BRFC - The Nostalgia Thread

[speeeeeeedie]

  On 30/12/2020 at 21:24, simongarnerisgod said:

watched it on the big screen at ewood standing on the hallowed turf,did`nt see much of the last twenty minutes,i spend it looking looking up at the heavens praying derby would`nt score!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Me too. 

  On 31/12/2020 at 07:52, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

The screen was in the corner between the BBE and the Riverside.I was situated near to the front and folk were stood as far back as the Darwen end terrace.

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My mind has it at the other end of the ground. Riverside-Darwen end corner. You sound like you remember better than I though. 

  On 01/01/2021 at 18:42, bazza said:

I was there on the pitch which looked more mud than grass and stank to high heaven.

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That surprised me too. There was hardly a blade of grass in sight. It was really bumpy too. 

[bazza]

Screen was definitely Blackburn End/ Riverside.

Although I do remember sitting in the Darwen End new stand to watch another game on a big screen which was in the Darwen End penalty area. What game was that?

Edited January 2, 2021 by bazza

[Mattyblue]

The Charlton and Southampton away games in the relegation run-in in 1999 were both shown at Ewood.

I’m sure there’s another too, but I can’t think of it.

[simongarnerisgod]

  On 02/01/2021 at 20:31, Mattyblue said:

The Charlton and Southampton away games in the relegation run-in in 1999 were both shown at Ewood.

I’m sure there’s another too, but I can’t think of it.

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from somewhat vague memory i think it was a cup match away at charlton in circa 92/93,they were demolishing the nuttall street stand at the time,we were sat in the spanking new darwen end

[darrenrover]

  On 31/12/2020 at 09:56, Claytons Left Boot said:

Six of the best at the final whistle to those that were under par..

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Could have done with that last Wednesday night Mark!

[Claytons Left Boot]

  On 02/01/2021 at 22:36, darrenrover said:

Could have done with that last Wednesday night Mark!

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Too right Nick! Loving your family history by the way. I haven’t been on this thread for a while, so I’ve only caught up over the last few days. The photo of your great grandad, just like looking at your dad! 
 

My auntie lived on Bolton Road, opposite St Bartholomew’s, Rovers mad and also went to the 1928 Cup Final. Passed away a good few years ago but was still going on during the early Premier League years. Wish I’d asked her more about the final.

You have my sympathy re the sciatica. I’m a fellow sufferer but have been free of it for three years. I know how to manage it, thankfully. I remember staying back in the Blackburn End after one game (with Arbitro actually), protesting at Kean/Venky’s and I was really struggling.

Anyway, I look forward to the next instalment!!

[darrenrover]

I've just unearthed this photo amongst the archives:

Blackburn Rovers, 1938/39 season, Division 2 Champions with 55 points (2 points/win) from 42 matches.

After referring to Mike Jackman, the squad consisted of basically 15 players, with a total of 4 others chipping in with the odd game. The little petals don't know they are born in this day and age!

[LeftWinger]

  On 02/01/2021 at 06:29, darrenrover said:

I remember I did similar against Everton once at Ewood Matty. I forget the year but we were 2 down at Half Time, we left and went to EWC for a couple of pints. Predictably I guess, we pulled it back to 2-2 in the second half.

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Last time we drew 2-2 with Everton at Ewood Park was on Christmas Day 1925. No wonder you've forgotten the year!!

[darrenrover]

  On 04/01/2021 at 08:44, LeftWinger said:

Last time we drew 2-2 with Everton at Ewood Park was on Christmas Day 1925. No wonder you've forgotten the year!!

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My bad Leftpegger, you're correct, please forgive me for my inaccuracies! 😀

It irks me to admit that We didn't claw that back at all.

It was 2005/6, were 2-0 down at halftime, James McFadden and Mikel Arteta scoring for The Toffees on 28 and 45 minutes respectively and Andy Todd sent off in the 31st Minute.

You attend that many matches over 54 years, you do tend to forget the odd specific without reference.

Whatever, I still left at Half Time and had a couple of pints in Ewood Working Mens Club. Please don't tell me I had 4 pints and one was Guiness because you could well be right! 😉😀

[LeftWinger]

  On 04/01/2021 at 12:49, darrenrover said:

My bad Leftpegger, you're correct, please forgive me for my inaccuracies! 😀

It irks me to admit that We didn't claw that back at all.

It was 2005/6, were 2-0 down at halftime, James McFadden and Mikel Arteta scoring for The Toffees on 28 and 45 minutes respectively and Andy Todd sent off in the 31st Minute.

You attend that many matches over 54 years, you do tend to forget the odd specific without reference.

Whatever, I still left at Half Time and had a couple of pints in Ewood Working Mens Club. Please don't tell me I had 4 pints and one was Guiness because you could well be right! 😉😀

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I only looked it up as I thought it was the game where N'Zonzi scored a belter from 30 yards - but we actually lost that one 3-2.

[Riversider28]

  On 03/01/2021 at 18:56, darrenrover said:

I've just unearthed this photo amongst the archives:

Blackburn Rovers, 1938/39 season, Division 2 Champions with 55 points (2 points/win) from 42 matches.

After referring to Mike Jackman, the squad consisted of basically 15 players, with a total of 4 others chipping in with the odd game. The little petals don't know they are born in this day and age!

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Interesting to see that the information has us founded in 1874. 

[4000Holes]

  On 26/12/2020 at 19:09, J*B said:

I’m looking for any images of the old seating in the Riverside - not the benches in the wings (see attached) but the central seating. If you’ve got any, let me know!

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I have a book called save the riverside stand by Peter White with some excellent old Photographs of Ewood and players.  Since you posted this, I have been looking all over the place for it with a view to sending it to you.  Unfortunately, I can’t find it anywhere including spending some time in the loft, freezing my bollocks off, resulting in Mrs 4000 holes giving said bollocks a good kicking for making the whole house cold.

When the weather improves or gets warmer, I will have another look.

[J*B]

  On 04/01/2021 at 16:43, 4000Holes said:

I have a book called save the riverside stand by Peter White with some excellent old Photographs of Ewood and players.  Since you posted this, I have been looking all over the place for it with a view to sending it to you.  Unfortunately, I can’t find it anywhere including spending some time in the loft, freezing my bollocks off, resulting in Mrs 4000 holes giving said bollocks a good kicking for making the whole house cold.

When the weather improves or gets warmer, I will have another look.

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Thanks! Reason I ask is because I have two seats which I am told are originals, taken out of the riverside stand. If they are, I’m going to give them away to BRFCS members. I’ve attached the images and what I believe to be an image showing them in situ originally. 

[rigger]

  On 04/01/2021 at 19:43, J*B said:

Thanks! Reason I ask is because I have two seats which I am told are originals, taken out of the riverside stand. If they are, I’m going to give them away to BRFCS members. I’ve attached the images and what I believe to be an image showing them in situ originally. 

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I used to work at Thwaites putting Stein into kegs

[Elvis Biro]

  On 04/01/2021 at 19:47, rigger said:

I used to work at Thwaites putting Stein into kegs

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We used to call it 'Frankenstein'. No offence!

[Leonard Venkhater]

  On 04/01/2021 at 20:27, Elvis Biro said:

We used to call it 'Frankenstein'. No offence!

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Saw a great piece of graffiti on a bog wall once..

" Knowledge is knowing Frankenstein is not the monster.

Wisdom is knowing that he is.."

[Exiled in Toronto]

  On 04/01/2021 at 19:43, J*B said:

Thanks! Reason I ask is because I have two seats which I am told are originals, taken out of the riverside stand. If they are, I’m going to give them away to BRFCS members. I’ve attached the images and what I believe to be an image showing them in situ originally. 

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I would say they were Riverside central section; the outer sections were benches and I seem to recall the backs of the Nuttall St stand seats were curved, it being for posh folk (and pensioners by the Darwen End).

[darrenrover]

  On 04/01/2021 at 20:27, Elvis Biro said:

We used to call it 'Frankenstein'. No offence!

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I used to call it 'gnats piss'!

[rigger]

  On 05/01/2021 at 02:34, darrenrover said:

I used to call it 'gnats piss'!

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We also used to keg Harp Larger, That was the same.

[speeeeeeedie]

  On 04/01/2021 at 19:47, rigger said:

I used to work at Thwaites putting Stein into kegs

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  On 05/01/2021 at 10:07, rigger said:

We also used to keg Harp Larger, That was the same.

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Both were around when I was a kid yet were gone by the time I was old enough to drink so never had any of it. I also remember those massive cans of Foster's. I assume that they are long gone too. 

Harp has a following over here. "Irish" bars countrywide sell it.

 

[simongarnerisgod]

slalom lager and it`s evil big brother slalom d used to be well popular round the north,used to go down like lemonade and it was cheap🤪

[Ianrally]

  On 04/01/2021 at 20:45, Leonard Venkhater said:

Saw a great piece of graffiti on a bog wall once..

" Knowledge is knowing Frankenstein is not the monster.

Wisdom is knowing that he is.."

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Albert Einstein was certainly a genius but his brother Frank was a totally different kettle of fish.

[47er]

  On 04/01/2021 at 21:39, Exiled in Toronto said:

I would say they were Riverside central section; the outer sections were benches and I seem to recall the backs of the Nuttall St stand seats were curved, it being for posh folk (and pensioners by the Darwen End).

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My Dad and I had a season ticket for years in the Nuttall St Stand. From the early 50's on the seats were benches.

At some point later in the later 50's they replaced them with individtual seats. But they were never painted, just plain wood.

[darrenrover]

  On 30/12/2020 at 03:20, darrenrover said:

....and on I go:-

Initially I'd like to point out that you needn't read more into the erratic times of my posts, than my being a severe sciatica sufferer due to several herniated lower lumber discs. It is pain managed pretty well through injections (I'm on the list awaiting my next one) and countless pills I have to pop 4 times a day, to the point I think I'm a junkie! I'm trying to put off the inevitable 'suffering of the knife' as long as possible, due to the potential complications. As a result, I tend to wake in the early hours once the effects of the medication has worn off, get up, make a brew and do something to kill some time whilst the painkillers kick in. Apologies, I digress:-

I'm assuming that Grandad darrenrover continued to go to The Rovers, following the introduction by his Dad in 1919, but I've found nothing to back up that assumption and I've no other recollections of it being discussed either, until OUR last FA Cup Final win in 1928, when he would have been 18. I remember him telling me he went with some pals on one of the special trains out of Blackburn Station, the day before the match. They returned the day after Harry Healess had lifted the trophy, after defeating Huddersfield Town 3-1.

He spent the 2 nights "down the smoke", as he described it in "a dive of a B&B in Uxbridge, struggled to get a pint anywheer", being only 18 and you didn't come of age then until 21. He also added " the ale was fecking shite as wheel, flat as feck!" He had a regular ticket for the match but for some reason or other, he swapped it with a pal. I suspect that was probably a white lie and that he probably won it from one of the pals he had travelled down with, he "loved a bit of Poker, dust see!" I've no recollections of him telling me anything regarding the actual match itself. The only others being that they were "pissed as rats that neet and nearly missed t'train 'ome on t'day efter!"  He'd also instructed his then girlfriend, who later was to become my Grandma, before they'd left, to buy a copy of the Sports Pink. (Images of match day programme and ticket and several of The Sports Pink for your perusal below)

After that, he must have followed Darwen down to Highbury in 1932 because in amongst his stuff when he had passed, was a match day programme. (images below). He never mentioned anything of this to me or if he did, I don't recall it (sadly I don't possess an @Tyroneshoelaces type memory, how do you do it Tyrone?). Perhaps he didn't say 'owt' because I guess it would be the equivalent to a modern day admittance to watching 'that shower' play away in London!

Being in The Terriors, carrying on a long line of family, Military history, he joined The Royal Artillery and served in Norway and Crete during WW2. He never talked about his time during The War at all but I know he made up to the rank of Sergeant and worked in The Quartermasters. Not having had sufficient time to research it yet and the fact he never, ever discussed it, that's all I know of. The rest of the family moved down to Irthlingbrough in Northants for the duration of WW2, living in a small holding. It's where my Dad, being born in 1936, served his formative years, the remaining male members of the family working in the Corby steelworks and my Gran as a 'clippie' on the buses to London.

I'm starting to see "Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds and Tangerine Seas and Marmalade Skies" now, as the pain-killers start to kick in! Next up, The fifties.......

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.....You may recall from above, that in 1939 Grandad darrenrover was drafted into the Royal Artillery and served throughout WW2 notably in Norway and Crete. He was actually de-mobbed in 1948, some 3 years after the end of The War. Here ends with him, my direct family lineage of Military history, which stretches back as far as 1858 and that is as far as my research has currently stretched. Grandad worked at ICI in Darwen after leaving the Army until he retired at 65 in 1975. (Picture below of Grandad darrenrover in his ICI bib and braces, with his beloved poodle Ricky) To my knowledge, Grandad darrenrover didn't attend Ewood again since the late forties/early fifties, shiftwork preventing him from doing so, until 1992 aged 82, when he was the eldest of 4 generations of a Rovers following family, when he, my Dad, myself and our eldest son all proudly attended The Play Off Final together. He sadly passed away 2 years later following a stroke.

My Great Great Grandad signed up aged 17, to The 104th Regiment of Foot, which was then part of The Honourable East India Company, becoming The Bengal Fusiliers in 1862 and part of the regular British Army. His service ended in 1879, having served 21 years, most of it poignantly in India, he became a Chelsea Pensioner and resided at Bowerham Barracks in Lancaster. The family subsequently moved to Darwen in 1899 and he found work as a labourer at Hollins Paper Mill. He may have become a Rover shortly after moving to the area, I don't know but I'd surely like to think so.

History lesson over, apologies, I decided to delegate the writing of the next chapter to my Dad: I thought he and Mum would probably enjoy a trip down memory lane and relieve the tedium of remaining at home for the past 10 months, due to their age vulnerability to Covid 19. I gave them the 'task' between Christmas and New Year and knowing the difference between delegation and abdication, I asked every day during our daily chat, as to how their 'project' was going? Oh ok, was the daily reply, our memories aren't what they were you know (they're 84 and 85). Last night at 10.22pm my phone pinged with a WhatsApp message from my Dad! He'd no doubt had a healthy measure of Dalwhinnie after Mum had gone to bed, as is the norm! "Read your bloody emails!" it said!  Unedited, here is his email to me:

"I have so many memories but am struggling to put them in order. Perhaps a question and answer from you would help us a lot (I'm going to oblige his request over the next few days).My very first is being taken by my Dad and there were so many on the ground, that for safety, he stuffed me in a window space at the back of The Darwen End circa 1946/7. Rovers in First Division. Remember Eckersley, Crossen, Wharton and Langton and behold Derek Leaver. I'm thinking it was against West Brom, people passing out and rolled over the heads of the crowd to the front. This was just after The War and Dad was still in the Army as a regular. I was up from Corby to see my Grandparents. 

Beating Dingles 2-0 in a replay at Ewood after the bastards thought they'd dicked us when 3 up, with quarter of an hour to go at Turf Moor. I was on there too, stood on that big terrace at the side of the pitch, Longside I think. Dingle fans being hosed off the Darwen End Roof by firemen. Semi Final at Leeds v Newcastle (actually Hillsborough, programme below), replay midweek. Me and all schoolmates wrote sick notes for each other and wagged off school to go. We all denied going to Headmaster, next day in Telegraph, front page, photo back of goal and we were all on it, hence all got whacked but we lost. End Chapter, to be continued."

Edit: Having checked with Mike Jackman, the game my Dad referred to at Elland Road was actually the semi-final replay, having drawn with Newcastle 0-0 the preceding Saturday. So I incorrectly corrected him but as yet haven't turned up a match day programme for that evening kick off. Hence the reason the Head at Darwen Grammar gave him and his mates 6 of the best for skipping school!

Hopefully, I'll be back by weekend.....

 

Edited January 6, 2021 by darrenrover

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Anybody who served in Norway and Crete had it rough. Two chaotic evacuations.