A little while ago I mentioned in the ‘McBride’ thread about Dynamo Moscow coming to Britain on a “goodwill mission” in 1945. They played four matches, one of them being against the Arsenal and I’ve just now come across footage of that match. Why I’m posting this though is because Fulham’s Ronnie Rooke played for the Arsenal in the game. It was common practice during the war years to co-opt players from other teams to play in friendlies and, even as late as November 1945 men were still in active service across the globe. Arsenal were missing 6 of their regulars, among them the Compton brothers Leslie and Denis. Dynamo didn’t have quite the same problem since the bulk of their team came from the ‘Red Army’ and formed most of Russia’s International side. To say they were formidable would be an understatement. So the Arsenal, keen to put on a good show, persuaded some of England’s own talent to ‘guest’ for them. The fact that these included Stoke City’s Stanley Matthews and Blackpool’s Stan Mortensen, didn’t impress the Dynamo officials. With Highbury out of action due to its role as an air-raid control centre, the Russians were further offended that their plea to play at Wembley was rejected due to a greyhound meeting, and Tottenham’s White Hart Lane was instead chosen as the venue. In keeping with the controversy around the game a real pea-souper descended on North London that night – Few of the 54,000 crowd saw much of what was an ill-tempered and in many ways, farcical match which the Russian team “won” 4-3. Loads could be written about the goings on but the thread is about Ronnie Rooke – worth noting that he got Arsenal’s first goal however, because that’s what Ronnie was all about ... goals! A rugged character, standing at 6’ 3” tall and weighing in at 15 stone, [back in Moscow, radio commentator Vadim Sinyavsky said he played “extremely roughly” and his own team mates said “he looked like a real thug – almost a dead ringer for Reggie Kray”] Ronnie was simply sublime when it came to scoring. Say what you like about statistics but not even Wayne Rooney can match Ronnie when it comes to goals: · 63 goals in 90 games for Fulham between 1937 and 1939 · 212 goals in 199 unofficial games during the war years · 13 goals in 18 games for Fulham in season 1946/47 – before we sold him for £1000 to Arsenal on the misguided belief that at 35 he was ‘over the hill’ · 70 goals in 94 games for Arsenal That’s what I’d call a ”striker”.
