Not All Ticket

Richard Lusmore

Description

Set in the 1980s, Not All-Ticket: From Withernsea High to Boothferry Park Halt chronicles a dramatic period in the history of Hull City AFC through the eyes of a young fan from rural East Yorkshire. From relegation and receivership to the 'Robinson renaissance', Lusmore experiences a rollercoaster of emotions, culminating in dismay at perhaps the most contentious managerial dismissal in the club's history. In the process, he charts a course through his coming of age, capturing how it feels to follow an unfashionable team in an often unloved city. He flirts with rival sporting attractions, then tosses them aside in favour of the small-fry team in this tatty fish town. The football-fuelled adrenalin rush is soon replicated in his first forays into the local music and club scene. Discovering the delights of Hull after dark, he soon realises that Saturday is about much more than just the match. First-hand terrace tales and musical memories abound in this uplifting memoir.

Sujets

• Condado de Yorkshire (Reino Unido)
• Hull
• Yorkshire

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 21 février 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781801502245
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2021
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Richard Lusmore, 2021
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781801500593
eBook ISBN 9781801502245
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Brian Horton
Prologue: Hull, Hell and Happiness
1. And We Play All the Way
2. Earning My Stripes
3. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
4. Rugby Town/Football City
5. Rock This Town
6. Tip-Toe Through the Kempton
7. We ll Support You Evermore!
8. Tigers, Tigers, Roar, Roar, Roar!
9. The Tigers Are Back!
10. Yawk-sher
11. A City Psycho(billy)
12. Up For It!
13. Sounds of the City
14. Coming Up Short
15. Blessed Brian
16. Targers and Sparders
17. Sunglasses After Dark
18. Back in the Big Time
19. The Hope that Kills You
20. We Are Family
21. London 0 Hull 5
22. The Long Goodbye
Epilogue: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Bibliography
Photos
This book is dedicated to various people
My numerous work colleagues, who at one time or other over the past 30 years have remarked that my talents are perhaps not best served by a career in the civil service or the oil and gas industry. I m assuming they meant it as a compliment.
The mates I ve made in the years since the period in which Not All-Ticket is set, most of whom were too young to feature in the tales contained herein but have probably heard many of them countless times since. Foremost among these is Finchy, another friend taken from us far too soon and whose exhortations to gerrem down in print, Slush were always a timely source of encouragement.
Derek Maxwell, the man who unwittingly set the ball rolling when allowing me to tag along with him and his sons to Boothferry Park on a warm September afternoon in 1975.
My wife Alison and daughters Emma and Katie, for whom the past five or six years (it must seem a lot longer to them) have consisted largely of waiting for Grumpy to finish his book. Well, it s finished now. I do hope the wait was worth it!
Acknowledgements
I BEGAN this book in the hope of having it published to coincide with Hull s year as the UK City of Culture in 2017. To kick things off - and to gauge opinions - I shared the first few chapters with local author Nick Quantrill and my friend from schooldays, Gary Hook, a companion for many of the tales recounted here and also my go-to Hull City anorak . That was in 2014. Seven years on, Hull s time in the national spotlight has been and gone. It is therefore testament to both men s patience that they have remained sounding boards for me all along the way. I am similarly indebted to Matthew Rudd for his excellent knowledge of the subject matter along with his meticulous proof-reading and handy tips, as I am for the help received from Andrew Vaughan, whose wonderful Faded Lois Dreams (along with Andrew-Henry Bowie s Two Miles To Tynecastle ) not only provided inspiration for Not All-Ticket but also convinced me that somebody somewhere might find it worth reading.
In these social media-dominated days, my thanks also to the Tiger Twitterati , in particular Gary Jonah Jones for whom I have the utmost respect, not least for his uncanny ability to grab me a newspaper cutting within minutes of my request! I am similarly grateful to Pete Dixon s Boothferry Park Memories Facebook group, many of whom were only too willing to allow my use of their pictures (with special mention to Sue Cr for the initial access to some great HDM originals). I am also indebted to James Richardson, whose brilliant TigerTube library of videos acted as another rich seam of source material.
This was never intended to be a definitive account of events, but instead a personal insight into what I consider to be an overlooked era in Hull City history. Wherever possible, I ve backed this up with contemporary accounts, most of which have come from various managers programme notes. I d like to thank Joe Clutterbrook and Hull City for their kind permission in allowing me to use these. Similarly, the detailed description of events, as written by the likes of Simon Redfern, David Lamont and David Bond (among others) for the Hull Daily Mail have also helped immensely in joining the dots.
There have been many excellent additions to the Hull City library in fairly recent times, with Richard Gardham s tome The Decade in particular providing a veritable treasure trove of first-hand accounts from some of those involved. As such I am extremely grateful to him for granting me extensive use of the quotes he so diligently gathered. A nod goes towards another esteemed author of Hull City publications, Nicholas Turner, for his help is accessing many of the other photographs I ve used, along with Greg Whitaker and Ian Bunton for their readiness to offer general support in bringing things to fruition.
The musical content of the book would not have been what it is without the contributions of Kari Brown and Tony Menzies, whose knowledge of the early years at The Welly filled a big void in the story. I have also leant heavily on the memories of Ian Mowforth, which were first put into print in one of the fanzines I co-edited back in the day . They also provide an excellent illustration of the Hull scene at the time. My thanks go to Lee Hartley and others from among the Hull rockin crowd for providing memories that will live with me forever; Andy Roe for access to his extensive collection of photos that captured Spiders Nightclub in all its pomp and, indeed, the Spiderlings and Adelphi gig-goers whose simple presence brought so much joy at a precious time in my life.
Obviously, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to those whose feats inspired me to write this book, foremost among them the players, management and staff of Hull City Association Football Club between 1982 and 1988. Ideally this book would be in lieu of being able to thank each and every one of them individually. Sadly, during the time it has taken me to bring Not All-Ticket to fruition, we have said goodbye to, among others, Les Mutrie, Pete Skipper and only recently, Chris Chilton, Colin Appleton and Mike Smith. If nothing else, I hope that the tales I recount herein will ensure that the magnitude of what they and their fellow Tigers achieved can be appreciated by those of a younger generation in the same way as it was/is by those of us fortunate enough to see it at first hand.
I reserve my main thanks for those who shared the same trip as me and whose company and presence helped make it all the more enjoyable. Many could probably merit their own chapter (or book!) given the amount of colourful anecdotes they undoubtedly also have. Prominent among them are my schoolmates Gary, Carmo and Darren, who, despite lack of mentions are present throughout the story and remain among my closest friends to this day (not forgetting Jonesy who would often complete our Saturday night quintet). Then there s City supporters cult hero Simon Gray, whose door-to-door away match coach service helped cement the bond between our young group and our football club. Among his list of fellow passengers are names that still prompt a smile nearly 40 years later. Firstly, there are the out of towners from those early days, the lads who would often have the bus well-filled by the time we d commuted along the A1033 to Hull s Baker Street departure point: Big Al H (RIP), Dave I (RIP), Brush Brown, Bogey, Doug P, Col M, Swell Stivvy, Rico, Budgie, Waitesy (RIP) the Keyingham crew, Tash Wardie, Steve C (RIP), Tony D, Locky, Ginge, Slick, John B Nibsy, Scam Timmy Grubb; Crow, Mark P Scott Mc ( 39th hardest ) and the Goodison brothers. Hopping aboard in the city centre were a host of proper characters, including super fan Trev Pearce (who probably still holds the record for consecutive City matches seen live), the City/Spiders legend that is Pozzy, brothers Sned In-Town Brown, Metzy, Maysey, Stocksy, Glen, Col Theakstons , Rabid Ray and the Yorkshire Mad Dogs , Wally, Dave S, Paul J, Mike T, Charlie P, Parky, the Bean twins, Orville , Oggy , Rich M, Beige , Beverley duo Gary S Tom B, and the group we knew collectively as the Bransholme boys : Jenner, Big Andy S, Dave H, Trog, Col F and Big Gil Lil Gil . Heading westward out of town we d pick up the Brough contingent, including Jubby, Derek J, Bruce, Binny and Swat. And then our last regular pick-up came near Goole, where Carlton Paul his Hairy Biker sidekick would join us and the real story-telling could begin. Of course, no away day acknowledgement would be complete without a nod in the direction of the C G bus drivers, those men constantly urged to Get yer reet foot doon on gas pedal! Anyone who ever boarded a coach driven by the likes of Jock , Awd John, Barry, Fred, Ken or Grumpy George will appreciate just how much these genuine characters contributed (often unwittingly) to the day s enjoyment.
Apologies to anyone who might have also reasonably expected to be named but isn t - your omission is due to no other reason than my absent-mindedness, poor memory and of course the fact that sometimes names were never known; just a nod and a knowing look being enough to mark s