September Newsletter

September Newsletter

Greetings to all. What a month August was! You will have seen many references to our work on social media over the last month, starting with a superb “Memory Morning With….Mark Chamberlain”. What a great guy, and a very well attended morning at Fratton Park - thank you to those who came along - and of course it had Johnny Moore doing his usual great job of interviewing in front of the backdrop of Colin’s slides. Johnny really does interview well, allowing guests to talk and drawing some great stories out of them. Although we never did see Mark demonstrate that famous trick of his that saw him kind of wave his left foot over the ball and then wiggle his hips before taking it past a defender with the outside of the right foot. Maybe next time Mark! The next event of this kind will be in November, more on that in future newsletters.

The month of August ended with two events. The first, on the 100th anniversary of the South Stands on 29th August, was a dedication of a headstone at Milton Cemetery for Bob Blyth, one of our three club legends and Chairman in 1925 who led the charge to get the South Stand built. Our own Dave Taylor found he had been buried with no stone so after we had put the two sides of the Blyth family in touch with each other, they decided to get one erected. The service was led by minister Richard Atkins-Greig who runs our monthly radio show on Express FM so many thanks to Richard. It was attended by members of the Blyth family including Kay, Bob’s granddaughter who remembers him well and we’ve arranged to record her memories at some stage. A few others were there including Mick Comben, Colin Farmery, Dave Banbury and Dave Taylor from PHS plus Andy Cullen, taking a quick break from the transfer window’s activity that ended in us getting ‘Chappers' and the other three guys on Monday. We placed some flowers on the grave form PHS and the club and Mick managed to source some salmon pink and white flowers, the colours of our first shirt and shorts. 

The second event was a fabulous day at Fratton Park on Saturday where before the Preston game we unveiled a new set of boards setting out the timeline of the stand and all the alterations along the way. Designed by Colin Farmery and local architect, Michael Saunders, the guests included two great grandsons and two great, great grandsons of the architect Archibald Leitch and members of the Blyth family including Rob Blyth (great great grandson) and our PHS trustee Andrew Hind (a great grandson of Blyth). The Blyth's are a lovely bunch and many still have season tickets at Fratton. Speeches were from Andy Cullen, our own Mick Comben and also by Simon Inglis, see below, who set out the importance of the stand in the history of football. Mick read out many of the fans memories that we have captured over the last months. Our guests stayed on for the game and of course it was fitting that we played Preston as we nicked Bob Blyth from them back in 1899 for our first ever team. It was a real club and PHS team effort as on the PHS side, committee members Roger Higgins and Phil Magrath helped guide the group around the stand and just before the game, Mick and Colin presented a signed 125 history book to two of the relatives of Leitch and Simon Inglis in the boardroom. Mick gave a short speech telling the Pompey top team, their guests and the Preston top team about the South Stand. He thanked the Preston Directors for allowing our first ever manager, Frank Brettell, to poach Bob from them in the first place in March 1899! And then everyone watched the game, up pops Andre Dozzell and we all went home, happy but tired! A great day.

The boards - and our special thanks to Colin Farmery and local architect Michael Saunders for designing them - will now be on display for stadium tours and for the  history days that we run so many fans will have to chance to see them. If you sit in the South Stand do go down to the ground floor and look at them. They are half way along the stand in the corridor that runs from end to end and where there is a big food concession and bar area you’ll see the boards on the wall. We’ve had some great media coverage this week and we also want to thank committee member Adam Thomas-Scarrott who looks after our social media. Thanks Adam!

The next big event coming up is the talk by Simon Inglis at 7pm on October 7th. To remind you, Simon really is the foremost writer on stadium history and design in the UK and his books include one on Archibald Leitch. He is issuing a new edition of one of his most read books on football stadia next year and he is also coming down to Fratton to take pictures of the modern South Stand and understand more about its changes over the years so the book will be worth reading for all Pompey fans. On the 7th he will talk on the history of stadia and our South Stand, helped by Michael Saunders, Mick and Colin.

The event is in Legends Lounge, the link will be up soon and we will email you again with it. Following our survey of you all some months ago, you said that for some events you would be prepared to pay a small amount, we have decided to charge for admission this time as we have some expenses to pay so it will be £5 for members and £10 for guests. The bar will be open from 6.45pm when the doors open and it should be a superb event. Having heard Simon speak last Saturday in the South Stand, we know he is a very good speaker, so it should be a fabulous evening. The link for tickets will be out soon.

Our membership numbers continue to increase. Our membership secretary, Richard Wilson, says "Many thanks to all new members who have signed up over the past month and also those of you who have renewed your membership during the same period.  I am delighted to tell you membership numbers now approach 200, confirming our belief that there is strong support within the Pompey family for what we are trying to do in documenting the club's history.  If you would like to join us on this journey, do let us know”. Further, if you have items of memorabilia you would like us to know about, or wish to donate them to us, please get in touch.

Other items to mention this month in addition to Simon Inglis on the 7th October are:

PAST CHIMES

This months guest on Richard’s Express FM show was Kit Symons, and it was fabulous to hear the memories of the 1992 FA Cup semi-final games and particularly what it was like standing in that tunnel as the fans got the ticker tape welcome ready. We wont give too much away but you have to listen for the story of getting Mick Quinn’s boots ready before games! The link to listen again is as follows -  https://www.expressfm.com/programmes/past-chimes/  - Richard also played some “banging tunes” as they say! His next guest is Gemma Hillier, at the end of September. And that will be worth listening to. Gemma is in the club’s Hall of Fame for her service to the women’s team and she has her picture by the Jimmy Dickinson statue. She will be talking about her time at Pompey and Bournemouth plus her England beach soccer career.

OUR NEXT MAGAZINE

Please don’t forget to let us know if you want to submit an article or an idea for our next magazine. We need any articles by the end of September.

FUNDRAISING

The fundraising pot is creeping towards the target. We have four months to go and need around £7,000. The bucket collection on Saturday November 29 will contribute a decent amount so if anyone would be prepared to volunteer to shake a bucket with committee members, please let us know. 

POP UP SHOP IN THE FANZONE

Many thanks to Richard Barnes, John Grant and Paul Maidment for running the pop up shop at the Preston game. They got a few of those Blyth relatives to sign up to the History Society, so well done guys! Paul Maidment's signed player photos were on display and they really are fantastic presents for someone, so if you want a signed photo of a favourite player do contact us and we’ll put you in touch with Paul.

CAPTURING FANS MEMORIES

Don't forget that committee member Steve Tovey is keen to capture fans memories of their first ever game. We imagine there are some great stories out there! He will meet those who want to be recorded and we’ll subsequently keep the recordings on our website for current fans and future historians and fans to listen to. We are interested to hear about how you travelled to the game, your impressions, who you went with, anything interesting that happened, and so on. Recordings will be made in person or over the telephone depending on logistics. Each month in the coming season Steve is looking to record memories as follows:-

40/50s   September /October

60/70s   November /December

80/90s   January / February

2000s    March/April

All contributors will be entered into a free draw and an autographed item of memorabilia or book will be presented at the last home game. In addition at the end of each period above, the best contribution as judged by PHS will be presented with a unique gift relating to the first game attended. If you are interested please email Tovey566@gmail.com giving your details, telephone number and game attended.    

ADMIRAL JELLICOE HOUSE

Last week, committee members Chris Gibbs, Mick Comben and Steve Tovey went along to Admiral Jellicoe House in Locksway Road, the superb new purpose built care home for veterans of the Royal Navy. Many residents are football fans although not all are Pompey fans, yet! We delivered some boxes of memorabilia and books to enable them to set up a dedicated area on football for the fans. And great thanks to Chris who has even sourced two blue seats from Fratton Park and tidied them up a bit. The house has a huge picture of the Park on a wall and the seats will now be bolted onto a suitable place by that picture so fans can remember their times at the Park. We’ve now arranged for Alan Knight to formally open the area when it’s all set up so look out for pictures of that in the News. Steve is also capturing some of the residents memories.

PHS BADGES

As you know, we have had made up some History Society badges. They are for members only, and a member may buy a badge for £5, obtaining them from one of our events or by emailing us on history@pompeyfc.co.uk and we will put one aside for them and put the funds towards the medal appeal. We are going to extend the offer where if a member refers a friend who subsequently signs up to join PHS then they can get a free member badge. We will do that until the end of October. To qualify, you need to email history@pompeyfc.co.uk and propose a new member who we will then follow up. Provided they sign up before the end of October there will be a free badge available for you to be collected from us at a home game.  

Thats all for now. We look forward to seeing you at the Simon Inglis event. It should be a good one.

Play Up Pompey!

Pompey History Society