A Sunday in December 1968

[johnh]

In 1967/68 I worked away a lot. This meant that I missed football training on Tuesday or Thursday evenings, or both. To compensate, I decided to play football on a Sunday morning and joined a team in the Leeds League Premier Division. The standard was pretty good as a lot of Yorkshire League players played for various clubs. The club I played for had seven. In 1968 I moved to Bruntcliffe, just south of Morley. As the team I played for were north of Leeds, it meant three buses (couldn't afford a car then!) so I decided to call it a day. The house I had bought in Bruntcliffe backed onto a park and from my bedroom window I could see a set of goalposts. I wandered over one Sunday afternoon and watched a local team (Bruntcliffe WMC) who played their home games there in the Heavy Woollen League. I introduced myself and told them I was a centre-half but as their captain was centre-half I said I could play centre-forward. I played my first game and we won 8 - 0 and I scored 6 so was accepted fairly quickly. The standard was not up to the Leeds Premier division but served a purpose.
After I had played half-a-dozen or so games I got a call from the guy who ran the Leeds team and he said that they had lost their centre-half due to injury and as I was still registered, could I play in an important cup-tie. I was reluctant as Brunticliffe had an important league game against the league leaders who played in Batley. I explained the situation with the added complication that the Leeds league kicked off at 11.00 am and the Heavy Woollen at 2.00 pm. The guy said that if I played both games he would give me a lift in his car from Leeds to Batley and get me there in time for the kick-off. Reluctantly I agreed. On the Saturday night it snowed heavily and we played the morning game on a pitch with three or four inches of snow on it. True to his word, the guy drove me to Batley for the afternoon game. He dropped me off outside the place where we got changed and then drove away. When I got inside, I found that the game had been called off, so I had to find my way home. I walked down to the main road and asked a passing guy did he know where the Morley bus went from. He said that all buses had been cancelled due to the weather so I was faced with a 5 mile walk (all uphill) to get home. I hadn't seen another soul or much traffic, so I couldn't even thumb a lift. I was about half-way when a guy came walking in the opposite direction towards Batley. As we got level, a big car pulled up, the window went down and an arm beckoned us over. We walked over and saw that it was Eric Morecambe. He asked for directions to the Batley Variety Club. I hadn't a clue but the other guy said he was going to Batley and would take him there. So they other guy got a lift with Eric Morecambe and I had to continue my walk. I finally got home and spent an hour in a hot bath and then the roast beef and Yorkshire puddings had never tasted so nice. Next day, the news was full of the story about Eric Morecambe having his heart attack the previous evening. Sunday was 8 December 1968.
The following month, January 1969, I moved to Maidenhead.

[Deleted User 728]

How are the memoirs coming along, John ??

Lovely story.
Funny how fate deals its hand sometimes, isn't it ?

I wouldn't recommend playing two games on one day though - even if you were only about thirty. I played two matches back to back on the same pitch when I was 39 and don't know how I got through them, to be honest. The second half of the second game I decided to do my best Jan Molby impression and just sit in the centre-circle for most of it. Luckily I was playing defensive midfield and nobody really noticed

I didn't know Eric Morecambe had a heart attack back then. He must've been fairly young because he didn't die for another twenty-odd years, did he ??

[johnh]

Eric Morecambe died in 1984.

I once played a Yorkshire League game on Saturday afternoon. A Sunday League game on Sunday morning and a West Riding County trial game on Sunday afternoon. Only ever did that once and it was once too many!

[Davycc]

great story John, get that book sorted. I'll tell you something, you might not think those stories and memories will mean anything to others but a book like that would paint vivid pictures to many

[Another Northern Soul]

Wow, what a great story, John

[Deleted User 1022]

Keep em coming John, You have a wealth of memories that we all love to read mate.