04 March
On this day in:-
1931
1945
Football was still struggling to return to the normality of pre-war days and the difficulty of raising teams surfaced when Plymouth Argyle manager Jack Tresadern invited Exeter City to play at Home Park. The Grecians agreed, but then one snag after another occurred and proved to be a real headache for City secretary Norman Foot as he frantically tried to raise a side. He sent a number of telegrams to players, others were contacted by telephone, but with mixed results. Eventually only eight players confirmed that they could play, and although the fixture did take place, City had to rely on guest players to fill the remaining places. The previous week, City defender Reg Clarke had gone along as a spectator to watch Yeovil Town play a Royal Navy team, but as soon as he arrived at Huish, he was spotted and asked to turn out for the Naval team!
1952
Long serving Exeter City manager was to leave to take charge of Southampton. The Southampton directors had been given permission by the Grecians to speak to Roughton, and after the City boss agreed terms with the south coast club, he was released from his contract at St James' Park. Moving in the opposite direction to become player-manager of Exeter City was full-back Norman Kirkman. The Bolton born player had played for Burnley, Rochdale, Chesterfield and Leicester City prior to joining the Saints in July 1950His first game in charge with Exeter was at Port Vale, but having not seen the players at all, he was travelling direct from his Southampton home to the Potteries where he met up with the team for the first time.
1957
A joint statement was issued by the Grecians Association and the Exeter City board of directors regarding the use of the St James' Park Ground Improvement Fund This read as follows:- "Owing to the serious financial position of the Club, the directors have requested the Grecians Association to agree to the transfer to the Club's account the amount of £1,100 reserved for ground improvements. As a result of the marked decline in attendances at St James' Park this money is requested to meet the immediate working expenses and in the view of this the Executive Committee of the Grecians Association had agreed to make this money available to the Club immediately. In addition a further sum of £750 has also been handed over the Club by the Association."
1961
Exeter City chairman Reg Rose announced a radical rethink of the way in which the Club would be run for the following season. This would involve raising admission prices and the scrapping of the reserve team. Ground prices for the 1961- 62 season would be raised from 2s 6d to 3s and the grandstand prices from 6s to 7s 6d.
It was revealed that the City reserve team cost £7,000 per season to run in the Southern League, and gate receipts totalled £500. It was therefore decided to scrap the reserves, but an 'A' team would be playing in the Exeter and District League to encourage local footballing talent.
1962
Club chairman Reg Rose stated that Exeter City Football Club had reached a desperate financial position. It was at it's most critical point in the Club's history and in very real danger of extinction. He appealed to all those who loved football and the Club to rally round and help them out of this crisis. Mr Rose had hoped that in the past twelve months that the Club could have staved off the crisis with the various cutbacks that had been implemented, but it had not happened and had in fact slipped further into danger.
1965
The previous night's fixture between Exeter City and Bournemouth had been called off just 45 minutes before kick-off due to a waterlogged St James' Park playing surface. The Bournemouth team had struggled to get through to Exeter as the roads had been snowbound. On arrival at the Park, Bournemouth found, much to their annoyance, that the game had been postponed. They immediately boarded their coach and started to head for home again, but the weather worsened and they only got as far as Bridport, when the road was closed due to snow, and they were forced to spend the night in a local hotel. The referee had declared the pitch playable at 5pm. but torrents of rain swept the ground, already frozen hard, and it quickly flooded.
1989
Overnight trips away with the City team were on offer to supporters. The Club were to experiment by offering package deals for City's games at York and Scarborough at the cost of £85 per person,. The Club were prepared to take up to six supporters for each trip on the team coach. It was felt that this would go some way to offset the heavy costs of away travel to those games which would be around £700.
1991
Exeter City commercial manager Mike Lewis revealed that the former editors of the City match programme had negotiated to what amounted to an extravagant deal. During the previous close season it was agreed to pay them 50 per cent of all sales revenue from the match programme in return for them editing each issue. Their income, Lewis explained, could be anything from £500 per game, and if there were two home matches in a week, then they would earn £1,000. Lewis said that he could not believe that the Club had agreed to such a deal, and since his appointment had taken on the job of editing the programme himself.
1993
The age old question of how Exeter City Football Club got their nickname of 'The Grecians' was raised again, although this time Hazel Harvey of the Exeter Civic Society had carried out some detailed research. Hazel had found that in 1908 the public were invited to suggest a name for the Club and the 'Grecians; were chosen because the St Sidwellians had long been known as 'The Greeks.' The local newspapers had been using the term since the 19th Century. Robert Newton's book on 18th Century Exeter explained that Grecians was the name of a mob stimulated by free drink and food to intimidate respectable voters at parliamentary and mayoral elections, and St Sidwells was their stronghold. They were mentioned in a poem by contemporary City printer Andrew Brice who suggested: 'The Greeks title seems to have arisen from their contending with the city at football etc. They being called the Greeks as making the invasion, and the townsmen perhaps Trojans in defending their ground.'
1994
It was announced by City chairman Ivor Doble that the Club had submitted plans to the city council for the redevelopment of the Big Bank terracing at St James' Park, which it was hoped would be turned into an all-seater stand. The project was expected to cost over £1 million and the Club was seeking to attract grants largely from the Football Grounds Improvement Trust. Mr Doble insisted the scheme must go ahead to secure the well being of the Club. With debts being around £900,000 it was felt that the new stand would enable the Club to increase its revenue from commercial activities. The City directors had drawn up a blueprint to replace the ancient terrace and dilapidated Centre Spot social club with a 3,600 capacity grandstand above a vast office and leisure complex. The new four story cantilever stand would include a pub, social club, function suites, offices, a creche, club shop and car parking in the basement, plus twelve plush executive viewing boxes. Meanwhile groundsman Ray Marshall was recovering from a broken finger. This was not sustained tending the turf at St James' Park, but playing as a goalkeeper in the Commercial Staff team after he had stopped a shot from Steve Kelly!
Birthdays
1931
In 1931, Exeter City became the most successful third division team in the FA competition that year. With this success inevitably came a regional spike in interest. Consequently, City's replay against Sunderland on the 4th March 1931 was screened in the King's Hall Picture House in St Thomas, as the city centre experienced gridlock from the sheer mass of fans rushing to St James Park to see the game. To this day, the game against Sunderland drew the largest attendance in the history of St James Park, standing at 21,013 spectators.
Football was still struggling to return to the normality of pre-war days and the difficulty of raising teams surfaced when Plymouth Argyle manager Jack Tresadern invited Exeter City to play at Home Park. The Grecians agreed, but then one snag after another occurred and proved to be a real headache for City secretary Norman Foot as he frantically tried to raise a side. He sent a number of telegrams to players, others were contacted by telephone, but with mixed results. Eventually only eight players confirmed that they could play, and although the fixture did take place, City had to rely on guest players to fill the remaining places. The previous week, City defender Reg Clarke had gone along as a spectator to watch Yeovil Town play a Royal Navy team, but as soon as he arrived at Huish, he was spotted and asked to turn out for the Naval team!
1952
Long serving Exeter City manager was to leave to take charge of Southampton. The Southampton directors had been given permission by the Grecians to speak to Roughton, and after the City boss agreed terms with the south coast club, he was released from his contract at St James' Park. Moving in the opposite direction to become player-manager of Exeter City was full-back Norman Kirkman. The Bolton born player had played for Burnley, Rochdale, Chesterfield and Leicester City prior to joining the Saints in July 1950His first game in charge with Exeter was at Port Vale, but having not seen the players at all, he was travelling direct from his Southampton home to the Potteries where he met up with the team for the first time.
1957
A joint statement was issued by the Grecians Association and the Exeter City board of directors regarding the use of the St James' Park Ground Improvement Fund This read as follows:- "Owing to the serious financial position of the Club, the directors have requested the Grecians Association to agree to the transfer to the Club's account the amount of £1,100 reserved for ground improvements. As a result of the marked decline in attendances at St James' Park this money is requested to meet the immediate working expenses and in the view of this the Executive Committee of the Grecians Association had agreed to make this money available to the Club immediately. In addition a further sum of £750 has also been handed over the Club by the Association."
1961
Exeter City chairman Reg Rose announced a radical rethink of the way in which the Club would be run for the following season. This would involve raising admission prices and the scrapping of the reserve team. Ground prices for the 1961- 62 season would be raised from 2s 6d to 3s and the grandstand prices from 6s to 7s 6d.
It was revealed that the City reserve team cost £7,000 per season to run in the Southern League, and gate receipts totalled £500. It was therefore decided to scrap the reserves, but an 'A' team would be playing in the Exeter and District League to encourage local footballing talent.
1962
Club chairman Reg Rose stated that Exeter City Football Club had reached a desperate financial position. It was at it's most critical point in the Club's history and in very real danger of extinction. He appealed to all those who loved football and the Club to rally round and help them out of this crisis. Mr Rose had hoped that in the past twelve months that the Club could have staved off the crisis with the various cutbacks that had been implemented, but it had not happened and had in fact slipped further into danger.
1965
The previous night's fixture between Exeter City and Bournemouth had been called off just 45 minutes before kick-off due to a waterlogged St James' Park playing surface. The Bournemouth team had struggled to get through to Exeter as the roads had been snowbound. On arrival at the Park, Bournemouth found, much to their annoyance, that the game had been postponed. They immediately boarded their coach and started to head for home again, but the weather worsened and they only got as far as Bridport, when the road was closed due to snow, and they were forced to spend the night in a local hotel. The referee had declared the pitch playable at 5pm. but torrents of rain swept the ground, already frozen hard, and it quickly flooded.
1989
Overnight trips away with the City team were on offer to supporters. The Club were to experiment by offering package deals for City's games at York and Scarborough at the cost of £85 per person,. The Club were prepared to take up to six supporters for each trip on the team coach. It was felt that this would go some way to offset the heavy costs of away travel to those games which would be around £700.
1991
Exeter City commercial manager Mike Lewis revealed that the former editors of the City match programme had negotiated to what amounted to an extravagant deal. During the previous close season it was agreed to pay them 50 per cent of all sales revenue from the match programme in return for them editing each issue. Their income, Lewis explained, could be anything from £500 per game, and if there were two home matches in a week, then they would earn £1,000. Lewis said that he could not believe that the Club had agreed to such a deal, and since his appointment had taken on the job of editing the programme himself.
1993
The age old question of how Exeter City Football Club got their nickname of 'The Grecians' was raised again, although this time Hazel Harvey of the Exeter Civic Society had carried out some detailed research. Hazel had found that in 1908 the public were invited to suggest a name for the Club and the 'Grecians; were chosen because the St Sidwellians had long been known as 'The Greeks.' The local newspapers had been using the term since the 19th Century. Robert Newton's book on 18th Century Exeter explained that Grecians was the name of a mob stimulated by free drink and food to intimidate respectable voters at parliamentary and mayoral elections, and St Sidwells was their stronghold. They were mentioned in a poem by contemporary City printer Andrew Brice who suggested: 'The Greeks title seems to have arisen from their contending with the city at football etc. They being called the Greeks as making the invasion, and the townsmen perhaps Trojans in defending their ground.'
1994
It was announced by City chairman Ivor Doble that the Club had submitted plans to the city council for the redevelopment of the Big Bank terracing at St James' Park, which it was hoped would be turned into an all-seater stand. The project was expected to cost over £1 million and the Club was seeking to attract grants largely from the Football Grounds Improvement Trust. Mr Doble insisted the scheme must go ahead to secure the well being of the Club. With debts being around £900,000 it was felt that the new stand would enable the Club to increase its revenue from commercial activities. The City directors had drawn up a blueprint to replace the ancient terrace and dilapidated Centre Spot social club with a 3,600 capacity grandstand above a vast office and leisure complex. The new four story cantilever stand would include a pub, social club, function suites, offices, a creche, club shop and car parking in the basement, plus twelve plush executive viewing boxes. Meanwhile groundsman Ray Marshall was recovering from a broken finger. This was not sustained tending the turf at St James' Park, but playing as a goalkeeper in the Commercial Staff team after he had stopped a shot from Steve Kelly!
Birthdays
|
Anthony |
Thilby |
04/03 |
1976 |
|
Bert |
Brown |
04/03 |
1934 |
|
Dara |
O'Shea |
04/03 |
1999 |
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