Apparently, when I was a baby and then a toddler, my Dad used to take me to see the local football team play. They were called Gresley Rovers, and their ground, the Moat Ground, was in Moat Street, Church Gresley, a little village in South Derbyshire. Here’s their stadium in 1972:
I don’t remember any of that, but I do remember my first match watching Derby County, a team who were in Division 2 at the time.
They used to play at the Baseball Ground, so-called because unsuccessful efforts had been made to introduce this popular American sport here around 1900. The stadium was surrounded by thousands of Victorian terraced houses. They’ve moved since then:
The game was on Monday, November 14th 1960. They were playing Norwich City, the Canaries, and so-called because they played in yellow shirts. This was the first step in a journey which I finally called a halt to in 1997, tired of my money being taken for very little worth watching.
I did a little bit of research about that Norwich game recently. The Derby team was:
Adlington, Barrowcliffe, Conwell, Mike Smith, Upton, Curry, Fagan, Swallow, Hutchinson, Parry, Hall.
I have not been able to trace the Norwich team, yet, although the Norwich manager was Archibald Macauley.
The game was a League Cup, third round game, and here is the cover of the programme:
Later, I wrote the score on the cover. Derby County gave me some sublime highs, but they certainly made you pay, both with your cash, but worse than that, with your hopes:
Inside the programme were the teams, with the players expected to play:
And here is the Norwich City team, with the players expected to play:
Nobody in these teams is famous nowadays, at least, not outside their own club. The programme contained pen-pictures of the visiting players. These three were selected as being typical of the fifteen or so in the programme. The thought to carry with you is that, for John Richards, Bobby Brennan or Derrick Lythgoe, this could have been the greatest moment of their lives:
There was a League Division 2 table, providing a check on how well the 22 clubs were doing:
The abbreviations Utd, A, O, T, T,C stand for “United”, “Argyle”, “Orient”, “Town”, “Town” and “City”.
The intervening 61 years have not treated all of the teams above very well. There were also lists of the leading goal scorers in each division.
Brian Clough, of Middlesbrough, would one day become manager of both Derby County and their local rivals, Nottingham Forest. He led them to unbelievable glories. Today, a statue has been put up to him in Nottingham:
The programme also contained the results of past matches that season.
And finally, there were the advertisements, often for rather strange things, given that the spectators had all gathered to watch a football match:
Although you might want to fly to Luxembourg after watching your team lose 4-1 !!
Now here’s a trip back in aviation history !
John Knifton 
Re Mike Smith you had me looking up the England cricketer 🙂
I’m pretty sure that this was a different Mike Smith! Funnily enough when Clough took over Derby in 1968, at least one player didn’t turn up to begin his football season until late September, because he was busy playing cricket for Derbyshire. Needless to say, Clough put a firm stop to such an amateur attitude, and gave the latecomer all the time he needed to play his cricket twelve months of the year.
Thanks a lot, John. 🙂 I once got Geoff Hurst out LBW when he was playing for Essex 2nd XI
Wow! I can’t come anywhere near that. Actually getting Sir Geoff out. I am genuinely impressed.
I also got Keith Boyce out in the same match – caught off a skier after he had hit a century in 40 minutes 🙂 I had opened the batting. He bowled me three balls. I didn’t see any of them and the third one knocked out my off stump. He was taken off after two overs otherwise we’d have been slaughtered 🙂
Wonderful memories John. My family are all Derby County fans.
I wish them lots of success ! In the late 1990s, I began to feel that Derby County were like a wonderful woman that you are crazily in love with, but who doesn’t love you and is no good for you. The last straw came for me when it was Derby’s last match at the Baseball Ground. Arsenal supposedly returned 5000-6000 tickets and I left home at 6am to queue up to get one.
The queue though, had a number of people who were allowed to push in repeatedly, and I missed my own ticket by about a dozen people in the queue. That was enough for me. I took up birdwatching!
I used to like the old Baseball Ground, almost as much as Filbert Street.
Yes, I went to Filbert Street to a couple of night matches, and the atmosphere was really good.
Dad had an uncle who was a school teacher who somehow managed to get tickets and send a couple our way. I am not sure that he should have done that now.
I never really took a liking to Brian Clough, but he did do wonders with Notts Forest. One of Sunday (I’m sure it was Sunday and not Saturday) afternoon Football frequents.
Yes, he took Derby to one League Championship and a European Cup semi-final and Forest to two European Cup wins, one Championship, and a lot of League Cup wins. He is still worshipped in Nottingham and he is the only person in history to have had TWO statues put up to him by public subscription. Forest are still the lowest ranked team ever to win the European Cup, bar none.
I can understand, though, why you didn’t take to him. Hitting the odd supporter and alcoholism are not really two particularly attractive features in a man!
What no Peter Taylor? The real brains of the partnership.
No, I didn’t talk about him, because Aviationtrails was discussing Brian Clough with me.
I like looking at old advertisements 😊. Thank you for an interesting post.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Lakshmi. Old advertisements can give you a very accurate portrait of a city. Having said that, I still haven’t worked out the connection between pigeon food and football supporters!
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And your nice compliment made my day too! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
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