BRFC - The Nostalgia Thread

[simongarnerisgod]

Just now, Gav said:

That plastic bloody pitch and Andy Ritchie 

it was that fat git rick holden who i did`nt like,looked like a slob,ran like an overweight slob but he used to put absolutely evil crosses in,the ones which draw the keeper out but veer away from him,a strikers nirvana?

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

23 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

it was that fat git rick holden who i did`nt like,looked like a slob,ran like an overweight slob but he used to put absolutely evil crosses in,the ones which draw the keeper out but veer away from him,a strikers nirvana?

Yeah he was a master at it. He'd get half a stride on the full back and boom, over would go a really deceiving bender of a cross. He was as good as any winger you care name at getting a cross in and he never wasted any.  Grealish did exactly the same thing the other night for England. When you see some of the crossing at Ewood nowadays I find myself shaking my head !

Edited October 10, 2020 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

6 minutes ago, renrag said:

Was it not Craig Skinner who crossed for Speedie? That goal epitomised everything you said about Speedie in another post. He was in his own half, involved in the early build up, yet was in their 6 yard box to score with the header. Incidentally, I thought Skinner looked the more likely prospect when he and Wilcox came into the team around the same time. Shows what I know

Yeah you're right it was Craig Skinner who put that far post ball in. The cross field ball from Wilcox ? out to him was a gem as well. The incident at the end summed Speedie up. He picked up a ball in the centre circle, fed the winger then busted a gut to get on the end of the cross, diving in where the boots are flying most of the time.

[den]

A personal, potted history....

walking through centre turnstile on riverside to a packed Ewood for the first time. Awestruck at the scarves, rattles. marching band.

seeing Ronnie Clayton leading rovers out of the tunnel.  First sight of Bryan Douglas. Orange ball. 
Rattle .... my dad made mine. He was a joiner. It was effin huge - embarrassing. 
 

Seeing Brian Clough the player. Check out his goal scoring record, it’s absolutely phenomenal .

watching the likes of Pele in the World Cup. Charlton best Law. Bobby Moore. Gordon Banks while still at Leicester. My mate played with Banks at the end of Banks’s career. My mate played right back in front of Gordon but Banks only had his left eye so never saw my mate ( he said).

16 year old Trevor Francis. Fantastic. Tony Green at Blackpool, one of the most skilful players I ever saw. Garrincha. Lineker, Keegan, Tommy Smith. Dalglish the player. Thierry Henry. Howard Kendall at PNE making his debut in 64 against forest in cup and going on to FA cup final. Alex Dawson. Ernie Hannigan. Bobby Lawton. 
 

Jimmy Greaves. Alan Gilzean. 
 

Best rovers forward line ever... Ferguson McEvoy Pickering Douglas Harrison. 
 

Fred Else. Keith Newton - the most stylish of all full backs. Played for England in 70 World Cup. Woods. England - first saw him playing at right half. Could play anywhere. Mick McGrath. Tony Field. Dumper Endean. Beamo. Don Martin. Eamonn Rogers. Hird, Bailey and Wagstaffe in same team. 
 

The two best results we ever had IMO. 8-2 away at West Ham and 7-2 thrashing of Spurs at Ewood both in same season.

Duggie passing the ball from a penalty. 

queing outside Old Trafford when turnstile doors slammed shut. Ground full. 
 

promotion from division three. Rovers 5 Plymouth 2.

League cup score line ... first division rovers 0 Workington 5. Kit Napier playing for Workington. Crowd 5000.

buying platform ticket at Leyland then getting on train. Jumping off train at Mill Hill before it stopped in station because we had no ticket. Jumped over fence.

Shearer. 
 

Venkys. Steve Kean. Killed it for me but they will NEVER take away fantastic memories.

Hopefully all you guys will have the same great memories when you get older.

 

Edited October 10, 2020 by den

[Gav]

Talking about Speedie and Sunderland, I recall him getting sent off for fighting with Armstrong, Sunderland's centre back whilst playing for Chelsea? Coventry at Roker?

Midweek sports special? 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Ernie Hannigan - another one who missed his way. He was a bag of tricks.

Talking about Howard Kendall, he was about the same age as me and I recall feeling really envious of him when he was playing in the Cup Final as a very young player.

Fast forward a couple of years and I was stood right behind him when he was taking a throw in playing for Everton in a pre season friendly at Rochdale. I was near enough to see the bald spot appearing on the back of  his head, I wasn't quite so envious after that !

Edited October 10, 2020 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Colt Seavers]

I'm not sure if this has been posted here before or whether I might have even posted it myself in the past, but the below link is from the archives of Great Harwood FC and is an extremely detailed look at the career of Bryan Douglas. I imagine it has more information on Duggie than anything else on the internet.

For someone like myself who wasn't born until after he retired, but listened so often to my Grandad talking about him, it is a fascinating read. My Grandad was born in 1915 and died in 1994 which means he was born a year after we won the 1st Division title and died a year before we won it again. He started watching Rovers in the early '20s and I last went with him in 1993. He saw them all but thought Duggie was easily the best. So many stories.

 

http://www.greatharwoodtown.co.uk/bryandouglas.html

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2020 by Colt Seavers

[Gav]

58 minutes ago, den said:

A personal, potted history....

walking through centre turnstile on riverside to a packed Ewood for the first time. Awestruck at the scarves, rattles. marching band.

seeing Ronnie Clayton leading rovers out of the tunnel.  First sight of Bryan Douglas. Orange ball. 
Rattle .... my dad made mine. He was a joiner. It was effin huge - embarrassing. 
 

Seeing Brian Clough the player. Check out his goal scoring record, it’s absolutely phenomenal .

watching the likes of Pele in the World Cup. Charlton best Law. Bobby Moore. Gordon Banks while still at Leicester. My mate played with Banks at the end of Banks’s career. My mate played right back in front of Gordon but Banks only had his left eye so never saw my mate ( he said).

16 year old Trevor Francis. Fantastic. Tony Green at Blackpool, one of the most skilful players I ever saw. Garrincha. Lineker, Keegan, Tommy Smith. Dalglish the player. Thierry Henry. Howard Kendall at PNE making his debut in 64 against forest in cup and going on to FA cup final. Alex Dawson. Ernie Hannigan. Bobby Lawton. 
 

Jimmy Greaves. Alan Gilzean. 
 

Best rovers forward line ever... Ferguson McEvoy Pickering Douglas Harrison. 
 

Fred Else. Keith Newton - the most stylish of all full backs. Played for England in 70 World Cup. Woods. England - first saw him playing at right half. Could play anywhere. Mick McGrath. Tony Field. Dumper Endean. Beamo. Don Martin. Eamonn Rogers. Hird, Bailey and Wagstaffe in same team. 
 

The two best results we ever had IMO. 8-2 away at West Ham and 7-2 thrashing of Spurs at Ewood both in same season.

Duggie passing the ball from a penalty. 

queing outside Old Trafford when turnstile doors slammed shut. Ground full. 
 

promotion from division three. Rovers 5 Plymouth 2.

League cup score line ... first division rovers 0 Workington 5. Kit Napier playing for Workington. Crowd 5000.

buying platform ticket at Leyland then getting on train. Jumping off train at Mill Hill before it stopped in station because we had no ticket. Jumped over fence.

Shearer. 
 

Venkys. Steve Kean. Killed it for me but they will NEVER take away fantastic memories.

Hopefully all you guys will have the same great memories when you get older.

 

Sorry for quoting the whole piece, but this is tremendous den 

Superb.

I hope you can give us a bit more detail when you can find the time.

Matthews v Douglas? 

Edited October 10, 2020 by Gav

[arbitro]

11 hours ago, Gav said:

Talking about Speedie and Sunderland, I recall him getting sent off for fighting with Armstrong, Sunderland's centre back whilst playing for Chelsea? Coventry at Roker?

Midweek sports special? 

It was Gary Bennett who he fought and it was a proper, no holds barred scrap. They started fighting on the touchline and ended up toppling into the crowd. The referee gave them both a severe talking to ???.

[47er]

10 hours ago, Colt Seavers said:

He saw them all but thought Duggie was easily the best. So many stories.

 

He was right!

[arbitro]

This was better though.

 

[Atko's Engine]

Speedie did absolutely nothing wrong there! A good, strong full blooded shoulder charge between both players, but then Bennett's response was completely one sided, Speedie didn't retaliate one little bit!  Don't get me wrong, he was a spikey character & I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bit of a back story to the incident in the game previously, but he was entirely innocent of anything in that clip!

The same can't be said of Lee or Hunter though...

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

50 minutes ago, Atko's Engine said:

Speedie did absolutely nothing wrong there! A good, strong full blooded shoulder charge between both players, but then Bennett's response was completely one sided, Speedie didn't retaliate one little bit!  Don't get me wrong, he was a spikey character & I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bit of a back story to the incident in the game previously, but he was entirely innocent of anything in that clip!

The same can't be said of Lee or Hunter though...

Yes I thought that. Bennett got them both sent off.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

The third Celtic V Racing Club  World Club Championship highlights are probably the most violent although Chile V Italy in the 1962 World Cup got a bit lively.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[arbitro]

4 minutes ago, renrag said:

I think Speedie went in targeting Bennett’s knee, knowing that he had just returned after a while out with a knee injury. It should have been a yellow for Speedie and a red for Bennett, but referees often give the same sanctions to both players in those situations

The referee was Dave Allison from Lancaster who was my coach for several years. He was what was termed then as a players referee, quite liberal in his style who generally managed games without too many problems. It was before all the mandates were given and laws changed in an attempt to bring consistency.

[Darrenbot]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

The third Celtic V Racing Club  World Club Championship highlights are probably the most violent although Chile V Italy in the 1962 World Cup got a bit lively.

The Chile v Italy game was nicknamed The Battle of Santiago which shows the kind of game it was, i think there's highlights of it on youtube

[philipl]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

The referee was Dave Allison from Lancaster who was my coach for several years. He was what was termed then as a players referee, quite liberal in his style who generally managed games without too many problems. It was before all the mandates were given and laws changed in an attempt to bring consistency.

He played cricket at Morecambe. Had many a long conversation with him.

[Gav]

1 hour ago, Darrenbot said:

The Chile v Italy game was nicknamed The Battle of Santiago which shows the kind of game it was, i think there's highlights of it on youtube

Just on this theme, well sort of.

Honduras and El Salvador actually went to war after a qualifying match for the 1970 Word Cup:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-48673853

[Herbie6590]

19 hours ago, Elvis Biro said:

I once went to watch Rovers play at Oldham back in the 80's round about Xmas time. Seems like Boundary park only had one turnstile open for away fans so it took ages to get in - queuing up i heard a big shout -Rovers 1-0 up, then another - Rovers 2-0 up! Finally got in and dashed straight to the gents, having had the obligatory few pints, and heard another shout from our end... We won 3-0 (I think) and I never saw a goal!

 

[Herbie6590]

19 hours ago, Elvis Biro said:

I once went to watch Rovers play at Oldham back in the 80's round about Xmas time. Seems like Boundary park only had one turnstile open for away fans so it took ages to get in - queuing up i heard a big shout -Rovers 1-0 up, then another - Rovers 2-0 up! Finally got in and dashed straight to the gents, having had the obligatory few pints, and heard another shout from our end... We won 3-0 (I think) and I never saw a goal!

A different clip is also on p2 of this thread...

[Aqualung]

24 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

 

Went to that match. Coldest I've ever been. Snowballs aplenty and I'm sure there was a guy in our end playing the Bagpipes! 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

There was an article in my paper years ago asking fans of various teams what their worst football experience had been. A QPR fan wrote in about a visit he'd had to that open terrace in the opening shot. Conditions were similar to that only cold and sleeting. He'd just got over a dose of flu that week. Half way through the second half he collapsed and had to be taken to the nearby A&E at Oldham Royal just over the road. He was in hospital for a week with pneumonia after that !

If you think Boundary Park was cold you should have gone watching the Rugby League in Oldham. Their ground was called " Watersheddings " ! The clue is in the name. It had an eco-climate all of it's own, it could be really bloody cold in Summer there.

[simongarnerisgod]

ayresome park the old middlesboro ground was a pretty miserable place,been twice and it was blowing a gale both times,the ground was falling to bits and the general area looked like it had just come out of ww2,i know blackburn is`nt the most salubrious of places but it made our town look bright and cheery

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Coldest I've ever been was at a Rugby League Challenge Cup years ago at York. It'd snowed on the Saturday night but Sunday morning was cold and bright. We'd phoned the York club up and the game was definitely on so the coaches set off over the Pennines for York. The ground was packed but about 2-00 it started snowing heavily again. If it hadn't have been a cup game it would have been called off. I was only wearing a suit with a collar and tie on an open terrace ! I was absolutely frozen. The only thing that saved my life was my mate shared a hip flask of whiskey at half time. We lost a game we should have won and to cap it all the bloody coach broke down on the way back.

What people today don't realise is that fans back in the 1960's and earlier didn't have the access to casual sporting clothes like anoraks and cagoules or quilted jackets like we have today. Look at photos of the crowds then and most of the blokes will be in a suit wearing a collar and tie. If you were lucky you had an overcoat or a raincoat.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[den]

Cold at Football? You want to try beach casting from Rosall when the snows blowing into your face.

Thats cold.