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Bradford City 1978 - Match Abandoned...

Sep 23, 2014
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Balham_Green":1el1adxj said:
pearces greens":1el1adxj said:
Balham_Green":1el1adxj said:
ONE of the worst blizzards in a hundred years not the worst. I hear 1963 and 1947 much worse and more prolonged. Plymouth itself didn't get much snow in 1978.
Its good of Bantam to come on here telling his story, why do you always jump on people who might get something slightly wrong ,you seem to b####y revel in it !


Calm down you muppet. Hardly 'jumped on' him. Just saying it was nowhere near blizzard of the century in Plymouth.
Sorry Gonzo
 
Jul 27, 2011
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Dan Ellard":3omvc2vy said:
Talking of other Bradford games, that Tuesday night in 2013 when we drew 0-0 and Harvey / Chadwick together contrived to somehow miss from about 2 yards out in the final minute. Still don't know how that didn't go in. Thankfully it didn't matter at the end of the season, but walking home after that night it certainly felt like fate was going to relegate us...

Genuinely one of the worst games of football that I have ever watched. I think we had the pleasure of watching another drab 0-0 home draw against Barnet around that time too.
 
Jan 28, 2005
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It was almost certainly 18 February 1978. I travelled home for the weekend from Leicester to introduce my new girlfriend to my parents and to go to a home game. We did not walk down Oates Road, ironically named for that day when you think about it, on the way back home to Swilly Road - we just slid.

There is a famous picture of the Bradford City players (try the Herald Archive) surrounding the referee just after the game was abandoned. It was Peter Hall who told me that the referee's watch had frozen. Without that match being abandoned, it is pretty likely that we would have plunged to the fourth tier for the first time in our history.

Horswill was indeed sent off - it was rumoured that he did it because it was just too cold but this, of course, was not the only time that 'Killer' (as the Sunderland fans called him) was sent off, as Gary Megson will recall. The crater near the centre circle that day was the same one used by Darren Purse. We can easily forget what a good player Horswill was.
 

Mark58

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Feb 19, 2018
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Seem to recall there was a Football Combination game v Arsenal played immediately after the 6-0 win , does anyone else remember this , or is it just me getting old ?[/quote]

You're not getting old! I'd quite forgotten about this, until you mentioned it, Dartington. It only goes to show that a number of heads (and memories) is far better than one. I'm pretty sure you're right. I certainly remember one Combination match being played directly after a first team fixture and it would make sense that this was the one, as it was the last game of the season. I remember savouring the thrashing of Bradford in the knowledge that there was another match directly after. We just stayed put - as did quite a few others - and watched the Reserves (as we called them then) finish their own season.

At the risk of straying into another thread, I used to love going to Football Combination matches at Home Park on either a Saturday afternoon (First Team one week, Reserves the next) or a Tuesday evening. If it was the latter I would have the match on my mind all day in school, most certainly at the expense of my concentration in class! The Football Combination afforded us the chance of watching our own youngsters and a mix of out-of-favour First Teamers or those working their way back from injury. A similar mix was on show from the opposition and this resulted in me seeing some big names (then) in the flesh. In the course of a season reserve teams of Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, West Ham etc etc were paraded in front of the meagre but passionate crowd (averaging around 300-500 but exceeding 1000 if there was something special about the fixture). Without checking my "programmes" (a single sheet of A4 paper, folded in two, with the teams in green print) I can remember watching the likes of Peter Marinello, Charlie George and Bob Wilson from various Arsenal teams and Billy Bonds and Clyde Best from West Ham. The classic 1961 match that drew such a large Reserves crowd when Spurs included Jimmy Greaves (recently signed from Italy) was before my time, sadly.

But it wasn't all about the opposition. I can remember as if it were yesterday watching Paul Mariner turn out for the reserves for the first time. "Bloody hell!" I thought, "He looks as though he knows where the goal is." And, of course, he did...

Although I can understand the economic reasons for withdrawing from it many years ago I really miss the old Football Combination days.
 
S

StaffordBantam

Guest
Balham_Green":22klxb7v said:
ONE of the worst blizzards in a hundred years not the worst. I hear 1963 and 1947 much worse and more prolonged. Plymouth itself didn't get much snow in 1978.
The winters of 1946/47 and 1962/63 were indeed much worse, in terms of temperature and how prolonged they were. However, it is widely reported that the 1978 event was the worst blizzard in over 100 years, a single event in what actually was a relatively mild winter.

Such was the nature of the 1978 blizzard, in terms of its short, sharp impact, that at least two books have been produced, recollecting its impact as it moved across the West Country.
51o1OjahQHL._SX373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

41X6sgb6BvL._SL500_SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


Anyway, it will be nice, tomorrow, to see the old main stand one last time, the one in which we were invited to huddle together to keep warm.
 
Dec 30, 2011
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I'm sure the Bradford fans were in the Devonport End, which had no roof at the time, pending the erection of a new roof, so Argyle fans had the Barn Park End.

Allison transformed the team and his signing of Fred Binney was the master-stroke. The 6-0 win followed an incredible 1-5 win at Portsmouth.
 
Dec 30, 2011
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I forgot to add that I remember Bradford fans running around the Devonport End singing the Dambusters tune when they were winning. They weren't singing later though !
 
Dec 6, 2012
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Plymouth, England, PL2 3HG
Mark58":joivbkza said:
Seem to recall there was a Football Combination game v Arsenal played immediately after the 6-0 win , does anyone else remember this , or is it just me getting old ?

You're not getting old! I'd quite forgotten about this, until you mentioned it, Dartington. It only goes to show that a number of heads (and memories) is far better than one. I'm pretty sure you're right. I certainly remember one Combination match being played directly after a first team fixture and it would make sense that this was the one, as it was the last game of the season. I remember savouring the thrashing of Bradford in the knowledge that there was another match directly after. We just stayed put - as did quite a few others - and watched the Reserves (as we called them then) finish their own season.

At the risk of straying into another thread, I used to love going to Football Combination matches at Home Park on either a Saturday afternoon (First Team one week, Reserves the next) or a Tuesday evening. If it was the latter I would have the match on my mind all day in school, most certainly at the expense of my concentration in class! The Football Combination afforded us the chance of watching our own youngsters and a mix of out-of-favour First Teamers or those working their way back from injury. A similar mix was on show from the opposition and this resulted in me seeing some big names (then) in the flesh. In the course of a season reserve teams of Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, West Ham etc etc were paraded in front of the meagre but passionate crowd (averaging around 300-500 but exceeding 1000 if there was something special about the fixture). Without checking my "programmes" (a single sheet of A4 paper, folded in two, with the teams in green print) I can remember watching the likes of Peter Marinello, Charlie George and Bob Wilson from various Arsenal teams and Billy Bonds and Clyde Best from West Ham. The classic 1961 match that drew such a large Reserves crowd when Spurs included Jimmy Greaves (recently signed from Italy) was before my time, sadly.

But it wasn't all about the opposition. I can remember as if it were yesterday watching Paul Mariner turn out for the reserves for the first time. "Bloody hell!" I thought, "He looks as though he knows where the goal is." And, of course, he did...

Although I can understand the economic reasons for withdrawing from it many years ago I really miss the old Football Combination days.
Brilliant entertainment with lots of goals in most games
 
Sep 6, 2006
16,429
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StaffordBantam":35g3mwn1 said:
Balham_Green":35g3mwn1 said:
ONE of the worst blizzards in a hundred years not the worst. I hear 1963 and 1947 much worse and more prolonged. Plymouth itself didn't get much snow in 1978.
The winters of 1946/47 and 1962/63 were indeed much worse, in terms of temperature and how prolonged they were. However, it is widely reported that the 1978 event was the worst blizzard in over 100 years, a single event in what actually was a relatively mild winter.

Such was the nature of the 1978 blizzard, in terms of its short, sharp impact, that at least two books have been produced, recollecting its impact as it moved across the West Country.
51o1OjahQHL._SX373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

41X6sgb6BvL._SL500_SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


Anyway, it will be nice, tomorrow, to see the old main stand one last time, the one in which we were invited to huddle together to keep warm.



Doubt it. There were pretty bad blizzards in those 2 Winters in particular. I don't even remember Plymouth itself getting much snow in '78. Mind you it rarely does. Quoting Met Office snow reports 'Greatest snow depths recorded in South West for at least 15 years '.
 

cheshiregreen

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I was still living in Plymouth when there were 2 consecutive years of (by Plymouth standards) heavy snow. Not sure now was it January 85 and 86 or 86 and 87?

Remember the gridlock though with the gritters unable to get round. Guess there was about 2 or 3 inches of snow on both occasions. Took me over 2 hours from City Centre to Crownhill by car. Sure both times were Fridays.
 
S

StaffordBantam

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Balham_Green":11v1uhvx said:
I don't even remember Plymouth itself getting much snow in '78. Mind you it rarely does.

Yes, I lived in Weymouth for 5 years which, similarly, rarely saw even a flake of snow, but there was plenty some years up on the surrounding hills.

Shame there's no photos around from Plymouth itself in 1978. There's plenty for Exeter (if I'm allowed to use that word here), which certainly got plenty.
 
Sep 23, 2014
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cheshiregreen":1hguzbah said:
I was still living in Plymouth when there were 2 consecutive years of (by Plymouth standards) heavy snow. Not sure now was it January 85 and 86 or 86 and 87?

Remember the gridlock though with the gritters unable to get round. Guess there was about 2 or 3 inches of snow on both occasions. Took me over 2 hours from City Centre to Crownhill by car. Sure both times were Fridays.
If i remember right they sent the Dockyard and all the schools home early at the same time which made things much worse
 

EuroJim

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I was 16 in 1978 and living in Holsworthy and going to school in Okehampton. It was the day of my Grans funeral and it was cold and rainy, abd then the rain began to turn to snow. I remember it piling up on the window sill and my Grandfather predicting it would be all gone by the morning.

Well we had about 45cm of level snow falling overnight coupled by a strong south easterly wind. The gritters had to give up and most towns and villages in North Devon were completely cut off. I remember ut being 3 days before we could get to Launceston as my Father kindly offered to take a stranded person back there. We enjoyed a week or so off school and the remnants o the last drifts of snow were still to be seen in April.