst home game of thecampaign also resulted in a defeat,0-1 to HullCity in front of a crowdof barely3,000' accordingto'Athletic news' at Millfidds stadium. TheO's had began life as an offshoot of Glyncricket club, which had been started in 1881 at Homerton College, andfirst played as Glyn footballclub onwaste ground near Glyn Road in 1884, Renamed Eagle in 1886 and Orient in1888, it headedthe Clapton and District league in 1894, entered the London league, and moved ashort way up theroad to to WhittlesAthletics Ground, Pond Lane Bridge, Next door was Whittles Whippet Ground, so spectators couldwatch either sport over the fence. When the borough took over orient's pitch to build a powerstation,theclub simplymoved next door. Meanwhile, in1898 they added the prefix Clapton totheir name in the hope that since Claptonwas a desirable suburb they would gain some respectability.Orient movedagain in 1900, also not far awayto Millfields Road, Homerton, aground which had belonged tothe Bailey Fireworks Company. ltwas ai the timeone of the best venues in the south, holding 12.000 spectators, with terracing built on top of slag from the nearbypowerstation, The players had to change in horsedrawn tram cars. Admission tothe Football League came in1905, but the expense ofrunning a professional club proved hard for the club to bear. A new company was formedin 1906 to replace the one set up a year earlier, and among various fund-raising activities atMillfields were boxingmatches and baseball. Acrowd of 3500 saw Orient beat Fulham in1908 to win the "British Baseball Cup Final".There were even plans to increase the ground's capacity to40,000, Abit different tonowadays where the emphasishere is to reduce the capacity as much as pos.sible. In1923 Orient sold one of their stands to Wimbledon andthis was to be erected at the south end of Plough lane, Thisconflict culminated in KingabyvAston Villa Football Ithad long been replaced bythe time the O's played the part 'dons'there Club.lnthe early ofhis playing career, Herbert inthe early 80's. Kingabyhad been the archetypaljourneyman Gettingpictures ofthe old professionalfootballer.Hehad played fora London side, groundhas proved really ClaptonOrient, inthe Southern Leaguewhile holding difficult,but from what l've downa full{imejob which restricted hisavailability to readthe main stand wasn't matchesplayed on Saturdays and on public holidays. In to dissimilartothe one that 1906,he was sold to Aston Villa for t300 and was paid usedto adorn Molinuex themaximum wage of [4 a week.Two months after the (right)up to the late 70's, purchase,Aston Villa had second thoughts on the 'The playei Anyonewho used to watch BigMatch/Star Soccer' s abilityand offered to sellhim back to Claptonfor wouldget my drift. a mere[150. However, cash-strapped Clapton could notafford him; no other club was interested insigning ONWARDSAND UPWARDS,,, himandAston Villa - one of the richest and, arguably, themost successful club in the country - was not willing Thofledgling Orient side didn't have to wait much longer tolose [300 by allowing him to move without receiving fortheirfirstwinthough, two days after losing that first afee.Kingaby's main obstacle tofreedom ofmovement homegame to the'tigers' the 0's grabbed a 2{ on wasthe fact that the vagaries ofthe retain-and{ransfer mondaythe l l thSeptemberover Glossop North End (a systemallowed Villa to keep him on their retained clubthat held a bigconnection with the Hill -Wood family, players'list even though they had no intention ofgiving whohave long since been part of the woodwork at hima newcontract after his one-year deal had expired, Highbury).Following that, the O's stormed totheirfirst Kingabycould not join another League clubonce he had leagueaway win at Lincolncity by a 3-2score line. By beenplaced on Villa's retained list, but as he was no September30th 1905 we held a topsix position, alas that longercontracted tothem, he was not receiving a salary, wasas it good as it got and the rest of the season turned Facedwith the abrupt termination ofhis English League outto be pretty disasterous. Wedid career-nocontract, nowages and unableto join another comeup against some big names on EnglishLeague club - hejoined Fulham, which was a theway to finishing bottom of the table SouthernLeague side and therefore not bound by the though.Chelsea came calling to EnglishLeague's retain-and-transfer rEulations. Until Millfieldsonthe 1'1th of November and now,Kingaby's travails had been little different tothose walkedaway with a 3-0victory infront ofother players who had joined Southern League clubs ofa crowdof 8,000. In their line up was becausetheir previous employers had neither offered thelegendary goalkeeper Willaim 'fatty' thema newcontract nor allowed them to join another Foulke.All22 stone of him!We also EnglishLeagueteam. Buthis case became more playedManchester United and went complexinthe summer of1910 when he rejoined the down04 attheirBank Street Ground. O'swho still played in the second division ofthe English League,Shortly