County visit Lancaster City on Saturday in a 3pm kick-off and, ahead of this Buildbase FA Trophy tie, County Tweet-meister (as quoted on the BBC Tweet of the Week more than once) Gareth Evans has put together five factoids on our opponents for you.
- 1. Well – hello, Dolly (Blues)! A rare trip up to Lancaster in the Trophy…
Yes, we have seldom crossed paths with the club that takes its nickname from an early 20th-Century brand of washing tablet whose colour matched the shade of the shirts worn by this weekend’s hosts! In fact, our only previous competitive meetings – both at the ‘Giant Axe’ – were in the FA Cup, and during seasons (1921/22, when the ‘Dolly Blues’ won 2-0, and 1933/34, when a single Alf Lythgoe goal proved enough to see County through) before they changed their name from Lancaster Town. The current ‘City’ suffix was introduced in 1937, to reflect Lancaster’s newly-given civic status – granted as part of King George VI’s coronation celebrations, no less.
- 2. I quickly need to know about this Giant Axe ground-name, too. Come on – chop, chop!
(Sigh…) Well, the playing area – where Lancaster have plied their trade since being formed – was originally part of a much wider sports club that included tennis courts, a bowling green, hockey and rugby fields, and (within a large grass circle, known as the ‘sixpence’, which had the football pitch at its centre) four cricket wickets. The exterior wall around all this was the same shape as an axe-head – and, you might suppose, a pretty massive one! – when viewed from above.
- 3. So, how did the club come about – and what has it been up to since?
Lancaster Town began in earnest, as a Lancashire Combination outfit, from 1911 – although some sources date formation back to 1905, when Lancaster Athletic, who also played at the Giant Axe, had commenced the first of five campaigns in the same competition – before failing to complete a full set of fixtures in the West Lancashire League during 1910/11.
From that point, and their admission as Lancaster Town, the Dolly Blues spent 59 years in the Lancashire Combination – which they won four times. Since 1970, much of their life has been devoted to life at one level or another of the Northern Premier League – excepting five years in the North West Counties League (1982-87), after the club had been reformed following financial difficulties, and three seasons as founder members of the Conference North (2004-07). The Giant Axe silverware cabinet currently houses the NPL Division One North trophy, won last term by Lancaster to earn automatic promotion to the Premier Division – one tier below County.
- 4. We don’t meet often – but a few players have turned out for both clubs, haven’t they?
More than a few, actually! Hatters may remember a pre-season friendly of ours at the Giant Axe on a rain-soaked evening of July 2012 that featured, in Danny Hattersley, Alex Kenyon and Alex Meaney, three former Dolly Blues as part of the County line-up. (Hattersley and Meaney scored the game’s two goals, too, just to rub it in!) And midfielder Craig Carney, who was at Edgeley Park briefly in 2016, is Lancaster’s current captain, with eight goals to his name this season.
The rather expansive, overall list from other times includes our beloved centurion, and the world’s oldest surviving former professional, George Haigh – who, having played for the Hatters before and during the Second World War, was Lancaster’s captain, while learning his post-war trade as a metal spinner, in 1945/46. The roll-call also features: goalkeeper Andreas Arestidou (at County in 2015/16); defenders Joe Bunney (2013), John Hardiker (2002-05) and Alex Jones (1984/85); midfielders Paul Lodge (1985/86), Adam Nowland (2008), Craig Roberts (2009-11) and Jake Simpson (2010/11); and strikers Mat Bailey (2003-05), Darren Green (2008/09), Ian Stevens (1986), Rhys Turner (2013/14) and Oshor Williams (1979-84). Additionally, Barrie Betts, who played in the County defence between 1957 and 1960, was later the Dolly Blues’ manager, from 1970 to 1972.
- 5. And are the ‘Betts’ in favour of a County victory?!
Well, if historical omens are your thing, this is the first time we have been drawn away in the
Trophy since visiting another Lancashire club from the NPL Premier Division, Ramsbottom United, at the same First Round stage, three years ago. A repeat of our 3-0 victory from then would be most welcome. Similar conditions to the freezing ones that we braved at ‘Rammy’ less so…!
