The Double, 15 - Programme Sixty One

To conclude our series looking back at the Double winning season of 1960/61 we round up a few stats and pieces of trivia as well as look at the programmes from that season.

After the double was achieved the government of Ghana said they would invite Tottenham to play games within that country.

Spurs v Arsenal was the largest crowd for a football match in London that season apart from the Cup final. Spurs won both games.

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Tottenham used just seventeen players to win the League (another record) and would play the same team throughout the Cup run except for Medwin in place of Jones in the Third Round.

Danny Blanchflower, Ron Henry, John White and Les Allen had played every league match game. Bill Brown, Peter Baker and Maurice Norman had missed just one game and Terry Dyson two. Dave Mackay played 37 games, Bobby Smith 36 and Cliff Jones 29. Terry Medwin managed 14 appearances. Tony Marchi and Frank Saul 6 each. Three other players made just one start, John Hollowbread, Ken Barton and John Smith.

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Above right - the public trial game held before the season started. Left - Everton on the opening  day.

Tottenham would score 115 goals in the League (a club record) and 21 in the Cup. Bobby Smith was top scorer with 33, (28+5), Les Allen 27 (23+4) Cliff Jones 19 (15+4) Terry Dyson 17 (12+5) John White 13, Danny Blanchflower 6 and Dave Mackay 6 (4+2) Terry Medwin 5, Maurice Norman 4, Frank Saul 3 and Peter Baker 1. There was two own goals.

Below - The friendly with the Army in October.

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For the record Tottenham finished the league having played 42, won 31, drew 4,  lost 7  = 66 points.
Scoring 115 and conceding 55 goals.

Runners up were Sheffield Wednesday
P 42  23-12-7  goals 78 - 47.   58 points.

Wolves were third, scored 103 goals Burnley, fourth, scored 102 times . Both finished on 57 points.

Newcastle and Preston were relegated.

Charlton after their third round game claimed they had more fans at WHL for that game than they did at any of their home games that season.

Left below - The friendly with the Russian tourists and Right - Christmas Eve V West Ham.
You will have noticed the Tottenham programme had changed little since the Second World War.
This would change the following season and the top image is the last game of the season, where the first multi-paged stapled version appeared.

During the summer Bobby Smith would play and score  for England V Portugal. Mel Hopkins and Cliff Jones (also scoring) for Wales  V Hungary and Danny Blanchflower would represent Northern Ireland V West Germany. There was plenty of paper talk about how many Spurs players would go to Italy and Spain to play, none did. Tottenham would play in the European cup the following season (3) and Leicester the European Cup Winners Cup. At a time when most clubs were experiencing falling gates more than two and a half million watched Spurs. Danny Blanchflower won the Player of the Year award, only the second man to win it twice. Danny Blanchflower said ‘ We always believed the Double could be achieved and now we have done it.’

Right - The night the League title was won.
Below Left - The Cup Semi Final and right - The Final.

Sportswriter John Cottrell on the double side - “they were an outstanding side, offering the most exciting football of the day. Their greatness lay in their ability to produce the unexpected the cheeky back flip the acutely angled shot the sudden switch of positions the daring sally of a full back into attack.

At the start of this series I quoted Cliff Jones, so I’ll close with another from the wizard. Fifty years after the events he remembered ‘It was a season of unbelievably excitement. We played to over two million people in the league and 500,000 in the Cup. We put bums on seats  boy did we entertain.'

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There you have it, the amazing story of Tottenham’s Double. The first side to do it in the modern era. Sadly at the time of writing seven of that side and many of their fans, including some of the ones who sung their praises to a young lad have passed away. They however will live in the hearts and minds of Spurs fans as long as football is played.

COYS
Keith Harrison.
t- Keith 16024542
f - https://www.facebook.com/keith.harrison.9659
My profile / archive is @ -  View Full Bio

The rest of the series can be found @
 http://www.indiaspurs.com/blog/the-double-chronicles
Right - The first game after the Double a friendly away to Feynoord the following week.


 

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