Linotype Cheadle Heath Nomads FC

(cont)
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. continued on page 3