Robert Exley
As the old song goes ‘if I had the wings of a sparrow, if I had the a*** of a crow, I’d fly over Tottenham tomorrow and s*** on the b*****ds below’. If you also had all of the aviation qualities of either a sparrow or a crow, you’d find that without reliance on the London’s road and rail infrastructure and the ability to by-pass Hackney Marshes through the air, the nearest football club to the Arsenal happen not to reside in N17 but over in E10 – namely Leyton Orient. Few Arsenal fans however would feel strongly enough to carry out the aforementioned act on poor little Leyton Orient, but it’s difficult to say however whether Orient fans feel the same way considering our impact on their history since 1913. Despite the endless victimhood of Tottenham Hotspur fans in relation to the so-called ‘Woolwich interlopers’, it’s easy to forget that three clubs actually raised official opposition to the move – Chelsea, who long since have got over our move from London’s periphery to Zone 2 on the underground map and the then named Clapton Orient, who despite being the second oldest London club were quite possibly the biggest losers in relation to Arsenal’s move. The chairman of the Orient supporters club, Steve Jenkins, claimed that “Orient were on a par with Arsenal and Tottenham before the war…But with Arsenal moving north of the river from Woolwich the population couldn't sustain three clubs of that size”.
Jenkins’ point is probably a little overstated; Orient had never reached the top division until their one and only season in the top tier in 1962. Pre-1913 Orient were firmly rooted in the lower of the two divisions that existed at the time, where Arsenal prior to their only ever relegation in 1913 had spent nine consecutive seasons in the top division. Tottenham also had spent four consecutive seasons in the old Division One by 1913. Jenkins’s point is probably more likely in relation to gate receipts; Woolwich Arsenal famously couldn’t attract the crowds south of the Thames that they could find in North London. Stats on Orient’s average attendances around this time are hard to come by, though three examples found: 4,000 against Wolves, 10,000 against Leeds and 6,000 against Huddersfield doesn’t suggest a golden era pre-1913, even in relation to Woolwich Arsenal who’s average had been around 17,000 in 1907 but dipped to around 9,000 due to the declining number of workers at the Woolwich Arsenal by 1913. Tottenham around this time however often drew around five times this number.
Arsenal’s move to North London more than doubled their attendances, eating into the possible audiences of both Tottenham and Orient. However Orient also saw competition on the Eastern front with West Ham’s election to the Football League in 1919 and their proximity to thousands of Dockers looking for entertainment after finishing their half day Saturday shift. Orient has ever since fought for survival between a rock and two hard places on the eastern side of the great metropolis. Their official relationship with Arsenal however has been cordial enough – Clapton Orient played a home fixture at Highbury in 1930 while their ground at Lea Bridge Road was being built. They also experimented with playing at Wembley Stadium, though being a 3rd Division South side had only managed to attract a crowd that filled just 2% of the 100,000 capacity Empire Stadium.
The following season Herbert Chapman had wanted Arsenal’s youngsters to play in a real league rather than against other youths within junior leagues, so plans were drawn up with a view to Arsenal purchasing Clapton Orient as a feeder club. The football league however deemed such a thing unlawful and the move was blocked, leaving Orient with a tough battle for survival during that other great financial depression of the last 80 years and later moving to a mile or so to Leyton. Arsenal have also been present at other notable points in Orient’s history – their debut match in the top division in 1962 and ending their two best FA Cup runs to date: at the quarter final stage in 1972 and semi-finals in 1978, where Arsenal went on to be beaten finalists in both years. Though the early 60s was a greater period of success than the club had previously experienced, survival was still an issue. After dropping out of the top division after one season, by 1966 the club came so close to closure that they were saved by the ‘pass the bucket’ campaign, which denotes the desperation of their collection methods on match days.
Orient have floated around the divisions over the last 30 years so much that Arsenal is the only London side they haven’t played a league fixture against. Their greatest challenge over the last three decades though was adapting to the great demographic shift in London’s make up. The Leyton area is one with a very transient population – few that live there are born there, few that are born there stay there. It has over the years had a large immigrant population, initially afro-Caribbeans, followed by Asians and in recent years eastern Europeans. In the 70s and 80s, though neighbourhoods close to football grounds were often populated with non-white migrants the grounds themselves were usually the last place you would find them at. The invasion of the p***** up and angry sections of the indigenous population every other Saturday were more likely to attract the sellers of the National Front’s Bulldog magazine than it ever was to entice non-white migrants out if their houses – let alone to the stadium.
If the first of the non-white migrant population of the east end followed the beautiful game it was usually through the TV, which is why even West Ham have struggled to attract a following in their own backyard in comparison to Liverpool, Man Utd or Arsenal, let alone lowly Leyton Orient. Therefore of the remaining 5,000 or so regulars at Orient today, very few hail from Leyton at all, the only three I’ve ever met commuted in from Essex. Orient therefore know that key to their survival in Leyton is letting the locals know that they are there – they’ve often been commended for the community work they carry out in the Waltham Forest area. The goodwill gained from this though has frequently been at threat due to Barry Hearn putting his foot in his mouth. In 2000 when appearing on Nicky Campbell’s Five Live show Hearn made several negative comments about migrants, despite earning a great deal of wealth from the efforts of their second generation – namely messers Benn, Eubank and Hamed.
Despite this Hearn is probably a major factor in the stability of Orient during his 15 year tenure at the club. Realistic in his ambitions for Orient, he has openly admitted he doesn’t intend to take them to the Premiership. When challenged by a fans’ forum on accusations of lack of ambition he has put this simple fable to one vocal fan – ‘Would you like to own a Rolls Royce?’ when answered in the affirmative Hearn asks the further question – ‘And why don’t you own a Rolls Royce?’, his reply was ‘because I can’t afford one’. No doubt the very same line of thinking is behind why Orient are not making a push for the Premiership. Hearn is in no doubt as to what Orient’s USP is, a good day out at the football for an affordable price. Something which, no doubt is at threat by the Olympic Stadium being a mere goal kick away from Brisbane Road. West Ham, who at present barely fill the Boleyn Ground, have a new found ability to provide admission to Premiership football at a cut price with the Olympic Stadium. Also with Tottenham’s plans to redevelop WHL, all three of Orient’s mammoth local rivals will have grounds around the 60,000 mark to fill. Not only this but Orient have new competition on the lower league front that has emerged within the last decade – Dagenham & Redbridge, who considering that few within Leyton support Orient, are fighting for the very same West Essex pitch that Orient currently feed off.
Despite Hearn’s undoubted business acumen, he’s a figure that rarely inspires trust. Despite the upward curve of PDC Darts since he took over as chairman in 2001, Hearn’s offer to buy out the rival BDO – still seen as Darts’ equivalent of the FA that holds responsibility for the development of the game as a whole - for £1 Million back in October 2009, with a further £1 Million invested in the grass roots of the Sport was turned down. The BDO cites scepticism with regard to Hearn’s true motives and in all fairness not without good reason. By his own admission Hearn played a part in Snooker’s decline, stating in an interview with the Evening Standard in March of last year that ‘When I managed eight players I also sat on the board of World Snooker. Did I do what was best for snooker? Or did I do it for my players? Hands up, I worked for them and not for the game as a whole’. He also noted that his involvement in Snooker was more by accident than design – buying a chain of Snooker halls in 1975 that he saw as just ‘a good property deal in attractive town centres’. Within eight years he sold his 16 snooker clubs to set up Matchroom, walking away with a profit of £3.5m while firmly establishing himself in the world of sport.
He currently owns the freehold for Orient’s ‘Matchroom Stadium’ (Brisbane Road to everybody else) which is no doubt an attractive piece of real estate with Stratford’s new transport links in the aftermath of 2012. Many fear that 100 years on from Henry Norris’ Arsenal arriving close by, Orient would be pushed out of Leyton as a result of the Olympic Games. Ideas have sprung up with Orient following its support out to Essex, such as a move to Romford or Basildon. Considering that Southend United have hardly struck gold despite having no club within a 50 mile radius, sustainability in South Essex is a tougher achievement than many realise. The area has in the last ten years been an abyss for non-league clubs with Football League pretensions – i.e. Hornchurch, Grays Athletic and Canvey Island – due to it being a commuter belt for London’s bigger clubs. Harlow has also been sounded out as a possibility, though condemned by Harlow Town FC and is also a difficult place to reach for any Os based in South Essex.
In all fairness remaining in Leyton is Orient’s best option for retaining its current support, being a place within a reasonable commute of its small but sporadic fan base that hail from outposts as diverse as Brentwood, Loughton, Chadwell Heath and Harlow. However with West Ham trying to fill a 60,000 capacity stadium possibly watching top division sides, their admission fees are going to be like a Carling Cup night every fortnight. As Hearn says himself, ‘You've got a wonderful three week spectacular called the Olympics… we've been here more than 135 years and that's a lot longer than three weeks’.
A little known fact about Orient is that at the end of the 1914/15 season all 41 of their players and staff signed up to fight in the Great War of 1914-18 – the highest of any side in the country.
Their final match of the season against Leicester Fosse saw 22,000 in attendance for a heroes’ send-off, three players of whom were later to die at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. It would surely be the cruellest of ironies for a club that so readily volunteered its services for the nation nearly a century ago, if it were to pay the ultimate sacrifice for the bringing of the Olympics to London and the Nation in 2012.
