A club called Cambridge United existed in 1909, but have no apparent connection with the present club. The 1909 club disbanded at the beginning of the First World War and did not reform after the 1918 armistice. One reason for this could have been the fact that they did not come home, as friends or pals as the initiative was named were encouraged to go and fight together. So it was not uncommon for entire streets, places of work, clubs and indeed towns to go to war together, and in doing so, die together. By encouraging pals to join up the military leaders knew the human condition would not allow one member of a group to go to war without the others being coerced into agreeing to go along too, it was a very successful idea. So some of those brave but unfortunate men still lying in some corner of a foreign field would have been professional footballers and some would have even of played in the 50-a-side game against the Germans on Christmas Day 1915.
What happened that day was that after singing carols during a ceasefire near the village of Laventie, northern France, both sides emerged from their trenches and shook hands. From somewhere a football was produced and a kick about ensued. After half an hour a British major ordered the men back to their trenches and reminded them: “You are here to kill the Hun not make friends with them”, and in doing so kept the war going, in that part of France anyway. I can’t help thinking what may have happened if they were allowed to continue becoming friends during that game, what with it being Christmas and all.
Anyway, back to today and the present club was founded in 1912 as Abbey United and changed its name to Cambridge United in 1951 after turning professional in 1949. Unfortunately, nobody at CUFC is in a position to help out as far as the club’s badge is concerned, and Mark Johnson kindly replied to my letter stating his regret at the lack of information. So I looked at the badge and thought, how hard can it be to work this one out. (PIC 1) As you can see it’s made up of a big football with the initials CU on it and at a wild guess come shot in the dark I would say it stands for the Cambridge United that adorns the banner beneath the ball. Now it gets a little harder, what is the symbol on top of the ball? After staring long and hard I saw a bridge and deduced that it must be the bridge that first went across the river Cam giving the town its name of Cam-bridge. It has been taken from the town’s coat of arms which has a three turreted bridge as its main symbol. (PIC 2) As I mentioned, the town owes its name to the bridge that was built at the narrowest part of the River Cam. The arms bear out the importance of this in the shield which has ships going under the bridge and the supporters of sea-horses each side. The roses and fleur-de-lis are royal and national emblems. The crest has a castle which is a symbol for Cambridge Castle which originally stood on a hill above the bridge and only the mound remains. Less reputable sites will tell you it is the castle that adorns the ball, but as you can see it is the Bridge over the River Cam. The Magdalene Bridge now stands on what is believed to be the original spot of the first bridge over the river. (PIC 3)
The arms were the first badge that Cambridge wore, another is from the 1970s. (PIC 4) A precursor to the present badge it is in the club colours and has the bridge, the ball inside a ball, the name in the banner and what looks like a student’s folder with the saying: “United in Endeavour” on the front cover. Abbey Stadium is home to the club and as mentioned Abbey was the original name of the club. It holds some 8,127 fans who cheer on “The U’s”, a common nickname among teams whose name ends with United. Local rivals are Peterborough U’s and Northampton Town. To find out more on “The U’s”, U can go to www.cambridge-united.co.uk
