1932-1933 was
Kingstonian's most successful season to date and a contender for the
best in the whole of their history. They were to win the Amateur Cup
for the first and only time and also produced their best performance
to date in the F.A. Cup where they took Luton Town, then in the 3rd
Division South, to a replay in the First Round Proper.
The team was virtually unchanged at the start of the season but gained
the benefit of Doug Whitehead for a full season at centre forward, as
well as signing left winger Frank Okin from Wimbledon in January. Whitehead
scored an astonishing 46 goals in 44 appearances, making a big contribution
to the total of 122 goals for the club in the 51 competitive matches
played. George Rassell, who was considered more or less retired, came
back to cover for Lucas who had been in a bad motorcycle accident and
then for Baldwin who was sent to India by the RAF. Those circumstances
meant he would receive an Amateur Cup winning medal as a justly deserved
reward for his long service to the club.
K's were second in the table going into the New Year and were only 4
points behind Dulwich with 4 games in hand. Unfortunately, because of
cup commitments, they only played 3 Isthmian Games between January and
March and ended up with severe fixture congestion in April. Combined
with the focus on winning the Amateur Cup, this put the Championship
beyond them. Despite this they still finished 3rd and were only 4 points
behind Dulwich in the end, a total they would easily have managed had
they not been forced to play reserve teams in several games against
teams in the bottom half of the table.
Their season began with an early trophy to their name in the relatively
minor London Charity Cup where they beat Ilford 4-1 in the final carried
over from the previous season. They did however lose the other carried
forward final to semi professional Southern League Guildford City in
the Surrey Combination Cup. The game was played as late as December
and K's were beaten 3-1 at Guildford with a below average crowd for
a Guildford City home game showing the limited appeal of an invitation
tournament that consisted of a Final and Semi Final only.
Similar disinterest was shown by the London Challenge Cup where 3,000
people saw Kingstonian beaten 3-0 by West Ham in the second round. This
was a good bit less than K's had been getting in league games, albeit
that the game was played during the week when crowds tended to be a
lot lower anyway.
It was a different story in the F.A. Cup where K's only had to play
one game before meeting Luton Town away in the First Round Proper. It
was a thrilling performance where K's were twice behind but battled
hard to earn themselves a 2-2 draw.
This time the crowds did turn out for the midweek replay with a short
lived official record attendance of 6,227 who saw another battling performance.
At half time the score was 2-2 but unfortunately the professionals showed
greater stamina and organisation and once they got ahead just after
half time Luton were able to hold their lead
defeating Kingstonian by three goals to two.
For any other season their performance in the F.A. Cup would have been
highlight enough but better was to come in the Amateur Cup. An extraordinary
match at Portland began their journey where they somehow managed
to rescue a 2-2 draw in conditions described as a gale and compounded
by the aggressive tactics of Portland that caused a number of scars
and injuries to the K's players. Kingstonian held a 2-0 half time lead
due to the gale being in their favour, but after the break Portland
were able to get on level terms quickly and, while K's still had quite
a bit of the play in the second half, they were glad to come away with
a draw. The replay was a simple 5-0 win as was their second round match
against Leyton that ended 3-1 to K's.
They then had a rare experience of a trip up north
to play South Bank, a club near Middlesborough who had previously
won the Amateur Cup. K's had to travel the night before but came away
with a very good 2-1 win. After this they faced Dulwich Hamlet, who
they had lost to in the Semi Final of the previous season, and gained
a fine 4-2 win at home in front of what became a new record crowd of
8,760. An earlier crowd against Huddersfield, in a friendly after Huddersfield
had won the F.A. Cup, had been estimated higher but this, and the Luton
game, were officially recorded attendances.
The Semi Final was again against northern opponents, Whitehall Printeries
from Leeds. It was played at West Ham in front of 13,859 spectators
and resulted in a very comfortable 3-0 win to set up the final against
Stockton. A disappointing first match at Dulwich saw
a 1-1 draw, with Stockton down to ten men during Extra Time, but
K's had played below par throughout and never looked any more threatening
with the extra man. Stockton had man marked Whitehead and K's were unable
to come up with alternative tactics to deal with this.
The replay at Darlington saw K's a goal down early on but ended up comfortable
winners by 4-1. The crowd of 16,492 was claimed to be a record for
the ground at the time and K's were fortunate that Stockton had to play
most of the game with ten men in addition to two of their first choice
players missing the game. However the opinion of the national press
was that K's had played exceptionally well and would probably have won
anyway.
None of these considerations affected the celebrations and there was
an incredible
reception for the team when they returned to Kingston on Sunday
evening and a crowd, estimated between 20,000 and 30,000, were present
when the team turned up at the Guildhall to show off the cup.
In the other main competitions, K's again failed to progress in the
London Senior Cup losing 1-0 to Enfield in the First Round. This was
rapidly gaining a reputation for being the one major trophy that Kingstonian
were unable to win and it was only as late as the mid 1960's that K's
were able to set this right. In the Surrey Senior Cup they had been
free scoring in the early rounds with a 7-1 win against the other Guildford
team, Guildford (Pinks). This was followed by a 10-3 win against Camberley
& Yorktown, but, not for the first or last time, they were beaten
by Metropolitan Police, a team that they were generally expected to
be superior to. The Semi Final, played at Wimbledon in front of 6,000
spectators, saw Metropolitan
Police deserved winners by two goals to nil. It was perhaps in part
down to minds being elsewhere as K's has just qualified for the final
of the Amateur Cup the week before and still had faint hopes of winning
the league.
The end of season petered out and very quickly any hopes of a title
challenge were dashed over the Easter weekend when Woking beat them
twice. K's were however to round off the season by winning the London
Charity Cup with a 2-0 win against Leyton, played at Dulwich Hamlet.
With them having won the previous tournament that was carried over,
it meant they had lifted the same cup twice in the same season.
The reserves also did well finishing in 4th place in the Isthmian Reserves
section and reached the semi final of the Surrey Intermediate Cup. The
3rd team finished mid table in the Kingston & District League and
were beaten in the final of the League Cup by League Champions Hampton.
