Just a few of my special
memories from a time when things seemed to move a little more slowly
and the game belonged to the people who made their own heroes. A
time when SKY was something you looked up to - with clouds in it.
When I was knee
high to the family dog I developed a healthy passion for
hoarding, everything from milk bottle tops to Dinkey toys.
The only survivors of my boxes and boxes of collectors items
are the football related items mainly connected with my
beloved light blues in mind. The three examples here are the
1955 Road to Wembley which tracks our path to the final.
This is a really well produced souvenir with lots of
pictures which were hard to find when I was 9 - I'm amazed I
didn't cut half of them out for my scrap book, a thing all
well balanced boys of the time did. The SPORT magazine
at sixpence (2.5p) cost me more than a weeks pocket money so
I'm not surprised that this particular one from March 1953
stayed in my possession for all this time. A weekly sports
magazine that covered all sports didn't feature your team
picture on it's cover more than once every Preston Guild.
The football stuff in here is fascinating. Today's
publications feature mainly Premier League stuff but the
content in this magazine is across the divisions both north
and south of the border. I've just had an hours read
as I composed this piece and it took me right back even down
to the phraseology used. In the centre above is a card from
a decade later when Typhoo Tea released their Famous
Football Clubs, 2nd series, Colour Pictures. If you
collected any 12 of the tea packet cards you could send them
away to Typhoo Tea and obtain a 10" x 8" colour photo of
your favourite team, 'suitable for framing'. The
original would have had the Typhoo logo on the top but I
obviously disposed of this distraction with the help of my
dads Wilkinson razor blade. I have to say Dave Bacuzzi's
Turned up shorts were the fashion of the day.
Programmes
The match day programmes have changed a great
deal over the years. The programme on the left is for the game
against Portsmouth on Monday 2nd January 1956. This was the
traditional New Year Bank Holiday game moved forward because games
were not played on a Sunday at the time. Cost of the 14 page
programme was 3d (1.25p). 50 years later things have moved onto the
magazine type production that is the norm today. This 82 page
programme (right) cost 240 times more though at a cover price of
£3.00. Of course you will also need a mighty big cupboard to keep the new
monsters in.
My oldest programme from a year before
I was Born. Programme dated 24-02-1945 is a war time
game against Huddersfield Town. Man Uni£ed games were
also played at Maine Road at this time because Old
Trafford had been quite rightly bombed.
This was the only dedicated football magazine available in the
early fifties and
this edition featured Man City and Newcastle United who
would meet
in the FA Cup Final that year. The front cover shows
Jimmy Meadows.
Charles Buchan wrongly tipped City to win the cup and
described them
as the most complete team of the time.
What an incredible night this was at
Maine Road.
A record crowd at the time to say farewell to one of our greatest
heroes. Who could forget the way Bert won over the hearts of the
City fans at such a delicate time in our history. After the second
World war people were still full of resentment and hatred to all
things German but to my mind this guy did an awful lot to heal the
wounds left by the terrible events of that time.
Bert was my first football hero, in
the early fifties we had a very moderate side but Trautmann kept
them from being a very poor one. Two cup finals and captain of the
Football League side plus footballer of the year award were the sum
total of his honours but, add to that the phenomenal number of
points won and saved for City and you will begin to understand what
a cornerstone of this club the man was.
The word great is loosely used these
days but this man conquered a City's hearts with his skill and
daring and the word great is not lost in describing him.
The Duke of Edinburgh Variety Club
game at Maine Road
on
7/5/64. This was a great chance for a battle against the rags who
were playing in Div 1 at the time we were plying our not too
memorable talents in Div 2. It was indeed pouring down all night but
that didn’t stop the lads from standing on the open end which we
shared with our Stretford rivals for the duration of the game. The
highlight was the coming together of the two “top hard men” from the
respective groups. In the red corner was a typical Neanderthal brute
from Salford and in the Blue corner was our man with his walking
stick to support his dodgy leg, injured in a ruck at a previous
game. The big fight started with some gentle sparring until the
natives got restless and piled in. The last I saw of our man was
when the law (not Denis) moved in to break it up, he was surrounded
by a dozen or so baying reds swinging his walking stick like Davy
Crockett’s last stand at the Alamo. Who won, I don’t remember but
one thing is for sure – that old giffer with the walking stick that
sometimes sits next to you at the COMSTAD may not be as innocent as
he looks!!
I don’t know what the attendance was that night but I think it was
probably nearer to 20,000 than 30,000. If I remember right, Nelly
Young scored for City with one of his trade mark strikes but not
enough though as we lost the game, I think 3-1. It was just
good to resume hostilities, the derby game those days was always a
real humdinger.
on
7/5/64. This was a great chance for a battle against the rags who
were playing in Div 1 at the time we were plying our not too
memorable talents in Div 2. It was indeed pouring down all night but
that didn’t stop the lads from standing on the open end which we
shared with our Stretford rivals for the duration of the game. The
highlight was the coming together of the two “top hard men” from the
respective groups. In the red corner was a typical Neanderthal brute
from Salford and in the Blue corner was our man with his walking
stick to support his dodgy leg, injured in a ruck at a previous
game. The big fight started with some gentle sparring until the
natives got restless and piled in. The last I saw of our man was
when the law (not Denis) moved in to break it up, he was surrounded
by a dozen or so baying reds swinging his walking stick like Davy
Crockett’s last stand at the Alamo. Who won, I don’t remember but
one thing is for sure – that old giffer with the walking stick that
sometimes sits next to you at the COMSTAD may not be as innocent as
he looks!!