marinersawan

Please forgive me if it’s been covered before. I’m watching a tv programme about the very cold winter of 1962-63. I googled it and it seems our third round FA cup tie with first division Blackpool was postponed eleven times. I’d read about that, but there’s a mention online I’ve not heard about that the club used a flame thrower on the pitch, sadly to no avail -the melted water just froze again. In the end we drew at home, beat them away aet...and it’s then the cup run to our record crowd against Leicester. Any football or non-football memories of that freeze? ( I was a couple of years away from being born).

I lurk from time to time on TWTD for vicarious pleasure - those who like me supported City in the seventies and early eighties might understand, although one could almost wish that the poor long-suffering victims over there be put out of their misery. But occasionally an interesting topic arises. Milk crates at the match has come up over there. I never stood on one - I was fairly tall for my age (9 onwards) when I was first taken to the mostly relatively sparsely populated terraces of the mid to late seventies. (Though I think I was at the game with the last 30000 crowd at Carrow Road). Anyone out there who took them to Carrow Road? - presumably some who were younger than me, or for bigger games? Anyone ever passed over the crowd to the front, as I have heard happened at other clubs. Anyone spilled out of the stand and ended up squatting on the touchline in a big crowd, as I have seen in some photos?

Canaryking re West Ham among the best days out with a rammed away end, great atmosphere, but on the way out, and the Villa Park semi-final, were the only time I have ever worried about getting crushed.

Forest away January 1984. A mate of mine was a student in Nottingham and I pitched up at his very late on an evening, and drunk rather too much rather too quickly. Off to the match next day; absolutely freezing and a tad hung-over; we were very quickly on the wrong end of a 3-0 loss. But on the other hand I had another night out in Nottingham afterwards!

Wasn't there but saw it on the box. Certainly worse than my Wolves games now I think about it.

I'm a long way from being well-traveled with us (although I did go to a few places back in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and more recently). In football terms, it can't have got much worse than travelling to Man City in the 70s and 80s. They always seemed to beat us heavily, and they stole John Bond and Kevin Reeves. Any reminiscences from long-suffering City fans on those hard trips?

Any link, Crabbycanary3? Some bloke got sneaked on our coach just after we got into Holland and livened up the atmosphere with a chorus of "Who's in Europe now, Scum?", so some lads made it despite the restrictions.

Wolves 1980 FA cup 4th round replay - back in the days when the fans still thought it meant something - and we had a bumper crowd; I think people were moved from the River End to the normally empty pen of the Barclay. And we lost 3-2. But then in the league, shortly afterwards - we lost 4-0 at home. I'm sure we've had more shameful performances, but I was disgusted by that one.

Til 1010 - my first thread was about Wembley matches. My hope was that on this one people would talk about European matches, and hopefully you can give us some reminiscences. I had in mind another threads about semi-finals. Bill's comment made me think about bad experiences, and I suspect that might be the most "popular" one, but I'll post it as a separate topic.

Arnhem home and away and Inter home and away for me. Arnhem home - a disappointing attendance, and not going too well until we scored, and I recall smoke bombs and the atmosphere ratcheted up several notches even in the River End where I was with my mates. Shame my Dad wasn't there to see it. They seemed a bit intimidated. Two more and we felt fairly comfortable. Arnhem away - the pity was it was made very difficult to go without being on an official club trip. English clubs were not long back in Europe after Heysel and no-one wanted to risk any trouble. The ferry was quite lively given the time of day. Dropped by coach in some shopping centre before the game. Played out a rather tame 0-0, and off home. Bayern away watched on the telly in a pub in London - nearly chucked out for celebrating too enthusiastically. Bayern at home watched on the telly in a pub in London with a mate - phoned another River End mate after the game - "the River End was like the Barclay" he told us. Inter at home - second most ill I've ever been but made it back. Can't remember much but I think Bergkamp got a penalty. Inter away - again the Club restricted tickets to official trips, but I think a fair few made their own way having learned that they could get tickets themselves. I was on an official trip - a flight from Norwich airport. Not allowed a drink at the airport bar, although those on independent trips were. Plane full of what to me in those days seemed like old codgers - probably about the age I was now. Thought - "crap atmosphere if the ground is full of these growlers". On the plane back - the whole lot of them had sung themselves completely hoarse. Outside the ground an Italian shared his "herbal cigarette" with me. I bought a foghorn and promptly had it confiscated at the turnstile. We were a bit disappointed that the attendance at the San Siro was predicted to be only thirty thousand. Walking towards it I said based on the noise - "there's more than thirty thousand in there". Turns out that noise was just from the Norwich, half an hour before the match. I was hoarse before kick-off. I think we briefly stopped singing at half time, but otherwise the atmosphere was phenomenal. I think the locals described us as the best fans there ever. Some of their lads came in our area after the game - but to exchange scarves etc. Although I think it kicked off a bit in the evening after the game. We played quite well and I thought we might have a chance but I think Bergkamp scored with the only chance of the game.

I was saving Europe and semis for another thread... Bill - you have just added grim away (and home) days to the list.

I was 20 in 1985. I was about as ill as I have ever been (equaled only by the Inter Milan home leg) with a flu-like illness which lasted two weeks. I was on a coach with my Dad and his Barclays Bank colleagues. Some concern as there were so many coaches going that the traffic might have prevented people getting there - it was a bit tight for us time-wise. I think it wasn't a popular final for neutrals so lots more Norwich and Sunderland fans had tickets than expected. Massive traffic queues in London, with some "lads" (old enough to know better) on the coach in front hopping out to empty the recycled beer into the front gardens of unfortunate locals to the tune of "we'll be running round Wembley with our...". The Barclays Bank coach displayed rather more decorum. My Dad and I were River End Terrace season ticket holders, and I would have preferred the terrace experience but he had got seat tickets, although probably for the best as I wasn't on top form. You know the rest.

...full sets of big matches. An easy one to start with (if you're old enough) - who was at all four Wembley appearances? I can only claim 85 and the playoff final; my Dad made 73 and 85 but not 75. Bonus point for Cardiff. Any reminiscences welcome.

Myra Hawtree - please can you put your memories of Arsenal away in 1954 up on this site? And obviously any other memories.

From the same source re Sheff Utd at home in 59: "My young son was with me in the stand. When the whistle went his neighbour, a respected alderman of Norwich City Council, now dead, picked him up and just threw him in the air. Thank heaven he caught him on the way down." I chucked my eldest in the air when we scored in the play-off final against Birmingham - I wasn't even there, was listening on the radio because of health issues with the middle one; I did catch him but I've never been forgiven.

From the same book, re the Portsmouth game in 1950, from the introduction by Aubrey Aitken, later Bishop of Lynn: "I well remember leaving my Vicarage at Sprowston soon after breakfast, and I only just got into the ground" And from a book "Norwich City: The Division One Story", also by Ted Bell, in a review of his time reporting on the club since 1945, Peter Roberts: "...the famous Portsmouth Cup games of 1950 when a 1-1 draw with the then league champions at Fratton brought for the Thursday replay scenes the like of which Norwich had never seen before and will never see again. In fact City were robbed at Portsmouth because Delapenha knocked in the Portsmouth equaliser with his fist and I thought Bill Lewis was going to tear the referee to pieces in his righteous rage. Came the replay and they were queueing from midnight - queues past Trowse Station, way up Thorpe Road and everywhere else and finally 43,129 got in. It was a fantastic sight. Bog Doug Reid, then the hardest shot in soccer, ended the dream with two goals, one a penalty, but it was an occasion no-one involved would ever forget. There was no trouble, no mayhem, no stabbings, missiles, assaults (poster's notes - the book was written in the good old days of the 70s). My own recollection is that there was only one serious injury. A sailor fell off a tree which used to overlook the Barclay stand-South bank corner and broke his leg. They say he was drunk anyway, but I know not." So it sounds like it was not all-ticket. I think back in those days the South Stand was smaller, but the front of the old Main Stand was terraced. Were people locked out? From the stories of those with links to printing companies back in the day some of our all-ticket attendances may have been a little bigger than we thought...

From a book I have "On The Ball City" by Ted Bell: "Things did not go so well, either for Ashman or for his team, in 1965/66. Results were patchy, and the good ones were mostly inspired by Davies. Significantly, when the big Welshman faded towards the end of the season, so did the team as a whole, and the closing matches were played out in front of crowds of less than 10,000. Nor had the Club improved their image with their approach to their fifth-round Cup-tie with Blackburn Rovers. Although a First Division side, Rovers had done nothing to suggest they would be a star attraction, and City's decision to increase admission prices for their visit caused considerable ill-feeling. The match, in fact, was watched by a 30,000 crowd who paid a record £9947; but the Canaries could do no better than draw 2-2 (thanks to a last-minute Davies penalty, and in losing the replay also lost a large slice of public sympathy. Supporter's Club Chairman, Tom Eastall, later wrote, in his Club's Handbook: Not for a long time has public enthusiasm for Norwich City Football Club run at such a low ebb.How far playing results, and the controversial increase in prices for the Blackburn Cup-tie, have been the cause is hard to judge..."

Thanks for posting those nutty nigel. A pity about the results. I know the 58-59 home matches from Man Utd onwards were all ticket with a limit of 38000. We had a 5th round home game with Sunderland in 60-61 which had an attendance of 42000, and our record attendance of 43984 versus Leicester in 62-63. Were those and the Sheff Wednesday game all ticket? I presume the capacity increased because the South Stand was enlarged a bit at the end towards the Barclay when the roof went on - at least that's what I assume from the pictures and film I've seen. Or maybe those games weren't all-ticket and a few thousand more were squeezed in than in 58-59.

I love to hear about the history of the club, especially from people like Ricardo or Tilley. I fear there’s no-one left to tell us about the Nest days, but I’m wondering if there are any tales of some of our great games of the past. I’m thinking Portsmouth cup replay 1949-50 (43000 in Carrow Road, capacity limited to 38000 ten years later), Arsenal FA cup 1951-52 - a 0-5 slaughter but a match against one of the biggest clubs in the country, and Arsenal FA cup away 1953-54 with a 2-1 win away which must have been among the games which made our names as cup giant-killers in the 20th century. I think those are before the times of anyone on here, but I might be wrong, or people might have stories from their older relatives. Any memories?

Were we promoted by virtue of winning, or did we have to wait for the Sunderland result?

ps to the guy who runs Rewindnorwichcity - how on earth did you find that footage? Fantastic stuff!

My first game - I was nine years old. We lived near Southampton. I remember my father going to the league cup final against Spurs but I was too young to go with him. We went in a terraced paddock in front of the stand in which the camera was sited for that film. The stand to our left was the Portsmouth home end (Fratton End?) and most of our fans were in the end to our right (Milton End?) but in that paddock we had a fair few as well - we outnumbered them where I was, which was towards the Fratton End. I don’t think my father or me knew we were promoted at the end - we probably didn’t know the other results. I’ve also heard it was a bit lively off the pitch that day, but I didn’t see anything.

And on the subject of big crowds and crushes - the most anxious I’ve been was West Ham away in the FA cup in 1989. The terrace seemed rammed, not helped by the inflatable fashion that saw the attendance boosted by an orca paddling pool that took up a fair chunk of space. The terrace itself was packed, but it got a little more uncomfortable as we left to find ourselves shut in (tbf probably for our own protection).

Would love to hear more about that Palace match. It must have been one of the greatest nights at Carrow Road. Huge crowd, and huge last-minute drama. I’ve heard tales about how far away the roar was heard. Other matches we don’t hear enough about - the Chelsea league cup semis, the away one as well as both home ones. Anyone go to the away leg? I’ve seen a post on a Chelsea site that we had lots there. The fog-spoiled home leg must have been a bizarre experience; I’ve read about it - but how was the re-run?

Biggest Derby attendance? 40000 at Carrow Road against Ipswich in the FA Cup fourth round 1962, I think. We drew. We won away (>10000 less at their place despite the fact that they were heading to be Division 1 champions) . Anyone at either? Was there any sense of local rivalry back then?