Paul Demougeot Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 Loz gave me permission to post-it Hi, i'm a french-based journalist and we are working on an article about the tradition of celery throwing who was banned. We would like to speak with one or more of your members who used to do this to go into more details.Thanks for your answerPaul Demougeot
moi Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 Loz gave me permission to post-it Hi, i'm a french-based journalist and we are working on an article about the tradition of celery throwing who was banned. We would like to speak with one or more of your members who used to do this to go into more details. Thanks for your answer Paul Demougeot I'm sorry I can't answer your questions because I have never in my life thrown celery - what a waste of soup-making material! I can tell you though that in English we say...."the tradition WHICH was banned." WHO is for people WHICH or THAT is for things Please if there are any ex-celery throwers, can you give this man the information he wants. He had the manners to ask Loz's permission, so it would be nice if some of us had the manners to respond.
superdan Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 Have neither thrown it nor been banned but was always exciting heading to a game,especially away cup games seeing fans walk out of shops with bags of celery. Best was villa park away semi I think Fulham where Chelsea fans had a corner. There was just a locust like swarm of celery flying between the two stands between Chelsea supporters. Amazing to watch from the top tier! Actually now I think back I have done secondary celery throwing, when a piece of celery lands at your feet it was important to relaunch it into the air. Celery was more often thrown between fans not onto the pitch . The exception being corners where it was a harmless distraction to the away teams corner taker
moi Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 OK, now I am interested in this. How did it start? Because it didn't exist when I was young. So it must have started somewhere and at some time. Anyone know?
loz Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 Paul As far as I know there is no definitive answer however the story that I know is that it all started in the early 1980s. Chelsea were playing in the FA Cup and some fans on the way to the game were a little late (probably after indulging in a snifter of port) and decided to take the 'as the crow flies route' to the stadium. This involved going straight through some allotments. They scopped up a load of celery and started a mini celery fight on the way to the stadium then decided to take it in with them and carry on inside. The tradition and the accompanying song came from that and stuck with us for years until finally celery was banned from the stadium.
Beerqueen Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 From talkchelsea.net I had a look in Rick Glanvill's book and all it says regarding the song is that it's derived from an old knees up number 'Ask Old Brown' - lyrics go Ask old brown for tea, and all the family, if he don't oome we'll tickle his bum with a lump of celery. He then goes on to say that Chas Hodges (one half of Chas and Dave) recorded it in 1981. Micky Greenaway who was a famous Chelsea fan is to have picked up the casette version during a Chelsea tour of Sweden in 1981 and supposedly he played it over and over and therefore the song Celery as we know it today was born. I've heard the link to preseason tour to Sweden and Micky Greenaway before. I've also heard Loz's version. I've no idea which is true!
Englishman Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 ^ I think the Greenaway one was One Man Went to Mow. Here's a longer version of the story: At an away match – Watford,… mid to late 80’s There were traffic problems around M1 – Many Chelsea who had driven were held up and found themselves arriving near the ground later than expected – Many fans/vans parked behind the ground in a load of little roads (Cardiff Road is one I think). These fans found themselves separated from the Ground by some council allotments – Time to KO was getting short and a small blue army took the shortest route to the ground i.e. right across the allotments. Once one or two jumped over the fence many more (me and my mates included) had followed.Sometime during the journey across the allotments veggie throwing broke out,.. It seemed hilarious for some reason and everyone joined in. I remember two lads duelling with sticks of rhubarb - a free-for-all ensued – It was good natured and had an entertaining slap-stick quality about it.At the railings on the ground side of the allotments, the Police were stopping anyone scaling the fence and attempting to get them go back across the allotment – Loads of singing and the allotment mob then started to pelt the coppers with vegetable matter (and the crowd going into the ground for that matter). Given the ‘soft’ nature of the missiles the veggie throwing escalated in a ‘fun’ almost carnival atmosphere as the crowd outside the allotment then started to throw the veggies back – A to-and-fro motion ensued for a couple of minutes and then the allotment trapped mob scaled the railings en-mass.Along with an unlucky minority I was grabbed by a couple of Coppers,.. who, I remember had dozens of little sticks of green rhubarb stem bouncing off them as they yelled I was ‘nicked for f**king trespass’. Noticing my predicament a mob ‘bounced’ into the Coppers surrounding them and jostling etc. I made my escape and off into the ground.There was a fair turnout from the travelling Chels - the away terrace was packed,… I don’t recall much other than that Fash-the-bash was playing for Watford and I wondered why the away terrace was cosy and covered whilst the home terrace was open to the elements.There we had several knees-up’s and the veg that had made it into the ground was thrown and re-thrown around continually (I didn’t notice any celery – It was mainly cabbage-like stuff and rhubarb). Nor had I heard the celery song at this point.After the game I noticed the occupants of cars and vans queuing to get away – were throwing veg at each other.The next home game a small group in the middle of the shed were singing – we all went to Watford,.. We all went to Watford La La La,.La,.. (repeat) They were tossing celery sticks about,.. again these were re-thrown again and again.Once more, a light hearted – carnival type atmosphere surrounded the event. The instances of celery throwing increased over the next few games – Home and Away,… I don’t know where the accompanying song came from – I first heard it sung in the old ‘Swan’ (opposite Fulham Broadway Station) about two home games after the Watford incident. "
SHELLY Posted March 4, 2014 Posted March 4, 2014 They should sell inflatable celery in the club shop, for fans to wave...(having been on the end of a lump of celery to the eye, its suprisingly uncomfortable)
bluegraham Posted March 4, 2014 Posted March 4, 2014 They should sell inflatable celery in the club shop, for fans to wave...(having been on the end of a lump of celery to the eye, its suprisingly uncomfortable) I remember they had celery balloons. Not in the club shop but on the stalls outside the ground
ForeverCarefree Posted March 4, 2014 Posted March 4, 2014 Have neither thrown it nor been banned but was always exciting heading to a game,especially away cup games seeing fans walk out of shops with bags of celery. Best was villa park away semi I think Fulham where Chelsea fans had a corner. There was just a locust like swarm of celery flying between the two stands between Chelsea supporters. Amazing to watch from the top tier! Actually now I think back I have done secondary celery throwing, when a piece of celery lands at your feet it was important to relaunch it into the air. Celery was more often thrown between fans not onto the pitch . The exception being corners where it was a harmless distraction to the away teams corner taker I was at that game... All the way to Birmingham to play a team who are 5 minutes away from us... Genius as ever from the FA. But yes there was some epic celery throwing that night, always used to make me giggle when it would kick off if nothing else I just love the idea of guys stocking up on celery for the sole purpose of then tossing it up in the air for sh*ts and giggles.
mickydroysleftpeg Posted March 4, 2014 Posted March 4, 2014 I remember. Going to a game at loft us road and the cops were frisking and confiscating celery (idiots couldn't spot harmless fun) they had piles that were seriously over 2 metres high. Classic.
Xfaxtor Posted March 4, 2014 Posted March 4, 2014 There was a good bit of celery throwing outside The Torch when we played City in the FA cup semi last year.
Barn Posted March 4, 2014 Posted March 4, 2014 I have a couple of top cellery memories (and one not so good one!). Away at Oxford I think it was in the FA Cup early to mid 90's, Craig Burley scored 2 in a Chelsea win. Anyway there was cellery everywhere and behind the stand we were in was an office block, a girl working in the office opened the window and stood watching the game for a bit, then she got noticed by the blues below. It was magic, the chants the cellery throwing and her general good reaction, even catching some of the cellery and throwing it back. On the way into the ground I over heard one big shaven headed lump explaining to the copper that Chelsea fans were on a health kick and so all they ate during the game was cellery. Plod didn't buy a word of it. The other was in Cardif for one of the finals, we got their early (as you do) and bought a load of cellery of a street seller, he asked why we bought it and thought we were joking when I responded; "to tickle her bum if she don't cum" and my brother said at exactly the same time; "just to lob around". He told us that he should stock up but had no idea why. It should be encouraged to be thrown as part of who we are and what makes us such a special set of fans.
dkw Posted March 4, 2014 Posted March 4, 2014 (edited) I remember going to Oxford to watch a game and there was Celery everywhere, it was hilarious. Also remember as a young un walking to the bridge and a massive piece landed right in front of me and my dad, he handed it to me and I threw it as far as I could (I was about 8 so not far) and this massive bloke ran over lifted me in the air like a trophy and ran all over the place with me cheering. Was bloody brilliant. Though I think my dad was a little worried Barn, was maybe t the same game, though I remember Burley only getting one and Spenny getting the other. Just after Xmas if I remember right. Edited March 4, 2014 by dkw
dkw Posted March 4, 2014 Posted March 4, 2014 And of course theres the fun when Fabregas got scared of a few vegetables and started crying. Little sh*t house.
bluegraham Posted March 4, 2014 Posted March 4, 2014 And of course theres the fun when Fabregas got scared of a few vegetables and started crying. Little sh*t house. He got it banned I think. I was at that game in Cardiff he got pelted with it. Ha
Paul Demougeot Posted March 19, 2014 Author Posted March 19, 2014 Thank you all guys for the answers it's very helpfull and sorry for the english next time l'll speak french :)
londonblue Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 I was struck on the back of the head by a lump of celery at 2007 Wembley FA cup final from the tier above
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