Get Well Soon

Sad news that Jimmy Greaves has suffered a stroke :(
Best wishes to him and his family that he pulls through and can carry on a near normal life.

Jimmy is one of the legends of English football, 44 goals in only 57 games for England although sadly injured during the 1966 World cup triumph, where his replacement Geoff Hurst filled his boots so well that Jimmy couldn't get back into the team (no substitutes back then).
Earned his reputation with amazing goal scoring exploits at his first club Chelsea, and after a brief spell in Italy with Milan he returned to England with Tottenham where he scored over 200 goals, in his later days he had a spell at West Ham.
Best known by people of my age for his television work, on Saturday lunchtime's "on the ball" followed by "Saint and Greavesie" and regular appearances on footie related programmes.

Here's a few pics, first one from my cuttings collection.

A classic shot

... and of course in the Hammers kit :)

Get well soon Jimmy.

Advertising

Adverts the bane of most people's lives these days, but a bit less "in your face" back in the day.
Usually a couple of pages in programs, and you would see a few of those big hoardings on your way to the ground.
Today we have to put up with everything being sponsored, the competitions, shirts, boots etc. plus those really annoying animated boards around the pitch.
Kids can't sit down near to the pitch because the advertising boards have to be a certain size, and some clubs have removed seats to accomodate them.

Anyway here's a few ads from old programs I have  :)

Bovril :)
As drunk by all Northerners ... so I've heard :)

Double Diamond, not politically correct and bottles banned in most grounds now, although some seem to make it through? Not sure why you have to wear goggles to drink it :)

The Radio Times, from back in the day when the only way to take in a live game was to go or listen to the commentary on your transistor radio.

Yardley, I used to work up the road from the factory.
Used to smell horrible, and I was told it wasn't the best place to work.

Dunlop football boots.
Sir Trev supposedly wore these so they must be magic :)

More modern one here, young Frank before we all went off him :)
Columnist with the Newham Recorder.

Southend United

My local club Southend are having a decent year, which hasn't always been the case.
Glory moments are few and far between.
The only ones that stick out are beating Man Utd a few seasons back in the League cup, holding Liverpool to a draw in the FA Cup in the seventies, beating Newcastle 4-0 to go top of the league (Division 2, now the Championship) back in the early nineties and reaching Cardiff 3 times in 3 years (2 LDV/JPT Trophies and a play off final) plus the first ever Wembley trip 2 years ago.
The rest of the history doesn't add up to much :(
A few years back I picked up some old scrapbooks at a boot sale full of footie clippings from the late 50's, included amongst them were several Southend ones. I posted them on a Southend memories page on Facebook but forgot to post them here, so here they are :)
All from around 1957-59.

Feeling Nostalgic

After over a year without a post here, I guess you thought I'd forgotten this blog?
Anything but, I spent months scanning old newspaper clippings and football programs and the editing process takes forever when you don't have a lot of time to spare.
I had hoped to get some night shifts at work, where I could do it all and get paid :) but with the company going out of business that never happened :(
The next problem was actually thinking of stuff to write to go with the pics, as most of the cuttings I have are from before I was born I couldn't use my memory.
So just to carry this blog on I will be mostly just posting the pictures, and if anyone reads this stuff and is interested please comment :)