The Pitch

[gateman49]

I don't think that anybody has mentioned the pitch in our last couple of matches. The weather has improved and it would appear that the pitch has too. The Southport match was played out on a pitch that at last appears to be stable (and I don't mean that it looks like a stable).

Another thread is going through our 100 best matches and many games played decades ago are being highlighted. My memories of those years is of a pitch that resembled a ploughed field by this time of year with only the wings having any grass. This was then utilised by the likes of Ronnie Shaw, Larry Baxter and later, Ronnie Barnes to 'dribble' on. In my dotage I dribble a lot but that is from the mouth - younger readers may not realise that players used to have skills which involved dribbling with their feet.

The pitch now appears to have grass growing all over it so it is totally different from that of the old days so any thoughts on how this will affect our passing game during the run in if nothing of biblical proportions happens on the field before the end of April?

[Gullscorer]

It's not just about dribbling and passing. A lot will depend on the wind, which gentlemen of a certain age also suffer from..

[tomogull]

Back in the days of Ronnie Shaw and Larry Baxter when we also ran a reserve side, the pitch was played on every week - often twice in a week. I even think they trained on the pitch. As there are fewer games played now, the pitch has a little time to recover between matches, although a lot of credit has to go to our groundsman who is doing a good job. BUT ..... when we groundshare with Truro next season, what will the pitch be looking like in April 2017 ??

P.S. I also think those old leather studs with the nails sticking out caused more damage to the pitch than the present day poncy rubber studs

[gateman49]

Ah, leather studs, those long laces wound round and round and balls with bladders!

[Gullscorer]

Balls, bladders, dribbling, wind, frozen extremities, hot pies and pasties, mugs of tea and coffee, those were the days, great days of football, this when you wake up in the morning:
and this when you get home after the match:

[tomogull]

Bliddy 'ell - how did you get a photo of my radio - sorry, wireless ?? Ah yes - 5pm Sports Report - Here are the football results read by James Alexander Gordon. Never just James Gordon, always James Alexander Gordon, and mother and sister had to shut up whilst the results were being read.

[Glostergull]

Balls, bladders, dribbling, wind, frozen extremities, hot pies and pasties, mugs of tea and coffee, those were the days, great days of football, this when you wake up in the morning:
and this when you get home after the match:

i knew you'd own up eventualy

[PhilGull]

Bliddy 'ell - how did you get a photo of my radio - sorry, wireless ?? Ah yes - 5pm Sports Report - Here are the football results read by James Alexander Gordon. Never just James Gordon, always James Alexander Gordon, and mother and sister had to shut up whilst the results were being read.

Hardly a thing of the past though. Still the same music and way of reading the results now as it was then, just a different voice.

[gateman49]

While we stay off topic (I actually raised what I thought was a serious question originally!) who remembers sitting down at 4.40 on a Saturday to watch the old BBC teleprinter to show the results coming in?

None of this modern electronic streaming or whatever it's called, just a big printer head which masked the emerging letters and numbers until the last second and then all was revealed. Sometimes it paused for a breather in mid stream which could be very frustrating as you'd have the home team's score but not ours for an extra few seconds. Then it would sort of do running on the spot and bounce up and down without actually printing anything before summoning up the energy for another mad dash.

Now for something else that the younger ones amongst us won't appreciate.

I'm just going to open an old tin of dubbin and have a sniff. It'll set me up for the day.