LOOKING BACK: Can you fill in the Northern Star blanks?

The club says: “We would love to hear from any former players or officials of Eye United or particularly Northam Star, or the relatives of anyone who was involved with the club who might have photographs, trophies or documents, old programmes or simply stories to tell.

“We’ve lost a number of long serving fans and officials in recent years, and a lot of knowledge has been lost along with them.

“One of the main tasks is to find links between various teams, so we can build a timeline. Of particular interest would be any PDFL handbooks, going back as far as possible. Any information or photographs would be invaluable to us in this research.

“It would be good to know exactly why the club apparently changed name three or four times before settling on Northam Star and exactly why they ditched that name to revert to Eye United in the late 1950s.

“We have heard stories that might be myth, or might be partly true, about all of this (and other things, such as a plane crashing into the pitch in Eye during the war) and it would be good to sort it all out and build an accurate history of a long-standing local football club.

“There’s also the subject of matches taking place during wartime to investigate. The PDFL closed down during the war but stories from ex players mention playing and winning trophies through the war years. We’d love to uncover the truth of it all.

The club have also supplied some pictures for which they’d like some information.

“The first picture is a mystery it was found in a folder of old team photographs. It would be good to know what the trophy is.

“Judging by the haircuts this is probably pre-1960 so a Northam Star team.

“The picture below is another mystery. It is probably an early Eye United team photo, but again, this has no information attached to it.

“The man second from the left on the back row might be ‘Spud’ Taylor, and the man on the left end of the front row is former local referee Ted Tasker.’’

The final picture is believed to date from 1951 or 1952 and the young mascot is believed to be Trevor Brown.

Anyone who can help should contact the club on [email protected] with History as the subject line.

READER FEEDBACK

I had some first hand information about this picture taken at a Peterborough Press Ball.

Rosie and John Sandall, from Longthorpe, are well known to PT readers for their fantastic work with the children of Chernobyl.

Back in the day, John and Rosie both used to work for the Evening Telegraph – John as a photographer and Rosie as a reporter.

Rosie told me: “John remembers the Press Ball picture. It wasn’t his picture but he was at the ball taking pix for the ET.

“The elephant was from Robert Brothers circus which was doing a show on the embankment next to the Wirrina where the ball was held. John borrowed the elephant for a pic!

“Ernie Wise was guest of honour and Press Ball chairman was the late Geoff Heighton, then chief photographer at the ET and John’s boss. It was November 1968 one year before I started at the ET!’’

It’s not uncommon for photographers to take props with them but an elephant is something else! Thanks to Rosie and John for the memories.