My West Ham in 1924 by Albert Relf, Dagenham

A Post from the Cmonyuirons.com forum
The Forum Admin finds a letter that her dad had written about his West Ham, and a match he went to in 1924

My dad’s full name is Albert Stanley Relf, known as Bert by his mates (although my mum always called him Alb), born in Stratford in 1915. He now lives in Dagenham (ex Ford worker) and I usually go to visit him once a year in November.

My dad has been a West Ham supporter all his life - he is now 93 years old. I found this composition he wrote about a visit to West Ham

“Written 9th April, 1924

How I spent good Friday

On the morning of Good Friday I began the day by getting in the hot Cross buns for our breakfast. All the morning I played a game of cricket with my brother and six other boys. When it was two o’clock my brother and I went to the West Ham football ground, seeing a good game between West Ham and Burnley resulting in a win for the Hammers.

West Ham started off, as if to be sure of a ten-none victory. A great combination between Earl and Ruffell enabled the last mentioned player to find the net with a great left drive. Immediately after the centre the Hammers gave Burnley a real lesson in football. They passed the ball accurately from man to man, but a mistake on Watson’s part, enabled the right back of Burnley to clear with a fierce drive. It was then Burnley’s turn to attack, and Hufton was kept busy for ten minutes. Before half-time Watson and Ruffell put on two further goals.

In the next half both goalies were kept busy, Hufton especially. Yews continually beat both backs only to find no-one in the centre. Play was very even and more than three times did Beel the centre forward of Burnley, cut through the backs to be foiled by Hufton. Two minutes from the end Gibbins scored through a neat pass by Ruffell. That brought the score to four for West Ham. Soon after, the whistle went for full time.”