Thanks all for kind comments. The only reason October 10th has stuck in my mind is because a little over ten years ago I thought I must be getting near 40 years in service, and went up to the loft to check out the programmes. Somehow the date stuck but the opposition and the score didn't. Thanks for the team sheet, BB. Memories becoming clearer. I always liked George Harris because he was nearly a Beatle but it makes me feel young again to see names like McAnearney and Catleugh (didn't have a clue how to pronounce that!) Brian Owen and Chopper seemed to be fixtures for years. Mex, I think it may have been 2s 6d for boys, again not a clue really. Maybe that's how much a pint cost when I started drinking five years later! All the programmes from my first season have the word 'BOO!' pointing at the opposition Cologne you're spot on about the ritual of the walk to the ground. As we got older we (my mates Dave and Martin& I) were able to walk the whole distance from Carpenders Park via Watford Heath. Over the past decade or so I took to parking up on Eastbury Road and walking down through the park to the river and round to Cardiff Road. I always used to nip up Liverpool Road and duck down that little alley, and immediately connected to my younger self, getting all excited about the coming game.
While I can match a few on here for age I didn't move to Northwood until 1983 so was a bit of a latecomer...only 31 years and counting! First game was I think against Newcastle and ended 3-3. Well done GG (my first game as a boy was West Brom v Portsmouth 1955. We had to arrive by 1.30 to stand against the wall right behind the goal. I doubt if we saw much of what happened at the far end but I do remember on one occasion Ronnie Allen scoring a penalty in front of us and bursting the ball!)
Well done Gordon-and thanks to you and everyone for sharing your memories. Mine was August 1984 and we drew 1-1 with QPR. It was a nightgame which was very exciting for a first timer!
. 10th October is a date I remember as my youngest was nearly born that day - as it happens he missed it by a couple of hours and was born in the early of 11th. I have always told him that had he arrived on 10th of the 10th we were going to call him Tin Tin. He is never quite sure if we were joking but says he is glad he was not called Tintin as he would have been constantly beaten up at school
George Harris was an early hero of mine (nothing at all to do with the shared birthday) - a prolific goalscorer for a left winger - averaged around one every three games - he had an amazing heading ability. The sight of him soaring above defences at the far post still lives in my mind - a bit like Billy Jennings, he somehow managed to hover in mid air too. I don't know if such stats are kept these days, but I can remember him breaking the club's goal scoring record for a winger when we thrashed Sc**thorpe 5-0 - he ended up that season with 21 goals. 'Heady' days... Catleugh was pronounced the same way as a later Yul Brynner movie - Catlow, as far as I remember.
I have just been up into the loft and dug out my programmes .My first game was also a night game, Tues 30th aug 1960 versus Brentford. My dad took me to the game and as a treat we sat in the shrodells Stand (our regular position for the rest of the season was on the cinders between the Rookery and the Shrodells) We caught the train from Hatch End to Watford High street and then walked up past the brewery. I cant remember the details but we won the game 6-1 and a lifetime of support had started in the best possible way. Team 1 Jimmy Linton ,2 Bobby Bell,3 Ken Nicholas,4 Andy Porter,5 Sammy Chung,6 Peter Barnes,7 Mike Benning,8 Jack Smith,9 Dennis Uphill,10 Cliff Holton,11 Freddie Bunce.
In response to the queries: Leo, I've absolutely no idea - I'll have to ask him. Dave - I took him into the Family Enclosure, which in those days was in front of the old East Stand, and they'd converted the tea bar into a crèche so he spent part of the match in there but he did spend more time watching the match than in the crèche.
Goodness me -we are a Dad's army of supporters - well on here anyway. My first game was also in 1959/1960 season. I lived in Edgware, though the family came from highbury - even had Arsenal players lodging nearby in 30's. But we never went. I used to watch Edgware town mostly (Dave Beasant's first club) Anyway, one day I got on my bike, cycled over Stanmore hill, (phew)locked it up on railings, stood between main stand and rookery, and saw Cliff Holton smash the ball past the goalie from just outside the box - penalty box. I was hooked. It wouldn't have mattered if the goalkeeper had got behind the ball, he would have just gone into the net with the ball. The team was Linton, Bell Nicholas, Catleugh, McNeice, Chung, Benning, Hartle, Uphill, Holton & Bunce. Don't remember the opposition, probably Reading - we always seemed to be playing Reading. Well - still following them. even got a season ticket now, (thanks to watching zola's team in the away games -amazing fun) in spite of living in Cheshire for 44 years. All in all, we've been extraordinarily fortunate to support Watford, and I now have a son brought up in Cheshire, working in Burnley, but still hangs his WFC scarf on the hatstand in his surgery- much mirth from all his patients though, wearing their BFC shirts. Thanks GG for kicking off this thread -even if the demography of WFC supporters must worry the management - The upper rous does look like it should be renamed the Saga stand though. Cheers all. COYH
Do you remember: Them putting the halftime scores up around the fencing and you had to double check with your programme Changing ends at half time and the away fans would just be a few yards away at the vic end... you could pay a bit extra and stand on the terrace in front of the main stand
I remember away fans trying to take the Rookery, and a thin blue line of coppers between them and our hard boys. Sharpened pennies whanging backward and forwards. Police frog-marching the occasional malefactor out. Very different to modern hooliganism in all seater stadiums where you get a sort of no-mans-land between sets of supporters because they have to be more spread out. I hasten to add I never was nor wanted to be 'one of our hard lads' but the whole thing had a weird fascination for us as youngsters. On tv you could watch those huge crowds on the terraces like the Arsenal North Bank or the Kop surging downwards after a goal, but I only ever experienced that once in the Rookery because the gradient was so shallow. That one occasion was when Endean headed in to beat Liverpool. One more memory dredged up- when I first started going I had a wooden rattle with black and yellow ribbons pinned on the end. And a rosette, of course.
Oh yes I had a big wooden one that everyone around cringed when I rattled it. Kit: scarf hat rattle programme gloves and for my dad: flask with special ingredients in
Never mind the sharpened pennies - I distinctly remember the bottles of acid that flew over that thin blue line when we played Arsenal in Ken Furphy's testimonial the year we won Div.3 I remember unsuccessfully trying to get the Woodwork teacher at WBGS to let us make one of those rattles instead of spending a whole term making a dovetail join - a pointless exercise which did nothing but join two bits of wood together...
What was his name Mr Yale or Vale or something like that - or was that the metalwork teacher. I made a broom holder for my dovetail project
I think you're right, Yale or Vale. From memory he did both Woodwork and Metalwork - and always wore one of those brown dust coats, the type Ronnie Barker wore in the Fork 'andles sketch & Open All Hours...
I too used to stand on the cinder patch by the Rookery, and also remember the half time scores that we're put up on either side of the ground on the other side of the greyhound track. Both my scarf and wooly bobble hat had been knitted by my Nan and both we're adorned with the orange gold plastic stars with the pictures of all your favourite players in the middle. I think the gate between the ends we're open at half time and I do remember Yorkie there was a turnstile in the ground by the gate where you could pay to stand in front of main stand. Oxford States his first game was a night game against Brentford, not all grounds used to have floodlights especially in Divison 3 South so some matches used to be played on a Wednesday afternoon. Mind you most shops and some factories used to shut Wednesday & Saturday afternoons. I remember going to my first floodlight game, it was like magic coming out of the dark streets into to see the green shining pitch, it used to make me feel as if I was watching a film. I also used to think it felt warmer with the lights on. Oh happy days ....
