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Linotype / Cheadle Heath
Nomads F.C
1) The Name
As might seem obvious the name Linotype
/ Cheadle Heath Nomads came from the amalgamation of
Linotype F.C. and Cheadle Heath Nomads F.C. which took
place in time for the start of season 2004/5.
Rather than an amalgamation, the two
clubs got together in what was essentially a "marriage
of convenience". By the end of the 2003/4 season
at senior level, Cheadle Heath Nomads was struggling
both on the field and, from a managerial sense, off
it.
Linotype was struggling in terms of somewhere to play,
given the prospective sale of the Silver Wings ground
in Timperley, which was rented from British Airways.
At the senior level the new name / club
has gone well and in its second season (2005/6) the
First Team won the Stockport Cup, the second team won
the Reserve Division Championship and the League Cup
and came runners - up in the Altrincham Cup.
The Veterans' team won the Umbro Cup
at Lilleshall - although the final was only played at
the beginning of this season.
For the juniors the amalgamation has
not made too much difference, although the acquisition
of Brian McGuinness as Secretary (ex Linotype) has been
an all round benefit.
2) Pre- Amalgamation
a) Cheadle Heath Nomads (1919-1921)
The first record of a Cheadle Heath
Nomads team was immediately after the First World War,
when a team was formed under that name. The team was
a hotchpotch of ages with a few of those who survived
joining 14, 15 and 16 year olds to make a team.
One of the original players was Harry Catterick, who
went on to play for Everton and then became a successful
manager with Sheffield Wednesday and Everton (at the
time of Alan Ball, Howard Kendall, Colin Harvey etc.)
and who subsequently died at Goodison Park during a
game.
b) Cheadle Heath Sports Club
(Established 1921)
Following the war a group of individuals
banded together to raise money to buy the piece of land
on what is now Norbreck Avenue, Cheadle. A fund was
steadily accumulated and the owners of the land, the
Mainwairing family agreed to sell the land at a knock
down price.
Work was undertaken to install drainage, build tennis
courts etc. and when the club opened in 1921 cricket,
tennis, ladies hockey and football were included with
the football section being known as Cheadle Heath Nomads.
All the sports were played at the open age level.
(The tennis courts were at the far end
of the ground near the children's playground and if
you dig down in the goalmouth at that end you will come
across the red shale that was the tennis courts.
The football pitch was alongside what is now Emlyn Grove
/ Aber Road and the hockey pitch was alongside the railway.
The Cricket Square was more or less in the middle of
the site with part of the hockey pitch and part of the
football pitch doubling as the cricket outfield.
The houses on Norbreck Avenue, Aber Road and Emlyn Grove
had not been built at this time and the border of the
club's land was determined by a small stream which flowed
from the corner near Aber Road, along what is now the
back gardens of the houses, between the club land and
the playground and then under the railway)
As the money had been raised in any
way possible and did not belong to any individual or
group of individuals the land was put into a Trusteeship
and that is still the case today.
The men who raised the money for the purchase of the
land etc. became the first Trustees of Cheadle Heath
Sports Club and also became its first Management Committee.
Sub committees were formed to run the different sports.
The Trustees subsequently stepped down
as a Management Committee and handed the day to day
management of the club to a committee with representatives
from each sport included. The Trustees remained responsible
for the land etc.
It remained the same for several years but after the
club ran into financial difficulties in the mid 30s,
when interest free loans saved the club, it reverted
to a structure where the Trustees were more involved
and it remained so until the Second World War.
(The Second World War saw some of the
club land being used / rented as allotments (round the
periphery) which helped to keep the club going financially,
and the club was saved from going to seed by a Mr. Bailey
who would cut the grass, often with a push mower, when
petrol was not available.
It is only in recent years that the club has recovered
the rough land that circled the site as a result of
the allotments.)
After the Second World War the club
reverted to a multi-section management committee with
the Trustees taking a back seat. It thrived both off
the field and on it in all the respective sports.
(A Nissan Hut was acquired from the
Army. It was dismantled in Yorkshire, transported to
Cheadle and erected on a concrete base alongside Norbreck
Avenue with services for water, gas and electricity.
It had gas heaters in the roof, a composition dance
floor and a bar. It cost very little with all the work
being done by volunteers. The club had "arrived"
and was ahead of its time in having a bar, but it was
closed inside ten years due to persistent financial
impropriety)
Also by the early 60s the tennis courts
had fallen into disrepair and there wasn't the money
to do anything about them. The Tennis Section died.
In 1963/4 the Water Board decided to
run a major sewer through the club's land, coming through
from Carrs Road, alongside the railway and exiting through
the gates onto Norbreck Avenue - right through the then
hockey pitch. The pitch, which had actually staged an
England Ladies International match never recovered.
The Water Board also knocked down a wooden cricket pavilion,
which was also used for football changing.
(Alongside the pavilion there was a
large outdoor boiler with a direct water supply. On
football match days the boiler was filled and heated
by wood collected from off the railway embankment. At
the end of the game each team was presented with a zinc
bath full of boiling water carried in by the likes of
Les. Noden, Bob Stewart (who still lives on Emlyn Grove)
Doug Peplow, Johnny Whittaker etc. There were no showers
in those days and there was competition to wash as best
you could before the water got filthy. Those who could
stand really hot water did best.)
The ladies hockey section returned,
but it was short lived due to the state of the pitch
and the ladies hockey section left to play elsewhere.
Nevertheless the club did receive enough
compensation to knock down the Nissan Hut and erect
a pre-fabricated structure with changing rooms and showers,
using the services installed for the Nissan Hut. It
is still there today and comprises the "back room"
the laundry, the office (formerly the home team changing
room); the toilets, showers and current home team dressing
room (formerly the away team changing room)
Finance was simple. The club had an
arrangement with Avondale School, which paid the bills,
and the sections financed themselves.
In the early 70s the country was hit
by hyperinflation, the three-day week etc.
The costs of running the club spiralled out of control
whilst the income stood still.
The Trusteeship was revamped with three trustees standing
down (due to age) and George Melville and Gordon Lingard
(cricket) and Roy Welsh (football) appointed in their
place .The Trustees were then: - Les Noden, Doug Berry,
George Melville, Gordon Lingard and Roy Welsh.
Once more the Trustees took over the management of the
club and a strict financial discipline was imposed,
part of which involved the two sections (football and
cricket) having to raise significant sums of money to
give to the club to keep it afloat.
Football struggled but some private donations helped
to keep the game of football going without which the
chances are that the club would have become exclusively
a cricket club!
Having survived, the Trustees considered
that if the club as a whole were to continue to survive
/ move forward, it needed a new income stream. It was
decided to try to install a bar once again! The kitchen
(currently the laundry) became a bar/kitchen and what
is now the "back room" became the so-called
lounge. It was a little primitive but it did become
a significant money earner.
(The bar was scheduled to open officially
with a presentation evening with a Hot Pot on the Monday
after Cup Final day 1977. The event was almost derailed
by a major fire in the adjoining wooden store hut in
the early hours of the Saturday morning, which singed
the end of the building, but after some emergency repair
work, which caused certain people to miss United winning
the cup, the bar opened on time.
A subsequent barbecue with a Jazz Band went a long way
to help to recover from the fire and it also brought
Jim Hardie to the club.)
Furthermore this attracted the attention
of Edgeley Ladies Hockey Club and Offerton Ladies Hockey
Club and both joined the club the season after. The
club once again reverted to having a Management Committee
and Dennis Lowe, the Chairman of Edgeley LHC, became
Chairman of the Management Committee. He was also appointed
a Trustee.
The Hockey Section departed after about ten years with
the requirement to play on Astroturf being a major factor.
Dennis Lowe remains a Trustee of the club.
Once again the club relied on some interest
free loans to secure its future, only half of which
were subsequently repaid, when the loanees insisted
on them becoming donations.
Extra space was required and as a step in that direction
the club managed to get a grant from the then Sports
Council and built onto the changing rooms what was to
become the store, the away team dressing room, the officials
changing room and an extra toilet.
(What was the home team dressing room
and is now the office became a dance floor,
Subsequently the mercurial Joe Mercer OBE (one time
player with Everton, Arsenal and England and a former
manager of Manchester City and England) officially opened
the new changing rooms, accompanied by his wife, Elsie.
It was one of the most enjoyable and entertaining nights
in the club's history.)
This was the start of a remarkable recovery
by the club as a whole and it was done entirely by volunteers.
Debts were erased and the club was being run on an even
keel, but further development was limited by the size
of the premises.
In the mid 80s the Trustees, which by
this time included Jim Hardie, therefore agreed to sell
the piece of land along Norbreck Avenue for the building
of houses. The reasons were several but included: -
- A significant part of the land was
not being used - it was still rough land from the wartime
allotments.
- The fencing had disintegrated and the land was being
used as a public park
- Better premises were needed.
The proceeds of the sale were used to
build the current clubhouse and it was officially opened
by the then President Mr. Les. Noden in September 1987.
Whether it was due to the extra opening
times or a change in society's priorities or a bit of
both, it is hard to say, but it was soon apparent that
the bar etc could not be run anymore by volunteers.
A steward was employed.
The Cricket Section had been in many
ways the more dominant section and better off financially
but in the early 90s the Cricket section began to falter
as the football side gained in strength. Cricket stalwarts
such as George Melville, Harry Watson, Ian Martin, Rod
Wilson and Gordon Lingard had all grown older together
and there were no young guns ready to replace them.
"Imports" were brought in an attempt to strengthen
the team(s) but there were increasing demands from the
newer players that the club should become essentially
a cricket club with football a secondary sport.
It would not wash, with the football side so much stronger
at this time, and subsequently, in 1994 the Cricket
Section decided to amalgamate with Romiley C.C.
The club had then lost tennis hockey
and cricket. It had become a Football Club.
Around this time the club had started
a couple of junior football teams at the Under 9 / Under
10 level. It was a peripheral activity because of limited
land. The loss of the Cricket section changed that.
From thereon the club was able to go from running two
age groups with one team each to gradually evolve to
having junior teams from Under 8 to Under 17, although
now, obviously, the pitch requirements are again a problem.
The loss of cricket also opened up an
opportunity for senior football. The football clubs
progress up the football ladder had always been blocked
by not having access to its ground in May or September
(because of the overlap in the cricket and football
pitches).
The loss of cricket and therefore the
greater availability of the pitch coincided with the
first team winning the Lancashire and Cheshire AFL championship.
Whenever this had happened before, elevation to the
Mid Cheshire League or the Manchester League was not
on because the pitch was required from mid August to
mid May in those leagues. Should the club make the leap?
Moving in to either league involved crossing the line
from what was serious but nevertheless social football
into the Football Association "pyramid system"
- more serious with greater demands on facilities and
administration and higher costs.
The club at that time ran three teams
which all had to be taken out of the L & C AFL.
Cheadle Heath Nomads joined the Mid
Cheshire League in 1994 and won the Second Division
Cup and League double in its first season.
The third team was disbanded.
The second team joined the East Cheshire
League and were champions in the club's only season
in that league. It then joined the Stockport Saturday
League but this only lasted for one season. Players
did not want to play in that league and moved on to
other clubs and the club was reduced to one senior team
until the second team was finally accepted into the
Mid Cheshire League some five years after the first
team.
As there was only one game per fortnight on the club
for a few years, the ground was rented to Offerton United
on alternate Sundays to boost income and improve the
bar takings.
The loss of cricket meant, effectively,
the loss of two hard working Trustees in George Melville
and Gordon Lingard, although they remained Trustees.
The management of the club was handed over to a Management
Committee, chaired by firstly Jim Hardie and then Roy
Welsh (as Trustees) together with representative from
senior football, junior football and an emerging social
section.
In 1998, after about 2 years of trying
the club was awarded two grants - one from what was
then Sport England and the other from The Football Association.
The Astroturf that we know today was built and commenced
operation on 8th December 1998. It has been a major
asset ever since.
At the turn of the century, George Gibbons
and Les. Jackson were added to the list of Trustees,
bringing the total to eight. Both had served the club
well as players and George had been Football Secretary
for many years and Les had worked for the club in almost
any capacity asked of him. He had an affection for the
club since his parents took him to the Dances etc. in
the old Nissan Hut!
Subsequently Gordon Lingard resigned as a Trustee due
to ill health.
The Management Committee worked well
initially but as the club grew, mainly through junior
football, it eventually fell into disarray due to conflicts
of interest, some of which were clearly not in the best
interests of the club as an entity.
The management committee was dissolved in 2002 and the
management of the club once again passed into the hands
of the Trustees.
Up to this time, the club's ability
to raise money was limited, but a decision to franchise
the bar and more careful management improved the situation
significantly.
Since 1994 the junior section has grown by one age group
per year and now, with two exceptions, runs age groups
from Under 8 to Under 17.
In season 2004/5 the Football Club was
awarded Charter Standard (Adult and Junior) Status.
The club is registered for VAT and reports
to the Inland Revenue, and after a somewhat torrid inspection
of our affairs the Inland Revenue, in 2002, awarded
the club (Cheadle Heath Sports Club) the status of a:
-
Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC).
Although not particularly exciting it
does reflect well on the club.
The facilities of the club have improved
considerably over the years and it is hoped this can
be continued, but it will need a lot of hard work, especially
in the area of money raising to meet the challenges
of the future.
Planning permission has been gained for new changing
rooms but getting a grant for that and many other things
is like pushing sand up hill. There is no alternative
but to keep trying.
Doug Berry died last year and Les Noden
is now too ill to be a Trustee. Effectively there are
now only five Trustees - Roy Welsh, Les Jackson, George
Gibbons, Dennis Lowe and George Melville. Dennis and
George Melville are passive and the administration of
the club is down really to three people.
We need to find one or two new Trustees, but we need
to be sure they have the interests of Cheadle Heath
Sports Club at heart.
c) Cheadle Heath Nomads F.C.
(1921 - 1994)
Cheadle Heath Nomads joined the Lancashire
and Cheshire Amateur League in 1921.without any real
success. In 1927 the League formed a Second Division
and Cheadle Heath Nomads won the inaugural Second Division
Championship in 1927/28.
Nomads were relegated but won the second Division Championship
again in 1936/37* and in the same year were awarded
the S.E.Woollam Aggregate Trophy for the highest combined
points total (first and second teams).
The war was obviously a major interruption
but the post war period saw Nomads gradually improve
and win the Reserve Division Championship in season
1949/50. With the likes of Doug Berry, Johnny Whittaker,
Bob Stewart etc. the club won the First Division (now
Premier Division) championship three years on the run
from season 1950/51 to season 1952/53, (when the Reserves
also won the championship). Inevitably the club once
again won the S.E. Woollam Trophy.
Nomads also won the Rhodes Cup in 1953 (the "double"
that year) and again in 1954.
Around this time Nomads regularly provided
seven or eight players for the L & C League representative
side.
It was a golden time for Cheadle Heath Nomads.
(It was also a time that the club acquired
the invaluable off the field services of Les Noden.
After serving in the forces, Les was happy to resume
his life and his football but both were put to one side
when he contracted tuberculosis.
Several months in a sanatorium changed his professional
life and cut short his footballing career.
But his mates were playing for Nomads and so Les turned
to admin. He was good at it. Not only did Nomads have
the best team around but also they were the best-run
club. Les chaired the club for twenty years and remains
a Trustee to this day, although now too ill to take
an active part.)
The 1960s saw Nomads begin to slip as
the team gradually got too old. And there was greater
competition. Players were tempted towards the newly
formed Cheadle Rovers (for a few bob), who were the
original occupants of the Park Road ground where Cheadle
Town play today. Sunday football was also beginning
to grow and became "more important" in some
lads eyes.
(It should be noted at that time that
there was a strict division between amateur and professional
status. Anybody playing for Nomads at that time had
to be an amateur by the rules of the league. If you
left Nomads to play for money, you became what was known
as a "K Form" player. You could never play
for Nomads again.
*In 2006 the L&C renamed its divisions.
The First Division became the Premier Division; the
Second Division became the First Division etc. The Second
Division championship in 1927/28 is now referred to
as the First Division championship in the league handbook!
The more relaxed rules of Sunday football
meant that semi-pros and amateurs could play in the
same team and this created a feeling that Sunday football
was "superior" to Saturday football, unless
you were semi-pro.)
Nomads were helped out of a problem
by the influx of young players from a Sunday team called
Reddish United (based at the FirTree). Nomads, with
regularly eight Reddish United players in the team (from
Frank Dowson, John Massey, John Taylor. Pete Clarke,
Chris Thorpe, Neil Bradbury, Dave Talbot, Ray Talbot,
Phil Ernill, Roy Welsh) took a turn for the better and
became one of the better teams in the league but could
never quite pick up the honours.
(Reddish United moved into the top division
of the Stockport Sunday League but were always second
to Cheadle Dragons, another team with a few Nomads and
one which played on Nomads' pitch.)
There followed a general exodus of better
players to better leagues - notably most of the Reddish
United lads to Ward Street Old Boys who played in the
emerging Manchester League. Nomads were accused of a
lack of ambition because they would not join either
the Mid Cheshire League of the Manchester League, but
the problem of the pitch overlapping with the cricket
pitch was more or less insuperable.
Nomads patched up but were relegated
in 1969, only to find a new crop of local players. The
forward line of Roy Welsh, Wayne Ashworth, John Robinson,
Colin Barrett and Micky Spratt scored goals for fun
and Nomads immediately returned to the first division.
Welsh, Barrett, Ashworth and Ronnie Roberts (a full
back) represented the League.
(Colin Barrett, then 19 years of age
signed for Manchester City in the Mercer / Allison era.
Colin played first team football before transferring
to Nottingham Forest, managed at that time by Brian
Clough. Colin went on to win every medal possible in
English football)
Nomads did well for a few seasons with
the addition of players such as Steve Hackney (who is
now in charge of security at Old Trafford), Steven Hough
(the Vicar at Chelwood Church), Pete Burrows, Roy Hanvey
and Eddie Holland.
The closest Nomads came to a trophy, however, was defeat
in the 1975 Rhodes Cup Final to Monton Amateurs.
It was the start of a decline that saw
Nomads relegated to the Second Division in 1977. A year
later Nomads just missed promotion back to the First
Division, on goal difference, but almost unthinkably,
one year later the club was relegated to the Third Division.
This period coincided with the massive effort to get
the club as a whole back on its feet (ref. p.3) and
this probably contributed to a lack of attention to
the footballing side of things.
Something needed to be done and on the
basis that if you not organised off the field, you won't
be organised on it, a new Football Committee was formed
comprising of Jim Hardie (Chairman), Roy Welsh (Treasurer),
Timmy Hyde (Secretary and 2nd Team manager) and Roy
Hanvey (First Team Manager)
(Roy Hanvey had a distinguished playing
career with Moss Side Amateurs, Cheadle Heath Nomads
and North Withington. He brought in players such as
Russ Wood, Dave Knight, Bobby Ashe and a goalkeeper
called Tony (Ned) Kelly who was tragically killed in
a hit and run accident a couple of years later)
The Third Division Championship was sealed at the first
attempt. It was the last season for Roy Welsh as a player.
Roy Hanvey wanted to go immediately
to the Manchester League.
There were concerns about the pitch availability (ref.
Cricket) and whether the jump from the Third Division
of the L & C to the Manchester League was too much
of a leap in the dark. Roy was not supported; he resigned
and was replaced for the new campaign by Pete Dutton.
Pete resigned during the course of the season to be
replaced by Bobby Ashe and this was the signal for another
upsurge in Nomads' fortunes and the following season
(1981/82) Nomads won the second Division Championship
to resume life in the First Division.
Bobby had added some class to the team with the likes
of Kevin Aston, John O'Brien, John Flaherty drafted
in. Bobby also brought a better sense of discipline
around training, time keeping etc and also an energy
that worked its way through the club.
After a year of consolidation in the First Division,
Bobby was tempted to move to Cheadle Town to run their
second team.
The late 80's saw Nomads integrate with
The Royal Oak (previously The Midland) from the Stockport
Saturday League. Alec Tress came as manager and the
club gained some valuable players such as Dave Kerr,
Stuart Whitehead / Owen, Wayne Barnshaw and Mark Butcher,
who all went on to represent the L & C Representative
team
After a short period of interim and
improvised management the Club appointed Dave Gibbons
as manager. Dave had been a player with Manchester City
and was still a good player in his early 30s.
(Dave was part of the Gibbons family,
one of three footballing sons, which included John and
George. John played for Nomads until moving to Leeds,
Dave led Nomads, as Player Manager to the First Division
championship in season 1987/88 and George stayed on
as Secretary after Micky Chadderton, and subsequently
became a Trustee of the club.)
Recruiting players such as George McBeth (ex M/C City)
helped Dave's success as Manager and winning the title
in 1988 was the first time Nomads had won the major
prize in the L & C since the halcyon days of the
early fifties (ref. P. 7)
It was also a platform for the future
and Nomads continued to challenge for honours but it
was not until 1993/94 with Ian Coll as manager that
Nomads regained the league title.
(The club's main striker at the time
was Andy Lowrie who played in the final of the Reserve
Division Cup of the Mid Cheshire League as an emergency
goalkeeper. We won 3-1. He still makes the odd appearance
with the Vets)
The championship win coincided with
the loss of cricket at the club and presented Nomads
with the opportunity to join the Mid Cheshire League.
The move upwards presented a challenge re. admin, travel
and expense. There was another challenge of leaving
the known and comfortable Lancashire and Cheshire League,
with which the club had been proudly associated for
73 years for the Mid Cheshire League with harsher realities
and some practical problems. Nomads ran three teams
in the L & C and all three would have to leave.
What would happen to the 2nd. and 3rd. Teams?
In the end Nomads decided to take up
the challenge of Mid Cheshire League football. The Third
team was disbanded and the second Team joined the East
Cheshire League and at the same time the loss of cricket
meant that the club could expand its junior football.
The club was entering a new phase in
its history. It had become a Football Club.
d) Cheadle Heath Sports Club,
Cheadle Heath Nomads, Linotype /Cheadle
Heath Nomads.
Organisation 1994 - 2002, Organisation 2002 - 2006
Following on from the "Sectional"
structure of Football/Cricket/Social, Cheadle Heath
Sports Club continued with a Management Committee and
three sections - Senior Football, Junior Football and
Social. Whilst the Junior Section was small, it worked
reasonably well but the Management Committee lost control
as the Junior section grew.
In 2002 it was decided that the Trustees should take
over the management of the Sports Club as a whole and
that the two sections be rolled up into one football
club - Cheadle Heath Nomads F.C.
A single committee was formed under the chairmanship
of Trustee George Gibbons.
Following the amalgamation with Linotype in 2004, the
structure remains the same - only the title is different.
e) Cheadle Heath Nomads 1994-
2004 (Senior Football)
Ian Coll continued to manage the first
team after the elevation to the Mid Cheshire League
and Nomads won the Second Division Cup and League double
in its first season.
The Reserve team - forced out of the L & C , won
the East Cheshire League title, but after a season in
the Stockport League, it folded.
Encouraged by this success, Ian moved to improve the
structure and the squad by the appointment of Jackie
McDonald as Manager and himself as Director of Football
but the financial support he was seeking form outside
the club was not forthcoming.
Ian resigned and it was the start of a difficult time
for the club until the appointment as manager of Pete
Blundell.
A former manager of Cheadle Town, Pete brought in players
of the calibre of Ian (Soggie) Sowden, Paul Stringer,
Phil Wardle, Darren McHugh, Warren Fitchett etc. and
also acquired the services of George Oghani (ex Bolton,
Burnley etc). We were a formidable outfit and should
have won the title in 2001 but faded in the run in to
finish third.
Thereafter we went into decline and would have been
relegated at the end of season 2003/04 but for the merger
with Linotype.
The good news during this time was the acceptance in
1999 of a Reserve team in the Mid Cheshire Reserve Division.
f) Linotype 1919 -2003
Linotype was formed in 1919 - the same
year as Cheadle Heath Nomads.
Linotype was a works' team from the printing press manufacturers
of the same name. Initially they played at Lawrence
Road in Broadheath, in the middle of the Linotype Company
workers' housing estate. There is not too much data
available at this time about Linotype between the wars
but we do know in their early days, the club had played
in the North Cheshire League. There is also a reference
in the Lancashire and Cheshire League handbook to a
"Linotype and Co. App" winning the Division
3 (now Division 2) championship in season 1934-35.
Cheadle Heath Nomads won the Division 2 (now Division
1) championship in season 1936-37, which would suggest
the two clubs met in season 1935-36 and maybe in 1936-37
too!
We would appreciate more data about
Linotype between the wars.
On reforming in 1949, Linotype joined
the Mid-Cheshire League, then in its second season,
and was a member as such until the merger with Cheadle
Heath Nomads.
Linotype emerged as one of the most
successful clubs in the history of the Mid-Cheshire
League, being champions on four occasions (1959/60,
1968/69, 1990/91 and 1993/94) and runners - up five
times (1962/63, 1972/73, 1980/81, 1989/90, 1996/97).
In addition the club reached twelve Challenge Cup finals
although only winning the trophy three times (1982/83,
1983/84 and 1987/88)
The Reserves also enjoyed some success.
They joined the Mid- Cheshire League newly formed Division
II in 1975 and in season 1977/78 defeated Hanley Town
to win the Division II Challenge Cup, but lost in the
final to Leek Town Reserves in 1987/88. They were also
runners - up in the Division II championship in 1982/83
and again in 1989/90.
When the league disbanded the lower division in 1983,
Linotype Reserves went into the Central Cheshire League,
where they won the League and Cup "double"
in 1983/84 and the league again, in 1986/87. However
when the Mid-Cheshire League re-formed Division II in
1987/88, Linotype Reserves rejoined and became the only
team to have played in the lower division in every year
of its existence.
One of the strengths of Linotype was
its family connections with sons following their fathers
etc. into the Linotype fold. Down to the late 1960's
the club received financial assistance from the Linotype
firm, but from about 1970 this was withdrawn, as the
company works at Broadheath were wound down. Linotype
were able to continue because they were always able
to draw on the services of men such as Wilf Hodgkiss,
Jack Bather, A. Brown, E.B. Davies, B. Hennis and more
latterly Brian McGuinness as members of the Management
Committee.
Since their formation in 1919, Linotype
has won 42 major trophies, including the Cheshire Amateur
Cup on three occasions (1960/61, 1969/70, and 1985/86).
They were runners -up in the Cheshire Cup in season
1979/80.
In 1985, the Lawrence Road ground was
required for a housing development and the club moved
to the British Airways Club in Timperley before merging
with Cheadle Heath Nomads in time for season 2004/05
g) Linotype / Cheadle Heath
Nomads 2004 to date
The merger with Linotype was a win,
win, win situation;
i) Nomads gained greater playing strength, and a proven
Manager in Dave Norman and retained its place in the
top Division.
ii) Linotype had somewhere to play.
iii) Most importantly, we gained two of the game' s
best administrators in Brian McGuinness and Jim Calderbank.
The club had been thin on the ground off the field with
Roy Welsh and George Gibbons doing most of the work.
Quality off the field doubled overnight.
The playing side took a little time
to settle down and we have consistently finished mid
table since the merger. Alan Pannett has taken over
as manager and with Andrew Pattison running the Reserve
team, in season 2005/06 we won the Stockport Senior
Cup, The Reserve Division League and Cup double and
came Runners-up in the Altrincham Cup.
The prospects look good with a few of the lads nurtured
in the Junior ranks beginning to show at senior level.
It would not take much to push us to the top of both
Divisions.
The future's bright, the future is claret
and blue!
h) Cheadle Heath Nomads Juniors
1994-2004
The junior section started to emerge
just before the cricket left with a small proportion
of the outfield being used for an Under 9s team, run
by Steve Smith and featuring his daughter, Leanne.
The loss of cricket allowed the juniors to grow by one
age group per year - adding a team at Under 9s each
time as the Under 9s became the under 10s, the Under
10s became the Under 11s etc..
By the turn of the century there was a full complement
of teams from Under 9 to Under 16.
A highlight of this period was the appearance of a Nomads
team in a Cup Final at Old Trafford prior to the Germany
v. Italy game in the 1996 European Championships.
The whole German squad watched the match.
There were many successes at the different age groups
and of course some great social occasions.
Administratively the juniors had been
largely left to their own devices, but as the section
grew, the administrative difficulties multiplied. Reporting
was slow and inadequate and there was increasing difficulty
in integrating accounts, especially from a timing point
of view.
For a club registered for VAT this was proving very
difficult.
As a result the Trustees felt there was no option but
to take over the administration of the juniors and started
to integrate its finances with those of the club.
The Trustees also decided to integrate the two sections
(Senior and Junior) into one football club, with meetings
chaired by a Trustee.
Since the start of this, George Gibbons
chaired the committee of Cheadle Heath Nomads F.C.,
reporting to the Trustees as a whole and the acquisition
of firstly Dave Jenkins and then Peter Harley stabilised
the financial reporting.
i) Linotype/Cheadle Heath Nomads Juniors
2004 to date
The merger with Linotype (essentially
at the senior level) made little difference to the juniors
although the administrative skills of Brian McGuinness
can only have helped.
The club has added an Under 8's training
group and an Under 17's team.
The Under 17s has proved a real difference
so far as lads seem able, in many cases, to make the
leap from the Under 17s to senior football - at least
at the Reserve Team level, whereas the leap from Under
16s to seniors seemed to prove a difficult one.
There have been more "converts"
from Under 17s to seniors in the last two seasons than
there were in the previous five (ref. page 11)
The above represents a reasonably thorough
if somewhat truncated history of Cheadle Heath Sports
Club, Cheadle Heath Nomads F.C., Linotype F.C, Linotype
/ Cheadle Heath Nomads F.C. and the development of junior
football. It will continue.
Should you have a contribution
to this history, please contact Roy Welsh, George Gibbons,
Les Jackson or Brian McGuinness.
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