A couple
of weeks ago I wrote about some postcards of old Coventry City teams
given to me by John Feeney and they generated some interest amongst
readers. Fellow historian Mike Young confirmed that the 1904 picture
was taken 'behind the grandstand' before the home game with Walsall
on 17th September.
Mike was also able to shed more light on G. Beale who was dressed in
civvies in the team picture. He believes it is George Beale, a
centre-forward from Walsall who played (and scored) in the second
pre-season public trial match on 27th
August when his team (the Stripes) lost 6-3 to the 'Blues'. Beale
wasn't signed on by the club so Mike is mystified as to why he should
still be knocking around for the photo more than a fortnight later.
'Eli' Juggins was the
club's trainer in the postcard of the 1912-13 team picture and I had
a lovely email from Laurie Bird of Rugby regarding his ancestor.
Congratulations
on an interesting article on Coventry City's history. I was pleased
to see my uncle got a mention as trainer in the 1912 photo. You refer
to him as ‘Eli’ Juggins, whereas his full name was Eleader
Juggins. Apparently his mother named all her kids from the Bible! He
was in fact the brother of my mother’s mother, so I guess that
makes him my great uncle?
He
was born 15 June 1880 in Darlaston, near Walsall and initially played
for Wolves. He was transferred to Coventry in 1907 and went to live
in a club house at 78 Nicholls Street. The employment situation was
such that all the family moved with him to Coventry, as he was the
main earner. The house later passed to other landlords and was
occupied by other members of the family until they actually bought it
in the 1950s and eventually sold it around 1970.
Family
folklore has it that when he was first transferred to Coventry he
used to cycle from Darlaston for training, then hide his bike as
footballers weren’t allowed to ride bikes as he use to say ‘it
slows you up’! Whether he did this just a few times or on a
regular basis I’ve no idea, but if it was even once it shows the
era they lived in.
The
book ‘Coventry – A Complete Record 1883-1991’ by Rod Dean (with
your help) shows Eleader Juggins as playing for Coventry from 1907-08
season to 1911-12 making 110 appearances and scoring 9 goals. He
played at right back and I believe he was a regular penalty taker. Of
course in those days, even before the ‘stopper centre half’, the
full backs were the main defenders. The photos on pages 12 and 15
show him first a player then trainer. The book incorrectly calls him
Eleander Juggins and goes on to explain that in 1914 he went to
Southampton. This would have been very brief as before long he
returned to Coventry to keep a pub in Hillfields. Shortly afterwards
he fought in World War 1 after which he returned, minus a finger. His
younger brother, Sam, was less fortunate, losing a leg.
Apparently
the pub was in a bad way when he returned and he moved into the fish
and chip business. He set up a shop appropriately called ‘The
Bantam’ situated in Caludon Road, overlooking the railway bridge
and within sight of Cov’s ground. I remember the shop in the 1940s,
when people used to queue for fish and chips right round the corner
into Brighton Street. That’s all disappeared now, with the new road
displacing the goods railway line. His son (also Eleader) took over
the shop until a fire in the mid-fifties forced closure.
I
remember he used to grumble about his knees, saying this is what came
from “tecking all them penalties for Coventry City”! He later
lived in another house in Nicholls Street, almost opposite no.78 and
he died around 1960 when he would have been about 80.
A right full-back,
Juggins was a stalwart in the City defence between 1907-1912 and is
pictured in the team photograph from 1908 as City prepared for their
first season in the Southern League.
On the question of
Eli's name I wasn't convinced that Eleader was a biblical name and
wondered if his christian name was perhaps Eleazer (definitely a
biblical name). I sought the help of Michael Joyce, one of the
leading people on footballers' ancestry who was able to support
Laurie's view that he was definitely christened Eleader. Michael also
advised that he was born in 1882 and all the available censuses
confirm this as does his death record in September 1966. There is
also no record of him appearing as a player for Southampton in 1914
but Laurie thinks he may have taken a similar role to the one he left
at Coventry i.e. as a trainer, especially as his predecessor Jimmy
McIntyre had moved to the Dell from Coventry in 1912. As wore broke
out in the summer of 1914 he possibly never took up the position.
I also wrote about a
City friendly game in Derry in 1948 and said that Wally Soden was
probably the first instance of Coventry City using a
substitute. Mike Young pointed out that that honour went to Dennis
Simpson who replaced 'Plum' Warner in a friendly game against Danish
club Aarhus during City's tour to Denmark in 1946. It seems Wally was
the second substitute used in a friendly game.
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