“Blyth Spartans were named after the Greek army,” James Henry informed us in January 2009. “What is the weirdest explanation for a football team’s suffix?”
Blyth are named after the Spartan army, the legendary fighting force of the 6th to 4th centuries BC. This kind of classical allusion wasn’t uncommon in the era of the late Victorian amateur. The Corinthian Football Club, now Corinthian-Casuals, were formed in 1882, their name referencing the mythic Greek code of amateur sportsmanship. This was a common practice across Europe at the time. Ajax of Amsterdam are named after Ajax the Ancient Greek warrior hero from the Iliad (and latterly also inspiration for a popular brand of domestic scouring powder). And the Spartans themselves left an imprint beyond Blyth – Sparta Rotterdam (Holland) and Sparta Prague (Czech Republic), both founded within a few years of Spartans, took their name from the same bunch of Greek hard-cases.
All a little more elevated than the origins of Billingham Synthonia, whose suffix, explains Roger Hale, comes from an agricultural fertiliser, “Synthonia being a contraction of ‘synthetic ammonia’. This was manufactured by ICI, which used to operate a large chemical works in the town and maintained a close association with the club.” Brian Clough once played for them, you know.
From Lithuania George M Campbell writes with news of his local team Vilnius Zalgiris, named after “a battle fought in what is now Poland, in 1410, by the national hero Vytautas, where he finally defeated the Teutonic Order and their allies, thus securing the western border against the crusaders sent by numerous popes, and enabling his empire-building drive to the Black Sea”. All of which, scholastically-minded Knowledge regulars will no doubt be familiar with already.
Nick den Uijl is the man with the skinny on NAC Breda of Holland, although, as he points out, this is a prefix and not a suffix. “NAC Breda comes from Noad Advendo Combinatie. Noad stands for ‘Nooit Ophouden Altijd Doorzetten’ (Never Quit Always Persevere) and Advendo stands for ‘Aangenaam Door Vermaak En Nuttig Door Ontspanning’ (Pleasant by Enjoyment and Useful by means of Relaxation). Noad and Advendo were two football clubs in Breda (the Netherlands) who merged in 1912.” Never Quit Always Persevere Pleasant by Enjoyment and Useful by means of Relaxation Breda it is then. Catchy.
From Russia Alexei Berezovoy writes with news of a team called Avtozapchasty, which means “spare part”. Avtozapchasty are from Baksan, and were named after a factory that made spare parts. To date their greatest achievement is a 4th place finish in the western zone of the Russian Second division.
While we’re at it let’s not forget Swindon Supermarine, who play in the Southern Premier League, an amalgamation of Swindon Athletic and Supermarine, originally the works team of the Supermarine aircraft company, who made the Spitfire. And as of this year Leigh Genesis, who used to be Leigh RMI, but have now been renamed after a leading British prog rock band of the 1970s and 80s, apparently in order “to give the club an association with the town and to symbolise its new beginning”. Genesis also have a new “logo” on their kit – a series of green squiggles reminiscent of a bowl of pesto-coated spaghetti.
We’re all going on a summer holiday
“Leyton Orient have been promised a holiday to Las Vegas after drawing with Arsenal,” noted Eamonn Loach in March 2011. “Have any other teams used holidays as an incentive?”
While Orient headed to Nevada, Spain, Dubai and the Algarve have also been used as carrots to coax the best out of players. “Back in 2007 Danish side AGF Aarhus were promised a combined holiday/training camp in Dubai if they were promoted to the Superliga in 2007,” writes Mikkel Andreas Beck. “They were successful in June that year and had the holiday/training tour the following January with girlfriends and wives also invited.”
Peter Newbitt points us in the direction of Paulo Futre, who offered a personal incentive to his West Ham team-mate John Moncur. “All through my career I’d played in the 10 shirt, then I saw the shirt hanging up in the dressing room and it said: ‘Futre 16’,” said the Portuguese player of his arrival at Upton Park. “I didn’t play and I left. I went to a hotel, saw my friend and then Peter Storrie spoke to the Premier League and we changed the number of the shirt.
“John Moncur had the 10 shirt. But I went to John Moncur and said: ‘John, I’m so sorry, you can come to my villa in the Algarve, stay as long as you want, play golf.’ He agreed.”
But the inside scoop on this subject comes from former Clydebank midfielder Peter Sermanni. “In season 1990-91, we were struggling near the foot of the table after a horrendous run of results in the new year,” begins Peter, whose team lost nine out of 10 league fixtures in January and February. “With 10 games remaining to avoid relegation, the then owner (and renowned tight-arse) Jack Steedman, put an end-of-season trip to Spain on the table if we stayed up, and furthermore, he would throw in £200 for every point we collected in the final 10 games.
“From memory we went unbeaten for the next seven games and finished with five wins, four draws and a single defeat to finish mid-table. The icing on the proverbial was the final day of the season when we smashed Partick Thistle 7-1, the talismanic Ken Eadie scored four second half goals to clinch the Daily Record Golden Boot, pipping Gordon Dalziel. To top it off, Thistle, who were also going to Spain that night, had their trip cancelled by management for getting such a tonking. Ouch. It’s fair to say there were a few beers consumed at the airport that evening as we waited for the flight. Lovely. Pity it was only 2 points for a win back then…”
Home runners
“In 1899 the UK Baseball champions were Nottingham Forest, while Spurs won it in 1906,” noted Paul Smith in January 2005. “Which other football teams have had baseball connections or are these team names coincidental?”
The names are not coincidental. The National Baseball League of Great Britain and Ireland was founded in 1890. Four teams were involved, all with close links to association football clubs: Derby County, Preston North End, Aston Villa and Stoke City.
Baseball flourished particularly in the north-east with clubs in Middlesbrough, Darlington, Stockton and Thornaby. In 1933 a National Baseball Association was founded and professional leagues were formed in Lancashire and Yorkshire. The first professional games got under way in 1936, with the Yorkshire League made up of sides from Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Hull, Dewsbury, Wakefield and Scarborough. Games regularly attracted 5,000 spectators – and, on occasion, as many as 10,000.
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