My only remembrance of Leatherhead is a young me in tear up with their fans. Cheltenham Town getting beaten in a monsoon away to Hastings and Leatherhead were away to another Hastings club who played at the top rather than bottom if the hill.
Loved Nick he was top drawer. Now it all comes flooding back to me Lionel was from Leatherhead, when I started washing cars to get the £££ for the Villa I used to get the coach from Victoria , Lionel and his dad would always be on it and got me into some places like the Directors suite for one game.Remember well the Liverpool Bonfire day game - there weren't too many Villa there that day, Merseyside was a bit of a no go area for a lot of fans. You really did have to have your wits about you. It only came on top once for me there, near the start of season game not the Brian Little game, but a year or two later when everyone seemed to melt and I was getting chased by Everton by Lime Street. It was just not known for a team to win at Anfield. Come the late 70's apart from Man Utd's cockney's rent a mob (a load of hangers on) there were not a lot of youngsters travelling off to watch non London teams - the few that did were quite matey, me, Dino of Everton, the twins who were Liverpool fans and one or two others. We all had a hatred of this blabber mouth Leeds skinhead - a lot of older lads hated him as well.Such a good time really - yet years later there was no way in the world that I would have let my boys and girl enjoy what I had and experienced.
Steve Nott showed me some recent correspondence about the Original London Lions club which I founded in 1977.I guess that the fan posting from Australia is Alex Langley, who was the youngest of the regular travellers. I was aware of a London Wolves Club which we used to meet on the trains to and from Euston, and there seemed to be enough Villans on the 17.48 or 18.18 back from New Street to form a London Branch, but no one seemed to know if it existed. I wrote to VP to ask about joining, and the reply was "We haven't got one, would you like to start it?"So I did. The incentive was that with 20, later just 10 travelling the cost of a return ticket was less than half the day return. Pete Sykes ran the membership and I think there were 144 members though not all at one time in the years of its existence. We had good support from Charlie Tabberner at VP and Sue Steve and Abdul, so that away tickets and air travel into Europe were other things we could offer members. The members only had two things in common, a support of Villa and a willingness to travel on the train together, otherwise they were a mixture of characters who split into several small groups. The hard core of members who travelled on every trip from the beginning, many of whom helped run the club in some capacity were Pete Sykes, Alan Cox, Dave Callaghan, Chris Hensby, Frank Gibson, Nick Becerra and Lionel Rice. Then later Harry Lawrence, Alan Fisher, Robbo, Steve Nott, John Farrelly, Tim and Sue O'Brien.There were some characters who should never have been allowed near the train-fare cash, and it was rumoured that their thefts killed the club - but what really did for it was the opening of the M40. It was then possible for 4 or even 2 people to travel as cheaply and even faster from home to VP without coming into London at all. Discount railcards also weakened the group travel differential.The club was a travel club, not a meeting club for people in London who did not travel, and when it lost that utility I decided to fold it in 1999, and return the subscription money to former members. Several lasting friendships and three marriages resulted from that short-lived club and the badges, I'm told, are collectors' items.Kind regardsIan Shearer
the badges, I'm told, are collectors' items.Kind regardsIan Shearer
Quote from: martin@ardenley on August 10, 2015, 02:55:56 PMthe badges, I'm told, are collectors' items.Kind regardsIan Shearer
All the badges were one inch diameter. Made in Brum of course. I designed them and ordered them so I can tell you how many there were. The first batch with the white outer ring were 100. The second batch with red outer ring but no stripes were 100. The last batch red ring and stripes on the Villa half were 150. I was the guy with the tray who gave the last of them away at the reunion. Ian Shearer
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Topic: London Lions (the originals) (Read 23025 times)
