Steve Leake and Mick Fox have curated an exhibition about the history of Crawley Town Football Club. On the opening night of the exhibition at Crawley Museum, Steve Leake gave us a tour of the exhibits on display.
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00:00 (crowd noise)
00:10 As you enter the exhibition, you've got the interested parties of the club really.
00:17 You've got teenage coaches over on this side, and you notice the signs that they use on the coaches going up to Old Trafford.
00:27 We've got a fancied coach, a notorious coach and a bulldozer coach, and there was other coaches in those days as well.
00:33 This is the DSA, Disabled Support Association, their log display.
00:38 And on this side we've got CTFC, SA, Supporters Alliance, with their posters telling you what they do.
00:45 And now that they've got representation on the board with Sam Jordan, he should be here tonight.
00:50 Yep.
00:51 The one and only Sergio Antones' shirt.
00:54 Is that a particular game or is that...?
00:57 I think that's the one. It wouldn't have been the one from Derby County because it's a league shirt.
01:02 Yeah, from that season.
01:04 From the season after, yeah.
01:06 And then you come here, this is Mick Fox's work of art over here.
01:10 This shows wherever Crawley have played in Crawley.
01:14 You see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 pitches.
01:20 Wow.
01:21 You know, and what do the pink ones signify?
01:23 The pink ones signify places that we've used as HQs.
01:29 Or this little one here is an old lady's house that they used as changing.
01:34 Oh really?
01:35 You can walk over to the entrance.
01:37 Oh wow, incredible.
01:39 Behind the entrance is Cinnabar, which is now Turtle Bay.
01:42 Yes.
01:43 And then you've got the Touth Meadow.
01:51 So that was 51 years, no, 41 years they were there.
01:56 Yeah.
01:57 Yeah.
01:58 It looks like they're going for a one man and a dog there, doesn't it?
02:02 That's the building there and that's the Town Mead houses in the background.
02:06 Yeah. Oh wow, incredible.
02:12 Some old players there in the red and white quartered shirts that we used to wear.
02:18 And we also wore red and white stripes, which we see a lot of.
02:21 Right, yeah.
02:23 And you come on to Town Mead a bit higher up.
02:27 Yeah.
02:29 They have the worst toilets in the league, I think we had that.
02:33 And that sign there is in that cupboard over there.
02:40 Oh wow.
02:41 Because I got in there the day after they closed it and nicked it.
02:46 You took possession of it, shall we say.
02:49 This was the old stand, it was made, that was the boardroom.
02:55 Right.
02:56 And you had to climb up to that, not via the ladder, there was a staircase at the back.
03:01 Incredible, and then a Broadfield Stadium.
03:03 Just as we got the stadium looking reasonably, we moved.
03:08 Yeah.
03:09 Which is a good job they did.
03:12 And you come on to this one, Crawley FC 1890s to 1953.
03:18 The one and only George Banks.
03:21 Yes, we featured him in the paper, didn't we?
03:23 Did we feature him in the paper at some point?
03:26 I can't remember.
03:27 I see them again there.
03:29 This looks like it's been photoshopped, that.
03:31 It does, doesn't it?
03:32 It couldn't have been.
03:33 It couldn't have been, but it does, yeah, absolutely.
03:35 Yeah, and is that all the team shots from over the years?
03:38 These are team shots throughout the years, yeah.
03:41 Wow.
03:42 And that's the latest one.
03:49 Yeah.
03:50 Incredible.
03:53 And then these are the pits throughout the years.
03:57 Which one's your favourite?
03:59 Have you got a favourite?
04:01 I must admit, I like it basically red, a bit boring.
04:04 Yeah.
04:05 I think that was a nice one, with the black.
04:08 With the black, yeah.
04:10 That one was a good one as well.
04:13 I think that was the one that Andy Riley used to wear.
04:18 Yeah.
04:19 Remember Andy Riley?
04:20 Yes, I do, yeah.
04:21 He took the penalties for that.
04:23 And then this bit here is other related teams,
04:26 because although we're Crawley Town,
04:28 we were Crawley SC before that,
04:31 and we went out of existence for three years, was it, Mick?
04:34 Yeah, but some of these were...
04:37 These are precursors, like the Crawley comrades came from the war
04:42 and then they went to the Rangers and then they packed up and became Crawley.
04:47 And they all sort of fell apart just before the Second World War
04:51 and then re-emerged as Crawley FC.
04:54 But quite often it seemed to me that they used to share players.
04:58 Right, OK.
04:59 And there was a Wednesday team that used to share players as well, so...
05:03 Yeah.
05:05 The founding fathers.
05:07 All the neat bits are Steve's.
05:10 All the ones with the handwritten captions in mind that you can't read very well.
05:14 This is what we've published in The Observer.
05:19 Yeah, yes.
05:20 Nice spread down there, Steve.
05:24 It looks good, doesn't it?
05:26 We've got bits of the Denman up there.
05:29 Then it goes into the New Town, which is Stan Malcolm.
05:32 Which finishes up there.
05:35 And then the Bournemouth years.
05:37 We were around in that space, so we were able to leave this one to section on Bain.
05:43 Yeah, we ran stuff on that, didn't we, in that paper?
05:46 The legends and characters.
05:48 These legends, which I think they were from Molly Sempik there.
05:51 They were.
05:52 Yeah.
05:53 Gord Jennings.
05:54 I put that little thing in there.
05:56 Photographed cropped to avoid showing the Tesco carrier.
06:00 He doesn't like Brian.
06:02 [Laughter]
06:04 I'm not the only one.
06:06 I was calling this lot legends, but in the end I knew Steve's was that.
06:12 So it was more, I remember them.
06:15 It's a memory board for people who come and say, "Oh, yeah, I remember."
06:18 It's fascinating, isn't it?
06:20 We've still got Roy up there in a crawly shirt this time.
06:23 But it's not just players.
06:25 38 pages.
06:27 Incredible.
06:29 Don't get that very often, do you think?
06:31 Have you ever hit harder?
06:32 No, never did.
06:33 Just slid it into the corner.
06:35 Any time.
06:37 Like clockwork.
06:38 He was the only painting type I could actually watch.
06:41 [Laughter]
06:43 Also, we've got other sort of people, Fred Pitts behind the scenes, and Jim.
06:48 So it's not just players.
06:50 Not just players, yeah.
06:52 Bruce and Steve Evans together there.
06:54 Of course.
06:55 [Indistinct conversation]
07:03 Good to see a crawly observer front page there, lovely.
07:05 There's a few of them.
07:06 Yeah, absolutely.
07:07 My press cutting library got quite summoned.
07:11 Can I interrupt, Steve?
07:12 We have your friends from Norfolk.
07:14 Hello.
07:15 [Laughter]
07:17 That's my album over there.
07:19 That was presented to me by my kids on my 60th birthday.
07:24 Oh, okay.
07:25 Oh, lovely.
07:26 Basically the promotion series.
07:29 Yeah.
07:30 Man United trip and all that sort of stuff.
07:33 Oh, cool.
07:34 What have we got?
07:36 Is this like VIX supporters?
07:39 They're trying to pick out the supporters in the background.
07:44 And then that's Graham Longley.
07:46 Do you want Graham Longley?
07:47 No, don't.
07:48 Alan Harper.
07:49 Oh, yeah.
07:50 Malcolm Harper, his brother.
07:52 [Indistinct conversation]
08:04 What's in this one here?
08:06 Is this, there's programmes and?
08:09 Yeah, flats and football flats.
08:11 Oh, right.
08:12 United reviews and signed photographs.
08:17 That was presented to us by three British.
08:19 Oh, nice.
08:20 Yeah.
08:21 Oh, wow.
08:22 And a little trophy cabinet.
08:28 This is a trophy cabinet.
08:30 And that thing down there, that is a wedge, wedge.
08:32 Yeah.
08:33 For thousands of pounds.
08:35 The first time I collected it from the football,
08:38 for the sports exhibition we had two seasons ago,
08:41 I had a broken knee.
08:43 Oh.
08:44 So I did a repair shop on it.
08:46 Yeah.
08:47 I did the lady on repair shop, I think that's exactly right.
08:50 Yeah.
08:51 Oh, wow.
08:52 But we got, it seems like we weren't allowed to keep trophies.
08:58 So that's remembering that we won the Dr. Martens League.
09:03 Yeah.
09:04 Because the Dr. Martens trophy is that big wooden shield.
09:08 Yeah.
09:09 Which has got Tom Watson on it.
09:11 Oh, of course, yeah.
09:12 Oh, wow.
09:13 We got the Leeds United ball, but someone's put the wrong date on it.
09:19 [Laughter]
09:22 Oh, amazing.
09:26 And a Bobby Charlton shirt.
09:30 That was presented by Bobby Charlton.
09:33 Yeah.
09:34 And there are pictures of Bobby Charlton.
09:37 [Indistinct conversation]
09:46 Steve, where are the pictures of Bobby Charlton?
09:48 Sorry?
09:49 Where are the pictures?
09:50 Where are the pictures of Bobby Charlton?
09:52 Bobby Charlton's isn't there.
09:55 Oh, yeah, handing over the little trophy in there, he has a Leeds turn ball.
10:00 Oh, wow.
10:01 And Silke was going to send me one of Bobby Charlton's.
10:05 [Indistinct conversation]
10:07 You got the cogs over there.
10:08 Yeah, the cogs up there.
10:09 Ben, take a picture around the back as well, it's got Carol on around the back.
10:13 She's hidden herself around the back.
10:15 [Laughter]
10:16 There she is, Dame Carol.
10:19 Yeah, Dame Carol.
10:21 And the club, very bravely, has given the service as well.
10:25 Oh, okay.
10:26 They were from the tunnel.
10:28 Yeah.
10:29 But they had rebranded the tunnel.
10:31 Yeah.
10:32 [Indistinct conversation]
10:35 Trips away, Scottish expeditions, hearts.
10:40 Do you know who were unbeaten in Scotland?
10:42 Four games.
10:43 Unbeaten in Scotland?
10:44 Yeah.
10:45 Four games, wow, there you go.
10:46 You want to move to the--
10:47 [Indistinct conversation]
10:52 Right, okay.
10:53 [Laughter]
10:54 [Indistinct conversation]
11:00 The legends.
11:01 The legends.
11:02 And this one here, keep them turned around, keep them turned around.
11:07 That shows every one of our matches in the promotion season, first one.
11:12 And if you notice, Newport County, we lost 2-3 at home.
11:18 And from then, undefeated apart from Dartford, the trophy, and Man United in the FA Cup.
11:26 Wow, incredible.
11:27 Yeah.
11:28 Absolutely, the teams you play in as well, Wrexham, you're obviously back now,
11:32 playing them, Luton Town.
11:34 Yeah.