The name Jasper Thorne in the South Oxford School football team (Memory Lane, April 13) reminded me of an era when he dominated minor league football (under-18s) in the Oxford area.
I played for the Regal Youth Club in the Oxfordshire Minor League. A list of our opponents for the 1948-9 season comprises many clubs which no longer operate, but may hold memories for some of your readers: Abingdon Sea Cadets, ATC, Balliol Boys’ Club, Coop Youth Club, Great Milton, Royal Naval School of Music, St John’s Boys’ Club, YMCA.
I enclose a team photograph of the Regal Youth Club from 1946-7, taken on the Ridgefield Road recreation ground in East Oxford. We were an offshoot of the Regal Area Residents’ Association, formed during the Second World War.
The club owed much to the untiring efforts of club leaders Jack Gleeson and his successor in later years, Percy Hopkins. As several players grew too old for minor league football, under the capable hands of Ken Rodgers, Viking Sports Club was formed, still very much alive and kicking, but now alas without a football team.
I recently discovered a copy of a cutting from the Oxford Mail of September 15, 1951.
As chairman of Viking Sports Club, I wrote: “May I express the appreciation of the Viking Sports Club for the sportsmanship displayed by the players of Cowley United Football Club in a recent Oxfordshire Junior League match? To a club like Viking Sports, playing only the second game since its formation, this spirit was very welcome, and sets a very high standard at which to aim.”
That should qualify me as a long-time regular reader of the Mail!
RON FINNERTY
Towersey Drive, Thame
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