Joe Dixon’s
Football Memories
1977
Ryhope Poplars (Pops)
If you have looked at this page before you will realise that I have made some changes to it. My memory of 40+ years ago is not as good as I thought it was. Without realising it, a team photo I copied from actually had a date on its back which differs from the season I thought it related to. I have no doubt that this date would be the correct one. Unfortunately it does affect other parts of the website and hopefully I can correct things soon. As the great Eric Morecambe might have said ’ the memories are correct but not necessarily in the right order‘.
The 'Pops' played in the Hetton CIU League and played its games on Saturday mornings. Its home ground was that of Ryhope CW and Ryhope CA.
Playing for the ‘Pops’ was fun and I loved every minute of my time there. We were
never going to win anything but we always gave our best. It was a club with such
humour in the dressing room that even if you lost you could still leave the ground
with a smile on your face despite hurting badly inside.
The photo below, courtesy
of my good friend Jimmy Tumilty, was taken at our home ground (Ryhope CW's). Jimmy
has the honour of scoring the clubs first ever goal in the Hetton CIU League. It
was a home game against one of the Hetton teams and unfortunately it was in a 2-
1966 -
Back from left :-
Front from left :-
-
The photo below was taken in January 1968 after a game against Murton 'Vic' and their
ground was next to the Murton Colliery Welfare ground. One of the things that springs
to mind from the photograph was a comment made by Ernie Carlin after the match. As
you can see from the photo Ernie had obviously headed the muddy ball during the game
and he said he wouldn't wash it off for a week because it looked like hair.
If only
we could have matched our performances with the humour in the dressing room we would
have won the league comfortably.
1967 -
Back from left :-
Front from left :-
-
Other players who played at this time included :-
Stan
Cowie
Gordon Baird
Harry
Orrell
Alfie Todner
Ronnie
(Dykie) Bewick
Phil Cooper
Jimmy
Dent
Billy Vose
I apologise
for other players who I've failed to remember. But I would love to be reminded.
-
A fond memory, and a fairly unique one at that, was in a game against Pallion WMC
who were by far the best team in the league at that time. I scored with my second
shot of the game without any of my team mates touching the ball.
They kicked off and
the ball was played back to a midfielder who immediately played a square pass which
I intercepted. As I took the ball in my stride it left me in the clear to score.
However the goalkeeper blocked my first shot and I scored from the rebound. The time
was well under 10 seconds as I only had to sprint about 35-
Most of their team, instead of finger pointing and blaming
each other, just laughed. They obviously saw the funny side of it and that they knew
they would still win the match. And guess what they did.
-
Another
nice memory was playing alongside Norman Baird. He was a quality centre foward who
had previously played for Shildon in the Northern League after he left junior football.
I'm not sure why he wasn't still playing at a higher level then as he is just 3 years
older than me. I learnt a lot from Norman and it was nice to join up with him again
when I later went back to play for Ryhope YC.
An interesting incident happened in
a game through at Seaham. Norman was forever being pushed and shoved, because of
his power in the air, whenever we had a corner or free kick. Norman got a bit fed
up with this as the referee seemed to ignore what was happening. So later in the
game when we had a corner kick Norman, as soon as he felt a pair of hands on his
back, he fell forward and with his markers arms stretched out the referee had to
give what looked like an obvious penalty. The player in question was Barry Slee a
very good and well known footballer in the area. He shook his head at Norman in disbelief.
(It was 'payback time' for Norman). Barry and every one else knew that it would take
more than just one player to push Norman to the ground. He was strong. That's experience
for you.
-
This memory
also appears on my home page but as it still makes me smile I thought I'd include
it here.
We got off to a poor start in the 1966/67 season and after we had just lost
a game, it was suggested that we should start doing some mid week training. Someone
else said
-
The
‘Pops’ were playing a friendly match down at Doncaster, organised through the ex
local miners now based down there, and it was a lovely summers day. After the match
the team was in the showers and I was standing next to Norman Baird when my brother-
Amidst the laughter Norman said ‘but you weren’t playing, you were just a spectator’
Phil -
By this time the whole team was in fits of laughter. Even today when Phil and I are
together we still laugh about it, in fact the whole family does.
I bumped into Norman
a short while ago and this was also one memory he still finds priceless.
Now was that a friendly club or what?
| 'Buffs' Pre 1975/1976 Sseason |
| 'Buffs' 1975/1976 Season |
| 1976/1977 Season |
| Carlisle Utd 76/77 Season |
| Achievements 1979/1982 |
| Other Photos |
| 1984/1985 Season |
| 1986/1987 Season |
| 1987/1988 Season |
| RYHOPE F.C. Over 35's |
| DURHAM FIRE BRIGADE Over 40's |
| RYHOPE CHERRY KNOWLE |