“Penny on the ball”.

I have for many years wondered what ‘Penny on the Ball’ was.
In the mid 1950’s, at the first football  matches I watched at St Albans City, you went through the gate and were confronted by a table where they were selling programmes and “Penny on the Ball” tickets.
I asked my Dad what it was and he told me that it was to enter a draw for the match football.
Recently I saw on Ebay some tickets for a “Penny on the ball” competition.
I bought the tickets for £1.25 and on reading them saw that the Colchester United competition was a closed one. This made me revisit what I had been told and realise that it was just a draw to raise money for the club.

I had always had my doubts as to what I had been told especially as we also had to buy the latest evening newspaper on the way home for the half time results. Strange as we had already seen them at the ground. I realised later that it was the latest racing results that he wanted to see.
Today there are still the club raffles and  draws etc. to raise much needed funds.

If anyone can throw anymore light on “Penny on the ball” I would love to hear from you.