Ewell CFC

Answers on a postcard...

John Dempsey looks like he's been pumping iron. He was the first Irish player to be sent off in an international game- versus Hungary in 1970- according to google.

Very sorry to hear of your health difficulties Mike. Tremendous post. You mentioned Millwall as a footnote. Was if you that got in serious lumber when we played them at ours 83? Just remembered a post from years back that rung a bell? Kind Regards

We did go through a period of not turning up at Upton Park. I was on holiday August 79, but some school mates went and got well and truly bashed up on the South Bank, even though they were 13 year old kids wearing colours. The year of the corner flag throwing was 81- we did take a proper mob that year. I do get the impression that they thought that the only true Londoners were East Londoners and were well hard- load of bollox- I don't think that way was any rougher than a lot of South or West London- what they did have going for them was sticking together as one firm and turning out in force for London derbys. Funnily enough during the 90s we went over there mob handed many times, drunk in pubs, and never heard a peep out of them.

I'm sure I read that the North Stand was planned to be a lot bigger than it ended up- running most of the way across the end- never got made for financial reasons. Had that happened it could well have got adopted as the home end rather than the Shed? Edit- slightly controversial, but how did you rate the Shed in comparison to other home ends? It was our home and we all loved it ( it had bags of character and the fans made it what it was), but it was a bit lacking. Plusses- being on a curve you could see all of it i.e. If someone was trying to take it, you could see all the action wherever you stood. Minusses- long way from the pitch- the roof maybe covered a third of the terrace. The roof of the Kop covered all the End, the North Banks at West Ham and Arsenal covered the vast majority of the terraces beneath. I reckon we had more singers than West Ham and Arsenal in the late 70's, early 80's but the noise became lost- it never sounded great on telly. Probably didn't help having the sound microphone at the other end of the stadium.

That's a fantastic photo- must have been taken sometime between 63 ( when the Empress State Building was completed, and 68 when dog racing finished) Classic advertising signs- news of the screws, dog biscuits, Watneys party 7. I think the Martini sign survived well into the 70's?

What year was the League Cup game at Palace ( early 90's), in the pouring rain when the ball got stuck in the mud in the goalmouth? We lost, got home and watched the highlights on ITV. For some weird reason Bill Wyman, who was a Palace fan apparently, was the studio pundit.

I reckon our pitch was one of the worst in the 70's and 80's. ( Not as bad as the Baseball Ground mind) Highbury was always known as a good surface, even though if you YouTube certain games from the 70s there in looks pretty s..t by modern standards. Apparently the reason they never put a roof on the Clock End was because it would place a shadow on the pitch and shag the grass up- now they have these lamp systems on wheels running across pitches. Similarly, In winter a lot of games got used to get frozen off at Upton Park- Stands covered all four sides and the sun couldn't thaw it out.

Can't remember the last time your memory was this bad !....Im OK remembering things associated with certain games decades ago but useless at remembering scores. I think a lot of us can recall events 40 years ago but don't know where we left our house keys- I've lost mine so often I've had my nipples pierced and hang 'em there!

"Sing when your mining, you only sing when your mining". Or was that Barnsley. After the 84 home game, either Arthur Cox or Keegan said that Wee Pat must have had glue on his boots his dribbling was so good. Ps the best description of Geordies I've heard is Jocks with the s..t kicked out of them

According to Google, they're both 31 storeys. The Empress State Building is 117m, Trellick Tower 98m ( however if you add on the radio mast Trellick is taller) Talking of tall buildings in West London, someone told me that the Worlds End Estate once contained quite a few QPR fans even though it's on our doorstep. The reason being that a lot of the residents used to live in the area that was flattened for the construction of the Westway

There's the Empress State Building behind. It always reminded me of the control tower at London Airport in a Thunderbirds episode. It was the tallest building in West London I believe

Well played with the above Erskblue. Amazing thing about this forum- 99.9 per cent of Chelsea fans including me have never heard of Dick Steele never mind learn that he was a decent servant to the club

Doug the Thugs debut. On holiday in Ibiza that summer we got talking to some Aberdeen fans, who really rated Rougvie as a player, so we were looking forward to seeing him. A big black and white mob of gooners were waiting outside Highbury and Islington early on- didn't see any trouble all day but didn't hang around afterwards. Bates had got into a feud with a journalist, who predicted major trouble for this fixture and criticised the FA for having it as a seasons opener. Might have been Harry Harris from the Mirror. Bates barred him from the Bridge all the same . A couple of mates who were Arsenal in the North Bank reckon it was the best away following they'd seen there with the possible exception of Celtic in a friendly. I did have a Chelsea mate that went in the North Bank as part of a firm- if you were looking from the Clock End they were on the left hand side of the North Bank. Cant remember what exactly happened to that lot- if they got taken out by OB they didn't walk down the side of the pitch.- I'll have to ask next time I see him

The other one as you came out of Fulham Broadway was maybe 50 yards on the left- near the Cafe maybe?

Good shout. I showed this to our old trainer Jimmy Hendrie- he went on to say Johnny B was one of the fittest players he worked with. Could run all day and strong as an ox. He went on to add that one of the best man marking jobs he ever saw was Bumstead against Gascogne at his very peak. Very few people could subdue Gazza but our man did just that

The shop near Fulham Broadway- was that an official club shop or otherwise? Can't remember

Jimmy Hendrie- assistant physio; trainer 1979- 1987, in me local the Green Man Ewell ( big Chelsea pub) Glasweigan chap- Gers and Chelsea fan- he was part time for the couple of years- full time after. Alround good bloke and great craic. ps I can't orientate the pic- if anyone can turn Jimmy the right way round he'd be very grateful

It's a ropey old ball Droys got there- no doubt a kick about ball but rag arse rovers all the same. The club was probably too skint for luxurys such as new balls back then. I don't think that type of black and white ball was ever used in the football league- definitely was in internationals. 70's and 80's was Mitre Multiplex or Mitre Max from memory

I'm not sure how many years we played QPR on the spin on Boxing Day, but was in the School End terrace for each of them and it was always ramjammed. Edit- just checked, 82 and 84 One year John Burridge came out for his warm up and gave us two handed w.....r signs. Gary Waddock used to come in for a lot of stick for some reason. One occasion which might be the one on YouTube, the end was so packed when we scored it looks like we're not celebrating too much- truth is it was a struggle to get your arms in the air. Speedie had a blinder one year, leading Venables I remember saying he was one of the finest timers of a header he'd ever seen. In 2003 I was involved in the rebuilding of a special needs school behind the School End. Fulham at the time were ground sharing with QPR, and when they played us half a dozen of us attempted to watch the game from the scaffolding- beers in hand, extra long roll ups etc. We could see roughly half the pitch through those letterbox shaped penetrations in the cladding at the back of the stand. Wasn't great so gave up and went to a pub on the Uxbridge Road at half time, but fun looking back

One of those midweek Orient games a load of black groundstaff were raking the pitch at half time. The song went up' They're planting coconuts, they're planting coconuts....' What year was the QPR Boxing Day game with protest grafitti on the plastic pitch?

I've bumped into him a few times in Wimbledon Village and the Churchill Arms in Kensington- wears his Cup Winners Cup Medal on a chain- decent company- get the impression he didn't have a post football plan, and back then they didn't earn enough dough to retire once the boots came off. Little bit world owes him a living, being a gambler and drinker probably doesn't help. Credit due however for being a very good player for us, who no doubt contributed heavily for CFC during our brief spell of 70's glory.

Here here with Jose's United. He's not the man he used to be. I feel a tiny bit sorry for United fans, who got used to Fergies flyers who always went out to attack the opposition home and away. They were like the red arrows at times. Every single time a Jose team now plays against decent opposition they set out not to loose- how predictable is that? Stick on top his permanently miserable demeanour....

QPR had a spell not long back where their fans were a right load of gobsh*tes. Spurs and Liverpool fans have always been gobsh*tes. I agree with previous sentiments towards the pikeys ( no noise, from the pikey boys). Upton Park was a bar steward of a place to go to in the 70s and early 80s. I don't mind Arsenal too much at the moment, but their nose was put right out of joint after we became the top side in London 12 odd years ago. They didn't like it one little bit. Someone mentioned earlier that some old school Chelsea might hate Millwall- as far as I know there's a bit of an overlap between the two- Chelsea fans that have gone to Millwall and vice versa. On the FV side it was always difficult to distinguish Millwall and Chelsea, whilst other London mobs you could recognise them a mile off