Cambridge United v Morecambe, Abbey Stadium, League One, 3:00pm Saturday 14th Jan

[Psaw]

As a child i followed all the leagues very closely, and i remember Netherfield, i had no idea it was Kendal, not that id know where that was at that age.

They always struggled or were mid table. What sort of ground did you have in the 60s, gates etc. Whats become of them? I remember Great Harwood, whats happened there? The lower leagues are more intriguing than the upper ones.

[_Stefan_Kuntz]

As a child i followed all the leagues very closely, and i remember Netherfield, i had no idea it was Kendal, not that id know where that was at that age.

They always struggled or were mid table. What sort of ground did you have in the 60s, gates etc. Whats become of them? I remember Great Harwood, whats happened there? The lower leagues are more intriguing than the upper ones.

From the mid-60s to the early 70s Netherfield got crowds of 1,000. When playing Morecambe it was over 2,000.

Netherfield was originally the works team of K Shoemakers. The company owned significant land and various sporting clubs were set up on this land, initially for the workers but eventually anyone could join / play. Gradually these clubs became independent of the company, except for being on the land, which was eventually covenanted for these sporting purposes. K Shoemakers was taken over by Clarkes. By 2000 it was closed down. The various sporting clubs are safe on the land by virtue of the covenant. In 2000 it was decided to change the football club's name from Netherfield (a district of Kendal) to Kendal Town. The building of the clubhouse was funded by K Shoemakers in their time and it is still an impressive facility.

The team is now 20,000 leagues under where it was in the early 1970s. It had been a member of the Lancashire Combination and was a founder member of the Northern Premier League when the national game below Football League level began to get organised in the early 1970s. Nationally there was then the next step below the 4th division being the Northern Premier League, the Southern League and the Isthmian League (biggest clubs around the south east), these three leagues being the same level. Netherfield struggled, their best finish being 10th but eventually the natural order of things occurred and they began a steady stream of relegations.

The Kendal Town football club is very unlikely to fold. Clarkes cannot overturn the covenant on the ground, so it has a home indefinitely. But it cannot prosper because football supporters find it so easy to get to Lancashire, where a cornucopia of football delights are to be found. Traditionally Kendal was divided between Preston North End and Carlisle United. Now that Morecambe are in the EFL there are Kendal folk who are Morecambe supporters.

A long time ago Netherfield had a player called Joe Finney. He was from Preston. This was in the days before instant communication was common. On one match day Joe Finney could not make the gig so a youth arrived with a note from Joe apologising and stating that the bearer of the note was Joe's brother Tom, who could play. The manager said "Nay lad tha's too small".