 Thursday, 27th Jan 2011 21:54 by Spot51 It seems I may have been a pedlar of untruths!
When Nick asked for Uglies to write regular columns I was happy to volunteer. In my previous pieces I’ve talked a bit about my football education and philosophy and introduced some of the folk I’ve watched football with. I knew I’d have to start writing about Saints matches I’ve seen in due course.
Yesterday I decided I could put it off no longer and went in search of my Saints programmes to inspire me. On top of a storage unit in my office was a box labelled “Saints - to 1992”. It looked promising so I reached up to fetch it. As it came clear of the shelf, the bottom dropped out of the box and a quarter of a century’s worth of programmes fell to the floor! I sometimes wonder if I’m living in a Norman Wisdom movie…
At least it forced me to sort through what was there and put it back into date order. It was actually quite enjoyable, looking at the various styles of programme published by Saints over the years. There were some good looking ones but some right stinkers too. There were also programmes from other clubs but these were all from games where Saints were the away side. I’d clearly sorted these at some stage. There are other boxes up there labelled “Saints scrapbooks“, “Saints - from 92“ and “Progs - Vars” which I fear to touch.
Now, I’ve told you that I first watched Saints play Burnley at The Dell in 1967. Indeed, I thought that was the case until last evening when, to my surprise, among the Saints programmes I found a tiny, very ancient Portsmouth programme. It was dated 12 September 1964 and was for a Division 2 game between Portsmouth and Southampton!
I can only assume I must have been to the game. Between 1963 and 1967 my dad took me to a number of matches at Fratton. I remember the first (they lost to Palace) but had forgotten the rest. There is no reason I’d have this programme if I hadn’t been there. I was still a Burnley supporter then - I wouldn’t have kept the programme if I wasn’t at the match. So it seems my first Saints match was in fact 3 years earlier than I’d thought.
I have absolutely no recollection of the game so was obliged to refer to Dave Juson’s excellent “Saints v Pompey - A History of Unrelenting Rivalry.” It seems the teams were as printed in the programme, apart from Johnny Gordon replacing Cliff Portwood at #8 for Pompey. The teams were: Portsmouth: (Royal blue shirts, White shorts) Milkins, Wilson, Lunniss, Lewis, Dickinson, Harris, McClelland, Gordon, Hiron, McCann, Dodson.
Saints: (Red & White striped shirts, black knickers*) Hollowbread, Williams, Hollywood, Wimshurst, Knapp, Huxford, Paine, O’Brien, Chivers, Burnside, Sydenham.
*knickers FFS?
Over 25000 punters watched the game which saw Saints take the lead on 18 minutes when a Wimshurst shot was parried into the path of Chivers who stuck in the rebound. The second goal, right on half time, seems to have been a bit of a collector’s item. O’Brien took a corner which was headed home by…..Terry Paine!
Ten minutes into the 2nd half Saints killed the game when Sydenham latched on to O’Brien’s through ball, turned inside his full back and cracked an unstoppable drive past Milkins. At which point, Saints fans spilled onto the pitch and a ruck ensued. Old Bill had to remove numerous supporters before the match could continue. The report in Dave’s book suggests Saints might have scored more were it not for heroic tackling from Jimmy Dickinson and Alex Wilson.
So it would seem, my first Saints game was in fact a 3-0 win at Fratton which I’d completely forgotten about! My excuse is that it was probably only the second or third game I’d been to and without doubt the biggest crowd, so I wonder if I actually saw much.
I must have been 12. I’d never been abroad. I’d just begun the 2nd year at Sandown Grammar, so was allowed to wear long trousers at last. I can remember the journeys to Fratton in those days. There were still trams on Ryde Pier and Portsmouth still had trolley buses. I can remember them running down Commercial Road when it went past the Guildhall towards Old Portsmouth. I remember the walk over the bridge at Fratton Station and along Goldsmith Avenue. The abiding memory was of huge crowds of people on foot, crowded buses, crowded trains, crowded ferries and crowded trams coming back down Ryde Pier in the evenings. Almost everyone smoked. But the world was changing.
1964 was an exciting year. The space race was in full swing. Beatlemania was driving America into a frenzy - in April that year they had all 5 top singles on Billboard. By the time Saints won at Pompey The Beatles had already topped the UK charts 3 times that year (I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Can’t Buy Me Love and Hard Day‘s Night) and the current #1 was the Kinks - You Really Got Me. Other chart toppers that year included Roy Orbison, Manfred Mann, The Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five and The Animal’s superb House of the Rising Sun.
That spring Liverpool had won the League and West Ham beat Preston 3-2 in the FA Cup final. In Div 2, Leeds and Sunderland won promotion - Saints had finished 5th and Pompey 9th. Spain beat USSR 2-1 in the European Championships. In Lima, 319 people were killed in a ruck during an international between Peru and Argentina.
USSR dominated the medals table at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck as they would when the Summer Games were held in Tokyo - although USA won more golds. Four Britons would return with gold medals Ann Packer (800M), Ken Matthews (20K walk) and long-jumpers Mary Rand and Lynn Davies. Muhammad Ali took the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston in Miami Beach. Tony Lema won The Open at St Andrews and Roy Emerson beat Fred Stolle in the Wimbledon final.
Tom Jones took the Oscar for best movie and Sidney Poitier got best actor for Lilies of the Field. Mary Poppins and Goldfinger were the year’s blockbusters and Richard Burton married Liz Taylor - for the first time.
The Nobel Peace prize went to Martin Luther King. Nelson Mandela was banged up “for life” on Robben Island. In Dallas Jack Ruby was convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald.
In politics, Harold Wilson and Lyndon Johnson won their respective elections. The UK government abolished the death penalty and Johnson brought in his Civil Rights act abolishing racial segregation.
Major engineering projects completed included the road bridges over the Forth in Scotland and Verrazano Narrows in New York. Plans for a new World Trade Centre in lower Manhattan were unveiled.
Other arrivals in 1964 included the Ford Mustang, BBC2, Radio Caroline, the Moog synthesiser and BASIC programming. Tanzania and Zambia were created. Departures included Douglas McArthur, Ian Fleming, Herbert Hoover, Jim Reeves and Harpo Marx. And saddest of all, Warner Brothers closed their Cartoon Division meaning the end of Looney Tunes. Disgraceful!
1964 was certainly a good time to enter your teens. I’m forever grateful I was born when I was, with Britain at peace and science and technology rolling back the veils of ignorance and superstition.
Now, dare I try and get those scrapbooks down…….
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