Long Winter 1962/63

Surprised to read this in The Guardian today:

"Indeed, the winter was so severe that Barnsley only managed two games from 21 December 1962 to 12 March 1963. Meanwhile, up the road in Halifax, they hit upon an enterprising idea: why not use the Shay stadium for ice-skating?"

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...way-trip-football-team-has-made-the-knowledge

Can't say I've heard anyone mention this before. What did you all do on Saturdays?!

 

I was very much into rusks and throwing tantrums at the time.

Not much changes

 

I can remember one of the few games that was played during that period. The Reds were drawn against Everton in the F.A.Cup. The game was postponed, possibly more than once, but eventually was played on a (Tuesday ?) night. I guess they must have tried to remove some snow from the Oakwell pitch but it looked just like the snow had been rolled flat - there wasn't a blade of grass visible. The lines were marked out in blue powder but the players still (largely) wore studs so they were slipping and sliding all over the place. Sounds like a different planet compared to nowadays !

The Reds lost 3-0 but, as I recall, put up a brave fight. Everton were a top team and went on to win the League (old First Division) championship that year. Everton's side included Gordon West in goal (a Darfield lad), Brian Labone at centre half, Billy Bingham on the wing, Roy Vernon at inside forward and the "Golden Vision" Alex Young in their forward line. Maybe my memory is playing tricks but I seem to recall The Reds holding Everton to 0-0 until about the last 15 minutes when Everton banged in three. I was right by the wall in the corner where the disabled stand now is, just on the Brewery side (as opposed to the Ponty End).

 

I was at this game but cannot remember much about it. This is another of those annoying times when I regret passing on my scrapbook collection because I know for certain that there are at least two pages of photos and a good Chronicle report in there. I remember things like that

 

That was my first game at Oakwell. I can recall Ken Oliver hitting the Everton crossbar with a header in the second half. It was 0-0 until about 15/20 minutes from the end, after which Everton scored their three. Eric Winstanley played Alex Young (the Golden Vision) out of the game. He hardly got a kick. I recall the Everton team as Gordon West; Alex Parker and Mick Meagan; Jimmy Gabriel, Brian Labone and Brian Harris; Alex Scott, Dennis Stevens, Alex Young, Roy Vernon and Derek Temple. Almost all of those were current internationals, so we did very well. I lost count of the number of times the game was postponed, but, you are right, to get it played at all, they rolled the snow flat down to take some form of stud, painted the lines and played with an orange ball. Happy memories in a packed ground. I was hooked from then on.

 

Well that would make me 13 at the time,I would suppose I was out sledging and snowball fighting like a lot of other kids would have been doing,and not sat in front of a television playing stupid games.

 

I was born the following summer but heard tell of it. My Grandad had a building company and to pay the wages he went round the local churches, took and developed photos of the snow scenes and made them into cards and calenders and sold them door to door. BTW never heard of Gordon West but suppose he was a bit before my time

 

Me n mi Mam wo trapped in Hospital for 2 weeks.

 

Clarkie's promotion season from Div 4 in 1978/79 was bad as well. We didn't play a league game between Boxing Day and 31 January.

 

Aye, it wer'a reyt laff.
I went to the match, walked twenty miles in the snow, spent tuppence three farthing to get in, they paid me to have a programme off them, bought a block of iced bovril at half time and a pork pie that poured volcanically superheated jelly down me chin, walked thirty miles home and got back sometime in March.
Eeeee, kids don't know they're born these days, what with their Superintendos and Xray boxes, all southern softies. Bah !

 

Dint set off from home then. Must av ad a lift for first 10. Wimp.

 

Going to say Mr Badger how come 20 going and then 30 back was you pissed LOL

 

Got lost going home. Snow drifts

 

I had a ticket for that game and thought it would never happen.

 

I was 13 at the time and working on the fish market Tuesday, Wednsday, Friday before school and all day Saturday. Getting up at 6 am trudging through the snow to get fish out of boxes of ice and wash all the slime off them in cold water. It was bl00dy cold, all the skin on my finger joints cracked and bled every time I straightened my fingers, blood all over the place. For some strange reason ( money ) I enjoyed it. The down side was I only saw the reds on a few occaisions in that period, made up for it since though.

 

That was a harsh start to your working life. I had it easy with morning and evening paper rounds plus helping a farmer deliver quart bottles of pop from a Bedford van at the weekend.

 

And I suppose we all went pea and potato picking.Ate more peas than picked sometimes.

 

Three newspaper images from the Everton game and a couple of the snow being rolled. Different days indeed.

 

I was working in London and arrived back on Boxing Day after sending Xmas on Scotland. It was snowing heavily as we landed at Heathrow and I managed to persuade a reluctant taxi driver to drive me to Purley. The next morning their was 40cm of snow everywhere. With so many open fires in 1963, people just threw the ash onto the snow and within a week we were walking on non slip compacted snow. It was like this for nearly three months.