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| Evening Post Issue Number 1 |
On the telly… Two new comedies started; Dad’s
Army and Nearest and Dearest.
At Twydall Green… I bought my first single,
Esther and Abi Ofarim’s One More Dance. After a dozen plays I was sick of it. What
a waste of six and eight.
Out and about… Brian
Lack was one of several Upbury kids that were regulars at the Top Rank bowling
alley on the top road.
I fancied going too, but getting there at night wasn’t
practical for a thirteen year old in Twydall. A better idea was to go and see Burty and spend an afternoon at the Classic cinema, as the Odeon had been
renamed.
Football… a weekly football magazine
was launched on the first day of the new season in August.
After
watching Sam Leitch’s Football Preview on the telly at dinnertime, I spent the
afternoon with my ear glued to the wireless. Listening for scores flashes was
tense, but exciting, and there was always a chance the second half commentary
might come from the Manchester United game. If not, I hoped theirs would be one
of the two games on Match of the Day that night. Something else to look forward
to was The Big Match, a new London
based football highlights show on Sunday afternoons.
Wednesday August 14th.
Gillingham v Orient in the League Cup
My
first ever night match was something special: the haze of smoke drifting over
the crowd; Johnny Simpson’s legs glistening with liniment under the
floodlights; the atmosphere in the ground and the nerves I felt whenever Orient
crossed the half way line, I loved every minute of it. With plenty of excitement
in a game that finished 2-2, the highlight of a magical night came from the
opposition. From our position on the Gordon Road terrace, Paul and I were right
in line with Orient centre forward Vic Halom when he swivelled in mid air to
smash a volley past Johnny Simpson.
Moving to a three bed-roomed
house… had
been on the cards for sometime for our family of nine. A house on Harold Avenue, off Sturdee Avenue
appealed to Mam but put off by its Georgian windows, she opted to move to Aylesford Crescent,
at the bottom of Eastcourt Lane.
‘You’ll
like it,’ she said. ‘There’s a gas fire in the living room, so no more messing about
with a coal fire. It’s got two toilets, one inside, one outside. And it’s got a
lovely big garden with an apple tree and a pear tree, and a big wall where you
can play football.’
As
part of a three way switch between families occupying two, three and four
bedroom council houses in Twydall that day, Mam gave us every reason to be
cheerful on the march to our new home.
I was
happy with the move. I’d get home earlier from school and instant heat from a
gas fire was a luxury. Mam was right about everything except the garden wall.
Dad had other ideas about that, claiming that part of the garden for his
vegetable patch. ‘If you want to play football, clear off over the road,’ he
said. So I did, taking my ball across the road to Eastcourt Green, which was
overlooked by The Sportsman.
On
Saturday August 31st I returned to Priestfield Stadium to see
Gillingham v Luton
Town. There was little to
cheer in a 3-1 defeat, with Brian Lewis, Laurie Sheffield and Bruce Rioch
scoring for Luton. Just as I was getting to
football more often, it seemed Gillingham were
falling apart. But there was hope for the future, I believed, when I spotted Geoff Bray in the 1968/69 team photos.
I
looked at the strange headline on the back page of the Sunday newspaper.
Someone called Gary Sobers had hit six successive sixes in a cricket match. I
didn’t bother to read the rest. I was more interested in the football reports.
At home… Mam cut our hair, ready for us
going back to school, with an electric clipper she’d invested in when sending
us off to the barber got too dear. At a time when long hair was fashionable I
had my customary crew-cut. Not so my fashion-conscious brothers Dave and Mike.
They weren’t keen on pudding basin cuts either, which they only submitted to
once they realised the only alternative was a haircut like mine.
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