BRFC - The Nostalgia Thread

[arbitro]

2 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I remember putting Dubbin on my boots. I never had a real ball of my own. We always played with the plastic “ Frido “ balls that were made in Stockport I believe. Whenever one burst we just had a whip round and bought another one. They were about 10/- or 50p in todays money.

Was it the Frido balls that were dimpled? We played football on cobbled streets invariably and with the variable bounce off the cobbles it heightened your awareness.

We would play for what seemed like hours before we were interrupted by a car coming down the road. And sometimes the ball would be 'egg-shaped' if the owner had left it too close to the coal fire.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

27 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Was it the Frido balls that were dimpled? We played football on cobbled streets invariably and with the variable bounce off the cobbles it heightened your awareness.

We would play for what seemed like hours before we were interrupted by a car coming down the road. And sometimes the ball would be 'egg-shaped' if the owner had left it too close to the coal fire.

I think they were slightly dimpled. Without doubt the best of the plastic balls on offer at the time.

[simongarnerisgod]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Yeah, dead right. “ Frido’s “ were good balls. Some of the other plastic balls were cheap and too light.

those plastic ones you could get from the local shop were absolute garbage,whenever you tried to hit it long they blew away and the guilty party who kicked it was sent off to retrieve the damn thing only to return 1/2 hour  later saying he could`nt find it,was then back to the house to "borrow 50p" for another one😁,there must be thousands of them hiding in backyards and gardens about the country!!

[AllRoverAsia]

Frido was a  vinyl ball with small dimples and pattern to look like a real football.

I had a brown one, hated it and hardly used it on grass. Too hard.

My first club used them for indoor training in an old aircraft hanger. They were ok there.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

those plastic ones you could get from the local shop were absolute garbage,whenever you tried to hit it long they blew away and the guilty party who kicked it was sent off to retrieve the damn thing only to return 1/2 hour  later saying he could`nt find it,was then back to the house to "borrow 50p" for another one😁,there must be thousands of them hiding in backyards and gardens about the country!!

Our you’d be having a 15 a side thriller and some bloody mongrel would run on and bite the ball !

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 minute ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Frido was a  vinyl ball with small dimples and pattern to look like a real football.

I had a brown one, hated it and hardly used it on grass. Too hard.

My first club used them for indoor training in an old aircraft hanger. They were ok there.

 

Too hard, a Frido ? What can I say, maybe we were bred hard back then. I never saw a brown one, they were always white in my experience.

[AllRoverAsia]

3 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Too hard, a Frido ? What can I say, maybe we were bred hard back then. I never saw a brown one, they were always white in my experience.

I was a country lad. Hard enough.

Edited October 1, 2022 by AllRoverAsia

[JohnD]

Great memories 🤠

[speeeeeeedie]

23 hours ago, simongarnerisgod said:

that ball looks like it belongs in a cannon🤔

speaking of heading the ball,even when i was growing up in the 80`s,heading the bloody ball from one of those goalkeepers kicks from hand was hazardous,as a full back i always hoped the bloke i was marking got off his feet first then i just do enough to disrupt him,getting a forehead full of mitre delta had you dizzy no matter how well you used your head

I remember Mitre Delta's being the good balls. They were only used on special occasions, cup finals and the like. Mitre Multiplex's were the bad ones. They were like granite. Always pumped up to maximum pressure too.  

Does anyone remember impopaball's? They were schoolyard balls that wouldn't burst. Awful doesn't describe them. They were brown, had a surface that felt like sandpaper, and if you tried blasting them they really hurt your foot.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 hours ago, speeeeeeedie said:

I remember Mitre Delta's being the good balls. They were only used on special occasions, cup finals and the like. Mitre Multiplex's were the bad ones. They were like granite. Always pumped up to maximum pressure too.  

Does anyone remember impopaball's? They were schoolyard balls that wouldn't burst. Awful doesn't describe them. They were brown, had a surface that felt like sandpaper, and if you tried blasting them they really hurt your foot.

Sounds like the ball that Asia was discussing.
 

What about the boots ? My first boots would have been ok as safety shoes in a foundry. The boots with no name. My next pair were some “ Slazenger “ . Really nice boots and they served me well. Once I saw the “ Puma “ boots that Keith Newton wore I had to have a pair. After saving up my paper round money I managed to get a pair. Exactly the same as Keith’s. They also served me well for several seasons.  I couldn’t wear them out. Eventually I decided I needed a new pair of “ Puma “. Nothing wrong with my old pair, I just “ needed “ something new. First real game I played in them I broke my leg right from the kick off. 5 seconds in to the game at the most ! Unlucky boots. I was still wearing them when I broke my leg for the second time.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Nuttall is lost]

On 30/09/2022 at 15:08, simongarnerisgod said:

that ball looks like it belongs in a cannon🤔

speaking of heading the ball,even when i was growing up in the 80`s,heading the bloody ball from one of those goalkeepers kicks from hand was hazardous,as a full back i always hoped the bloke i was marking got off his feet first then i just do enough to disrupt him,getting a forehead full of mitre delta had you dizzy no matter how well you used your head

I gave up playing ball at 16 but them Mitre Multiplex were a joke.   Always caked in dried mud from the game before and pumped up to the 9s ready to explode.  They were rock hard and even painful to kick at times.  I used to dread having to head one of them especially at corners.  Severe concussion would kick in!  Also we used to play in winter so the balls would also be frozen and rock hard.   Gettign a slap in the thigh from one would sting for about 10 mins after and leave a big red mark.

No doubt I'll get dementia now as a result!

[simongarnerisgod]

this the one😃??,i actually remember these from school,if you got one in the gentlemans area it was seriously bad,you could barely get them into the air if you were taking a corner!!!!!!thankfully replaced by the delta when i played on sunday morning,less painful and a lot lighter

[Upside Down]

Thankfully I am too young to have been subjected to such torture. 

I remember getting more than a few belts to the legs on many a cold morning with the Mitre balls in the 90s. 

I find modern balls far too light nowadays. 

[47er]

16 hours ago, arbitro said:

The kid on the floor behind them looks like he's up to no good. 😁😁

I have a vague recollection of putting dubbin all over my case and bladder ball to waterproof it. And for any 'owd Darreners I used to buy my dubbin from the County Sports shop on Duckworth Street.

County  sports! You got your sports gear there as a kid and your 45's when you were a teenager. LP's when you matured.

He had you for life!

[oldjamfan1]

7 hours ago, 47er said:

County  sports! You got your sports gear there as a kid and your 45's when you were a teenager. LP's when you matured.

He had you for life!

I didn’t know County Sports sold records!?

There was always a record shop a couple of doors down from him in my lifetime. 

[arbitro]

3 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

I didn’t know County Sports sold records!?

There was always a record shop a couple of doors down from him in my lifetime. 

It was called Tony Charles records Andy. He started a football team which I played for called Charles Athletic and bought us expensive kits and tracksuits. He did live on St. Cuthberts Close and we had meetings in his house. It always reminded me of the house in A Clockwork Orange 😁😁. His real name was Brown and I think his Christian name was David. He also played cricket for one of the Darwen teams, perhaps thirds.

[47er]

19 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

I didn’t know County Sports sold records!?

There was always a record shop a couple of doors down from him in my lifetime. 

County Sports was on the corner as I remember, definitely sold music. Of have I misremembered as usual?

[arbitro]

10 minutes ago, 47er said:

County Sports was on the corner as I remember, definitely sold music. Of have I misremembered as usual?

I don't remember records being sold there. It was a really well stocked shop - they seemed to have equipment for every sport and hobby. The couple who owned it were there when I was a kid and I think they saw it through to their own retirement.

[oldjamfan1]

7 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I don't remember records being sold there. It was a really well stocked shop - they seemed to have equipment for every sport and hobby. The couple who owned it were there when I was a kid and I think they saw it through to their own retirement.

Yeah the old boy seemed to know everything about any sport. I vaguely remember them also selling model aircraft kits and stuff like that. Cubs and scouts uniforms too? But never music to my knowledge. Micky Heaton and I want to say Mike? Harrison opened up a rival sports shop at the top of Union Street, literally 75 yards away from County Sports, in the late 70s/early 80s, but they didn’t last that long. 

I wish I could remember the couple’s names who owned County Sports, they were lovely.

[arbitro]

2 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

Yeah the old boy seemed to know everything about any sport. I vaguely remember them also selling model aircraft kits and stuff like that. Cubs and scouts uniforms too? But never music to my knowledge. Micky Heaton and I want to say Mike? Harrison opened up a rival sports shop at the top of Union Street, literally 75 yards away from County Sports, in the late 70s/early 80s, but they didn’t last that long. 

I wish I could remember the couple’s names who owned County Sports, they were lovely.

You are right about John Harrison Sports Andy and his sleeping partner was indeed Mick Heaton. I believe that John Harrison Sports is still in business, perhaps in Leyland. I'm pretty sure that the couple who ran County Sports resided in the Sunnyhurst area. Maybe claytonsleftboot might remember them.

Airfix was the name of the model planes and cars etc. Half an hour with the glue that came with the kits and you were as high as a kite. 😂😂

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Every town had a sports shop like that back in the day. In Rochdale it was called “ The Sports House “ , they sold everything related to the most popular sports. One Saturday afternoon  a gang of about 5 of us were heading up to the local sports ground for a game. One of our team was a kleptomaniac. On the way up one of the gang decided he wanted some new shin pads so we all trouped into the shop.

On the counter was a fully inflated football and not much else. It stood out like a sore thumb. In those days everything was kept behind the counter in shelves and drawers. When the old guy who owned the shop got his little steps and turned his back to get up to the drawer that held the shin pads the “ klepto “ whipped open his kit bag and stuffed the ball in it ! We were all aghast at this and we were making faces at him but he ignored us !

We were all expecting all hell to kick off when the old guy turned around but amazingly he said nothing, put the shin pads in a bag, took the money and that was that.

Nothing we could say outside would convince the “ klepto” to take the ball back.

The shop shut as a sports shop years ago and now it just sells paint and wallpaper etc.

Edited October 2, 2022 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[47er]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

I don't remember records being sold there. It was a really well stocked shop - they seemed to have equipment for every sport and hobby. The couple who owned it were there when I was a kid and I think they saw it through to their own retirement.

Well I've rethought and I think maybe the record shop was next door. It wasn't Nightingales was it?

[arbitro]

16 minutes ago, 47er said:

Well I've rethought and I think maybe the record shop was next door. It wasn't Nightingales was it?

Great shout. It was Nightingales and I was beating myself up trying to think of that. Tony Charles bought it from them.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 hours ago, arbitro said:

Great shout. It was Nightingales and I was beating myself up trying to think of that. Tony Charles bought it from them.

Another story about my klepto pal. We also had a record store on the Main Street in town. It was called “ The Spinning Disc “ and it was upstairs above a little tobacconists shop. One Summers day we were browsing the remaindered records in the shop. Anything that didn’t sell after 3 months was sold at a knock down price. All the 45’s were all in boxes on a table in a corner of the shop. With it being really hot the shop windows out onto the street were wide open.

I’d had a good look through the boxes and drawn my pals attention to a few really good soul records that hadn’t sold. I was bemoaning the fact I was skint that weekend and couldn’t buy them. After a while I wandered outside on my own intending to wait for the other lads to come down.

All of a sudden I heard a shout “ Tyrone “ . I looked up and saw my pal was leaning out of the open window with a handful of singles in his hands. He started slinging them down to me like Frisbys one at a time ! Of course I had to catch them. This was in the middle of a crowded shopping street on Saturday afternoon ! How I didn’t get arrested I’ll never know. 
 

After a couple of similar episodes in other shops we had to ban him from ever going into shops with us ever again. He really had it bad.

Edited October 2, 2022 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

1920 Summer Olympic Football final between Belgium and Czechoslovakia,the Referee in White stands behind and to the right of the Penalty Taker in the Picture...who is he?

'The Prince of Referees' we have a lot to be thankful for.

 

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by SIMON GARNERS 194