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Nostalgia

The Ted Fenton Legacy

Guest Post from TeddyBard

A recent post on WHTID reminded me of a former hero many on here won’t remember. Born in Forest Gate, Ted Fenton played for England schoolboys as a forward but converted to wing half after joining West Ham in 1934. He played five times for England in the late 1930s and was a member of the West Ham team that beat Blackburn 1-0 in the 1940 FA Cup Final.

Fenton left West Ham in 1946 to manage Colchester United, then of the Southern League and reached the fifth round of the FA Cup in the 1947-48 season; with a 3-2 win over neighbours Chelmsford in the fourth qualifying round watched by a Layer Road crowd of 10,396. Wrexham, of the Third Division North were the next visitors to Layer Road and they were duly dispatched by a Bob Curry goal (1-0) with both sides missing penalties. First Division Huddersfield were next up (1-0), again with Bob Curry hitting the winning goal. It was the first time that a non-league side had beaten a First Division club. in the fourth round tie with Second Division Bradford Park Avenue Ted’s Colchester won 3-2. The fifth round draw was awaited with bated breath; and a Blackpool side featuring Stanley Matthews were the ultimate victors, with a 5-0 victory in front of a 30,000 sell-out crowd.

Ted joined West Ham that season as assistant manager to Charlie Paynter in 1948 (when I was 2) and became manager in 1950. His greatest achievement as manager was returning the club to the First Division in 1957-58; winning the Division Two championship and scoring 101 goals. Following promotion West Ham went on to score 59 goals at home the next season; the start of the good times in my opinion.

Perhaps his other major achievement came during the time that Fenton was responsible for establishing “The Academy” and the development of the youth teams. West Ham reached the FA Youth Cup Final twice in three years over the period 1956–59.

Manchester United v West Ham United 8-2

Blackburn Rovers v West Ham United 2-1

Sadly both losses but the foundation had been laid for the 1963 win.

West Ham United v Liverpool 6-5

With the help of Chairman Reg Pratt he was also responsible for encouraging as many players as possible to take their FA coaching badges to ensure that the players had something to fall back on when their playing days were over. Ted Fenton was sacked in March 1961 (no details were made available).

Seven of the West Ham 1964 FA Cup winning team had either been signed by Ted Fenton from other clubs or had worked their way up from the Academy during his time as manager.

GK 1 Jim Standen
RB 2 John Bond
LB 3 Jack Burkett
RH 4 Eddie Bovington
CH 5 Ken Brown
LH 6 Bobby Moore ©
OR 7 Peter Brabrook
IR 8 Ronnie Boyce
CF 9 Johnny Byrne
IL 10 Geoff Hurst
OL 11 John Sissons
Manager: Ron Greenwood

His brother Benny Fenton signed for Colchester Town in 1934, moving to West Ham United a year later. Benny made his professional debut for West Ham United on 9 October 1937, playing alongside his older brother Ted, as an inside forward in a match against Fulham.

Ted Died in a car crash in Leicestershire in 1992 and Benny died in Dorset in 2000.

We all have our favourites but this was the manager of the first West Ham team I ever saw.

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