Places · Landmark
Netaji Ground
Aranattukara's football ground — home of the Netaji Sports Club's tournaments, and the field where local players and the Cochin Malleables team made their names.
Photo to come
If the church playgrounds belonged to tennis and basketball, football in Aranattukara belonged to the Netaji Ground. The book says plainly that most football matches were played here.
The Netaji Sports Club
The ground shared its name with the club that filled it. The Netaji Sports Club worked out of a shed belonging to Vaimel Mani at Thoppinmoola, and organised football tournaments that drew players and crowds from across the area.
Aranattukara’s footballers
The book remembers a long line of local players. C.T. Raphael Chungath played under the nickname “Sakthan”. The works team of Cochin Malleables at Kizhakkeppuram, led by Thampi George of Thiruvalla, once held Punjab Police to a draw and reached the pre-quarter-finals of the Chakkola Trophy. Tharakan’s High School sent out its own strong teams year after year. You can read more in Arts, Drama and Clubs.
Beside the ground
Trinity Pharmaceuticals, one of the few Aranattukara factories still working, stands next to the Netaji Ground.
Help us complete this page
We don’t yet know when the ground was laid out or named after Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, who looks after it today, or which matches people remember best. If you played or watched here, or have old team photographs, please tell us.
Related
Arts, Drama and Clubs
A university drama school, amateur theatre clubs, portrait painters, a study circle and football on the Netaji Ground. Aranattukara's long love of the stage and the playing field.
Work and Industry
Foundries, a tile works, a pharmaceutical company, bakeries and banks. How a market village of traders and farmers made its living, and why most of its factories fell silent.