This year is Crook Town A.F.C.'S 120th Anniversary
The John Richard "Jack" Greenwell story
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Born Peases West, Crook in 1884
Played for Crook Town from 1901 to 1912. Won a Crook and District league winners medal in the 1901 - 02 season. Progressed into a Crook side rebuilding after the financial strain of winning the Amateur Cup in 1901. Scored a hat-trick for Crook in a 9-1 demolition of Scarborough in the 1908-09 season before guesting for the victorious West Auckland team winning the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy in Turin, Easter of that season.
Crook played in six F.A. Cup rounds in the 1910-11 season in the old format. Beaten 3-2 at home to Lincoln City. Beaten 2-1 in the F.A. Amateur Cup 3rd round by Royal Engineers (Aldershot) the eventual Cup winners that season.
Played his last game for Crook April 5th 1912 in a 2-1 win v Stanley United scoring from the penalty spot twice.
Left the family home in Garden Place Crook, family friend Cicily Etherington, who was six at the time remembered when her fathers very good friend Jack went off to live in Spain, and how brave it must have been at that time when most people found it an adventure going to Bishop Auckland. Cicily died only three years ago.
Played 88 games for Barcelona scoring 10 goals winning two Campioat de Catalunya.
Helped to set up a three match series in Barcelona in 1913 against his old mates from Crook the visitors winning 4-2 then 1-1 and 2-2 draws. Are Crook the first English team to beat Barcelona?
Arthur Sams once told me that Crook weren't popular with everyone in the Catalonian Capitol as people were opposed to football taking over from Bullfighting as the major sport. King Alfonso was due to attend the matches but after a recent attempt on his life he was advised not to attend.
Became manager of Barcelona in 1917 going down in history as the first official coach leading the club to their first golden age, winning 5 Campion de Catalunya and 2 Copa del Rey.
Crook returned to Barcelona in 1921 losing 3 of the 4 games played then in 1922 Crook won the Trophie de Catelonia recently valued at £3,500 in what would have been a team tournament.
The trophy has recently been at St James Park for safe keeping.
Moved to C D Castellon taking over RDC Espanol in 1927 leading them into the inaugural La Liga winning the Campionat de Catalunya and the Copa del Rey.
Married to Doris Rubinstien whom he met in Paris by this time and having a daughter Carmen now living in Canada. He had the 1930-31 season with R C D Mallorca. Returned to Barcelona winning the Campionat de Catalunya in the 1931-32 season, Carmen recalls being a mascot for a time.
1933-34 Manager of Valencia 1935-36 Manager of Sporting de Gijon.
Because of the civil unrest Carmen lived in South Wales with her grandmother. Jack was forced to leave Barcelona a place he loved, on the last refugee boat, everything he owned had to be left behind and was lost.
A spell in Turkey was followed by a move to Peru to help train the national side for the Olympic Games in Berlin. Once settled in Lima he sent for his family and they left England on the last passenger ship allowed to leave before World War ll broke out.
1939 Managed Universitario de Deportes to win the Peruvian Championship and the Peru National side to win the South American Championship the only non South American to date to do so.
Was that the swan song? No! He accepted a contract with Columbia (who didn't come under the jurisdiction of FIFA until the 1950's) to do the job he was very good at, help fledgling football nations to take part in this wonderful game of ours. He sadly died in Bogata of a heart attack in 1942, but what a life for a lad from our town, Crook.
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Brief History of Crook Town A.F.C.
Crook joined the Northern League in 1896 and first won the Amateur Cup in 1901 beating Kings Lynn 3 - 0 at Ipswich after a 1 - 1 draw at Dover Court in Essex.
In 1913 Crook toured Barcelona to help establish football as the main sport in the region of Catalonia instead of bullfighting. Feeling was so high against this that King Alfonso of Spain who had hoped to attend the three games but couldn't do so because of the attempts on his life.
Crook man Jack Greenwell organised the tour and went on to become the first English manager of Barcelona until the mid thirties when he took over the Spanish national side until the civil war. He managed Peru in 1938 which capped off a remarkable life for the son of a miner!
There were two further successful tours to Barcelona during the 1920 -21 & 1921 - 22 seasons.
Front page news in 1928 was The infamous 'Crook Town Affair' where several players and officials were suspended for making illegal payments to amateur players.
Crook became a semi-professional club during the 1930 - 31 season as Crook F.C. and reached the third round of The F.A. Cup for the only time during the 1931 - 32 season. Centre forward Colin Cook scored a remarkable 72 goals that season.
The 1936 - 37 season saw Crook revert back to amateur status and became Crook Town.
The 1945- 46 season saw Crook Town become Crook Colliery Welfare.
1949 Crook reached the semi-final of the Amateur Cup losing 3 - 0 at West Ham to Romford after a 2 -2 draw at Roker Park.
In the early 1950's gates of 10,000 were the norm for cup ties. The highest recorded gate was17,000 plus v Walton and Hersham in a 0 - 0 draw. That season Crook were involved in the first non league cup tie to be shown live on TV on a Saturday afternoon. It was a 3 - 1 win at Romford in front of a 13,000 crowd.
Crook won the Amateur Cup in the 1953 - 54 season playing in the longest cup final ever v Bishop Auckland with 200,000 in attendance over the three games. The final scores for the three games were 2 - 2 A.E.T. at Wembley, 2 - 2 A.E.T. at St. James Park and 1 - 0 to Crook at Ayresome Park.
Crook played Derby County during the 1955 - 56 season and after a 2 - 2 draw at Millfield they lost 5 - 1 away.
1958 - 59 Crook were League champions and Amateur Cup winners beating Barnet 3 - 2 in the final at Wembley.
1961 - 62 Crook once again won the Amateur Cup beating Hounslow Town 4 - 0 at Ayresome Park after a 1- 1 draw at Wembley.
1962 - 63 Crook had a two match tour of Norway. A South Norway XI were defeated 4 - 3 but lost 3 - 2 the next day to Vikings.
1963 - 64 Amateur Cup winners beating Enfield 2 - 1 at Wembley.
1964 - 65 Crook beat Carlisle 1 - 0 in the F.A. Cup but lost 1 - o to Oldham Athletic.
In 1976 Crook became the first English club to tour India playing six games. A gate of 100,000 watched Crook play the Indian national side and lost 1 - 0 in 90o temperatures.
During the late 70's there was an increase of interest and brief revivals during the 80's and 90's and the early part of the new century but without the help and encouragement of Sir Tom Cowie the club would not have survived. Moves are being made to buy the Millfield Ground, build a new clubhouse and changing rooms plus a 5 a side pitch.
We have also built our social membership from 100 to 400 and the future looks forever brighter.
