Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: dave.woodhall on January 16, 2018, 12:27:20 AM
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http://thebirminghampress.com/2018/01/cyrille-regis-1958-2018/
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A really well written article that clearly articulates the sacrifice he made, and others of his generation to help break down those racial barriers and gain acceptance of black footballers and maybe to a lesser extent black men and women within society. Britain isn't cured of racial hatred but the actions of pioneers like Regis who took so much on the chin has weakened its grip. It always makes me think back about my dad, who died a while back and to whom I wasn't particularly close. But he came to England in 1970, a modestly educated Indian man and worked long shifts at British Steel on Bromford Lane. I can't even begin to imagine how toxic that environment, and Birmingham generally for working class people of colour must have been back then.
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Good article and any problem if I share this outside this forum?
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Beautifully done and worthy of the man.
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Brilliant article Dave, very well written and a great tribute to a fantastic person.
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Great article.
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Well done Dave, very fitting article. Trailblazer and a gentleman. For such a great player, how comes he only ended up at Coventry in his prime ?
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Very good piece.
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Marvellous read Dave and a fitting tribute to the legend.
I was in Smethwick for the bye-election and remember well the vitriol. I was also pushed in the back at a bus stop in the early 60’s by an old man muttering “don’t let the n*g-n*g on” as I stood back for a black girl. Racism was casual, everywhere and accepted. I saw signs ‘no dogs, no Irish, no blacks’ on property to let.
Black players were said to be lazy and not up for the fight (!) then along came Cyrille and the others and things began to change for the better.
How could you denigrate a bloke knocking in the goals for you?
There is still a way to go but thanks to Cyrille and the others we have hopefully moved away from the common acceptance of racism.
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That's a great article Dave.
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Great piece Dave.
''He remained grounded, appreciative and had the humility that’s often found in those who have the most to boast about''.
I had the pleasure to meet Cyrille at a re-union dinner held at the Ricoh, marking the anniversary of the Coventry 87 cup win.
What intrigued me the most about him was he was more interested in who you were than talking about himself. Our conversation went very quickly away from football to him asking me questions on who I was, did I have a family, how old were my kids and showing genuine interest in what I did for a living.
Cyrille was one of the most amiable, likable persons that I have ever had the pleasure to meet.
R.I.P. Big Guy.
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Good point about how he made things better for people of every colour, which I had never really thought about before.
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Very nice article Dave.
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Great piece Dave befitting of the man
I read elsewhere that I cannot think of a player that had played for the 4 biggest midlands clubs and was respected by the supporters all of them - a huge and unique achievement
A beast on the field and a complete Gentleman off it
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Great piece, Dave.
I never knew this:
Years before football became fashionable the New Musical Express put Cyrille Regis on the front cover, a sign that the battle he was fighting was about more than football, and one of the first, tentative, indications that society was beginning to change.
The headline? 'The Human Face of Football'. How right they were.
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Reading some of the other tributes, I also didn’t know that Alan Shearer had a trial at WBA.
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Rest in Peace Cyrille. Great article Dave.
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Reading some of the other tributes, I also didn’t know that Alan Shearer had a trial at WBA.
True but in fairness they already had their future eye on that all-round strikers striker, Colin West.
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Whilst I’m well aware of his achievements at WBA and the esteem that he is held by most West Mids football supporters, my clearest memories of big Cyrille were his days at Coventry, funnily enough. He’s one of the few players to have played for them, with the notable exceptions of Robbie Keane and Dion Dublin, who I actually coveted at the time he played for them.
RIP big Cyrille - a true West Midlands legend.
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It's very rare to come across a player that nobody has a bad word to say about. Not only that, but everyone has plenty of good words to say about him too. A great in so many ways.
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For me I didn’t have anything really against Coventry until much later on when they started to love themselves. But at the time it was hard not to be happy to see them lift The FA Cup. A proper magic of the Cup moment in the history of the competition. And happy for Cyrille that he made to on of the peaks in the domestic game.
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Beautifully written tribute. He embodied the power of sport to change society for the better. Uplifting and sad all at once.
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I heard on the Guradian football weekly podcast, that Cruyff wanted to sign Cyrille when he was manager at Ajax.
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official.minutes applause before the game on saturday.
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He sat with us at Wembley at the 94 Coca-Cup Final, what a great guy he was.
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Brilliant piece Dave thank you for writing it
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Excellent piece which I've forwarded to my Albion mates. A lovely tribute to a great man.
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A great piece -you've excelled yourself with this one.
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Excellent article
I’ve been reflecting on this since he died. On the one hand it’s great that he forced people
To change their views, to swallow their bile and to help dilute bigotry
But it also pisses me off that he even had to. That he had to just shut up and prove them wrong on the pitch. In some way earn some people’s respect to be recognised as an equal human being. He shouldn’t had had to.
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For younger fans it's probably hard to understand how virulent and widespread racism was in the 1970s and through the 80s at football matches. One incident that sticks in my mind was Garry Thompson getting sent off at Villa Park playing for Coventry. All the Villa fans were giving 'monkey chants' as he walked off. To my shame as a child I thought this was great fun and joined in. I was lucky enough to have a Dad that turned round and told me to shut the fuck up and I never did it again.
Anyway RIP Cyril you were great.
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Superb tribute to a man whose influence on the world went far beyond his extraordinary skill at playing football.
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Fine tribute to a fine footballer
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This tribute also caused a ‘got something in my eye’ moment.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jan/18/a-letter-to-cyrille-regis-my-dads-hero?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Hopefully the link works (sent from a phone via an app).
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https://youtu.be/947LmEX-vxo
Big Cyrille's Villa goals
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https://youtu.be/947LmEX-vxo
Big Cyrille's Villa goals
I did Mark Blake a disservice, I thought it was Cyrille that got the amazing volley at Oldham but it was actually Blake, watching this video I remember now Regis scored with a header
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This, and other deserved tributes to fallen heroes, makes me wonder whether we honour and more overtly appreciate them while they’re still alive to appreciate it.
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https://youtu.be/947LmEX-vxo
Big Cyrille's Villa goals
I watched those goals and realised I was at every one of those games. Even the defeat away to bloody Norwich on New Year's Day!
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https://youtu.be/947LmEX-vxo
Big Cyrille's Villa goals
I watched those goals and realised I was at every one of those games. Even the defeat away to bloody Norwich on New Year's Day!
I was at the Norwich game as well but was just a kid back then. Barfing in the car on the way was not popular with the older blokes who had a heavy one the previous night.
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I went to the Norwich game in the boot of my neighbours xr2i as there was no other space in the car. 😀
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I should add, a few of us discussed this on Saturday. Wonderful, poignant, tribute to Cyrille where the applause started a minute before the ref could start with whistling the tribute to begin and where he just got bored so blew the closing whistle about 3 minutes later!
Made all the better by a cacophony of fucks and booing immediately after because Barnsley turned us around!
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https://youtu.be/947LmEX-vxo
Big Cyrille's Villa goals
I watched those goals and realised I was at every one of those games. Even the defeat away to bloody Norwich on New Year's Day!
I was at the Norwich game as well but was just a kid back then. Barfing in the car on the way was not popular with the older blokes who had a heavy one the previous night.
One of our regular away day gang borrowed a six seater Land Rover as he worked there. He was the only one of us who hadn't got pissed the previous night. Everyone met up at my house (or my parents house to be specific) as it was the most central. I was feeling a bit rough but everyone I answered the door to looked progressively worse than the last. Topped off by our one mate who looked like a walking corpse he was so pale and needed us to tie his laces up for him as every time he bent down to do it he felt sick. He proceeded to be sick out of the window practically all the way down to Norwich. He would be sick, perk up a bit, go quiet again, be sick again and so on. Considering the rest of us weren't feeling too clever it was a miracle he didn't set any of us off. None of this stopped us all from going for a late night curry when we got back onto home territory.
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The landrover driver from the Bromford 😀
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I didn't know Jason Roberts was his nephew
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Great man, great player. Rest in peace Cyrille.
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I actually listened to the whole service on WM at 5.30 last night. The hour and a half surprisingly flew by. His family were amazing - his daughter incredibly moving, his son managed to be hilarious - which must have took some dong but a real credit to his Dad with his resilience.
'Your Dad's a hero!' Yeah! Your hero just grounded me for a month!'
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I actually listened to the whole service on WM at 5.30 last night. The hour and a half surprisingly flew by. His family were amazing - his daughter incredibly moving, his son managed to be hilarious - which must have took some dong but a real credit to his Dad with his resilience.
'Your Dad's a hero!' Yeah! Your hero just grounded me for a month!'
Yeh I listened to that and agree. When his son was going on about people coming up to Cyrille in the street saying 'you're my hero' and his son replies with 'this is the man that has just grounded me for a month, that's your hero' was very funny and touching. John Sillett's speech was good as well, from the heart as was Jason Roberts.