(05-06-2020, 02:10 PM)Offside Wrote: when i was a kid, probably circa 1958/59 I remember being in Black Patch Park Smethwick on a Sunday morning.
It was either for the final of the work's league equivalent of the FA Cup, or the deciding game for the league title.
There were thousands of people on the touch line, ten deep on all four sides of the pitch, and they created an incredible atmosphere for a game of that stature and location.
Works football was a very big deal then, with companies like the Carriage Works , Averys, Tangys, IMI, Nettlefolds, the Drop Forgings in Rolfe Street, the bike companies Phiillips and Sturmey Archer in Bridge St and Downing St, and Mitchells and Butlers, putting out several teams over the weekends. I've probably missed quite a few but those spring to mind.
This was an era when Albion and the Wolves were dominating the league. But none of that matters now because football only started in this country when Sky say it did.
Huge then. M and B played cricket in the B'ham league when that and the Lancashire league were 2nd only to County Cricket.
Dunlop on Tyburn Rd had what could only be described as a sporting complex. There was another huge works sporting venue on Sedgley rd. East (or West!), by the Grovewood, London Works, Vono units. Golden years for sport and often being good at it was a clincher for a job.