Black Country football in the early ’30s
Sucessful seasons for the Black Country's football clubs
1929-30
THIS was a great scoring season for Albion – they netted a club record 105 goals in their 42 League games but still missed out on promotion, finishing sixth in Division Two with 47 points, eight short of the total achieved by runner’s-up Chelsea and 11 behind champions Blackpool.
The Baggies won half of their League games, with those of 7-1 versus Hull City, 7-3 against Wolves (who lost goalkeeper Billy Walker with a fractured leg before half-time), 6-1 versus Millwall, 6-2 versus Swansea Town, 5-0 versus Bradford Park Avenue and 5-1 versus top dogs Blackpool, Bury and also Southampton being the best of the bunch.
Battered
The Baggies’ heaviest defeat of the 16 they suffered, was a 5-0 battering at Oldham – this just four days after that epic win over Wolves. They also lost 5-1 at Bradford.
Jimmy Cookson (33) and Tommy Glidden (20) top-scored for the Baggies.
In contrast to Albion’s goal tally, Wolves scored only 77 when finishing ninth in the table.
They won 16 of their 42 matches with a 6-0 home victory over Bradford City and a 5-1 home win over Notts County proving to be their best. In fact, Billy Hartill netted all five goals in the win over the Magpies.
Of their 17 defeats, the heaviest came against the Baggies (as mentioned above), 6-0 at Oldham and 5-2 at Nottingham Forest.
Wolves also played out a thrilling 4-4 draw with Bradford Park Avenue at Molineux.
Hartill, also with 33 goals, was Wolves’ leading scorer this term, followed by Jimmy Deacon with nine.
Walsall, unfortunately, had another poor season, finishing 17th in Division Three (South). The Saddlers struggled desperately at times, having one exceptionally bad run between 17th November and the 21st March when they won only two of their 14 matches. Occasionally the team did produce the goods – especially when
Torquay United were thumped 7-0 and Merthyr Town 6-0. But on the other hand they were awful in London, when losing 6-2 against Brentford and 5-1 to Crystal
Palace both in April. Walsall’s top marksman was Albert Walters with a tally of 25.
In the FA Cup this season, Albion surprisingly went out in the third round, beaten 1-0 by Wrexham. Wolves also fell at the first hurdle, losing by the same score to Oldham Athletic, while Walsall knocked out Exeter City, Newport County and Swansea Town before losing in round three to Aston Villa by 3-1 before a massive crowd at Villa Park of 74,626 … the biggest-ever audience to watch the Saddlers in action.
Debut
W.G. Richardson made a scoring debut for Albion against Millwall this season after joining from Hartlepool United. He played mainly in the reserves, however, and netted 50 times for the ‘Stiffs’.
Teddy Sandford also joined Albion this season and he and W.G. went on to serve the Baggies exceedingly well for a number of years.
Rain
Due to torrential rain before and during the game, Albion’s home fixture with Nottingham Forest was in serious doubt and as a result of the atrocious weather only 1,495 turned up – the lowest Hawthorns crowd since 1902.
Cecil Shaw, Wilf Lowton, Charlie Phillips and Deacon were signed by Wolves this season, while those who left Molineux included Harold Shaw, Tom Baxter and Wilf Chadwick.
Away from football … and Wolves player Vic Fox scored 1,457 runs for an average of 31 while batting for Worcestershire CCC during the summer of 1929.