Weaned too fast off the National Dried Milk

          Today, Monday, March 26th, is my youngest sister, M’s birthday and this blog is my gift to her. It is about a time she won’t remember because she hadn’t yet been born but I hope it will inform her or better still amuse her about what went on before her coming.   If I’m spared I will in the near future write a further blog about the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the time of  M’s birth in 1955 at Clement Park in Dundee, but I need to discuss these matters with my sister before I write about it.

              A couple of days ago I received an email from my nephew, AR, an Aston Villa fan who currently lives in the Howe o’ the Mearns. He told me he was writing a book about Forfar Athletic Football Club. He has written other books about football and he was also the founding editor of Missing Sid an Aston Villa Fanzine. His decision to write the history of the Loons inevitably minded me of my young days in Forfar, from where my first memory stems. 

On October 1st, 1945, I was born in the Dundee Royal Infirmary and in 1946, after spending six months as a baby in Fleming Gardens, Dundee (which, unbeknownst to me at such a tender age, was within pie throwing range of the  hallowed turf of Dens Park), I was moved by my parents to 9 Green Street, Forfar because my father had been appointed as an engineer to the Coventry Gauge and Tool Company which had a factory in nearby Brechin. 

          Six months later my younger sister, J, was born in Forfar. She is the mother of AR, and it is mete and right that he should be the author of a book about his mother's home town fitba club.

          Where was I? Yes, minding my first memory. I think I was about 2 years old at the time. In the years around the time I was born mothers of new born babes were often encouraged to start bottle feeding their infants on powdered milk, which had been stirred into warm water,  as soon as they could. 

I am sure as a baby I was weaned too rapidly off the big tins of National Dried Milk otherwise it would never  have occurred to me - a wee two years old laddie -  to snatch the milk bottle out of the hands of a baby lying in one of those posh high Rolls Royce-like carriages that were the prams pushed by aspirant parents in those days. With that baby’s bottle in my hand I guzzled happily at the milk until, (a), the bereft baby began to cry and scream loudly and  (b), I was discovered by the baby’s mother  who vehemently informed me  that I was a wicked, greedy and selfish boy. My own mother arrived on the scene quite promptly and apologised profusely for her errant son’s behaviour.  If such a state is possible, my mother seemed both ashamed and amused at what had happened. Despite the ectasy of  ingesting a great deal of that comforting warm milk it dawned upon me that the tone of the grown ups’ voices signalled that I had done something dreadful. My sense of my mother’s ambivalence - ashamed, yet amused - was a seminal moment for me. How could something so viscerally satisfying be so wrong? 

An elixir from the giving bosom of the state

This is not to say that things have gone downhill ever since but more to say that things have remained the same. I’ve imagined ever since that those who are close to me have not necessarily been ashamed of me but more disappointed in me. Equally it may be they have been less amused by me and more bemused by me. 

 
          I may reflect more on those Forfar years.

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          As a footnote I would add that at the time about which I am writing, the late 1940s  our newly established National Health Service provided this free milk to all infants and toddlers and so it was a boon to their mothers. It was also a great help to those mothers who found it difficult to provide milk naturally. 

         
         At the same time Attlee's Labour government provided free cow's milk to all children at primary schools and to supplement our children's diet it also provided all children with cod liver oil and concentrated orange juice. What a caring, concerned approach this was towards the nurture of all our children, especially at a time when our country, bankrupted by war, was poor. Our current government boasts that we are the fifth or sixth wealthiest economy in the world and yet look at our state. Increasing poverty, financial cuts to welfare, to education, to libraries and so on, not to mention the deliberate, considered deconstruction and destruction of this country's greatest achievement, the National Health Service.

       

Between the desert and the dark blue sea : restricted views in Dundee

The one and only time I’ve been to Tannadice was in 1954 when the primary 5, 6 and 7 classes of Liff  Road School were taken to the combined Dundee Primary Schools Sports Day to watch the athletics.  I imagine the best athletes from our school were taking part but I don’t recall being told about them. It seems to me now that in those days we just arrived at places we were taken to with no explanation of why we were there. It is possible we may have been told about what it all meant but it’s certainly not something I can recall.

What I do recall on arriving there was noticing that unlike Dens Park, Tannadice didn’t have a grandstand. It had a ramshackle pavilion on the southeast corner of the ground. I was distinctly underwhelmed by the scene and quite understood why Dundee United (who at that time played in shirts with broad black and white horizontal bands) were only in the ‘B’ division while Dundee were in the ‘A’ division.

Well things change and both clubs - though no one could have guessed it then - had famously glorious eras ahead of them. They now have them behind them. 

In 1954 it was little wonder to me that Dundee FC, with its pitch long grandstand and, what seemed to me as a 9 years old boy, huge terraces on the other three sides of the park, was indisputably the city’s elite football club. Having a much grander stadium than the team down the road was overwhelming evidence of this. In 1953 I had been at Dens Park with my Dad and Grandad when there were 43,000 spectators in the ground for a Rangers match and it gave me a great deal of satisfaction that the record crowd at Tannadice was at that time only 26,407.

Moving on, this past New Year of 2015,  over 60 years after my first visit to Tannadice, I decided that with Dundee back in the Scottish Premier League I would take my wife to see the festive time local derby at the desert a few yards down from Sandeman Street. Now I say I had decided to take my wife as if this would be a rare treat for her. It wasn’t. She hails from slightly warmer climes in the south of England, and sitting outside on a damp, dreich Dundee afternoon on January 1st does not immediately come to her mind as being a special treat, but on occasions like this when my childlike enthusiasm bursts through her tolerance emerges and she humours me.

With the decision made to go to Tannadice I ‘phoned the good folk at the ticket office at Dens Park who are allocated a certain amount of tickets for Dundee fans from Dundee United for the matches at Tannadice.

"Hello, ticket office,"  says a deep, gruff, Dundee voice.

"I wanted to go to the United match, and wondered if you’d got any tickets left."

"Eh, we've a few left."

"Well can I have two then please ?"

"Eh, well, ye can, but they’re 'restricted view.' "

"How d'you mean 'restricted view ?' "

"Eh dinnae ken. Eh dinnae work doon there. Eh work at Dens.”

"So what do I do? Should I phone them up to find out what 'restricted view' means? "

"Ye can if ye like."

"Thanks."

A few minutes later I am listening to a recorded message from a posh, slightly Irish sounding male voice. "Hello there! And a very warm welcome to Tannadice, the home of Dundee United. If you would like our Commercial Department please press one, if you’d like our Ticket Department please press two, if you’d like our…."

I pushed the two on my ‘phone screen.

"Hello, this is the Dundee United Ticket Office. I’m Alison and how can I help you today?"

“Well maybe you won’t want to help me because I support the other side, but I was speaking with our ticket office this morning and they said they still had a few tickets for the match on New Year’s Day but they said they were 'restricted view'. The man didn’t seem to know what that meant so I’ve phoned you up to find out what ‘restricted view’ means before I purchase my tickets."

"Oh! That’s really a bit naughty. We’ve told your people they shouldn’t really try to sell those tickets."

 "So what does ‘restricted view’ mean ? "

"Basically it means you can’t see the pitch."

My wife and I watched the match in the Artisan pub at Abbeyhill in Edinburgh. The landlord grudgingly agreed to put the match on the smallest of his 4 TV screens. He really wanted all the screens to show an English Premier League match.

By half-time the writing of an unhappy tale was already well on the wall and at the shrill full-time whistle, even with cricked necks aching from staring at a tiny TV screen situated high up in a corner of the pub, we were still glad we hadn’t gone to Tannadice to 'listen' - from our ‘restricted view’ position -  to a humiliating 6-2 defeat.

Restricted view for Dundee fans at Tannadice

Still we had more than consolation four months later while sitting in the old main grandstand at a packed Dens Park  - which is a lovable dump of an old stadium -  to watch the Famous XI gain its first triumph over United for 10 years. A wonderful occasion not at all marred by a thinnish stanchion which restricted just some of our view.

'Restricted view' Dundee FC style : example of a Dens Park stanchion

  

My 100 top fitba' teams : some kind of autobiography

OK, I've deceived you.  I only ended up with 30 teams but I thought the title My 100 top fitba' teams had more of a ring to it and would attract more attention than, "My 30 top fitba' teams." So gi'e us a chance and read on.



1. Dundee 
This is my team. I own it in my soul and I also have a £1 share in it which allows me to vote at the AGM.  I first went to a match there with my friend GL in late 1952. After reading about football in the sports page of The Courier, I'd said to my Mummy I'd like to go to a football match and she said I should go to Dens Park because they'd let you in free at half-time. They did. Dundee were playing Falkirk. Our greatest season was 1961-2 when we won the Scottish League Championship. We reached the semi-final of the European Cup - now the Champions' League - the following season.

The famous XI  :  Dundee FC  Season 1961-1962

I am a club record holder. In 1953 I was in the 43,000 crowd at Dens Park when Dundee played Rangers in the Scottish Cup. It is the highest attendance figure recorded at Dens Park. It was the only time I remember my Daddy (as I called him then) taking me to a football match. We went with Grandad Sharpe. We stood at the top of the terrace at the west end of the ground where the Bobby Cox Stand now is. I was able to see the match because I was sitting on my Daddy's shoulders.

Last season, 2013/2014,  we were Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) Champions and were promoted to the Scottish Premier League. My wife and I were there.



2. Montrose 
This is my second team because my son and I together went to see the Links Park Dynamo in the early 1970s.  More familiarly nicknamed "The Gable Endies"  after the many buildings in the town that have their gable ends to the fore, after no doubt, the architecture of the Dutch ports with which in previous centuries the Montrose merchants plied their trade.  Enough information.  I still call them the Links Park Dynamo because the supporters used to sing, to the tune of The Red Flag, (even though Montrose play in blue),

We fear no foe where e'er we go,
We are the Links Park Dynamo.

Those were special times for me.  The "Dynamo" was managed by Alex Stuart  and it had arguably its finest ever side at that time including, among others, the attacking full back Les Barr, ace goal scorer, Brian Third, and the legendary striker, Bobby Livingston.



3. Manchester United 
United has been my "English" club since 1956 when I followed the exploits of the "Busby Babes". In 1958 when I was 12 years old and newly arrived in Coventry,  the Munich air disaster occurred in which 8 players and officials from the club died. This cemented my sympathy and support for United. I watched them play a couple of times at Highfield Road. The last time I saw them George Best, Bobby Charlton, Pat Crerand, Willie Morgan, Nobby Stiles and Alex Stepney were in the team.



4. Coventry City 
I first saw Coventry City in 1958 playing against York City (a 2-0 home win) at the old Highfield Road Stadium and I followed them until I left Coventry in 1968. They were nicknamed the Bantams when I started watching them but after Jimmy Hill became manager they were called the Sky Blues. The best occasion that I associate  with Coventry City is watching them in 1967 beat Wolves to win the second division title (now the championship) and so gain promotion to the first division (now the premier division) at Highfield Road when there was a record crowd of over 51,000. (Another of  the record crowd medals that I have in my ethereal trophy cabinet). I had many favourite players during the time I watched Coventry City but for some reason or another my favourite has always been the centre forward, George Hudson. Maybe it's because I saw him close up standing in a shop in Walsgrave on Sowe.
I am happy to hear that after playing in Northampton for 15 months the club has now returned to the Ricoh Stadium to play its home games in Coventry once again.

Coventry City promoted to the top division, 1967. I watched the match below that distant floodlight stanchion - yes those are people hanging on it.

5. Lochee Harp 

From about 1952, if Dundee was playing away from home I would walk up through Clement Park, walk around the edge of the industrial estate and there next to the Veeder Root factory was Beechwood Park the home of Lochee Harp Scottish junior football club which at that time played in the Dundee Junior League. The ground was an enclosed one and adults had to pay to get in, but my friend GL and I were allowed in free. They reached the Scottish Junior Cup Final in 1957 but lost to Aberdeen Sunnybank  1-2 at Hampden Park.



6. Hartlepool United 
At Trent Park Teachers' Training College in the 1960s I met and became acquainted with an unathletic bloke, TC, who nevertheless was one of the finest footballers I ever saw. He could dribble past people with intricate ball control and could score goals for fun. I once saw him score a goal from 70 yards in a college match. He liked to be known as "the black flash". I never discovered why. He always wore a black tee shirt under his strip, and certainly for such a burly fellow he could turn and flash past people before they knew what he had done. He followed the horses and was always having a punt. After reading the Racing Post he would decide which steeds he would lay his money on. Decision made, he would grandiosely prepare to leave his digs saying "Ah'm gangin' to the bookies, Why, Charlie Ah've some racing certainties the day"  TC was born and had lived all his life before his arrival at teacher training college, in Trimdon Station, County Durham. He was a Hartlepool United fan and since the 1960s Hartlepool United is a club which like my own has enjoyed mixed fortunes.



7. Torquay United
I joined  the Yellow Army when in 2012  I took my wife, daughter and two grandsons to see the Gulls  play at Plainmoor. We have repeated this exercise every season since,  when the boys and their Mum visit us.



8 Elliott Albion
In 1956 GL and I watched this team who played at Camperdown Park. We saw them on the Saturdays Dundee were away from home and Lochee Harp were away from home. They played in what was called the Dundee Juvenile League but the players were men as far as us wee laddies were concerned. The goals didn't have nets. The Elliot Albion goalie was called "Jim".  He had fair to ginger coloured hair. We used to stand by his goal and talk to him during the matches. He was our hero.



9. Johnshaven Dauntless
The Dauntless was a junior football league team founded a long time ago. When we lived in Johnshaven between 1970 to 1976 the team had ceased to be a regular unit for a number  years  but it would reform sometimes for occasional matches with local sides. In 1971 it officially reformed as an amateur team in the Fettercairn League.

Jimmy Stephen, Portsmouth and Scotland, the most famous Dauntless Player

I remember passing by Wairds Park one Sunday when they were about to play the team from Gourdon, the fishing village 3 miles to the north. As well as the Gourdon team, a fair few Gourdon lads had come along to watch their boys. There were a few scuffles between the Gourdon lads and the young Johnner supporters  but it never amounted to anything which threatened life. There was no need of police intervention and in any case there wasn't a policeman stationed in Johnshaven. I knew this, for one day when I was getting off the bus from Montrose I heard a woman say to the bus driver as she got off the bus at the same time as me, "We dinna' hae need o' a bobby in Johnner we're a' guid fowk."




10. Aston Villa
I've had a weakness for the Villa since my Birmingham/Stonehaven nephews, A, S, and C, started, in the order they were born, to support the Villa from the 1970s. I like supporters who remain loyal through the difficult times and Villa supporters have had no shortages of difficult times. My eldest nephew and Godson wrote, edited and published the Villa fanzine Missing Sid.



11. St Mary's FC
I support this team because my eldest Birmingham/Stonehaven nephew AR not only played for them but wrote a book called The Weight about one season in the life of the club.

The Weight by Alex Russon : the story of a season with St. Mary's FC

12. Maritimo
I've supported this Madeiran club since 2003 when I went to see them play Sporting Clube de Portugal better known to most of us as Sporting Lisbon at Estadio dos Barreiros in Madeira. Playing superbly well for the Sporting Lisbon team that night was a 17 years old player, who was born in Madeira and who has gone on to have an illustrious career. I've forgotten his name for the moment... Cristiano something I think.  Sporting won 4-0 that night in front of a crowd of about 4,500.


13. Olympique de Marrakech
We spent Christmas 2012 at a hotel in Marrakech and I asked one of the staff what the nearest football club was. It happened to be Olympique de Marrakech  and he told me they were playing on the next day. He gave me directions to the stadium which was only a kilometre away.  I walked to the stadium but couldn't find the entrance. When I asked where I had to go, a kind old man took my hand and led me to the gate. It was a good purpose built stadium. There was a crowd of about 1500. There were no women among the spectators. Olympique drew with Ouida 2-2.



14. Leyton Orient
I worked in Leyton from 1992 to 1994 and would go down to Brisbane Road. It was just about the time they were changing to the new league structure and Leyton were in the lowest division but I liked the atmosphere there. The supporters were all faithful, passionate and loyal friends of their club.



15. Sunderland
As a boy I always liked the name of Sunderland and looking at the photos in the newspapers Roker Park seemed massive. Since I first knew about football I've always been obsessed by football stadiums. Sunderland had a famous player called Raich Carter. His first name fascinated me then and does now.

Raich Carter

 I've still not met anyone named Raich. The great Jim Baxter played for the Black Cats but I think he was just over his best by then though I stand to be corrected. My father in law George Ferry was born in Sunderland and supported them from afar.
I first saw Sunderland in 1963 at Highfield Road when they were beaten 2-1  by Coventry City in the 5th round of the FA Cup in front of a 40, 000 crowd.



16.  Hibernian  
I've always had a sympathy for the Hibs from the early 1950s in the days of  the Famous Five forward line but my greatest thrill was to go with my elder grandson, S, who was born in Edinburgh, to see them play at Easter Road against Livingston in the Scottish Championship at the beginning of this season (2014/2015). In this game the Hibees' goalie Mark Oxley scored a goal directly from his own penalty area with a huge clearing punt.



17. Raith Rovers
Who could not have respect for Raith Rovers FC the small club from Kirkcaldy where my younger grandson J was born ? This is the club that nurtured the great Jim Baxter but my proudest moment to do with Raith Rovers was to go to Starks Park with my younger grandson J and his brother S  to see the Rovers end up victorious in a League Cup match against Forfar Athletic earlier this season.



18. Newcastle United
I watched the toon on a few occasions in the season of 1984-85 with my Welsh friend ES when we were both seconded to a course at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. On one occasion we attended  an FA Youth Cup match there against Watford. We looked on from the Gallowgate end of St James' where a wonderful young 18 years old player by the name of Gascoigne was gracing the field. Newcastle went on to win the FA Youth Cup that season.



19. Arbroath
Who could not admire the "Red Lichties" playing at a ground battered by the North Sea and who for such a small club played in Scotland's top division for a season or two in the 1970s? In the mid-1950s my friend GL's sister for a while went out with a lad called Charlie Dunn, a  young full back who was on the books of Arbroath at that time.



20. Potters Green
In  1958,  my family moved to Coventry and we lived in the Potters Green area of the city. Here there was an amateur team who played in the local recreation park  called Potters Green FC and the leader of the boys' club I joined in Potters Green was a man called Peter -  I can't remember his second name  - who played left back for them and I went to watch the side for a season before I became more interested in Coventry City.



21 Partick Thistle
In 1977 I took a group of young people to Glasgow. They were members of the pipe band of a residential establishment where I worked in Watford, Hertfordshire. The boys played for the crowd at the beginning of a match at Firhill between Partick Thistle and Celtic. After the match, we met with Kenny Dalglish  but the real thrill was to see the Maryhill Magyars play. Alan Hansen was playing for them that night. Both he and Dalglish joined Liverpool the following season. It seems a shame but it is a good story, that Billy Connolly thought they were called Partick Thistle Nil.



22. Barton Rovers
I've followed this club since about 1987. I was preparing to walk the Ridgeway and so every day I was hiking in the hills around Hitchin and Luton to get fit for my trek. One day I came upon this village, Barton. It was in wooded country just north of Luton and among the trees I caught sight of this trim and neat little football stadium. It was the home of Barton Rovers who a few seasons before had been the runners up in the FA Vase. I see that they are still in the FA Cup this season. The idea of this stadium hidden among the trees in Bedfordshire still holds magic for me.



23. Everton
I've supported Everton since the late 1950s. Two of my footballing heroes then were Jimmy Gabriel who was transferred from Dundee to Everton and Alex Scott who was transferred from the Rangers to Everton. When I turned up in Totnes in 1989, CW, the landlord of The Bull Inn at that time was an Evertonian but he was not sectarian and the Bull Inn was for many years the Scouse consulate for Totnes and both blues and reds congregated there.



24. Brechin City
When I played cricket for Montrose from 1970 to 1974 we used  to play against Brechin Cricket Club and it was there that I found out that one side of Brechin FC's ground was bounded by a hedge. How could you not warm to a club with a hedge ?

Brechin City's hedge - once threatened by EUFA but now saved

25. Forfar Athletic
This would have been my Dad's home club but he was never really interested in football. He was much more interested in flying model aeroplanes. Nonetheless I've always had a soft spot for the Loons for I lived in Forfar from 1946 to 1950. In the summer of 1946 I  came third in a bonny baby competition at a fete held at Station Park, home of the Loons. I am  particularly interested in them at the moment as one of my heroes, Rab Douglas,  plays in goal for them.

Bronze medallist in a bonny baby competition, 1946

26. Ottery St. Mary
I have a friend, Ian, who is a scouser and a Liverpool supporter but his hobby is to go around the south-west and often further afield watching matches at as many different non-league clubs as he can. Sometimes I go with him on his jaunts and one of the teams I like because their supporters are so friendly is Ottery St. Mary in Devon where the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge spent much of his boyhood because his father was the vicar there.

STC : He never got off the substitutes' bench

27. Liverpool
The powerful mental energy of Bill Shankly drew me to this club in the late 1960s. As an aside, his brother Bob was the manager of Dundee FC in its most successful period to date. My support was reinforced when Kenny Dalglish, for a number of reasons a hero of mine  joined the Reds and then when I learned that both my grandsons had taken up with Liverpool as their English team, this re-affirmed the wisdom of my original decision.

28. Totnes and Dartington FC
My non-league enthusiast Ian drew me here as well. I brought my grandsons to their ground to play football in the summer when there was nobody there. Like all boys still are, I think,  they were excited to play on a ground that had a perimeter fence and goals with nets.

A pitch with nets and a perimeter fence. (Courtesy of  Ian Whittingham).

29. Gosfield School Under Twelves
This was the only football team I ever coached and it was undefeated in season 1968/69. The best player was a boy called Steven Foley who I think became a professional football player. On the basis of this I think I merit consideration for the Scotland job.

30. Watford
I've been sympathetic to Watford Football Club since 1976 when as a family we moved from Johnshaven to Watford. Elton John became chairman of the club and appointed Graham Taylor as manager. The best match I saw at Vicarage Road was a 4-3 FA Cup replay against local rivals Luton Town. Paul Walsh scored two excellent goals for the Hatters but Mo Johnston scored two goals for the Hornets and John Barnes scored a brilliant goal for them too.

The enigmatic Mo Johnston heads one home for Watford against Luton 

My football recollections seem in a mixed up way to provide a particular narrative of a large part of my life. There are other possible narratives but maybe they too, like this list, will never get near to the whole story.

A young woman asks Alasdair Gray about his novel "Lanark" : the trauchle of supporting Dundee FC and other major causes

When the outcome of a major or minor event is something that doesn't please you, for example, like  the result of a football match today at Dens Park,  Dundee 1 Dundee United 4,  it is tempting to analyse and rationalise it until the will to live is lost.  It can be a right trauchle. It exhausts the mental substance.  Having attended an event at the Edinburgh Book Festival in Charlotte Square this August past, I have moved towards persuading myself that I am cured of this affliction.

After giving some readings at the festival from Of Me and Others : An Autobiography, a book he says is the nearest he'll ever get to writing an autobiography,  the Scottish literary and artistic phenomenon that is Alasdair Gray was told by a 16 years old voter and school student in the audience that she and her fellow students had been asked to read and study his novel, Lanark for their Scottish Highers examination at school. She wondered what he thought about that.

Alasdair Gray said that he had been shocked to hear that school students should be asked to study his books. He feared that if children had to study them in an academic and analytic way as they did Shakespeare they would come to hate him just as they hated Shakespeare. Before you start throwing literary bricks at me, I hasten to add that I gained the impression he was making a statement about the way literature is taught rather than denying the merits of the English bard. He said that he just wanted people to read his books and enjoy them  -  nothing more.

He asked his questioner if she had enjoyed his book.  She said she had. That pleased him.

From this, for the time being, I have concluded that you either like a book or you don't like a book. If you fail to find favour in one, before wasting any time on reflection,  move on swiftly and read another in the hope that it will be better. This may also be true for other events in life.

I'll be picking up my next book soon. Dundee play Dundee United in the Scottish League Cup at Tannadice  on Wednesday night.