Down Memory Lane

[Forty-Niner]

Reading of some players being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds per week seems a far cry from the maximum £12 per week which existed when I first went to Orient.
According to the Office of National Statistics £12 then equates to £420 at today’s values. Quite a contrast to what the lowest paid players now earn.
What else then has changed? Leather lace up balls, shirts with collars and boots, which to paraphrase Henry Ford, you could have in any colour so long as it was brown.
The physio in those days was known as “The sponge and bucket man”. He had a bucket of cold water and run onto the pitch with a dripping sponge which he was applied to the affected area. Injured players would hobble up and down the wing for the rest of the game, or in more serious cases, the team would have to continue one short.
No substitutes were allowed until 1965 and then only one and that for an injured player.
From memory our first ever sub was Irishman Joe Ellwood.
Before motorways road travel could be tortuous, resulting in players mainly travelling to away games by train. Supporters usually did the same.
Railway coaches had a corridor with individual compartments opened by a sliding door.
Several of our team could be seen in a compartment playing cards with Chairman, Harry Zussman. The players would be smoking cigarettes and Harry puffing on a giant cigar. The atmosphere was so thick with smoke you could cut it with a knife.
At that period we only had one seating stand at our ground which was on the east side and held 475. The west side was covered standing only and the rest of the ground was open cinder banking.
The current east stand was bought in 1956 from the derelict Mitcham stadium and was in three sections seating 2600, a fourth section being added in 1962 bringing the total capacity to 3500.
In those days very few people had cars and I would go to home games by pedal cycle. For a small fee this could be left in the garden of an enterprising resident of Oliver Road.
People seemed more trustworthy as we always left with the same bike we had arrived with.
As far as other match results, we had to wait at a newsagent shop for the classified edition of the evening paper, Star, News or Standard, whichever arrived first.
Yes, there have been many changes – almost all for the better.

[Disoriented]

Reading of some players being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds per week seems a far cry from the maximum £12 per week which existed when I first went to Orient.
According to the Office of National Statistics £12 then equates to £420 at today’s values. Quite a contrast to what the lowest paid players now earn.
What else then has changed? Leather lace up balls, shirts with collars and boots, which to paraphrase Henry Ford, you could have in any colour so long as it was brown.
The physio in those days was known as “The sponge and bucket man”. He had a bucket of cold water and run onto the pitch with a dripping sponge which he was applied to the affected area. Injured players would hobble up and down the wing for the rest of the game, or in more serious cases, the team would have to continue one short.
No substitutes were allowed until 1965 and then only one and that for an injured player.
From memory our first ever sub was Irishman Joe Ellwood.
Before motorways road travel could be tortuous, resulting in players mainly travelling to away games by train. Supporters usually did the same.
Railway coaches had a corridor with individual compartments opened by a sliding door.
Several of our team could be seen in a compartment playing cards with Chairman, Harry Zussman. The players would be smoking cigarettes and Harry puffing on a giant cigar. The atmosphere was so thick with smoke you could cut it with a knife.
At that period we only had one seating stand at our ground which was on the east side and held 475. The west side was covered standing only and the rest of the ground was open cinder banking.
The current east stand was bought in 1956 from the derelict Mitcham stadium and was in three sections seating 2600, a fourth section being added in 1962 bringing the total capacity to 3500.
In those days very few people had cars and I would go to home games by pedal cycle. For a small fee this could be left in the garden of an enterprising resident of Oliver Road.
People seemed more trustworthy as we always left with the same bike we had arrived with.
As far as other match results, we had to wait at a newsagent shop for the classified edition of the evening paper, Star, News or Standard, whichever arrived first.
Yes, there have been many changes – almost all for the better.

Cheers Sid.

[Chief crazy horse]

Yeah, what made you change your username, Sid?

[Real Al]

No mention of peanuts or half-time scores on the pitchside wall

[cymruO]

Rosettes on sale outside plus little plastic stars in your team's colours, with a player's photo in the middle. No floodlights either.

[point nine one eight]

No mention of peanuts or half-time scores on the pitchside wall

Don't forget that old cry of"Peanuts tanner a bag, Peanuts" sung by the sellers, way before burgers were even thought of.

[Disoriented]

No mention of peanuts or half-time scores on the pitchside wall

Don't forget that old cry of"Peanuts tanner a bag, Peanuts" sung by the sellers, way before burgers were even thought of.

Loved that.

[Forty-Niner]

Floodlights introduced in 1960.
Good call with the half time scores.
There used to be a peanut seller, who stood where Big Ron sells Pandamonium. He had a slight speech impediment and used to cry "Peanuts their roasted".

[Lucky7]

No mention of peanuts or half-time scores on the pitchside wall

Don't forget that old cry of"Peanuts tanner a bag, Peanuts" sung by the sellers, way before burgers were even thought of.

Loved that.

Lol And yet you belly ache about No Burgers constantly
One step forward Two step backwards

(Max Romeo)

[one o in huntingdon]

Golden Goal ticket girls in Red outfits and White boots.
Also the miniature bottle of spirits for season ticket holders at a Boxing Day game

[Chief crazy horse]

Floodlights introduced in 1960.
Good call with the half time scores.
There used to be a peanut seller, who stood where Big Ron sells Pandamonium. He had a slight speech impediment and used to cry "Peanuts their roasted".

.. Anyone know what he's up to these days?

[Disoriented]

Floodlights introduced in 1960.
Good call with the half time scores.
There used to be a peanut seller, who stood where Big Ron sells Pandamonium. He had a slight speech impediment and used to cry "Peanuts their roasted".

.. Anyone know what he's up to these days?

I heard he got a salted.

[FargO]

No Saturday was complete without a copy of the Evening Standard with the classified football results.

[tuffers#1]

No Saturday was complete without a copy of the Evening Standard with the classified football results.

Wasnt it the Evening news did that on the front page.
Then the standard bought the failing news out whenever it was & carried it on ?

[point nine one eight]

No Saturday was complete without a copy of the Evening Standard with the classified football results.

Wasnt it the Evening news did that on the front page.
Then the standard bought the failing news out whenever it was & carried it on ?

Sports reports on back and inside back pages, all London team games reported on, Fudge column on back page gave final score

[tuffers#1]

No Saturday was complete without a copy of the Evening Standard with the classified football results.

Wasnt it the Evening news did that on the front page.
Then the standard bought the failing news out whenever it was & carried it on ?

Sports reports on back and inside back pages, all London team games reported on, Fudge column on back page gave final score

Yes but who did it ?

In the early 70s to nearly the late 70s it was the evening news .
When the news folded the standard did a couple of years .

Did the standard do it during the 60s a Saturday copy that is .

[Forty-Niner]

The three London evening papers carried classified editions on Saturdays.
The Evening Star ceased publication in 1960. The Evening News was incorporated into the Evening Standard in 1980.

[Lucky7]

My old dad reckons the evening sports papers over the years where pink and sometimes green

[tuffers#1]

Just looked something up.

The standard stopped its saturday edition
30th november 1974.

Express paper merved in 1980 & the Evening news was incorporated.

It was called the New Standard until 1985 & went back to the evening standard after.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.indepe ... html%3famp

Good read on tge demise of saturday papers nationally

[Forty-Niner]

My old dad reckons the evening sports papers over the years where pink and sometimes green

Certainly in provincial towns the Saturday classified editions were known as "The Pink Un" or""The Green Un" so named because that was the colour of the paper they were printed on.

[banqo]

You used to get three editions on Saturday. The football preview one, half time scores(on sale as you left the ground at the end of the game) and the Classified results at around six o clock. I've still got two or three tucked away somewhere.

[Clive Evans]

The first away match I ever went to, was Huddersfield V Chelsea in 3rd Round FA Cup in 1967. After the match, I managed to acquire one of those pink things ( they were always printed on white newspaper in London ). The full-time scores were only printed in the stop-press. I am not sure if there was an account of the match, and if there was it would have been misleading as Huddersfield scored an equaliser late in the first-half. It didn't tell the good Yorkshire folk that Huddersfield had been annihilated by Chelsea 2-1

[Oldgit]

Don’t forget the rickety scoreboard at the south terrace along with the club shop (garden shed).

[WGC O]

I have the evening standard and evening news additions when we beat Chelsea in 1972

[one o in huntingdon]

I remember watching the O's away up North in the 70''s and picking up the Green or Pink papers on the way home in the motorway services.
Also recall going up the shop to get the Evening News classified shortly after a home game, only lived a few roads away from the ground