Bad news that switching the draw to Monday afternoon, it should be 5.30 pm on a Saturday afternoon like the old days.
The only time I can remember it being interesting, was when they did the draw not long after the games finished and had cameras in the dressing rooms of who had just played, to watch the reaction of the players to the draw.
Yes, always, at 12.45pm. We got out of school at 12.30 and pelted home (always allowing for a pee against a telegraph pole down the backstreets!) to hear the draw. The most memorable ever was for the 6th round in 1955-56 season : Newcastle Untied (the holders) versus ... Sunderland The entire room of directors present went "OooooooooooH" Newcastle had already beaten us 3-1 at St. James' and 6-1 at Roker (I was there and got drenched for the whole 90 minutes into the bargain!). Surely, there was only going to be one winner. Result : Newcastle United 0, Sunderland 2 !!!! Shackleton - playing on the left wing that whole season to protect his injury - turned on one of his acts, and Bill Holden scored both goals. We listened in awe and sheer joy to one of the most memorable Sports Reports of all-time. The News of the World headline next morning was 'Holden the Golden' and nobody ever disputed it. An afternoon for a lifetime.
Stanley Matthews : "The rest of us could only stand and wonder at the cheek of him." Tom Finney : "Len beat them on his own that day." Not bad references, eh? Both were referring to England v Germany in December, 1954 - a day when he re-defined the word 'genius'. Without doubt the cleverest man with a ball I've ever seen in my lifetime. He had his faults, but put that ball at his feet and he was utterly unbelievable. Very, very clever.
