PHS009 Ray Crawford MP3
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Audio details
| Collection Title | Champions of England: Oral Histories |
|---|---|
| Date of Recording | 24th January 2020 |
| Name of Interviewer | Michelle Saunders |
| Location of Interview | Fareham |
| Participant Name | Ray Crawford |
| Participant Date of Birth | 13th July 1936 |
| Participant Sex | Male |
| Participant Occupation | Professional footballer |
| Participant Background |
Played for Portsmouth, Ipswich, Peterborough, Wolves, West Brom, Colchester Played for England Won league championship medal with Ipswich in 1962 Scored twice on BBC TV Match of the Day in 1971 as Colchester beat Leeds 3-2 in the FA Cup Latterly youth coach at Portsmouth FC Broadcaster with Express FM |
| Type of Recorder | Zoom H4n Pro |
| Track No | 1 |
| Track Duration | [00:26:43] |
| Recording Format | MP3 |
| Transcript Summary |
[00:00:00] Ray Crawford was born in Fratton Road, near to Fratton Park, now 83 years old. Dad was a professional boxer, quite high but he packed it early and Mum would never let him do boxing so the next thing was to play football. Remembers not being very good at first due to having asthma until 14 years old. Then I became an athlete and football was the main sport although played Cricket for Hampshire and at 15 needed to decide what sport to play and football won. Mentions career was good and was dedicated to playing football. Mentions being born in Pompey it was fantastic. Team were playing well and going to Fratton Park it was brilliant. Remembers first biggest matches were in 1949 when we were beating all the big sides, Newcastle, Arsenal, those types of teams and winning the championship. Remembers the match when new floodlights were fitted [ndlr in 1953]. Mentions that being his era, all the great names, Peter Harris, Len Phillips, Ernie Butler in goal was a great time. [00:02:18] Remembers living in Hilsea and walked from there and the supporters and the atmosphere of being in and amongst the crowd when gates were 48,000 and being part of it and players playing so well. Mentions the number of internationals that Pompey had at that time. [00:03:10] Mentions that although born in Fratton Road, being bombed out during the war and family having to move to flats in Crasswell Street, then suddenly Dad come home and said we’ve got a house in Hilsea. Remembers Uncle Charlie having a horse and cart and imagine us going from Arundel Street to Hilsea on it with all our belongings except Mum and Dad, moving to 1 Horsley Road and it was quite an experience moving house. [00:04:10] Remembers the city was not nice to be in Portsmouth due to be bombed so much family would stay up on the hill. Would travel from school up to the hill at 4pm and stay there until 8am the next morning. Loved playing on the hill and used to sleep in bunk beds in the tunnels and quite an experience being young. Remembers the war not really affecting the football. Always football matches being played whether it was the Army, Navy or Portsmouth and remembers more after the war. Remember the successes of the team and going to the train station with his Father to meet the team coming back from their winning of the title back from London to cheer the team as they arrived. Mentions family not being able to afford doing that time parents having 4 children. Occasionally due time with Youth Team if played away Father would take him to an away match. Mentions not always played at the stadiums and normally at the training grounds except at Chelsea when the Youth Team would go on and play after the first team which happened at Fratton Park. Mentions then sometimes playing in front of big crowds so a lot of the supporters were allowed to stay, although by half time when we came back out there was normally only about 100 supporters left. [00:08:13] Mentions not really thinking about how the club was run at the time until becoming a member of the coaching staff when you realise the finances as you can’t do what you like with regards to players and the youth team as there was no money around. As a player all you worried about was your wages at the end of the week. Mentions day as a pro a maximum of £20 per week, contract was for £14 but if you got in the first team you got more. Remembers being a lot of money then, £4 for a win, £2 for a draw. Seen players have arguments when someone has let in a goal in the last few seconds and they instead of getting £4 you only got £2 so sometimes it got a bit physical because they’d lost you £2. [00:09:50] Remembers being at school, Northern Parade and some of the players Bert Barlow, Peter Harris, Jimmy Dickinson, Len Phillips would come and take coaching sessions at Alexandra Park. Remembers being a kid of 14 you were in awe of them. [00:10:55] Remembers walking from Hilsea to Fratton Park and when in the ground you would be passed down to the front. Those days you were allowed to sit on the wall in the North stand. Remembers being part of it and felt so different. You were hoping that the ball would come near you so that you could pass it back to one of the star players, Harris or Dickinson. Remembers being more interested in the football and the Play Up Pompey. Remembers being 15 years old and went to watch Scunthorpe away in a cup match [ndlr in 1954]. Remembers if the pitch was dry the Army or Navy sometimes would play at half-time. Recalls Pompey’s style of play in those days was a back 3, left and right side, centre half and your 2 forwards were the engine room and then you had your centre forward who scored most of the goals for the team, Duggie Reid was that player who thundered them in from 30 yards. Peter Harris on one wing, Cliff Parker on the other. Play was so exciting. Remembers when the ball was given to the winger the crowd would shout ‘open the gates’ because they would run all the way down the wing to cross it to Duggie Reid. Mentions all teams played with the same style in those days and always had a big centre half. Remembers later in career got carried off with a broken ankle and the referee never booked anyone just said ‘come on lads that’s enough now’. Only had a reserve player no substitutes but although got paid never really featured, would be just like being the Kit Man. [00:15:32] Remembers favourite player being Peter Harris and was fortunate enough to play alongside him later in footballing career. Also Jack Froggatt, who could play in almost any position, and played 3 different positions internationally for England. A fantastic player that got stuck in. Remembers going and greeting them when they come back from Wolverhampton Wanderers, who also played for. Also the game at Fratton Park, seeing Monty was great presenting the cup. Remembers every game was so good, as the team never had ups and downs just were so good. Duggie Reid thundering the ball in and Barlow was so skilful. Peter Harris going down the line and scoring goals too. Never had the individual star players then, everyone played as a team, everyone was part of it and we were in awe of them all. Remembers Pompey were highly regarded nationally, everyone was talking about them, in the newspapers, well thought of, heard people talking about all the international players we had. Football was the biggest thing going at the time and we were just getting over the war and everyone was so excited to go and watch Pompey at Fratton Park. [00:18:53] Remembers no real rivalries at the time, it was just watching the football regardless of who, but fantastic atmosphere with 40,000 and excitement to seeing other players from other teams. Remembers living in Hilsea; the procession wasn’t in that part of city and it was held around the town hall and that’s why we went to the station to greet them. [00:20:34] Remembers football career later in life at Portsmouth playing with players used to watch in youth team, signed contract couple of days before going into the Army, £1 a week contract but then returned after 2 years, playing in Winchester for the reserves. Recalls coming back from serving in Army from Malaya to Portsmouth wearing a blue silky suit and the lads took the mickey out of me but it was ok in Malaya but not in Pompey, so expected to have the mickey taken out of me. Played for a year and had a few injuries and found out I was in the first team and earned the name of the Jungle Boy, as Jack Mansell said a local reporter wanted to talk to me and he used that as a headline, Jungle Boy makes debut, as I had served out in the Malaya Jungle with the Army and stuck with me. Remembers fantastic time coaching at Fratton Park, Tony Barton was Chief Scout at the time, had finished playing and was coaching youth team at Brighton with Brian Clough and I told him m going to Portsmouth, Clough questioned decision saying they are going down and answered they are my home town and team and that’s why I want to go there to help and get some young players in. Mentions how many players helped getting youth players into the First Team. Remembers Jimmy Dickinson never really being a football manager, he was too nice. Mentions at half time you need to get the players going, nasty to some, put your arm around others but Gentleman Jim was such a nice guy he wasn’t really cut out to be the Manager. Mentions how young he did and he had a good job in the office and for finance reasons was talked into becoming the Manager and was never really that happy doing it. Remembers one game at half time Pompey were getting beaten and Jim said ‘I nearly swore, we were that bad’ but that was Jimmy, such a nice guy. [00:25:53] Remembers fondly the amount of good players that came through the youth team, Steve Foster, Graham Roberts, Duncan Pratt, Billy Eames, Keith Viney and all players that made it through to the First Team that helped coach and scouted for me. Remembers how lucky to be part of it. [00:26:43] End of interview |
| Copyright Clearance | Full |
| Copyright Holder | Pompey History Society |
