After several years of research, we have finally solved the mystery of why there is a pennant from the norwegian club Lyn Oslo on the wall in the clubhouse at New Lodge. Lyn is one of the archrivals of my norwegian club Vålerenga.
The pennant was discovered when Frank O. Hansen and Bjørnar Thomassen were on a trip in Easter 1998 and watched the match against Staines Town.
The legendary club secretary Len Dewson believed, when asked directly by me a couple of years later, that we had beaten Lyn in a training match in the 80s. Originally, Lyn should have played against Tottenham (or possibly Tottenham’s reserve team), but that match had to be cancelled. Then someone in Tottenham is said to have called the then Billericay manager Paddy Betson, who had a past as a coach at the London club, and asked if Billericay could field a team.
I originally wrote about this case in number four of the norwegian fanzine «Blues Review». I had then made several inquiries via e-mail to Lyn, but never received a reply. I’m still waiting…
Anyway, the matter has now been resolved. When Len Dewson died in May 2004, his collection of press clippings was left to Ryan Connell. I have seen it myself, and can tell that it is a considerable pile! Ryan discovered a couple of press clippings about the game and lent them to me when I was over in Billericay in April this year.
The match was played on Friday 28 March 1980 at New Lodge. The goalkeeper for Lyn was the Englishman Paul Norris. Norris was a former Billericay goalkeeper, and as recently as the previous year he played for Billericay in the legendary FA Vase final where Doug Young scored his historic hat-trick. In the 1978-1979 season, Norris was actually second keeper in Billericay, but in November first keeper Steve Griffiths broke his leg, and thus Norris got a chance which he took good care of.
Our inquiries to Lyn about Norris now in 2005 have, like all our other inquiries to that club, not been answered, but from the Norwegian Football Association we have received confirmation that Paul Norris was a Lyn player in 1980, and that he played 22 games for the club. After a season in the Lyn jersey, where he fought for the first goalkeeper place against Trond Walle, Norris went back to England. I don’t know more about his career afterwards, but that could be a topic for a new article another time!
I heard rumours that the reason for Norris playing in Norway eas that he had a norwegian girlfriend at that time, and moved to Oslo, but I haven’t been able to confirm this.
So on to the match itself. The local newspaper «Evening Echo» writes about the match on 31 March, under the heading «Billericay sink Vikings», and opens by noting that Billericay played their best match in over a month and that Lyn were a team that used their muscles without hesitation. The newspaper believed that it was an advantage that referee Dave Ascell had experience from the professional league, as he needed all his experience to keep the reins in this game.
The match was played in very poor conditions, with strong winds and frequent downpours, but still 506 spectators turned up to cheer Billericay on to victory. They were rewarded with a good and entertaining match. At the start of the match, Billericay gave the ball away far too easily, while Lyn should have gone up 1-0 after 28 minutes, but Johnny Albertsen’s header hit the crossbar. Billericay took the lead just eight minutes before the break, when Doug Young headed the ball in on the full volley after a nice pass from John Pullin.
However, Lyn responded fast, and three minutes later the teams were level after Lyn captain Jan Erik Snellingen equalized from a penalty kick. According to the «Evening Echo» because a striker named Stan Alexander (ex-Tilbury) was brought down in the penalty area. Whether Alexander tried out for Lyn in that match, or whether he was in the squad, we have not been able to find out.
In the second half, several changes were made to both teams, including Steve Griffiths replacing Mark McCutcheon in Billericay’s goal. Griffiths came into action early on after an excellent reaction save to a shot from Lyns Harald Eibauk (spelling according to the Evening Echo…). However, after 63 minutes of play, the same Eibauk made it 2-1 to Lyn. According to the newspaper, Lyn played their second game in two days, and therefore began to get a bit tired at the end, so Billericay eventually had the opportunity to finish on a high. Within five minutes we scored twice, and won the match 3-2. Both goals were scored by Paul Blackaller, which was duly mentioned in the local newspaper, since the same Blackaller had failed to net in the series this season… The first of the two goals came after 76 minutes, on a header after a corner. The second goal came after a sloppy clearance from a Lyn player five minutes later.
Paul Norris was in goal for Lyn the whole match, and was praised for a good performance. He couldn’t do anything about the three goals. Billericay’s Freddie Clayden, our top goalscorer to date, was injured in a collision with a Lyn-player late in the game and had to leave the field with a sore ankle. According to the «Evening Echo», manager Paddy Betson left the field with a big smile after the game.
I’m not sure which newspaper the second clipping is from. The edition is from Thursday 3 April and the newspaper is published by «Greater London & Essex Newspaper Ltd.». It might be from the «Essex Chronicle», but I’m not sure. Anyway, the headline of the match report, which is considerably shorter than in the «Evening Echo», is «Oslo hit by 2 goal ace Blackaller», with the subtitle «New Lodge repels Nordic invasion».
The newspaper emphasizes that Billericay managed to come back and win the game after being 1-2 down, and states that even Paul Blackaller was very surprised to be the match winner as he had not scored any goals this season. The newspaper also says that Lyn beat Harlow Town 3-0 two days before, and therefore may have been somewhat reduced in the match against Billericay. Harlow then played in the Isthmian league’s 2nd division.
The newspaper also claims that Billericay’s first goal came after 37 minutes, not 28 as the «Evening Echo» wrote. Lyn’s goalscorer, who is stated in the same newspaper as «Harald Eibauk», is called in this newspaper Harold Elbak… Norwegian names were clearly not easy to get across for English local newspaper journalists…
The newspaper also says that the 3-2 scoring came after Blackaller intercepted a rebound from a shot from Doug Young after a corner ended up in front of him. Both Blackaller’s goals therefore came after corners.
The numbers speak for themselves: We beat Lyn 3-2 in 1980! And it is a result that a Vålerenga-supporter can also enjoy…
Written by Per-Helge Berg (article from the norwegian website/fanzine in 2009. Translated by Google Translate, but manually checked by me for errors)
