tonyd
1st team Player
Posts: 1,496 
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Post by tonyd on Oct 10, 2021 16:37:33 GMT
In Mark's programme article on Richmond Road, he omitted the most significant fact (as far as I was concerned). On one of our visits in 1970 I was hit on the head by a teacup hurled by some K's thug. I was unhurt but the handle broke off the teacup.
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markf
Top Performer
Posts: 3,317
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Post by markf on Oct 10, 2021 17:18:33 GMT
It was probably my first visit as I was in the relative safety of the main stand.
Obviously the cup wasn't up to the standard that Hitchin provided back then. Sturdy they were.
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Post by backhome2016 on Oct 10, 2021 18:04:06 GMT
It was probably my first visit as I was in the relative safety of the main stand. Obviously the cup wasn't up to the standard that Hitchin provided back then. Sturdy they were. Hitchin Town. Your reference Mark gives me the excuse to reminisce. My parents moved to Hitchin in 1970, so, as a football mad 11-year old, I started to watch all of HT’s home games. One that stands out was playing the Isthmian League champions elect at the end of the 1970-71 season - Wycombe Wanderers. They brought with them a large, noisy support (most teams mustered up but a dozen travelling supporters), and the ground was sold out. They had a balding captain who was orchestrating the game until he was sent off, to much jeering from us. In 1971 my parents moved to Sutton, and on my first day at my new school met one of my teachers who I recognised immediately as that balding footballer - Ted Powell (Sutton legend). As an aside, you could get underneath Hitchin’s main stand, where years worth of programmes had been dropped through the gaps in the wooden terracing above. My programme collection was enormous, reaching way back into the 1960s! Terrible fire hazard though… |
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Post by Stewart on Oct 10, 2021 18:56:39 GMT
It was probably my first visit as I was in the relative safety of the main stand. Obviously the cup wasn't up to the standard that Hitchin provided back then. Sturdy they were. Hitchin Town. Your reference Mark gives me the excuse to reminisce. My parents moved to Hitchin in 1970, so, as a football mad 11-year old, I started to watch all of HT’s home games. One that stands out was playing the Isthmian League champions elect at the end of the 1970-71 season - Wycombe Wanderers. They brought with them a large, noisy support (most teams mustered up but a dozen travelling supporters), and the ground was sold out. They had a balding captain who was orchestrating the game until he was sent off, to much jeering from us. In 1971 my parents moved to Sutton, and on my first day at my new school met one of my teachers who I recognised immediately as that balding footballer - Ted Powell (Sutton legend). As an aside, you could get underneath Hitchin’s main stand, where years worth of programmes had been dropped through the gaps in the wooden terracing above. My programme collection was enormous, reaching way back into the 1960s! Terrible fire hazard though… One of my favourite no league grounds . . |
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markf
Top Performer
Posts: 3,317
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Post by markf on Oct 10, 2021 20:16:47 GMT
That 1970/71 season was the last time until recent seasons Sutton attracted a league gate of over 3,000. That was against Wycombe with Powell and Pritchard in the Wanderers team.
Theat gate was boosted by a huge away following as they and Sutton vied for the title. Pritch came back to haunt Sutton by scoring the only goal and they eventually took the Isthmian title by a point.
I didn't know Ted Powell had ever been sent off. He was such a disciplined player.
I always enjoyed going to Hitchin even if the journey was a difficult one back in those days, or at least long.
Lovely ground but it won't feature in my series because it has survived the property developers and long may that be the case.
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Post by backhome2016 on Oct 11, 2021 17:24:28 GMT
I was wrong in saying that the Hitchin v Wycombe game I attended in 1970-71 was at the end of the season - it took place on August 31st. I remembered it as a warm Easter weekend, when in fact it was a warm August bank holiday Monday! That’s what 50 years does to your memory, or at least what it does to mine…
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