Reds in the 50's

Great story and I suppose that would have been Sir Joe Richards in the chair? It was a good day in BFC history when he stood down. I think it was Sydney Edmundson who took over but he died suddenly and Ernest Dennis and Geoff Buckle were invited onto the board. They, of course, invested a massive £10,000 allowing the manager to sign Barrie Thomas and Johnny Evans and their goals gave the club a huge boost leading to promotion from the 4th Division.

 

That's before my time, but the ground still looked exactly like that when I saw us beat Leeds 2-1 in August 1955.

 

Houghton was a pretty good left-half, as I recall. I think he may have won an England Youth cap, though I am not 100% sure about that.

 

I'm 52

 

Peak time for Cinemas as well. wasn't around Oakwell until 67 but names like Arthur Kaye and George Robledo always well regarded,

 

Really wow that's incredible, any idea what those buildings where, what's now the scoreboard corner?
Presumably dressing rooms were the old original ones in the west stand

 

I think half-time refreshments, such as hot Bovril, were available there. The scoreboard was also there, more or less where it is now
It was accessed via a flight of steps. It had a series of letters painted white, on a red background. To show the scores, the official had to slot out the red covers next to the letters and replace them by slotting in numbers. It was used to display half-time scores, as well as the up-to-date score in our 1st team's away games. The pattern in those days was that the Reserves played at home in the Central League on Saturday afternoons, when the first team was away, and vice versa, so, basically, there was a match to watch virtually every Saturday afternoon. As I lived less than 15 minutes' walk from Oakwell, I was there on the vast majority of the Saturdays throughout the season. There were quite a lot of interesting Reserve games. We tended to finish in the bottom two most seasons, but the Central League comprised largely the reserve teams of 1st and 2nd Division clubs in the north. Sometimes, star players would feature, when they were returning from injury. The most memorable Reserve game I saw was the 6-5 victory over Man United very early in 1958, only weeks before the Munich air crash. United's side included regular first teamers, such as Berry, Pegg and Whelan. We were 5-1 up at half-time, made it 6-1 and were then under the cosh, before winning 6-5. A particular memory involves Johnny Berry, who said to my brother's pal, just before taking a corner, "I bet you're glad, aren't you?" We were well in the lead at the time. One boy asked him what size boots he took. I think he said "4". He was quite small.

 

Yes. It moved there from somewhere opposite the bottom of New Street, which all looks very different now, of course. I think it may have been on the short street called Gas Nook. I'm not absolutely certain about that. I sometimes bought Subbuteo teams there, and also cricket scorebooks. Originally, Hough and Midwood were a partnership. As the name changed just to Midwood, I suppose he might have bought out Harry Hough's share. I really don't know the ins and outs of that.

 

I only ever saw one reserves game at Oakwell, and it was against Man Utd. Robson was getting fit after injury - broken leg maybe?

 

Thank you for sharing your incredible experiences and memories truly amazing to read

 

And I thank you too for your interest and appreciative comments.

 

1958 my first game home to Blackburn, lost 2-0 i believe.

 

It's fantastic to hear, could listen to fellow fans talking about games before my time everyday of the week, I started watching in 81, you've seen some incredible era's and teams any particular favourite? Perhaps the Clarke era?

My dad when he was around often used to talk about games of the 50's 60's and 70's and things like how we once threw away a 4-0 lead v Stockport , how we'd never beat Halifax at home, watching teams like Workington, Southport etc some great stories.

 

Some going that mate 66 years and counting, here's to many more

 

You have a very good memory and reading your posts on this thread have reminded me of the thrill when attending Oakwell with my grandfather. I can't recall the exact year he first took me to Oakwell but I'm guessing it would be mid 50's. The match against Bristol City sticks in my mind as John Atyeo (England international) scored a hat trick iirc for Bristol City. Shamefully I didn't remember the 4 goals scored by Lol Chappell.

 

The Clarke/Hunter era was perhaps the most enjoyable of all, not least because it featured Ronnie Glavin, my all-time favourite Reds player. Our promotion back to the 2nd Division, after a gap of 22 years, spent in the 3rd and 4th Divisions, was a marvellous time in our history. I was 10 when we were relegated in 1959, and 32 when we finally got back to where we'd spent all but 5 seasons from 1898 onwards.

 

Atyeo was a great centre-forward, who played virtually his entire career at Bristol City. I don't know if you saw us play Liverpool in the late 50s, but three games stick in my mind. We lost 0-5 at Oakwell on one occasion, but beat them 4-1 on another, and 2-1 on another. It was 0-0 at h.t. in the 4-1 win, and we staged a great comeback from 0-1 at h.t. in the 2-1 victory.

 

Weird how we have a thread about Martin Bullock. He reminded me of a will of the whisp fifties winger with oversize kit waving his arm as he went round a player like Charlie Charles.

 

There was always talk of the Reds in my house as a kid, my mother was a Fairclough and we're related to Arthur who used to live in the same street. My dad was also a fan, and was at Oakwell on the day I was born in 1952, watching us lose to Birmingham. (I came along later that evening).
I also remember a flurry of excitement one evening in the early 60s when there was a knock on our door and there stood a certain Jimmy Baxter - he'd taken over the paper shop and was calling for his money! I can still recall he was wearing his Preston North End blazer with the distinctive PP badge.
Ah memories. When it's in your blood....

 

I didn't see Baxter in his first spell with us, when he was, apparently, outstanding, a midfield wizard, though nobody ever used the term "midfield" then. I did see him in his second spell with us, when he was still a very skilful inside forward. I've just checked his stats and seen that he played 248 games for us and 245 for Preston, with whom he won an F.A. Cup runners-up medal in 1954. It's hard to imagine that someone these days who has played at such a good level would be taking over a newsagent's and knocking on doors to collect money. I remember seeing him walking down Eldon Street North, some years after he had retired, and noticing that his career seemed to have taken its toll on his knees.