Chelsea team: Shield success 60 years on
To mark our first Charity Shield appearance 60 years ago, the official
Chelsea website caught up with Frank Blunstone and Peter Brabrook, two members of Ted Drake’s victorious 1955 vintage.
The match between the league winners and FA Cup holders, now known as the Community Shield, dates back to 1908, but it was not until we lifted the first major trophy in our history, the First Division, that a Chelsea team would compete for the shield.
In those days a coin was tossed to decide which team would have home advantage. Back in 1955, whoever did the duty for Chelsea, possibly manager Ted Drake, called it right. The one-off game against FA Cup winners Newcastle would be played at Stamford Bridge.
Frank Blunstone (pictured top in 1955) was an outside left and a regular in our 1954/55 championship-winning team. He played for Chelsea for 11 years, making almost 350 appearances, and here he takes up the story of our game against the team from the North-East, who included in their ranks the great Jackie Milburn.
‘It was on a Wednesday afternoon,’ remembers Blunstone. ‘There were no floodlights in those days and the weekends were full because it was played after the season started.
‘That is why there weren’t many people there. We normally had big crowds back then, we got 74,000 against Wolves the season before. We were disappointed it was not at Wembley because you didn’t get many chances to play there in those days.’
Frank Blunstone and Peter Brabrook pictured centre talking to manager Ted Drake in 1959. On their left is Jimmy Greaves.
There were 12,800 people at Stamford Bridge that afternoon and they saw 17-year-old Peter Brabrook play inside-right with Eric Parsons wider. It was not to be Brabrook’s permanent position, as he explains.
‘I started off as a midfield player, inside right, and then I got moved to the wing when Eric Parsons got injured,’ he says.
‘I was very quick and Ted Drake thought I would do well out there. It helped that I was young because it was a tough old game and being on the wing kept me away from some of the tough lads. That’s why I went out there because of my pace and trickery and that’s where I ended up playing.’
The match itself proved fairly one-sided with Chelsea impressively running out 3-0 winners, Blunstone among the scorers. An own goal and one from captain Roy Bentley completed the scoring.
‘We had a full team out,’ says Blunstone. ‘We were pleased to win it. We were on 10 to 12 quid a week so any win bonus was good. We relied on those, we would have been out to win all right, and so would have Newcastle!
‘We always did well against Newcastle in them days. And it was Roy’s former team so a bit more for him to play for. They had Jackie Milburn who was also very famous at the time. He was a cult figure at Newcastle, a good out-and-out goalscorer, good in the air and took chances. But we didn’t see him a lot because games weren’t on telly. You knew more from what you read.’
And even though the match was 60 years ago, Brabrook retains one memento from the day.
‘I have still got my shield - it’s a small version of the big one the team gets given. All the winning players got one.’
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