TEA WITH TED DRAKE
DAVID DOCHERTY RECALLS A MEMORABLE ENCOUNTER WITH THE LEGENDARY ARSENAL AND EN LAND SHARP-SHOOTER ...
David Docherty reminisces
SOON after I arrived in London nearly 30 years ago, I hit on the idea of contacting a few old footballers to see if I could arrange to talk to them about their careers.
I didn’t have anyone particular in mind so I began to think of famous London-based footballers from the 1930s who might still be alive.
The first one I thought of was the famous Arsenal centre-forward Ted Drake. So I picked up volume 1 of the huge London phone book and flicked through to see if I could find his name. I came across the name E.J. Drake. I knew that Ted’s full name was Edward Joseph Drake so could this be him? I dialled the number. “Hello, is that Mr Drake?” “Yes.” “Mr Ted Drake, the footballer?” “Yes.” BINGO! I asked if I could come to see him to talk about his career. He kindly agreed and I arranged to vist him a couple of days later.
Ted lived in a lovely big old house in Raynes Park.
He greeted me at the door, introduced me to his wife and invited me into his living room.
I had a tape recorder with me and asked his permission to use it.
I started by asking him about his famous team-mates, hoping that Ted would give me some stories ries about the likes of Alex James, Cliff Bastin and Eddie Hapgood.
“What was Alex James s like, Mr Drake?”
“Oh, Alex was a lovely y man.” “And Cliff Bastin?” “Cliff was a lovely man.” n.” “And Eddie Hapgood?” ?” “Lovely man.” I soon realised how unfair it was to be asking g a man approaching his 80s questions about people that he last played with and possibly last saw over 50 years before.
I decided on a change e of tack by asking him about out scoring the winning goal in the 1936 Cup Final. He surprised me with his detailed answer which came after a bit of thought.
“I remember when I scored the winning goal, I shook hands with my team-mates – we didn’t kiss and all that nonsense in those days – then I spotted my lovely wife in the stand, there were 93,384 people in the crowd that day, and I gave her a wave.”
He could also recall the newsreel gyrocopters flying over Wembley that day.
In the meantime, Mrs Drake arrived with a tray containing tea and jam doughnuts.
Ted showed me a bound volume of all of the Chelsea programmes for the 1954-55 season when they famously won the First Division championship for the first time in their history with him as manager.
I asked him if he still had his medals and England caps. He said that, unfortunately, they had all been stolen after he had loaned them to the local boy scouts who had asked to borrow them for a fundraising event.
Some mean-spirited individual had broken into the scout hut and had it away with the lot.
He told me that his sons had written to the FA and explained the position to them and they had sent him an England cap to make up for the loss of the others.
Knowing that Ted had scored a record seven goals (from just eight shots) for Arsenal in a First Division match against Aston Villa at Villa Park in December 1935 19 and, having read somewhere that t all of the players had signed the th match ball which was presente presented to him afterwards, thus making it one of the most iconic football footballs in the game’s history, I asked if I cou could see the famous ball.
Ted then lef left the room and I could hear him saying something to his wife who was in another room.
A couple of minutes la later Ted re-entered th the room and rolled an old leather-cased lea ball along the carpet.
Just as I picked it up, Mrs Drake came to the door with a box under each arm and proceeded to tip them out and, from recollection, at least another four leather-cased balls came rolling along the carpet toward towards me.
I asked which one was the famous seven-goal ball as I could see that there were no signatures on any and he said “You know what it’s like, David, you have grandkids and they want to have a kickabout in the garden!”
As a result, the signatures had obviously rubbed off.
The thought went through my head that that particular ball with signatures would have been priceless on the open market but that thought had never occurred to the great man, the happiness of his family being much more important.
I decided I would pick up every ball and throw them up in the air and head them back into my hands to ensure that I had made contact with whichever of them may have been the very special one!
Mr Drake kindly gave me a copy of his testimonial match programme, which I still have.
Before I left, Ted told me that he always looked out for the results of Scottish club Meadowbank Thistle. “I don’t know why, David, I just like the name.”
When I returned home I immediately wrote to the club and told them that the famous Arsenal and England centre-forward had a soft spot for them.
A few days later I received a lovely letter from the club chairman enclosing a copy of a letter he had writen to Ted thanking him for his support and enclosing a few match programmes for him as a token of their respect.
He said also that they may do a piece in a future match programme about the great man. I don’t know if that ever came to pass but I thought it was a wonderful gesture for the chairman to go to the trouble he did.
Curiously, just as I began working on this article, the 1939 film “The Arsenal Stadium Mystery” came on television. The acting is a bit hammy and it has a corny plot but it contains some great footage of Ted and his Arsenal teammates in their heyday with some wonderful match action, crowd and behindthe-scenes shots of Highbury.
Ted Drake started his career with Southampton and after three seasons with them, during which he bagged 48 goals in 72 games, he became the new Arsenal manager George Allison’s first signing in March 1934 for a fee of £6,500.
In his very first full season, he set a club record by scoring 42 League goals in just 41 appearances, a total which included three hat-tricks (v Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester) and no fewer than four four-goal feats (v Birmingham, Chelsea, Wolves and Middlesbrough).
Incredibly, his eight goals against Chelsea and Wolves came on successive Saturdays. Was it any wonder he had so many match balls at home?
Drake was a fearless, all-action type of player and he soon made his debut for England against world champions Italy alongside six Arsenal team-mates in what became known as the “Battle of Highbury”.
In this rough-house match, Ted scored one of England’s goals in a famous 3-2 victory.
It was his fierce early clash with Italy’s notorious centre-half Luis Monti, which led to the dual Argentinian and Italian World Cup finalist limping off with a broken foot.
It was that particular incident which caused the outraged Italians to totally lose the plot.
As stated previously, Ted’s greatest day in an Arsenal shirt came in a league match against Aston Villa.
The 14th of December, 1935, was the day he equalled Preston’s Jack Ross’s First Division individual scoring record of seven goals which had stood since 1888.
Starting with a bandaged knee, Ted gave Villa’s big-money Welsh international centre-half Tom Griffiths an afternoon to forget.
Remarkably, his first six shots all hit the Villa net. These came in the 15th, 28th, 34th, 46th, 50th and 58th minutes. His seventh shot rattled the Villa crossbar before being cleared and in the 89th minute the near 59,000 crowd witnessed his eighth shot and his seventh goal of an amazing match when he blasted a pass from Cliff Bastin past keeper Morton.
Arsenal were without their hugely influential playmaker Alex James that day as well as their England winger Joe Hulme but Drake proved unstoppable.
The full Arsenal side on that famous occasion was: Wilson; Male, Hapgood; Crayston, Roberts, Copping; Rogers, Bowden, Drake, Bastin and Beasley.
Just six weeks after that, Drake was badly injured playing for England against Wales, being helped off before half-time.
He then had to have a cartilage operation and, as a result, he missed no fewer than 17 matches. He did, however, manage to return for three games late in the season, one of which was the Cup Final, and, typically, he scored in all three.
Co-incidentally, his return to action saw Arsenal face Aston Villa in their return League fixture at Highbury and Drake again put them to the sword by scoring the only goal of the match which, unfortunately for them, consigned them to their first-ever relegation from the top tier.
Despite missing so many matches, Drake was once again the club’s top scorer with 24 goals in his 26 appear- ances. He also managed to finish the season in proper “Boy’s Own” style by scoring the goal which brought the FA Cup back to Highbury for only the second time.
Second Division Sheffield United were the Gunners’ opponents that day and Drake, with his damaged knee still bandaged, confirmed his status as the deadliest marksman in the country by hitting the only goal of a hard-fought match in the 74th minute with a rising left foot shot from 12 yards.
Ted Drake had an outstanding career which saw him play for both Southampton and Arsenal and climb the managerial ladder via Hendon and Reading to Chelsea.
It was he who had the Pensioner removed from the Chelsea club badge as he felt it projected the wrong image. After leaving Stamford Bridge, he had other roles with both Barcelona and Fulham.
A great sporting all-rounder, in the 1930s he had also played first class cricket for Hampshire. Later in life, he spent his Saturday afternoons as a member of the pools panel.
A real gentleman, Ted passed away in 1995, aged 82, but his place in football history is assured. For me to be able to spend a couple of hours in his company was a very special privilege.