One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that during the late 50's and into the 60's Hull City Reserves played on BP and I attended a few of those as well, in fact such was the attendance at such matches, and before the South Stand was built, you could nearly count how many supporters were there. The fun bit was that sounds echoed around the ground be it from the players, coaches or indeed some witty comments from the supporters. Many a choice words were spoken on the pitch, which could be heard by many and often brought laughter from the supporters. On one such game, in appalling weather, City had a forward called Dave King, and to say he missed a few sitters was an understatement but was having a crap game. So when attacking the North Stand end, and with the rain belting down, a ball came from the wing right into the path of the luckless Dave King, he missed a certain goal and ended up on his arse sliding along the sodden pitch. He ended up where the ball should have been in the back on the net which drew a rather droll comment from one of the supporters behind me, and one which Dave himself heard. 'Come in number 9 your time is up' to which Dave King put up his 2 thumbs as if to say 'sounds good to me mate'. Nearly every player on the pitch heard the comment as well and it brought a few smiles to a dismal game. Another thing that seems to be missing, unless I've missed it of course, is that during a 1st team game the main gates at the North Stand end would be opened just after half time and for us kids of limited means it meant that we could see at least half of a match for nothing. This went on for quite a while and I don't know when it stopped as when I started my paper rounds, 13 shillings a week for delivering morning, night and the Green Mail, I could afford to pay to get into a match and even better was when I played for the Wheeler St school team I got tokens to attend the match for nothing simply for playing for our school team. I think my dark BP days started when nets were put up behind the goals, something to do with crowd trouble in those days I think, Leeds, Millwall seems to be regular culprits, I couldn't hack having to watch through nets.
The first match my parents allowed me to go to was in the 1958/59 season, I was still in short trousers lol.
Mostly down to Stan Coombes, and I heard a rumour back in those days that Spurs wanted to pay a transfer fee for him to make White Heart Lane as good as BP, sounds a bit far fetched and I don't know of any links to prove the point.
My dad was at the first BP match in 46 and like you he also never got a ticket for the 1949 Man Utd match. Queued for hours as well. He is still going strong and gave his season pass up in 2014
Memories ! On the subject of the gates opening at half time and getting in for free, as a 10 year old I used to take advantage myself. My gran used to give me a bob pocket money so I could go and watch the game. I often used to wait until half time and spent 10d on 5 Park Drive instead of shelling out a bob at the turnstiles. Happy days.
Well now you're testing my knowledge of the price of fags, but 10d for 5 Park Drive ... not tipped ... I'd date that about 1962.
Ditto for me Cr. Saw City free for 2 years playing for my junior school U11's at Flinton Grove(East Hull). Our team allocated 2 tokens but for most matches I was the only one who wanted to go.
For a while my pocket money was index-linked, to the price of 10 park drive tipped. In the mid-sixties it went from around 1s6d to 1s8d to 1s9d I think.
My memory is not what it was, so my 10d for 5 Park Drive Plain may be off - I know I started smoking them in -'57/'58. Can't believe you can still get 'em ! http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/asda-compare-prices/Tobacconist/Park_Drive_Plain_Cigarettes_20.html
Aye. But plain fags cost more than tipped. I remember 10 Woodbines cost 2/3d in 1968, and Park Drive plain were just a little less, maybe 2s 1d. So going back 6 years to 1962, Park Drive plain might have been one and nine for ten, which is why I guessed 10d for five. Inflation is a swine. My first week's wages were £2 8s 3d after stoppages. That was 1968 when a pint of bitter cost 1/- and ten Park Drive plain 2/1d. When I retired I was reaping in 500 quid a day. I should have spent the lot rather than saving, because notwithstanding official figures, the value of the pound sterling is constantly decreased by the Bank of England inventing the stuff out of thin air. The only material thing of durable value is land. Even gold doesn't keep its value. So it cost a lad maybe a shilling to get into Boothferry Park in 1960 for a first team game ... a tanner to see the reserves ... what does it cost today for child to get into the KCOM? Ten weeks' wages for me in 1968?
I think you're memory's spot on give or take a year or 2. Your 5 cigs for 10d is like my 1s8d for 10.
Well done om. Looked to be a few hundred there including Raich Carter's son plus other footballers who had played there and I liked the City rendition of the "Red Flag"! Would have loved to have been there to pay my respects. In 2010 on a short visit to Hull I went to see the old place and wandered around with a few tears in my eyes and sounds in my ears as I relived some old memories. As a kid it was my theatre of dreams.
Since City's first senior match on 17 September 1904, 1,009 players have represented the club in senior fixtures. The 100th player to play for City was Cecil Potter at the beginning of the 1919/20 season. The 250th player was William Bell in September 1932. The 500th player was Ron Young in October 1964. The 750th player was obscure loan goalkeeper Paul Gibson in November 1998. And the 1000th player for Hull City was... Moses Odubajo, when he made his debut at Accrington in August last year.
Ron Young created a club record by scoring six or seven goals in one game for Hull City reserves, could have been v Workington won 10-0. I was at the game and I am recalling the occasion from memory. So someone will put me right after consulting Chris Eltons book.........
The match played on the 17th September 1904 was an FA Cup preliminary match against Stockton and a replay was played against them on Sept 22nd. Both matches were played at Stockton due to the unavailability of the Boulevard for the initial tie. Obviously they were the only matches classified as senior fixtures in '04-'05 when over 40 matches were played as friendlies before the 1st league season in '05-'06.
How the man who saved Hull City planned a rival club and super-stadium By Hull Daily Mail | Posted: September 25, 2016 By Paul Johnson Comments (0) He was the man who more than any other built the modern Hull City. Businessman Harold Needler guided the club from post-war obscurity to the brink of the top flight, while transforming Boothferry Park into, for a time, one of the best stadiums in the country. But it could all have been so very different had Needler had his way. Because before taking control of the Tigers at the end of the Second World War, Needler had planned to establish a brand new football club and super-stadium in the Sutton Park area. With swathes of Hull's tightly-packed residential streets destroyed or damaged in the Blitz, there was a widespread desire to demolish the pre-war slums and build new homes fit for heroes. The land around Sutton, where Needler envisaged a "model garden city", was one area ripe for development. Needler was a man who thought big: among his other schemes was a plan to build a gigantic skyscraper in Alfred Gelder Street, which would have domninated the Old Town. And his plan to set up a new football club, a potential rival to Hull City, made at least some sense at the time. A club on the brink The Tigers were in dire straits during the war; with financial troubles plaguing the club, there were doubts about their survival and they had to withdraw from the War League at the end of the 1940-41 season. Meanwhile, work on their new ground, Boothferry Park, had been dragging on for years. Although the first match was not played there until 1946, the site, on the corner of Boothferry Road and North Road, was negotiated for as long ago as 1929. It was originally part of the estate used as a golf course by Hull Golf Club before they moved to Kirk Ella in 1924. The deal was partly financed thanks to a loan of £3,000 from the Football Association at an interest rate of three per cent. Read more: Steve Bruce tipped for Premier League return Architects drew up plans, but the increasingly adverse financial situation meant that it was 1932 before the embankments for the terracing began to take shape. The playing area was laid out over the next 12 months and part of the terracing put in, but nothing more happened until 1939 when the FA loaned City another £6,600 and hopes of an opening in 1940 were high. Unfortunately, those aspirations were soon in tatters as The Home Guard was allowed to use the site during the war and at one stage tanks were repaired and stored there. Needler's big plan Meanwhile, local builder Needler was running into problems with his plan to establish a new club. His dream of bringing top-class football to Hull began before the war. He long held the hope of building a new team and a new sporting stadium, originally on a site near what is now the Ennerdale Sports Centre. But his new team was vetoed by the Football League. For although there was some precedent for winning election to the Football League - Leeds United did not enter until 1920 - it was a rare occurence. Needler would not be beaten, however, and in December, 1945, he assumed ownership of the pre-war Tigers business. He recalled the story in the programme for the first home match of Hull City's 1946-47 season. image: http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276270/binaries/HullCitysouvenir2509.jpg please log in to view this image PROGRESS: The 1946 programme and (right) Harold Needler with Raich Carter. "Saturday, 1st August, 1946, will always be a Red Letter day in my life as it is the culmination of an idea which originated in my mind some years ago," he wrote. "My original intention was to build a model garden city in the Sutton area and to provide a Sports Stadium as a prominent amenity of this new development, to form a new Association Football Club and to apply to the Football League for League membership. Unfortunately, however, this scheme has had to be abandoned; one of the chief obstacles was the difficulty of obtaining League membership. "The only alternative appeared to be to take over the existing Hull City Association Football Club which was not then playing football owing to lack of suitable ground accommodation, and to build up a new club and a new team with League membership already secured." image: http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276270/binaries/5772067boothferry.jpg please log in to view this image UNFINISHED: Boothferry Park in 1946. So began one of the most feverish periods in the Tigers' history. Having persuaded the directors of the "old" Hull City AFC to put their company into voluntary liquidation, Needler set up a new firm under the same name and appealed to members of the public to buy shares. He had hoped to raise £35,000 - but in fact received £60,000. A race against time With money in the bank to build up Boothferry Park, Needler now faced a race against time to get his stadium ready for the start of the 1946-47 season. Years later, builder Tim Vincent recalled to the Mail how, with just five months until kick-off, his boss had charged him with completing the seemingly impossible task. It was on the morning of March 30, 1946, when his phone rang: “It was Harold Needler. He said: 'I have just bought Hull City – I want a stadium building'." A 30-strong team started work on the stadium immediately, but encountered problems due to rationing. Vincent, who later became the ground's official announcer, said: “Materials were in short supply. So, wherever possible, we tended to use hardwood, corrugated iron sheeting and reinforced concrete." image: http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/imag...ges/276270/binaries/BoothferryStation2509.jpg please log in to view this image BUILDER: Boothferry Park Station (left) and Harold Needler on Sutton Park in the 1960s. Read more: Hull City fan wins 'great respect' from Liverpool FC supporters for his tribute Initial planning permission was granted for one grandstand – the West Stand, provided the structure did not cost more than £17,000, and for covering the central third of the North Stand behind the goal. Boothferry Park was the first stadium to be completed after the Second World War. It cost about £80,000 to construct and the opening match, a 0-0 draw against Lincoln City, was played on August 31, 1946. The Lord Mayor, Councillor Harrison, performed the opening ceremony in pouring rain in front of 25,586 specatators and they nearly all got a soaking. An 80,000-capacity super stadium Having saved Hull City, Needler wasn't about to leave it there. His dream was for a stadium which could hold 80,000. In the 1946 programme, he wrote: "Boothferry Park has unlimited possibilities as a football ground and it could he made the best in the country. A super stand is planned for erection along the East side and our plans also include the covering in of 'Spion Kop'." image: http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276270/binaries/30066756.jpg please log in to view this image SUCCESS!: Needler (back, centre) celebrating promotion with the team in 1959. "The accommodation of the ground can be increased to hold 80,000 people or more, all under cover, car park facilities can be extended and there is every possibility of being able to arrange secondary access through to Hessle Road, and ultimately a railway station to the ground. "The playing area is large enough for international matches and semi-final cup ties. With the number of International matches with continental sides tending to increase annually, the directors hope to make Hull a suitable centre for such events." Related: Brilliant pictures of Hull City fans at Boothferry Park By the time Manchester United arrived for an FA Cup tie in 1949, a great deal of work had been done to upgrade the facilities, although there were still some temporary stands. More than 55,000 packed into the ground to see the game. In the early fifties the Kempton stand was created, along with - as promised - one of the biggest innovations seen at a football grounds, a railway station. The journey from Paragon Station took eight minutes. image: http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276270/binaries/5794612.jpg please log in to view this image Building the South Stand in 1965. Floodlights, in the shape of 96 lamps in gantries along the east and west stands, arrived in January 1953 before money problems put further developement on hold. But Needler again dug deep and donated £260,000 to the club in the early sixties, following the public flotation of his company Hoveringham Gravels. The money allowed the purchase of an unique new six-pylon system, costing £50,000, Installed in 1963, the pylons became a familiar local landmark. Another £50,000 was channelled into the building of a cutting-edge gymnasium behind the South Stand, which opened in 1964. The high bank of terracing at the south end of the ground gave way to a new stand during the close season of 1965, costing £130,000 and tripling seating capacity from 3,000 to 9,000. And while the state of the nation's economy put a halt on further plans, the stadium was now one of the best in the country outside the top flight. Needler's 'new model city' And what of Needler's plan for a "new model city". In a column for the Mail, long-time councillor Harry Woodford once recalled how Needler had insisted on lofty aspirations for the new houses he was building on Sutton Park. Woodford wrote: "Sutton Park, a large private development of 5,000 houses on Bransholme, inaugurated by the late Harold Needler, who asked his architects to be sure of three things: one, the houses should be for sale at around £3,250 so that most could afford them; two, maximise on the mature trees in the area, and three, make the kitchens as labour saving as possible. "I only wish each of the three could be part of our thinking today." Who knows what might have happened had Needler, who died in 1975, achieved his ambition of building a super stadium for a new club on Sutton Park. As it is, Hull City fans will always remember him fondly as the man who saved - and built - their club. Read more at http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/how-...748777-detail/story.html?#uUbxAraLQ0Mr54XL.99 http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/how-...per-stadium/story-29748777-detail/story.html?
Excellent article...thanks for posting John. In a roundabout way, Hoveringham Gravels was partly instrumental in me emigrating to Canada in '72. My great uncle (by marriage to my great aunt, one of my maternal grans sisters), was a friend of Harold Needler. They owned a gravel subsidiary in Ontario, so a letter of introduction helped smooth the immigration process as I was training to be a mining engineer - the coal industry was starting to dwindle in England so Canada, rich in mining companies, was the way to go for me. It helped that my gran had bought some shares when Harold Needler floated his UK based Hoveringham business. The article brought back memories on several fronts.
Interesting story, it was a pity his son Chris Needler wasn't as passionate about Hull City as his father was. I worked with Chris for a while when he was at Hodgson Harris the accountants, and he had little interest in football at that time.