Old Wednesday stories /Legends/Fairy tales

[Harrysgame]

14 hours ago, Pxowl1867 said:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/norman-curtis-sheffield-wednesday-full-back-whose-thunderous-penalties-won-him-a-place-in-fans-1790063.html

 

Bit of interesting info on Norman Curtis from his obituary. 

Love th

 

14 hours ago, Pxowl1867 said:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/norman-curtis-sheffield-wednesday-full-back-whose-thunderous-penalties-won-him-a-place-in-fans-1790063.html

 

Bit of interesting info on Norman Curtis from his obituary. 

Love the part that a player places the ball on the penalty spot and as a defender he starts his run up in our own half gathering speed as he gets to the opposition box before smacking it. Love to see that done.

[Oliver Cromwell]

21 minutes ago, REDOWL said:

Could that have been Maurice Fussey, I reckon that’s how the surname is spelt.

Yes, that was him, glad you reminded me

[asteener1867]

4 hours ago, the monk said:

Most of mine came from my dad ,I'd seen Archie Irvine beat a couple of players on the wing which impressed me ,on the way back to wadsley I said Archie was a good player 

Dad sighed and said "he dances about like somebody not reyt"

Which deflated me somewhat!

 

Ian Mellor " looks like a pair of braces running about"

 

We once played Juve in some pre season tournament  ,we won the home leg 4-3 but in the return we got hammered 5-1 with Sam Ellis scoring what The star described as a spectacular volleyed own goal.

My dad told me that when it happened Johnny Fantham broke down and cried (brock daan and rued) , gullible me went and told everyone at school of this fact 

 

Looking back I think he may have made that bit up!

 

 

Sam Ellis scored a corking own goal in front of the Kop once...I seem to remember it being Bournemouth?..in one of the cups...Diving header

Edited June 2, 2019 by asteener1867

[Ibbo48]

3 hours ago, REDOWL said:

Could that have been Maurice Fussey, I reckon that’s how the surname is spelt.

Maurice Fussey was the most entertaining referee ever. His exaggerated running style was pure Monty Python.

Anyone remember the small bald guy, Roger Kirkpatrick who looked like Mr Pickwick ? Very officious but another great character 

Edited June 2, 2019 by Ibbo48
Spelling

[Hougoumont]

7 hours ago, daveyboy66 said:

That may have been my first match 1959/60 season. My Dad and Uncle ( both blades ) took me because Matthews was playing. At seven I can't remember anyone of it unlike the 60/61 season when we beat Spurs

 

Sorry davey, but it was much later than that. My first game was Aston Villa in 1962 and Stoke were in the second division until the 62/63 season when they were promoted. So, it would have been 63/64 season and Mathews was probably not too far short of his 50th birthday, then he retired the following season. 

[akitaowl]

16 hours ago, asteener1867 said:

Sam Ellis scored a corking own goal in front of the Kop once...I seem to remember it being Bournemouth?..in one of the cups...Diving header

Scunthorpe

[the monk]

16 hours ago, asteener1867 said:

Sam Ellis scored a corking own goal in front of the Kop once...I seem to remember it being Bournemouth?..in one of the cups...Diving header

We used to call OGs in a kick about "a Sam Eliss" even  in to our 30s!

Legend 

[unkastav]

On 31/05/2019 at 20:43, walkleyblue said:

Saw Chris Brunt in Morrisons week before he signed for WBA tvvat

Hope you two footed him into the frozen turkeys

[Buxtongent]

the 'Independent' story about Curtis is a load of crap.  Yes. If we got a penalty, Norman used to rush to take it, but considering he played Left Full Back, in an age before we had attacking FB's instead of wingers, he had a fair distance to cover to even get there. He also had what today would be considered  an overlong run up,( he always ran from outside the box when taking the penalty).This gavean impression of a long run up, but dont forget this was an age when penalties were far harder to come by than they are today. The ball to hand or hand to ball was almost unheard of. If the ball struck the player's arm , he also had to get control of the ball for it to be a penalty. Curtis was the 'old school' of penalty takers who hit the ball as hard as possible, bearing in mind the Keeper had to STAY ON HIS LINE and wasn't allowed the antics of modern Keepers who resort to absurd antics to put off the penalty taker. Whenever Curtis was floored by a tackle, he invariably bouncedmstraight back up save on one occasiion when he was stretchered off with a broken leg. A truly hard man..

Football was much more of a contact sport then, and it was unusual to see the Ref. produce his book during a game. This was in the era before Y & R cards ere introduced, and consequently there were far less dramatic gestures than today.

Edited June 3, 2019 by Buxtongent
punctuation.

[torryowl]

27 minutes ago, Buxtongent said:

the 'Independent' story about Curtis is a load of crap.  Yes. If we got a penalty, Norman used to rush to take it, but considering he played Left Full Back, in an age before we had attacking FB's instead of wingers, he had a fair distance to cover to even get there. He also had what today would be considered  an overlong run up,( he always ran from outside the box when taking the penalty).This gavean impression of a long run up, but dont forget this was an age when penalties were far harder to come by than they are today. The ball to hand or hand to ball was almost unheard of. If the ball struck the player's arm , he also had to get control of the ball for it to be a penalty. Curtis was the 'old school' of penalty takers who hit the ball as hard as possible, bearing in mind the Keeper had to STAY ON HIS LINE and wasn't allowed the antics of modern Keepers who resort to absurd antics to put off the penalty taker. Whenever Curtis was floored by a tackle, he invariably bouncedmstraight back up save on one occasiion when he was stretchered off with a broken leg. A truly hard man..

Football was much more of a contact sport then, and it was unusual to see the Ref. produce his book during a game. This was in the era before Y & R cards ere introduced, and consequently there were far less dramatic gestures than today.

Curtis was before my time but theres no doubt that the refs were far more lenient when I stated going in the early 60s ….the sunday papers would lament the behaviour of the players back then by writing to the there horror that on the previous Saturday they had been over 30 bookings in the football league ……didn't we go something like nearly 2 years in the mid 60s without getting a penalty?...….totally different game back then which is one of the reasons when we have debates on who's the greatest of all time I usually go with players from that era .players like messi ,Ronaldo would find it difficult to play as they do when defenders could go thru them from behind and chip them on to the gravel with the offending defender getting no more than a finger wagging from the ref .

[fredmciverslovechild]

On 31/05/2019 at 18:11, asteener1867 said:

Legend has it Stanley Mathews would rarely play at Hillsborough because of a certain Wednesday full back who would always kick him into the North first 5 minutes..

It was only ever announced minutes before kick off that "Mathews was injured"..due to the numbers he put on the gate...cue laughs and boos around Hillsborough...

 

Billy Walker tried to sign Matthews from Stoke back in 1934 when he'd just become Wednesday manager but failed. Even at that stage (he was only 19) Stoke considered him irreplaceable.

 

The only time I definitely saw Matthews play was the testimonial match for Joe Shaw, the old United player, back in March 1965. He played in an All Stars XI against a United side that also included Jimmy Hagan, years after he'd retired. The crowd was 29,500!

[nevthelodgemoorowl]

That David Layne penalty against Blackburn all those years ago, we won 5-2 (memory jogger) At the Leppings lane end hit straight with real power, it stuck Fred Else, Rovers keeper, in the face and flew into the roof of the net. Fred was out cold for a good minute or two.   

[Cypriot Owl]

I saw Abdi in..............

Oh! Wait a minute. that might have been a dream

[Cypriot Owl]

A true story,

I used to work in a city centre restaurant which was frequented by some of the Wednesday players.
One Monday lunch time Lee Chapman came in with Mark Chamberlain and we had a little chat about the previous weekends game.
When we finished talking I was asked by a female member of staff who the two men were.
I told her their names, mentioning that Chapman had scored for us a couple of days ago and Chamberlain was an ex England player and she asked which was which because, she said,
“All footballers look the same to me”

[walkleyblue]

6 hours ago, unkastav said:

Hope you two footed him into the frozen turkeys

[Nut]

Love these threads. I grew up with stories of Strange, Leach and Marsden as well as Len Hutton from my grandad, and Dooley, Peter Swan and Ron Springett from my dad. My stories would be more about the adventures on away days in the 80's than the football but I've  Been lucky to see some great players since the mid 70's. The 60's seems to have been a great time to watch Wednesday though with characters like Megson, Fantham, Layne and Swan (obviously apart from the betting scandal) in our side.

 

[MAL]

My Eric Potts story.

 

Think I've said it before, but hoping someone else knows it because i cannot remember how quick it actually was.

 

For training they used to have a timed sprint race, one at a time, from the tunnel on the South Stand.

 

It went up the longest steps of the Kop.

 

Then along the back of the Kop.

 

Then half way down the shortest steps of the Kop.

 

Then turn right along to the tunnel.

 

Then down the tunnel to the back of the Kop.

 

Then round the back of the North West Corner.

 

Then along the front of the kop.

 

Then turn and follow the South Stand, back to the tunnel.

 

This is the route...

 

Eric Potts did it in what i think was 47 seconds (it was quick anyway)

 

If anybody know's anybody at the club, i would love to know the exact time.

 

 

 

 

 

[asteener1867]

9 hours ago, akitaowl said:

Scunthorpe

Nah...Only played them in the F.A cup once when Ellis was playing...lost 2-1 no own goals...

[asteener1867]

1 hour ago, MAL said:

My Eric Potts story.

 

Think I've said it before, but hoping someone else knows it because i cannot remember how quick it actually was.

 

For training they used to have a timed sprint race, one at a time, from the tunnel on the South Stand.

 

It went up the longest steps of the Kop.

 

Then along the back of the Kop.

 

Then half way down the shortest steps of the Kop.

 

Then turn right along to the tunnel.

 

Then down the tunnel to the back of the Kop.

 

Then round the back of the North West Corner.

 

Then along the front of the kop.

 

Then turn and follow the South Stand, back to the tunnel.

 

This is the route...

 

Eric Potts did it in what i think was 47 seconds (it was quick anyway)

 

If anybody know's anybody at the club, i would love to know the exact time.

 

 

 

 

 

Would have loved to see Willie Henderson do that

Remember him heading a high dropping ball once in front of The north..then staggering about pretending to be stunned in  Norman wisdom style...Loved watching him play...I swear to god even HE didn't know which way he was gonna go 

[asteener1867]

 

HITLER .............................................0

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY................2

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.englandfootballonline.com/Seas1900-39/1937-38/M0216Ger1938.html