Spurs 51 Title team

[Delboy75]

I know lots about 61 double team but very little about this team apart from Arthur Rowe and push and run football. It was about 20 years before I was born and I don’t come from a Spurs family so no parents or grandparents to pass down stories. Any stories insight of that season be great. Most key players ? Pivotal games style of play ? Did Arthur Rowe really invent a new style of football?

 

[topper]

I know lots about 61 double team but very little about this team apart from Arthur Rowe and push and run football. It was about 20 years before I was born and I don’t come from a Spurs family so no parents or grandparents to pass down stories. Any stories insight of that season be great. Most key players ? Pivotal games style of play ? Did Arthur Rowe really invent a new style of football?

My Dad used to wax lyrically about Ronnie Burgess in midfield and Les Duquemin (could be a spello) 'The Duke' upfront; and of course Eddie Bailey and Billy Nick. Dad also said Alf Ramsey was a decent full back. Ted Ditchburn was one of the best Spurs keepers my Dad had seen and Sonny Walters was also a very decent player

 

[shelfboy68]

I think Rowe spent some time in Hungary after the war and based their team with the quick passing and movement into space.
I might be wrong but I seem to recall that was the basis for it, the only problem was that would could not sustain it for a longer period than the one title win.

 

[ShelfWatcher]

I know lots about 61 double team but very little about this team apart from Arthur Rowe and push and run football. It was about 20 years before I was born and I don’t come from a Spurs family so no parents or grandparents to pass down stories. Any stories insight of that season be great. Most key players ? Pivotal games style of play ? Did Arthur Rowe really invent a new style of football?

The captain Ron Burgess is rated by many as an all time great right up there with the Blanchflowers and Mackays
Unfortunately like so many lost six years of his career in his very prime, mid twenties, due to the war
Alf Ramsey was our cultured right back, who in a cruel twist of fate as England manager left another of our all time greats out of the side for England's greatest ever triumph
We attracted huge crowds and in those days the our crowd was apparently known to be one of the most positive and supportive

 

[Nine while nine]

I have a book on Spurs, published in 1957, and it identifies the four greats of the 1951 team as Ramsay, Nicholson, Burgess and Baily - with Ramsay and Nicholson the intelligent and disciplined players wholly able to translate Rowe's vision onto the field, and Burgess and Baily the naturally gifted footballers with superb technique.

My favourite anecdote is about Burgess and the legendary Peter McWilliam, one of Arthur Rowe's predecessors as manager.

Burgess' desire to hold the ball and take on the whole of the opposing eleven was something that had to be curbed early in his career. It fell to Peter McWilliam to make the first step just before the war when Burgess was playing for Spurs' Combination side at Coventry, playing his natural attacking game, sallying into the home defensive zone at every opportunity, taking knocks and tackles as so many medals. Stripping in the dressing room after the match, he revealed a body and a pair of legs covered in those tell-tale ugly red patches that mean sore blue bruises on the morrow. But young Ron Burgess was happy: he had played well, enjoyed himself, and the knocks were small price to pay. Then Peter McWilliam came into the dressing room, gave one look at the darkening bruises, and said scornfully and with no trace of sympathy 'Serves ye right, boy! Perhaps that'll teach ye not to hang on to the ba'!''

We could have done with Peter McWilliam for a few of our players in recent years.

As for Baily, his love of football shines through in this paragraph

Volatile and effervescent, Baily plays football as though he believes in it. One will always remember the spontaneity of his gesture at the breakdown of a beautifully-executed movement by the England forward line in the match against Yugoslavia in 1950. It was a move engineered by Baily, and it sent his line away clear, swift as flight and precise as a move in chess, with Hancocks clear on the right. But the Yugoslav left-half, in the accepted Continental method which cheerfully forfeits a free-kick to prevent an opposing forward getting away, put out a hand and stopped Hancocks by catching up a handful of his shirt. There was no violence, Hancocks was in no way hurt; he was just stopped in mid-flight like a bird snatched from the air. Instantly Baily was in full cry across the field, his voice raised in indignant protest till he was quietened by Lofthouse and the referee. The foul was an offence against good football, against the craft that was his life, and it outraged Baily beyond endurance.

Ah, they don't write paragraphs like that any more...

 

[Gassin's finest]

I recommend "The Autobiography of Tottenham Hotspur" for a great history of the club. I'm convinced Cosmic Hotspur wrote it.

 

[buckley]

7 years old when I first went to the lane with my dad in 1951 I dont remember much as I could not see much and my dad had not taken the box he intended that I stand on . no health and safety in those days .. I kept hearing shouts about "the Duke " and as a child was convinced we had someone from royalty playing for us . its not until I was nearly nine years old that I found out " the Duke " was Len duqueman .

 

[ralphs bald spot]

7 years old when I first went to the lane with my dad in 1951 I dont remember much as I could not see much and my dad had not taken the box he intended that I stand on . no health and safety in those days .. I kept hearing shouts about "the Duke " and as a child was convinced we had someone from royalty playing for us . its not until I was nearly nine years old that I found out " the Duke " was Len duqueman .

He used to have a paper shop at the top of Northumberland Park

 

[ralphs bald spot]

If you can manage to find a copy of this book - its well worth a look covers the push and run side and lots of stuff before it - I have been trying to find my copy its upstairs somewhere when turns up I will find a few snippets

Spurs. A History of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.
Holland, Julian
Published by The Sportsmans Book Club, 1957

if you haven't read Hunter Davies the Glory Game about Spurs early seventies its of its time but he had access to the players controversially and its a good read

 

[Shelf59]

I saw Ted Ditchburn play a couple of times for us in our Reserves/ Combination side around 1959, the season I became a lifelong Spurs supporter. A great keeper, brave and much loved. yes, the 1951 team deserves better recognition for their "push and run" style that changed football in England.

 

[whitesocks]

I get the impression the push and run side burnt themselves out pretty quickly, just like pochettino's side.

 

[Spurs 1961]

I get the impression the push and run side burnt themselves out pretty quickly, just like pochettino's side.

I am not sure that’s true. I just think that it was ahead of its time in England. The tendency to revert to the long ball game was to much; it’s part of the English football culture and even getting thrashed by Hungary changed little. The Double side was built on a lot of the principles of Arthur Rowe

 

[ralphs bald spot]

reading the book that i have found again talking about season 52-53 finished 10th

Although Spurs finished the season in tenth position from January onwards their eyes were really elsewhere Wembley and the Cup were in view '

They eventually lost in the semi final to a lost minute goal against the eventual winners Blackpool and had lost the semi final in the previous year also in the last minute (also in 1948 apparently - you have to remember the cup was massive then and winning it would have been the highlight of a players career

 

[Delboy75]

It feels like we were in a very similar position to United Liverpool in the 50s 60s but we failed to make the most of it while they went onto to build empires.

 

[whitesocks]

I am not sure that’s true. I just think that it was ahead of its time in England. The tendency to revert to the long ball game was to much; it’s part of the English football culture and even getting thrashed by Hungary changed little. The Double side was built on a lot of the principles of Arthur Rowe

I've read the players were generally not that fit back then, so this pass and run, pass and run would have been exhausting for them.
Alternatively, I guess the state of the pitches would have favoured a long ball game back then. Perhaps we had a couple of dry winters those years. When the rains returned, then that was the end of the system.

 

[Spursmatty87]

Rowe deserves so much more respect than he gets. It’s often referred to the club the bill built, but Rowe was a football pioneer and started it all. I can’t believe that it’s a coincidence that Alf and Bill were in that team and achieved what they did. .

 

[shelfboy68]

It feels like we were in a very similar position to United Liverpool in the 50s 60s but we failed to make the most of it while they went onto to build empires.

That's probably fair comment that apart from the double side which could of won it back to back, the club has never really taken advantage and built anything long lasting.

 

[ShelfWatcher]

It feels like we were in a very similar position to United Liverpool in the 50s 60s but we failed to make the most of it while they went onto to build empires.

Yep, we won more trophies than either Liverpool or Utd in the 60s. Indeed we won more trophies than any other English club that decade. When we did the double in 61 Liverpool were a second division team. When we were the first British team to win a European trophy in 63, Utd finished 18th IIRC and came close to being relegated. I think we never finished lower than 6th in the 60s

 

[whitesocks]

Yep, we won more trophies than either Liverpool or Utd in the 60s. Indeed we won more trophies than any other English club that decade. When we did the double in 61 Liverpool were a second division team. When we were the first British team to win a European trophy in 63, Utd finished 18th IIRC and came close to being relegated. I think we never finished lower than 6th in the 60s

to be fair, manu had lost their babes. It took them a while to get going again.

 

[ShelfWatcher]

to be fair, manu had lost their babes. It took them a while to get going again.

That's true, but fact was we were a mega club in the 60s, there's been a slow decline since then. The last twenty years have been our worst trophy haul since the 19th Century