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Author Topic: In the bleak mid-winter  (Read 1569 times)

Offline dave.woodhall

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In the bleak mid-winter
« on: March 02, 2018, 07:19:46 PM »
I'm repeating this tale of winters past (1963 in fact) because some of the short-notice arrangements are incredible. You can guess who wrote it.

The F.A.Cup was still big in those days and nobody would have dared suggesting arranging fixtures in the week before the third round on January 5th.  Besides, New Years Day was still a normal working day unless you were a coal miner.  Villa was drawn away at Third Division Bristol City. 

Uncertain now as to which matches were going to be played and when the F.A. went ahead with the draw for the fourth round.  Nearly every match was ‘or against or’.  Our ‘or’ was Manchester United, it was never going to involve a trip to ‘or Huddersfield’. 

Bristol City was re-scheduled for Wednesday January 9th. There must have been a Villa supporter working in the offices of British Rail because otherwise they would never have arranged an excursion train at such short notice. Certainly not one that was going to stop at Ashton Gate station rather than Temple Meads.  But his efforts were wasted as the game was postponed at lunchtime. To their eternal credit BR announced that the train would run, ‘whenever’. 

Snow and ice is not usually too much of a problem at the seaside but it was that winter and the trip to Blackpool on Saturday January 12th was never going to be on. We had been due to share our excursion train with Wolves supporters going to Blackburn. Image that!

Amazingly I got to go to Wolverhampton after all to pick up a lift to Second Division Sunderland.  Back in the days when football had been played on grass Villa reached the semi-final of the League Cup. With Villa’s game at Blackpool postponed, likewise their trip to Swansea, the Weersiders announced that their pitch was fit for football. No it wasn’t!  But having conned Villa into what should have been a futile journey they played anyway. Justice was done when Villa won 3-1.  Coming back home from Sunderland on a Saturday night should have been infinitely better than a Wednesday night when few Villa supporters would have made the journey anyway. But fearing that I would not get back from Wolverhampton in the early hours I persuaded Director Bruce Normansell to let me have the return half of his railway ticket. Unable to travel with the team on Friday afternoon he had arrived with the supporters. My travelling companion sorely regretted agreeing to this as he endured an horrendous solo drive home.

If the game at Sunderland was only arranged at forty-eight hours notice the game at Bristol was literally ‘day-to-day’. This turned out to be the following Wednesday, January 16 – the day original fixed for the trip to Sunderland. But even as the train left New Street as promised at 4 o’clock there was no certainty that the game would be played. The big freeze was showing no signs of endingAnother couple of degrees lower and it would have been like playing on concrete. As it was the game was merely played on ice. Both teams wore canvas shoes (precursor of trainers) at the start. Losing one-nil Villa changed to gym plimsolls for the second half. It led to the worst possible result for all concerned, 1-1.

Ironically it was Birmingham rather than the seaside which escaped the worst of the snow. Despite the cold very little snow actually fell on the city. Indeed it was a fairly dry winter. It was simply that the snow that did fall froze and stayed frozen. The roads were kept clear.

But the Villa board was desperate for cash and took the fateful decision that almost bankrupted the club. You can put a precise date as to when Aston Villa ceased to be the greatest football club in the world - Saturday January 19th 1963. Hitherto most clubs had welcomed Villa thus in their programme. They never did so afterwards without prefacing it with the words ‘were once’. The game against Blackburn has been mentioned previously in H&V, suffice to repeat briefly that Villa borrowed a roller and compounded the two inches of snow that covered the pitch.  Big, big mistake.

The replay against Bristol City scheduled for the Monday the 21st was never going to go ahead that day. 

On Saturday January 26, the day Villa should have been at MU in the cup, I went to the pictures at the Palace, Erdington.  I went to the pictures rather a lot that winter as did most other people to keep warm.

Sheffield United announced that they would hold a pitch inspection at 11 a.m. ahead of the game on Saturday February 2.  Fearing that I would not be able to get to Sheffield in time if the game was declared on I took an early train and was at Bramall Lane when the inspection took place. I was back home by the time the game should have started. The terraces had been cleared and the resulting mounds of snow surrounded the pitch which was still white.  To this day I cannot understand for one moment why Sheffield thought there was the remotest possibility of the game being played. But local referee George McCabe who had made a provisional inspection on Friday afternoon declared that it was victim to a heavy overnight frost. “Another inch of snow would have helped”.  Today’s pampered prima donnas should ponder that sentence.

Some people were now so desperate for their Saturday fix that they were willing to travel wherever to get it.  The following week against my better judgement I was persuaded to travel to Leicester to see them play Arsenal when I would much prefer to have been watching Villa at home to Forest. But there was no saying when, or even if, Villa were ever to play at home again.

It was virtually impossible to predict where or when the next game would take place. Clubs were so desperate to fulfill their fixtures that, Villa excepted, some would not bothered too much if nobody had been able to be there. But on Wednesday February 13 at less than 48 hours notice 46,364 Liverpudlians turned up to see their heroes whip the Villa 4-0. Villa quite simply glad to get a league match out of the way.  The official attendance was 46,374 but I can name all the Villa supporters who got their usual complimentary tickets. 

Come Saturday February 16 even the pitch at Ipswich, which the locals regarded as the best in the country, was unfit to receive the men from Aston.

Likewise The Hawthorns on Saturday February 23 could not accommodate their great rivals.  Instead we got to go to Swansea at literally twenty-four hours notice. With things warming up in South Wales – still freezing, but warming up – they decided their pitch was playable as it had been two weeks earlier but in one of the great ironies of the situation they couldn’t find anybody to play a league match at such short notice. Villa were almost available to go anywhere anytime and being only a friendly match they need give no thought to their fans.  But we who were few were a very determined bunch. 

It took four and a half hours to get to Swansea, ditto back.  We saw fifteen Villa players win a full-blooded game by 4-3.  Four substitutes at half time. Never seen four substitutes.

Wednesday February 27 was expected to be just another working day. As usual I picked up the Birmingham Post en route and scanned it briefly before beginning the daily chore. A brief paragraph reported that Birmingham City and Wolverhampton had played a practice match at Stourbridge the previous afternoon and “Aston Villa would met West Bromwich Albion, today”. Panic. How could it be that a pitch in the area could possibly be fit for play?  What time is the kick-off  I don’t even know where the ground in Stourbridge is. How do I get there?  I caught the noonday Midland Red to Stourbridge wondering if I was on a fools errand. A groundsman, the only person around, assured me that there would indeed be a match.  As to when; when they’re ready.   Anyone who has ever doubted the rivalry between Villa and Albion should have been at Stourbridge that afternoon.  In the first half there were fewer spectators than at a park match on a Sunday morning.  Then 500 school kids arrived, every one a Baggie.

When our Alan Baker made it two-two with two minutes to go his celebration left no doubt how the match had been regarded by the two teams.  But when Bobby Hope prodded home the Albion winner with the referee looking at his watch bedlam broke out.  You’d think they’d just won the  cup – which, as far as they were concerned they probably had.

Some clubs were beginning to resume normal service of a sort but with Villa Park damaged perhaps irreparably and the game v Everton a long time non-starter the Baseball Ground became the destination for the largest contingent of Villa supporters ever to travel to see a Central League game. Truth to tell by now we would have gone to see frozen Villa shirts hanging on a washing line but Villa announced on the Thursday they were going to give the first team a run out against Derby Reserves.  This curiosity apart, unlike the Albion game, this one remains a blur. Saturday March 2.  2-0.  Thomson and Crowe for those keeping score.

With some clubs already in the sixth round and the draw full of ifs buts and maybes Villa finally got to play the third round replay.  The date, March 7, a Thursday, shows it was still touch and go. More to do with Manchester United’s desire to play the fourth round the following Monday against whoever than anything to do with the state of the Villa Park pitch.

Nine weeks after the original match should have been played Villa finally made it to the fourth round.  But only just despite taking the lead after four minutes. Twenty minutes later they were 1-2 down. With 21,632 stamping their feet to keep warm it needed a very late winner from Bobby Thomson to send them scurrying indoors for warmth. But at least they had seen a match at Villa Park.

It’s hard to imagine Leyton Orient in the First Division but two days later Phil Woosnam went back home to Brisbane Road.  In a week in which the legendary Harry Hampton died Woosnam played centre-forward for the only time in his life and scored with a diving header. Maybe the only goal he ever scored with his head and a sensational one. 2-0. Meanwhile the thaw had begun and the reserves got to play at home for the first time in three months. 2-1 v Manchester United Reserves. Hopefully an augury for Monday night.

Call me biased but come Monday March 11 Villa really should have beaten MU and gone on to meet Chelsea in round five.  As to the goal that settled it, if Quixall had thumped the ball in then so be it.  But he did not.  He miscued.  Sidebottom dived thinking it was a fierce shot and almost apologetically the ball trickled in. Denis Law nearly ended the career of Mike Tindall, Bobby Thomson tried to end the career of Denis Law. The Old Trafford crowd of 52,265 was not quiet in those days. Mr. Starling, sorry, Sparling, got the bird.

Stan Lynn came back to Villa Park on Saturday March 16  His team was on the brink. Villa woke from their nightmare to take advantage. Even Sidebottom made up for his Monday night misfortune with the save of his life.  A dive into the corner to keep out a thunderbolt penalty from Stan Lynn.  46,680 and I swear even some of the Blues fans who were ready to applaud a goal applauded anyway. It’s almost a pity Villa were leading 3-0 at the time, it deserved to be a match ‘winner’. Woosnam, Baker and even Alan Deakin had scored by then  Harry Burrows showed how to take a proper penalty.  4-0, it could have been eight, sixth in the League. All’s right with the world, nothing can go wrong.

John Russell

Online Rudy Can't Fail

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Re: In the bleak mid-winter
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2018, 01:27:21 AM »
You can guess who wrote it.

Erm..John Russell?

Offline Godfrey Brian

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Re: In the bleak mid-winter
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2018, 07:55:39 AM »
Always enjoyed John's recollections of times gone by.It really was a different world.Travelling to see Villa away (or at home in this case) was a major undertaking. Particularly like both the solution to a snow bound pitch is to compress it and all weather footware being canvas shoes!

Online Mister E

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Re: In the bleak mid-winter
« Reply #3 on: March 03, 2018, 08:36:43 AM »
I remember the winter of 62-63, as a not-quite-5 year old. It was the ice on the inside of the house windows that remains my most vivid memory.

Offline Ayup

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Re: In the bleak mid-winter
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2018, 11:29:44 PM »
Another good read, Dave.

Offline Woofles The Wonder Dog

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Re: In the bleak mid-winter
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2018, 07:34:32 PM »
Excellent. The first half of that seasons was really my first, and I didn’t see us lose. I think I lost track through that winter until the next.

 


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