Thank you for that post a really enjoyable read on a crap Friday morning, I for 1 will miss him.. **** the bbc…
Excellent, and truthful writing from Richard as per usual. I remember well the awful 'no such thing as potential' Dave Gibbons on Radio Humberside and the station was re named 'Radio Rugby' by City fans for a reason, not that those who where not there will believe me when I post that some of that bias still lingers today in some far corners of the local media. Perhaps Burnys managed to slam the lid shut on that? We will have to wait to see what follows it that lid remains shut or not? Well before local radio we had to rely on the local newspaper for our City news/fix and for me and other old crusties on here perhaps the name 'Brian Taylor' may conjour up memories of waiting eagerly for the paper lad to pop the HDM and Sports Mail through the letter box for the very latest on Hull City. He was as good as reporter in print for City as Burnys was on air for City. When Brian Taylor left the City coverage was never the same, Dave Bond was decent but the in depth stuff and actual love and pleasure of supporting the club never came across in Bondies reporting as it did in old Three Crowns reporting. I worked with both and for me, Brian Taylor was Mister Hull City for a while. He was a hard act to follow and no-one ever managed to fill his boots and I believe Burnys leaving will have the same effect on the City coverage on local radio, which itself may well go the same way as the local newspaper did because of it.
Almost seems archaic now to be waiting for the green mail for a match report but I'm old enough to remember that and the local paper and radio station bias and championing of rugby league. I wonder if, pre-Internet, this created a vacuum for the fans to create our own city media with the fanzines? Once this progressed to online city forums in the late 90's the HDM and local radio became less important, the Brian Taylor's didn’t need their boots filling, Burnsy however did definitely bring radio back from the rugby town abyss.
Those who haven't read it yet then buy a copy of Rich's excellent book The Decade, you will not be sorry.
Call that archaic? I remember us exiles having to ring the local phone number for the recorded message giving the score in the pre-internet days. Ditto. Honestly, every City fan should have a copy, it's hugely well-written and there'll probably never be a City book as good as that, because the chances of an author getting so many people to cooperate and be interviewed is probably vanishingly small.
What a wonderful article. Gives the historical context. Spot on. "He believed in the club when many didn't. He took us seriously. He wanted the fans to have the coverage we deserved. And he certainly delivered on that.". Amen.
I remember each Saturday being glued to the pay phone with a pile of coins in hand at the rec after my game of football…. 4.47 PM…result should be in now……. “the half time score at Boothferry Park……”…….. FFS give it another couple of mins 4.49PM………..another 10p in the slot “the half time score at Boothferry Park……”……. It was torture
I recall the last time I ever used that service....I walked down Inglemire Lane from my home on Beeford grove at about 10pm, to the telephone box on the corner with the junction with Hall Road. 'This is the Hull City score service.....Final score.... Brentford 3 Hull City 0' ...I was heartbroken. I fancied a day out to Wem-ber-lee for the League Cup Final...My dad said we'd go. I think it was simply the League Cup, then..Not the Rumbleows, Littlewoods, Coca-Cola, or even the Milk...
211422. You could always tell when a goal had been scored because the line used to go quiet, just a bit of cracking, and then a new message would be read out. Remember a second FA Cup replay in the late 60's between City and Plymouth or Leicester? played at a neutral ground mid week ( someone dig out Chris Eltons bible) when the Hull City score service received a record number of calls, 50,000 perhaps? No live radio coverage in those days and we were lucky if the score was even read out after the late night news on the telly.
Sure it wasn't the third round, second replay vs. Middlesbrough played at Bootham Crescent, York..City lost 1-0. About 68...give or take a year either way..
No it wasn't. I was at that game, 18,000 there, a record crowd for York I think at the time. It could have been City v Plymouth ( maybe Fulham) played at leicester's old Filbert Street ? I know it wasn't the Boro replay because myself and a couple of friends spent all night at the public phone box on Mizzen Road ringing 211422 to find out the score, the number was constantly engaged, but I remember we lost.
It was against Portsmouth, played at Coventry. Would have played Tottenham if we had gone through. Can remember OHU2 (later 0482) 211422 (had to use a code when outside Hull). Can’t remember things from last week though. Remember some local band releasing OHU2 That’s The Code For Me protesting against the change.
