Southern Connections - 2018/9
Southport (April 6 2019 / Derek Feasby) This Season
I hope you bought the latest copy of Chris’ new frontiers fanzine on the way in, with 4 issues this season, it has raised around £1,000 for our branch and YCFC. Earlier this season, Joel’s commemorative scarf raised a similar amount.
Meanwhile across the season, we’ve had members at every one of City’s games; no mean feat considering it involves a 400 mile round trip to York. A special call out for Andy who made 4 round trips to FCUM during our 2 NLN seasons, reaching Manchester on each occasion, twice postponed. Last month, he took a detour and saw the Sheffield Wednesday / Blackburn fixture noting Blackburn’s away support was about 200, less than City take to many more distant away fixtures.
Down in London, our branch has been pleased to welcome Richard Adams, Dale Banton and Paul Barnes to our meetings, all 3 gave insightful talks into their time with City. See
ourwebsite for what they had to say and many more City related features.
We’ve just got one more big event this season, against Spennymoor YCS will once again be hosting a hospitality box, its always a good day out, the club always entertain us very well and do us proud.
Off the pitch, its disappointing that the move to Monks Cross is once again delayed whilst on the pitch, we haven’t had the success we had hoped for, although the latest green shots of recovery seen stronger than ever. Let’s hope for a winning end to this season and a successful 2019/20 season.
Brackley (December 22 2018 / Chris Forth) Christmas Memories So this is our final Christmas at Bootham Crescent. I wasn’t born in 1956 when we played our last ever Christmas Day game at Bootham Crescent, a 3-3 draw with Hartlepools United (as they were known in those distant days). Our scorers that day? Arthur Bottom, Norman Wilkinson and Billy Fenton. Will we ever see such a City strike force again? I never saw any of them play, but they are part of my Bootham Crescent memories.
I recall a Christmas midweek game in 1976, with Gordon Staniforth starring on his City debut, we were playing really well and leading 2-0 against Lincoln when the fog came down. Match abandoned.
The memories of that game came flooding back during the recent Leamington game, certainly at 2-0, we were praying the fog wouldn’t close in, by 2-2, we were praying it would come down quickly and cause the game to be abandoned.
My favourite Christmas game at Bootham Crescent? Possibly Boxing Day 1984 when we completely outplayed Burnley to win 4-0. The nightmare (yes, some memories are painful) came 9 years earlier against Portsmouth and a woeful 4-1 home defeat to Portsmouth. However, that game, just 9 days before Gordon Staniforth’s debut against Lincoln just shows how quickly fortunes can change.
We’ve all got our own memories of City and Bootham Crescent. You can't put your arms around a memory, don’t try, just make the most of them. We’ve all got our own memories of Bootham Crescent and no one can ever take them away.
On a personal note, can I thank everyone who has contributed to new frontiers this season, my helpers and everyone who has bought a copy or offered words of support. This season, so far its raised over £800 for YCS / YCFC. Look out for the next issue in February. Thank you and Merry Christmas.
Looking ahead, we have our YCS new year social on Wednesday January 9th at our usual Sheephaven Bay venue. Stale mince pies anyone?
Bradford PA (November 3 2018 / Derek Feasby) Bootham Crescent Memories – The First Ever Evening Floodlit Game
I think we all feel night matches under the floodlights have a rather special feel to them. I’m old enough to remember the inaugural match at Bootham Crescent under the newly-installed floodlights. These had been installed at a cost of £14,500, most of the money coming from the Supporters Club.
This took place on Wednesday, October 28th 1959, with Newcastle United the visitors in a specially arranged friendly to “switch on” the new lights. Newcastle were then a very high-profile First Division team, famous for having won the FA Cup three times in five years during the first half of the 1950’s. They would finish 8th in the top Division at the end of that season, and of course had been our opponents in our famous Cup semi-final games of 1955.
They brought along some famous players of the era. Jimmy Scoular (captain if I remember) was a very tough tackling defensive midfielder. George Eastham was an international midfielder of great skill who would later be instrumental in the abolition of the maximum wage for footballers. I particularly remember admiring the skills of the young Scottish winger, Bobby Mitchell. Bob Stokoe was the centre-half, later to gain fame as the Sunderland manager when they won the FA Cup in 1973.
City’s team included the famous club legends Tommy Forgan, Barry Jackson and Norman Wilkinson, whilst the young starlet Colin Addison had just come through. He would later play at the top level. There was also a player with the exotic name of Charlie Twissell, a winger of some speed but not much skill (as I remember it anyway). He did have one claim to fame, during an away match at Reading he managed to break one of their floodlights with a somewhat wayward goal attempt!
The crowd for the game was 9,414, about 50% above the crowds we were getting around that time. As it turned out, City fell away towards the end of the season and finished 21st in the then Third Division (League One), being relegated after just one season out of Division Four.
It was a memorable night for an 11-year-old schoolboy. Previously, midweek games had been staged with kick off times as early as 2pm in midwinter. I didn’t often get to go as we were at school at that time! It’s very strange to think of it now, once it was dark, clubs without lights couldn’t stage a game!
The present floodlights are not the original ones. They were renovated in 1968, 1974 1975 and 1980 and completely replaced in 1995 with lights of double the power output.
Alfreton (August 11 2018 / Derek Feasby & Chris Forth) Hello New Season, Goodbye Bootham Crescent Let's hope the Stockport win is the start of a memorable final season at Bootham Crescent. Nothing less than promotion will do. For York City South, it would bring a few away games closer to home and make it easier to repeat our members' feat of last season when at least one member of our branch was present at every single league and cup game home and away. That's not to say we don't travel to York - I know of at least 4 members who have bought season tickets this season.
We have been busy during the summer. We launched our Easygiving fundraising initiative, you spend online and a percentage is donated to York City South without it costing you a penny extra. Last weekend our Predictor competition closed with 38 entries. Well done to the Bruce family who put in entries from as far afield as York, Switzerland,London and Russia - 6 entries in all. Also, I hope you bought a copy today of Chris Forth's long-running Fanzine "New Frontiers". All proceeds go to YCS and ultimately are donated to York City in one form or another.
We've a lively social scene in the coming months. We start with a Quiz Night on September 13th, Dale Banton is our guest speaker in early October and we will have another one lined up for March. Richard Adams will be showing us the plans for the new Stadium in November and of course we will have our usual Christmas party plus next year's Darts Tournament.
KEEP IN TOUCH with us in the following ways:
KEEP IN TOUCH You can get in touch with York City South in the following ways: