PHS004 Brian Parkins MP3
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Audio details
| Collection Title | Champions of England: Oral Histories |
|---|---|
| Date of Recording | 11th November 2019 |
| Name of Interviewer | Samantha Middleton |
| Location of Interview | Portsmouth |
| Participant Name | Brian Parkins |
| Participant Date of Birth | 1st January 1936 |
| Participant Sex | Male |
| Participant Occupation | Retired |
| Participant Background | |
| Type of Recorder | Zoom H4n Pro |
| Track No | 1 |
| Track Duration | [00:28:22] |
| Recording Format | MP3 |
| Transcript Summary |
[00:00:00] Brian was a 13-year-old schoolboy in 1949. Living in Shearer Road, approximately a mile from Fratton Park. Remembers walking up the football lanes to the matches and that particularly season included going to a lot of reserve matches, 5 to 10,000 attendance for those games. Stood behind the Milton End, behind the goal with Cousin Tony. Mentions arriving about an hour before the match because that where all the action was in the goal mouth not in midfield. Remembers being lucky first season attending the team became Champions of the country. Remembers thinking then that was the norm but soon realised supporting Pompey was not always a bed of roses and had up and downs. Very large crowds, remembers 52,000 for the Derby County match. Very loud atmosphere. Remembers as kids and we arrived late and the crowds were already there. We literally got lifted up and passed over the crowds to the front so we could see. That was fun. [00:02:50] Most of the adults were still wearing jackets and ties and caps in those days and the casual dress hadn’t really come in then. Remembers the atmosphere being very smoky either smoking cigarettes and pipes. Remembers singing the Pompey Chimes and that was a big feature at the games. [00:03:52] Remembers a gentleman up in the North Stand selling Fisherman’s Friends lozenges and he would shout ‘cough no more, cough no more, come and get your lozenges’. [00:04:15] Lived a mile from the ground and used to set off and walk up through the football lanes and Jacobs Ladder through the railway yard. Remembers on the way back the massive crowds and coming back through the lanes jammed packed and as you got to the bridge everyone had to step up on to the first step and the children would be carried up the first few steps, legs in the air in the crowd. [00:05:15] Remembers it always being exciting going to games and still is. The anticipation especially if it was an important game or a game that was going depend on winning the championship. Remembers that sense of heightened anticipation. Never any segregation in those days, no home or away, everyone got a ticket and even away matches part of the crowd and never any aggravation. [00:06:31] Mentions being a teenager and was introduced to football by his father, a painter and decorator, took a step ladder and stood on that until they told him he couldn’t and then he took an old paint tin. Remembers parents being happy for him and cousin to go up on their own. Pretty happy to let you wander about in those days and played football on the Rec until it was dark or you were hungry. [00:07:39] Mentions not remembering first match but vividly remembers 2nd season and still owns a scrapbook created from that season. [00:08;10] Remembers then not being able to buy food and that you took a sandwich or a bar of chocolate. Mentions the adults dressed in suits and cloth caps. They wore school uniform without jackets and perhaps a jumper. Children didn’t wear ties in those days. [00:09:43] Mentions Portsmouth city after the blitz being a bombed city with a large number of bombed buildings. Mentions on way to matches that one side of Fifth Street was completely bombed out and a lot of rebuilding needed to be done. Some buildings remained like that until at least 10 years until after the war. Remembers we accepted the situation and played in the bomb sites. Cousin fell on a broken bottle and needed to go to hospital. No health and safety. Remembers football being delayed and restarted couple of seasons later and his interest of football really started in 1949/1950. Food was rationed still in those days and you had some sweets and needed coupons for everything else. [00:12:06] Mentions success of club helped morale and being the best in the country was morale boosting. Remembers to going to a few of the London games and was able to go by train to Arsenal, Charlton, Fulham and West Ham. Drew Notts County away in the FA Cup. Enjoyed seeing top players. Remembers watching Tommy Lawton and played for Notts County. Being in the crowd with other Notts County supporters and won 2 or 3-1. In those days didn’t have the tribal matches that you do today. Remembers the grounds were very individual in those days. Not like today when they are almost identical. [00:14:07] Charlton’s ground The Valley was a complete stone terrace but like a roman auditorium with high banks. Giving it its name of the Valley. Arsenal’s Highbury stadium that was individual but some very similar with the Lego stands all the way round. Fratton Park was quite a modern ground in those days but you wouldn’t get the same atmosphere if it was rebuilt now. [00:15:45] Mentions remembering not having much knowledge of how the club was run but remembers it being run by local City businessman. Directors were fairly wealthy to be able to buy players. Seemed to run well unlike recent owners. [00:16:31] Remembers playing for local team, Kingston Boys Club and mentions that every Thursday one of the Pompey players would come and train them at Alexandra Park under the lamp lights and Len Phillips and Jimmy Stephen were amongst them to help out. Remembers local teams that reached cup finals were able to play their final at Fratton Park. Mentions was lucky enough to play a couple of times on the hallowed turf. Remembers the first 10 minutes being in a daze because you were playing there and they had a large bath that was fun for everyone to jump in to. Recalls the players doing the training voluntary. [00:18:29] Remembers style of play similar to most teams, and not like todays 4-4-2 formations. Around 7 players were forward. Team of that era, Butler, Rookes, Scoular, Flewin, Dickinson wing halves, Harris, Clarke, Phillips, Reid and Froggatt, 5 forwards or 2 inside forwards. A lot more attacking football in those days. Much prefer football in those days. Lots more goal mouth action. Peter Harris was a quick right winger and he would run on to the ball, the Fratton Park roar as he accelerated pas the full-back was something to behold and remembers Harris getting a lot of goals and football was more of an attacking game. [00:20:47] Remembers the crowd helping the team by making a lot of noise. Mentions biggest roar heard and made hairs stand on the back of neck was against AC Milan around 10/15 years ago and we were winning 2-0 when we got in to Europe, with 20 minutes to go. Nearly took the roof off it was an amazing noise. [00:21:41] Remembers favourite player was Len Phillips, played for England and obviously came and trained us. Peter Harris, Duggie Reid, hardest shot in football, hit it like a cannonball. Mentions when retired couple of players got pubs, Ernie Butler had the Dog and Duck [ndlr George & Dragon] in Kingston Road. Jack Froggatt had the Milton Arms just round the corner from Fratton Park. So they remained part of the community. [00:22:55] Remembers the time when they won the title the 2nd time, playing against Aston Villa at Fratton Park, won 4-1 [ndlr 5-1]and spilled on to the pitch. Remembers photograph and how told wife Lillian he was in the picture and how she was also at the match with her sister, using magnifying glass found that they were stood 10 yards apart from each other and yet never met at the time. [00:24:16] Remembers vaguely the Title bus route that ended down at Southsea seafront. [00:24:38] Remembers the games against Newcastle, when Jackie Milburn scored what he recalls as his best goal of his career at Fratton and he picked up a ball on corner of penalty box whistled it into the top corner of the goal, always thought Ernie Butler should have saved it but never got a sniff of it. The club were right up there with all the big clubs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle United, Pompey were very highly regarded. Mentions rivalry wasn’t local as Southampton, Brighton and Bournemouth were in 3rd Division and lower leagues at the time. [00:27:02] Remembers when being behind Fratton goal and a guy was smoking a pipe and had placed his pipe in his pocket at start of the game. About 20 minutes in to the match we began to smell burning and the guy’s trousers were on fire. Beating trousers and was there for remainder of the match barely in his underpants. Mentions as a schoolboy found it particularly amusing. [00:28:22] End of interview |
| Copyright Clearance | Full |
| Copyright Holder | Pompey History Society |
