As he prepares for a lifetime achievement celebration next month, Oxford United chairman Noel Crampsey Sr looks back at more than half a century in football
By Mary-Anne McNulty
There was a mayor’s reception held in the Guildhall recently honouring the contribution of volunteers to the youth football scene in the North West.
More than 20 representatives from clubs across the region were called up to receive their awards, but never was the applause louder or warmer than when Noel Crampsey Senior (pictured) went up for his.
Without a word being uttered, the enthusiasm of that applause for the long-serving Oxford United chairman said everything about what Noel means to football in Derry.
The guests were cheering him for all the late night car runs to round up players for matches, the countless hours spent on fundraising, the wet and wintry evenings standing freezing on the training pitch when any sane soul would be tucked up in their living room watching tv.
They say you can’t put a price on the contribution of volunteers to football in this city, but if you did, Noel would be a rich man by now.
The 78-year-old is set to be honoured for his 60 years of service to football at a special reception in the Waterfoot Hotel next month, but the modest and unassuming Derry man is not in it for the glory.
Sitting in the living room of his Farren Park home, he said: “It’s not about the accolades for me. It’s nice, certainly, to be acknowledged, but for me it’s all about the enjoyment of it, and about giving kids opportunites.”
It was this desire to give youngsters some kind of outlet that led to the creation of the D&D Youth Football league in the early seventies.
Said Noel: “It started up with myself, Willie Barrett, Billy Nelis and many others. We were in the heart of the Troubles at that time, and we wanted to do something that would take the kids away from all that.
“It was an awful time in the city. The youngsters were getting caught up in the middle of all the rioting, and we were desperate to give them something better.”
Noel was already heavily involved with his beloved Oxford United Stars at the same time, and was pivotal at this stage in the growth of the club’s youth football set-up.”
“There wasn’t much youth football as such in those days,” he said, “and really how it all began at Oxford is that we wanted to start grooming our own players so that we wouldn’t have to go out looking for players for our Summer Cup squad.”
The current generation may not know much about it, but tournaments like Derry’s Summer Cup, the Buncrana Cup and the Battisti Cup in Omagh were absolutely massive events here in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Teams from all over the country would take part, and football fans would turn up in their thousands to watch the matches.
Noel proudly produces a picture of the Oxford United team he helped run that won the Buncrana Cup in Maginn Park in 1976.
His finger wanders over a host of familiar faces, such as Sean Davis, now a prominent youth football coach, and Frankie McGuigan, who runs the PE department at Oakgrove Collge.
“That was the best team I ever had,” he said. “I think every one of those fellas was under 21, and they were just a great bunch of players.”
But though cup glories are always nice, the winning is not what it’s all about for Noel, and it’s not the ideology at Oxford.
“First and foremost,” he said, “we’re about the improvement and development of the kids, on and off the pitch.
“I’ve never agreed with the idea of putting players to one side because they’re not good enough. You’ll have good teams and bad teams, but the main thing is that the kids enjoy it and they get a sense of their own worth.”
Oxford has been the breeding ground for a host of prominent footballers. Legendary Derry City captain Peter Hutton came through the ranks, as well as the likes of Eddie and Tommy McCallion, Paul Kee, and current Institute defender Mark Scoltock.
Noel remembers Mark well, because his progression typifies everything that Oxford is about.
“Watching a young player develop is a very special thing, and I remember Mark especially because of the way he did it.
“He didn’t start out brilliant, but he wanted it so badly. He worked really hard, put everything into his training, and it was really amazing to see the steady improvement with him as each month went by.”
But if watching a promising young footballer reach their potential has been rewarding for Noel, he says one of the saddest parts of the game is when players with exceptional talent fall away.
“One fella in particular stands out,” he said. “We were a bit short for a big under 13 match in Limavady, so we put on this under 12 player at left back.
“He played really well, and I though ‘he’s a real prospect’. But by the time he got to 14, he had become really uncontrollable, not wanting to train and everything.
“I tried everything I could to get through to him, but it didn’t work, and I don’t even think he’s playing now.
That’s the down side of football, when you see talent like that thrown away.”
Only those involved in the game at this level can understand the amount of dedication and sacrifice involved.
As Noel himself admitted: “You probably didn’t put as much work into your family as you should, because you were always out running with the football.
“I have eight of a family, including two sets of twins, and my wife Josephine had all of the bother,” he joked.
One of those eight children, Noel Jr, is heavily involved with Oxford himself, and when the Derry News asks ‘wee Noel’ about ‘big Noel’, he is full of praise.
He said: “People like my father, and Sean Coyle and the rest, are just a dying breed. The amount of time and dedication they have given to youth football has been unbeliveable.
“I remember when I was younger, and there were times my da had no car, and he’d be hoofing round the whole of the Bog and Creggan looking to get players organised for a match.
“And there’s people like him at every club, the ones that put in all this time and effort at their own expense – if they were paid for it they’d be worth a fortune.”
Noel Senior is 78 now, and while he’s not quite ready to hang up his hat just yet, he’s keen for younger volunteeers to come through and inject fresh life into the youth football scene.
“I’ve always said there are too many old heads in football,” he said. “I haven’t the same energy as I had ten years ago, and we need new blood to spark ideas and revitalise things.”
But for all that, you can’t put a price on the years of experience that Noel and his peers possess, and you’d love to be a fly on the wall at his regular ‘Tuesday Night Club’ at the Del, where he and old friends Sean Coyle and Terry and Pat Doherty put the world to rights.
“I always look forward to my Tuesday nights,” says Noel. “I’m getting this reception next month, but they should put a statue up to Sean Coyle in the Guildhall Square for the work he’s done for youth football.
“He has organised thousands of matches, worked with all the referees, and the whole set-up wouldn’t exist without people like him.”
Noel will enjoy his moment in the limelight at the Waterfoot, but then it’ll be straight back to business to resume his duties as Oxford chairman – a post he believes will last for life.
He points to the heavens and says: “You can’t get out of it! I think I’ll be chairman until the roll is called up yonder.”
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