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Various English association football clubs located in East Anglia vie for being the Pride of Anglia, an unofficial title celebrated by fans of the clubs involved. These clubs include Cambridge United, Colchester United, Ipswich Town, Norwich City and Peterborough United—although by modern geographical reckoning, Essex is not considered part of East Anglia.
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Currently, fans of both Ipswich and Norwich can claim their club to be the Pride of Anglia under the two most widely-regarded methods for deciding the accolade, most recent league position,[1] and most recent result in the East Anglian derby,[2] respectively.
Professional association football teams from the ceremonial counties that make up East Anglia (i.e. the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire in England) compete for this unofficial title. No actual official trophy or reward is awarded.
Winning the most recent East Anglian derby and finishing as the highest Anglian team in the league pyramid are the two main measures employed by fans/pundits etc. that decide who can claim this title. The main two football clubs vying for the title are Ipswich Town from Suffolk and Norwich City from Norfolk. Both teams currently regularly compete in the top two tiers in the English football league and often find themselves in the same division, meaning at least two derby matches will be played during the season as league games, in addition to any cup / play-off games where the two teams may be drawn against each other.
Other league clubs from the region include Colchester United, Peterborough United and Cambridge United. These teams occasionally find themselves in the same league as Norwich and Ipswich and thus have the opportunity to claim the title for finishing highest in the league. In 2007, Colchester United finished in the highest league position in East Anglia and the club were (uniquely) awarded a special trophy by Anglia Television to mark the occasion.[3]
When Norwich and Ipswich meet, the match is known as the 'East Anglian derby', first played in 1902. The most recent encounter played on 6 April 2024 at Carrow Road ended in a 1-0 victory to Norwich. As of April 2024, Norwich have not been beaten by Ipswich in a competitive derby match for 15 years, dating back to April 2009.[4]
In recent years, the fixture has sometimes been humorously called the 'Old Farm derby',[5] a reference to the Old Firm derby played between rival Glasgow clubs Celtic and Rangers,[6] and to the prominence of agriculture in East Anglia. The derby has been described as one of the best derbies in the UK.[7]
Another commonly employed measure for "Pride of Anglia", and one that encompasses all of the East Anglian teams, is the side finishing as the highest-placed East Anglian team in the English football league system.[8][dead link]
In the 2023–24 season, Ipswich finished in the highest league position of all East Anglian clubs for the first time in some years.[1] and will by default be the best in Anglia on league position until at least the end of the 2024-2025 season for being the only club from the region in the highest tier of English football. Norwich City defeated Ipswich Town during the 2023-2024 season, meaning they also can lay claim to the Pride of Anglia title.
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