~ Harwich & Parkeston v Pegusus ~
~ The final of the Football Association Amateur Cup Challange ~ Wembley, London, 1953 ~
1953 Lap of Honour H&D FW
The 1953 final against Harwich and Parkeston proved one of the most one-sided matches ever seen at Wembley. Pegasus scored six without reply, a margin of victory equalled by Manchester City in 2019 when they defeated Watford in the FA Cup Final.
The Times described the Pegasus performance as "a mature exhibition of pure football". Donny Davies, who wrote for The Guardian under the pen name "An Old International", described the "fundamental beauty of the Pegasus method". The Pegasus team was packed with amateur internationals and gifted sportsmen. Jerry Alexander later captained the West Indies cricket team and Tony Pawson was an individual world fly fishing champion.
"Pegasus played majestically, their positional play and imaginative passing, ankle-high and exact to the last refined inch, seemed to widen the large pitch," the FA's own yearbook concluded. "They played like one man and the ball seemed to be their exclusive property."
Yet 1953 proved to be the high point of the club's achievements and the team only lasted for ten more years. As the dispute about eligibility after leaving the university deepened, the support for the club from Cambridge dwindled as players opted to join Corinthian Casuals instead.
Without the backing of both universities, Pegasus struggled to find sufficient players.
"Pegasus came and went like a shooting star, but in their short life they shed a bright light on the game as a whole," wrote Geoffrey Green in The Times.
The club played their final recorded match against Marston United in the Oxfordshire Senior Cup on April 6, 1963. It attracted a crowd numbered in the hundreds, rather than the thousands which followed their halcyon days.
The Times described the Pegasus performance as "a mature exhibition of pure football". Donny Davies, who wrote for The Guardian under the pen name "An Old International", described the "fundamental beauty of the Pegasus method". The Pegasus team was packed with amateur internationals and gifted sportsmen. Jerry Alexander later captained the West Indies cricket team and Tony Pawson was an individual world fly fishing champion.
"Pegasus played majestically, their positional play and imaginative passing, ankle-high and exact to the last refined inch, seemed to widen the large pitch," the FA's own yearbook concluded. "They played like one man and the ball seemed to be their exclusive property."
Yet 1953 proved to be the high point of the club's achievements and the team only lasted for ten more years. As the dispute about eligibility after leaving the university deepened, the support for the club from Cambridge dwindled as players opted to join Corinthian Casuals instead.
Without the backing of both universities, Pegasus struggled to find sufficient players.
"Pegasus came and went like a shooting star, but in their short life they shed a bright light on the game as a whole," wrote Geoffrey Green in The Times.
The club played their final recorded match against Marston United in the Oxfordshire Senior Cup on April 6, 1963. It attracted a crowd numbered in the hundreds, rather than the thousands which followed their halcyon days.
1953 Meeting Harwich line out H&D FW
1953 Meeting Pegasus line out H&D FW
F.A. Cup Presentation 1953 H&D CI FW
F.A. Cup 1953 H&D CI FW
1953 F.A. Amateur Cup H&D FW
~ 1953 F.A. Amateur Cup Winners Medal H&D ~
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1953 Action Photo I H&D FW
1953 Action Photo II H&D FW
1953 Action Photo III H&D FW
Match Programmes & Tickets
The Football Steward Badge 1953 H&D FW
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The Football Steward Access Ticket 1953 H&D FW
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Standard Ticket & Song Sheet for the 1953 Match Final
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Official Programme
~ Unofficial Programme Type I ~ Even has the wrong cup on the front ~
Unofficial Programme Type II
~ The Qualifying rounds ~ 1952 - 1953 ~
~ 4th qualifying round ~ Crittall Athletic ~
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~ 1st round of qualifying finals ~ Whitton United ~
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~ 2nd round final ~ Harrowgate & District Railway ~
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~ 3rd round of qualifying finals ~ Clevedon ~
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~ 4th round of qualifying finals ~ Leytonstone ~
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~ Semi-finals ~ Walton & Hersham ~
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Match Memorabilia & Other Programmes
~ The Eastern Counties League ~ Stowmarket ~
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~ The Eastern Counties League ~ Gillingham ~
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Other Memorabilia
Anglo American Chewing Gum - Noted Football Clubs #071 of #072
Essential Supporters Kit
Harwich & Parkeston Football Club Poster from 1961
~ Churchman's Cigarette Cards of the F.A. Amateur Cup (1927) H&D ~
Which eluded H&P in 1953
Other Local Clubs & Teams
Ramsey United, Ramsey, Essex (1911-12) Wallis H&D CIII FW
Ramsey War Memorial Football Club (1949-50 Season)
This photograph taken at the old Ramsey Church School, built in 1867, is now known as the Ramsey War Memorial Hall. The football club itself, was founded in 1938, but games were temporarily suspended during world war two (1939 – 1945), however in the late 1940’s, it was reformed and the club played in the “Tendring Hundred League” along with local charity cups. Eventually the club joined the Colchester and East Essex League. Alongside are the Great Oakley Football team from 1918 and a colour still from Parkeston football ground in 1920.
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