People who are not football supporters may be puzzled by this post - (just as I am becoming increasingly puzzled about what is happening to the old Blogger interface). Yesterday, Hull City supporters had a last opportunity to visit our club's old ground before it makes way for a housing project. Of course now we have a modern state-of-the-art ampitheatre - the KC Stadium - which is the envy of many other Championship clubs but between 1946 and 2002, home games were played at our beloved temple - Boothferry Park.
I first visited the place with my father in 1964 and over the next three and a half decades saw more matches there than I care to remember. So many highs but probably far more lows.
One of the best days was March 31st 1966 when 45,328 supporters crammed into the ground to see our then Third Division team take on the mighty Chelsea in an FA Cup sixth round replay. It was such an exciting evening and though we lost by three goals to one, the best goal of the game was volleyed in by Chris Simpkin from about thirty yards out past the flailing hands of Peter Bonetti.
And Simpkin was at the ground yesterday - on the crumbling terraces that await the bulldozer - with me, my friend Tony and about four hundred other diehard supporters. It's salutary to think that he scored that wonderful goal more than forty five years ago when I was a young lad in secondary school and the world seemed far less complicated than it does today.
Boothferry Park - The Last Goodbye
Tony at Boothferry Park yesterday
Well I was certainly puzzled, YP. I thought maybe you were sneaking off to Bloggerland without us!
ReplyDeleteIt is always sad to see the old grounds go, especially when they had proper footballing names, like Maine Road, Highbury, Burnden Park etc. Then they close them down, move out of town with the likes of Ikea, all with corporate sponsorship names.
ReplyDeleteI shall miss Boothferry Park getting a name check on Sport Report, but I have to ask about the new ground -- is it named after that bloke off the Sunshine Band?
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ReplyDeleteI've figured out why Blogger is posting my comments twice. It's when I hit the back button in the browser. But you're right, something is going awry at their end.
ReplyDeleteJENNY We are all going to BLOGLAND and NOT Bloggerland which is diametrically opposite in values to our new country. Bloggerland will be a fascist state currently being developed by Apple in the Caribbean!
ReplyDeleteSHOOTING PEAS The new ground is named after Kingston Communications but I often refer to it as The Circle for that was the name of the cricket ground that existed on the site for many's the long year.
I don't understand why sports grounds have to move quite so often. I've never been a keen sports fan - but I do think history is important.
ReplyDeleteDon't start me on what they've done to Wembley......
So Blogland and Bloggerland are kind of like Slovenia and Slovakia, then?
ReplyDelete(by which I mean utterly different, yet indistinguishable to the casual observer)...
One ground that I never visited.
ReplyDeleteAnother piece of British culture bulldozed for good.
I can't say I would ever want a KC type effort instead of my beloved Hillsborough. Despite the improved legroom and coffee no doubt.
The Ginger Mourinho sums it up best in this article Re- Hillsborough:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2074713/Gary-Megson-thriving-Sheffield-Wednesday.html
Three famous stands and one infamous but apart from Villa Park the best football ground in England.