Fun at Furnell

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 954, 22 November 1957, Page 28

Fun at Furnell

OST members of small sports clubs know the weekly: turmoil involved in fielding a team that is complete, much less capable of winning matches, The Furnell Glue Works Football and Athletic Association has more than its share of such difficulties, and the managerial manoeuvres needed to surmount these difficulties are the subject of a series of comedies, Furnell Frolics, which start from the ZAs and 1XH next Sunday, December 1, and from the ZBs on Sunday, December 15. In Furnell, a small North of England town, football is the ruling passion of Joe Trubshaw, manager of the Glue Works-and of its football club. The comedy occurs off the field, as Joe tries to keep his club going. Funds are low, and at one stage it even looks as though the club will have to disband. Faced with this possibility Joe contrives a match with the visiting International champions, the Komstov Dynamos, and the profits from that afternoon include not only the gate money to keep the club going, but a new recruit for the Glue Works team. Most of Joe’s efforts are spent in getting his players on to.the field. Being the factory manager, he could as a last resort put pressure on players threatening to default, such as the best centreforward who wanted to go on his honeymoon when he should havé been playing

in the secondary counties Cup Final. That time Joe had to contend with a very determined bride-to-be and her even more determined father, who happened to be manager of the opposing team, Then there was the occasion when the promising young goalkeeper, who had just joined the factory, went on to the field without having joined the Glue Workers’ Union. Since the Shop Steward was also at the field, he refused to have the workers exploited in this way, and called the team out on strike. To make matters worse the opposing team-the new man’s former team-mates-then threatened to strike unless he did get. a game. The team did not always lose. They even won the time they played the Feathersley Fire Brigade. Since the Glue Works had managed to fill their team, they gave a player to the Brigade who were a man short; one of their most experienced players, too-Harry Jugglethorpe, who won the Cup for the Glue Works team (in 1914). Unfortunately the Fire Brigade had also called on two of its ex-members, now Internationals. Then Joe needed all his wits about him, but win the Glue Works did, and even made a profit on the gate. Furnell Frolics was produced for the NZBS by Bernard Beeby from scripts by Willis Hall, who also wrote One Man Returns and The Platoon and the Village. The part of Joe Trubshaw is played by Roy Leywood, and his friend and fellow-committeeman, Alfred Attlecart, is taken by Derek Whittaker.