The folding recently of a Supporters Association reminded me of the old Supporters Club founded following the near collapse of the football club in 1957. It was wonderfully successful and had its own Social Club on Thorpe Road which was usually packed every night. All the money raised went to the football club usually to help buy players. Who can remember Gerry Howshall? We bought him from WBA for, if my memory serves me well, £25000. The Supporters Club supplied so much of the money that he actually signed his contract at a dinner dance organised by the Supporters Club. He was described as an all action midfielder and he certainly lived up to his billing. I think he had a wind up key in his back and the Manager would wind it up as the teams came out and Howshall would then run non stop until the end of the half. The problem was nobody seemed to have told him that the game also involved a ball!!! If it came his way during the course of the game he just seemed to aimlessly kick it in the general direction of where he was running. He was useless!! The funny thing is that a few years ago, before I retired, I attended a Business/Golf day in Staffordshire and was told that their Greenkeeper was an ex-Norwich player - the said Gerry Howshall. I have to say that he was a better Greenkeeper than he was a footballer. The Supporters Club declined and eventually folded although I cannot remember the exact circumstances. Happy days!
A bit before my time 1950, Dad took me to my first game circa 1970. What I remember from back then was going to reserve fixtures and there would sometimes be a few thousand there. If you went in the old 'Main' Stand you would invariably find a few first team players watching who would always find time to chat and give autographs to the youngsters. How times have changed, happy days
Anyone remember exactly what happened to the Supporters Club? I know that after a few years my family stopped going there regularly and I assume that membership and drinkers dwindled until it folded but in my memory it was still there one minute doing well and producing money for the football club and gone the next. In those days a lot of the players lived in houses owned by the club and rented out to the players so they were more involved with the local community. I can remember several of the players going to the Supporters Club for a drink Sunday lunchtime and right up until the Ron Saunders era there were several players living in Club houses in Sprowston who used to use the Beehive in Cannerby Lane for drinks and a card school. I think Charlie Crickmore spent more time there than he did on the training ground but then Ron Saunders arrived!! If City had an away game in London the players would travel down on the train Saturday morning with the fans. How times have changed.
I remember Howshall. That was in the days when £25K was a huge amount to us. I was full of hope that he was going to be a top player for us but he wasn't any better than we already had. Was it Ashman or Morgan who bought him? I used to go to the Supporters Club, my missus lived on Stanley Avenue off Thorpe Road. Good function room in its day. And I believe the supporters club had the officially highest amount of members in the world at one time. No idea what happened to it as I left in 1974.
As you say £25k was a lot of money to pay when you could stand on the terraces for 20p although I think the Supporters Club contributed £15k towards it. The Manager was definately Lol Morgan as I can still remember the photo on the front of the Evening News of Howshall signing and Morgan looking on from behind. We were all quite excited at such a signing but what a disaster he turned out to be especially as he turned out to be injury prone and in the end I seem to recall that when he left us he drifted into non-league football. A colleague of mine knew him socially and always maintained that he was the nicest bloke you would ever wish to meet but as value for money to NCFC - oh dear!! Lol Morgan made a lot of signings for us - some good some bad - but never really improved us despite spending a lot of money and I think I am right in saying that after we sacked him he never got another job in football. Mind you the 60's as a whole was a fairly dismal decade for City.
I was there - Bolland and Heath. Now you are talking about memories. I was getting married later that year and my wife to be still lived in Coventry at the time. I was supposed to go to Coventry that weekend to finalise a few arrangements but called off at the last minute because I said that I had to work. Dennis Law scored an incredible goal from a tight angle in the goal I was standing behind. In the Sunday People there was a photo of him wheeling away after scoring and guess whose face was clearly visible in the crowd and guess which paper my wife to be's family bought!! Further guess - who's wedding nearly got called off?
Especially 1962 when 'you know who' won the Div One title when everyone played in black and white Co-incidently the year of my birth
Still remember that well (they say it's short-term memory that goes first!). Here's an old post containing the programme from that day for anyone interested who didn't see it before. http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/92966-City-beat-ManU-in-FA-Cup?highlight=programme
Isn't the Canary club still there? It is now called the Canary Social Club. Not sure if it is the same place. On the Junction of Thorpe Road and Rosary Road. Is that where the old Canary Supporters Club was?
That's the place - I thought that it closed years ago. Anyone been in lately or know whether the general public can just walk in? When you reach my age you like revisit places from your past.
My goodness there are some names there that bring back memories. In that era we bought a whole stream of players from Leyton Orient and Mal Lucas was one of them. A little hard nut of a wing half, as they were called in those days, he was eventually sold to Torquay. When he retired he moved back to Norwich and I briefly met him at a Business function a few years later. I would imagine that if he is still alive he still lives locally. Also Tommy Bryceland - what a skillful player. Note from the programme - only one sub!!
Mal Lucas used to take a wicked free kick. Sliced across it Garrincha style. I remember a game against Southampton when he took one and it hit the bar and Ron Davies followed up with a header. Chivers scored a hat trick and we lost 3-4. We had some good right halves in those days, along with Lucas we had Phil Kelly and Ollie Burton.
I have a theory that (like music) a persons favourite players come from a period of your life of youth. I know this is certainly the case for me although I was lucky as it was our most successful period. The older you are there certainly seems to be more of an affinity with the players of yesteryear and less bonding with the modern players.
Probably a bit of truth in that. Having been a disciple of City for so long, my trivia memory banks are huge and certain moments, comments and events are remembered by events that take place today. Star players sold, good players bought, bad players bought, managers sacked and even clubs who have an Indian sign on you or vice versa despite the changes in fortune. History is just a collection of facts. And it is nice to reflect with some of my contemporaries, as I'm sure the younger more radical members of the forum will do in years to come. And for the record, Grant Holt couldn't hold a candle to Ron Davies
This brings us on to another debate, where would you put Grant Holt when compared to strikers/centre forwards that you have seen play for City in your lifetime. Personally, I would put Dean Ashton, Chris Sutton, Kevin Reeves and Ted (Super)MacDougall ahead of him. Never saw Ron Davies play but Dad who's seen them all, (well apart from Percy Varco !), rates him as our best ever. However, having said all that I can't recall us ever having such a talismanic figure as Grant Holt in the team. Such a shame that he had to throw his toys out of the pram in the summer as IMO, it has somewhat 'blotted his copybook'
I used to live in one of the terraced houses on St Leonards Road. From the back bedroom window you could still see lots of the old terracing from the nest. I loved living there just for that reason. How sad eh?
