For those over 40, a trip back memory lane

[nta786]

Anyone else used to be avid reader of The Pink?

My favourite and I never forget the “Guess The Ball” competition my dad would enter every week and him asking for my input.

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, nta786 said:

Anyone else used to be avid reader of The Pink?

My favourite and I never forget the “Guess The Ball” competition my dad would enter every week and him asking for my input.

Used to queue up for it at our local news agent for it to arrive at about 6pm on a Saturday night 

[WestMidSaint]

Ceefax had a page with transfer teasers for all the teams. It would be vague few words with them trying to entice you to call the premium rate line to get the full story. I was always gutted I was never allowed to call the number!

”watching” football scores on there certainly taught patience 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

I'd always land on the wrong page of Ceefax. We'd be on page 2 of 2 and I'd always get the other one, or vice versa. I always had that little tense wait for it to switch over. Looking back, there was porbably a button to move it on or I could have refreshed it. But Id' have been too busy desperately waiting to think like that.

[Whitey Grandad]

I bear some responsibility for Teletext. Working in a team at the IBA we developed the specification for the system and produced the first computer-driven transmissions from the transmitter at Crystal Palace in about 1975/1976.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

11 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

I bear some responsibility for Teletext. Working in a team at the IBA we developed the specification for the system and produced the first computer-driven transmissions from the transmitter at Crystal Palace in about 1975/1976.

Thanks for all your work!

Although disapointed that bias was built in from the start. Oh, the old "no, the transmitter was at Crystal Palace" line. 🙂

[SNSUN]

6 hours ago, Lampwick said:

The way it is -   Bruce Hornsby and the Range

To this day one of my favourite tunes. I'm not from Southampton, I'm a Berkshire boy and was influenced into supporting Saints (which obviously stuck) from the very late 80s although I really only truly got into it around the formation of the Prem and the Alan Ball era... thus not being terribly  conscious of the Branfoot era bar a few football magazine posters that my school friend gave me when he got them. (Neil Maddison was one...)

 

 

Despite not being from Southampton or the area I still had badgered my parents enough that we used to holiday a lot in the Lymington/New Forest area (then they bought a static caravan as a holiday home in New Milton so we holidayed there permanently as they love the New Forest) and so Solent was available to me in school holidays (and occasionally when BBC Berkshire would share the airwaves with Solent At home.) Ergo I remember the days of Bruce Hornsby and the results, the cheers when a goal had gone in. I was listening there for the 6-3 and recorded MOTD on VHS.

 

Ceefax was a staple - I remember hunting through pre-season fixtures in the hope I'd see Southampton but was rarely lucky. Then there were the rotating pages of scores, waiting to see another goalscorer added for any team, the short summery of a result, the snippets of transfer news. I miss that... but when you have access these days to most football Live, or at least within easy reach, we are world's away from those days.

 

I've mentioned it before, but my Club call experience got me into trouble with my parents for ringing up the phone bill... it was the last 15 minutes of the Saints vs Norwich 5-4 and some of the aftermath. I went mental when Monkou scored. I forget how much I cost them but they weren't happy. 

 

It was a simpler time but you can't deny the Internet has changed things massively. (Yes I'm aware there was Internet in the 90s but I didn't have it then!)

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Thanks for all your work!

Although disapointed that bias was built in from the start. Oh, the old "no, the transmitter was at Crystal Palace" line. 🙂

Or maybe it was Croydon, that was the ITV transmitter. In the early days the BBC and ITV companies built their own transmitter masts so there were duplicates everywhere, such as Rowridge and Chillerton Down on the Isle of Wight. Eventually they agreed to cooperate and later transmitters shared the same mast.

I cannot believe we used to spend so much time staring at a screen waiting for the pages to update.

[SuperSAINT]

3 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

I cannot believe we used to spend so much time staring at a screen waiting for the pages to update.

Not much has changed. We just press F5 now 😁

[kyle04]

3 hours ago, nta786 said:

Anyone else used to be avid reader of The Pink?

My favourite and I never forget the “Guess The Ball” competition my dad would enter every week and him asking for my input.

There was a "spot the ball" in the Echo as well, people made an art form of drawing the crosses, using microscopes and pens with nibs about a nanometer wide. Given the Echo print pixel size it amounted to massive waste of time generally.

[Yorkshire Saint]

Southampton club call......

[LGTL]

“Yeah, yeahhhhhhhhh duh duh duh duhhhhhhhh, this goal comes in the premiership, at the dell…..”

Usually to be followed by the words ‘Southampton 0

My childhood right there. Happy days. 

[Charlie Wayman]

4 hours ago, nta786 said:

Anyone else used to be avid reader of The Pink?

My favourite and I never forget the “Guess The Ball” competition my dad would enter every week and him asking for my input.

Pity the Echo dropped the ball by binning "The Pink". Always a great Saturday night read with the added frisson of being hot off the press; twas almost miraculous in the pre Gates era to get home from a match at the Dell, pick up the paper and read about the game you had just seen.

Edited 13 February, 2022 by Charlie Wayman

[redkeith]

Can I add the following 80s activity. 

When Saints were away, if I was out shopping with the wife, I would be In a d out of Currys and Dixons, looking at the TV section if they had the scores on ceefax .

 

[sibster]

6 hours ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Matt Jansen is taking a heck of a long time getting here to play.

Flashbacks of all those tense last minutes waiting for Grandstand's vidiprinter, or making sure I was near a shop window, if I was out, so I could catch the scores. 

 

I remember seeing that we had beaten Liverpool 4-1 thanks to (I think) Rumbelows. My dad wasn't happy as the parking ticker was about to run out and they very nearly left me behind. It was only about 5 miles walk to home so wouldn't have been the end of the world! 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

Just now, sibster said:

I remember seeing that we had beaten Liverpool 4-1 thanks to (I think) Rumbelows. My dad wasn't happy as the parking ticker was about to run out and they very nearly left me behind. It was only about 5 miles walk to home so wouldn't have been the end of the world! 

Yeah, shopping trips with my parents where I had no control over the itinerary, but desperately trying to get near the TV department in any store or window close to full time. 🙂

[Whitey Grandad]

26 minutes ago, sibster said:

I remember seeing that we had beaten Liverpool 4-1 thanks to (I think) Rumbelows. My dad wasn't happy as the parking ticker was about to run out and they very nearly left me behind. It was only about 5 miles walk to home so wouldn't have been the end of the world! 

 

23 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Yeah, shopping trips with my parents where I had no control over the itinerary, but desperately trying to get near the TV department in any store or window close to full time. 🙂

Such stores don’t exist any more, do they?

[sandwichsaint]

5 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

I bear some responsibility for Teletext. Working in a team at the IBA we developed the specification for the system and produced the first computer-driven transmissions from the transmitter at Crystal Palace in about 1975/1976.

Did you do a little Beta trial, ManUtd 0-1 Southampton, and your team leader said 'Too far-fetched, this will never catch on'.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

1 minute ago, sandwichsaint said:

Did you do a little Beta trial, ManUtd 0-1 Southampton, and your team leader said 'Too far-fetched, this will never catch on'.

I heard that they had to change the colour of the Man Utd font at half time during the beta, because they had trouble picking it out against the background. 🙂

[sandwichsaint]

Love this thread, my mum, keeper of the village shop in a small East Kent village, running down the  road to meet the schoolbus and to tell myself and DB, aged 14 and 13 'We've signed Keegan!'. Ran home to check out all available media, in the absence of a television that consisted of tuning across various BBC outlets (essentially Radio 2 and Radio 4) to confirm it was true. Hard to believe even now that Saints had actually signed the EuropeanFootballer of the Year.

[Whitey Grandad]

55 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

I heard that they had to change the colour of the Man Utd font at half time during the beta, because they had trouble picking it out against the background. 🙂

Colour? Luxury!

Watching the cup final on a black and white television was a challenge if one team played in red and the other in blue. It was usually the only live game you’d see in a season.

[The Cat]

What radio station was it that picked up the rights to Saints for a couple of seasons in the mid to late 90's? 

Was a local commercial station? Power FM? Jim Proudfoot was the commentator and always used to come out with absolute nonsense and was completely bias towards Saints.

[Tamesaint]

10 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Colour? Luxury!

Watching the cup final on a black and white television was a challenge if one team played in red and the other in blue. It was usually the only live game you’d see in a season.

When we played Spurs last week the missus and I commented that it would be difficult to tell the teams apart if we only had black and white tv. 

[Winchester Red]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned my favourite vidiprintevr moment

Goal  Liverpool 0  Southampton 1 (Moran 90mins)

Res  Liverpool 0  Southampton 1

[bpsaint]

13 hours ago, The Cat said:

What radio station was it that picked up the rights to Saints for a couple of seasons in the mid to late 90's? 

Was a local commercial station? Power FM? Jim Proudfoot was the commentator and always used to come out with absolute nonsense and was completely bias towards Saints.

I used to listen to the commentary on Power Fm towards the end of the millennium, by then it was Peter Hood and David Armstrong as the commentary pairing. Not sure of his allegiances but Hood used to go mental when we’d score sometimes, his commentary of the Le Tiss final goal still gives me goosebumps. I was at the game that day so my mum recorded it for me on cassette and I listened to it back when I got home.

Not quite over 40 yet (36) but some of these memories on here still ring true with me. Watching the scores come in on the tv’s in the Granada window down by McDonalds, and of course The Pink. After a match once I’d got out of The Dell on a Saturday, I’d walk home to Bitterne Park which took about an hour, get an Andy’s chippy from the Triangle, and the pink would have just arrived at Forbuoys. As mentioned before it’s crazy in a relatively pre internet age to have the write up of the game you were just at available an hour or so after the full time whistle.

 

Edited 14 February, 2022 by bpsaint

[The Cat]

1 minute ago, bpsaint said:

I used to listen to the commentary on Power Fm towards the end of the millennium, by then it was Peter Hood and David Armstrong as the commentary pairing. Not sure if his allegiances but Hood used to go mental when we’d score sometimes, his commentary of the Le Tiss final goal still gives me goosebumps. I was at the game that day so my mum recorded it for me in cassette and I listened to it when I got home.

Not quite over 40 yet (36) but some of these memories on here still ring true with me. Watching the scores come in on the tv’s in the Granada window down by McDonalds, and of course The Pink. After a match once I’d got out of The Dell on a Saturday, I’d walk home to Bitterne Park which took about an hour, get an Andy’s chippy from the Triangle, and the pink would have just arrived at Forbuoys. As mentioned crazy in a relatively pre internet age to have the write up of the game you were just at available an hour or so after the full time whistle.

 

Peter Hood, that's a name I had forgotten for a long time. 

Jimmy Case used to do co-commentate on one station. Was that Solent before Merrington? Remember seeing Case in the Alex after one game wearing a white t-shirt that he'd dropped a load of egg yolk down.

I like those post game rituals. Around that time mine would have involved a chippy, but it would have been Ted's on Bedford Place after drinking in the Eagle or Maple Leaff.

[31cc]

Jimmy Case used to summarise on Rupert's 'The Saint' radio station which, along with the catering, was part of the amazing 'matchday experience' we were lucky enough to experience along with 'Arry and Jim, Wigley and relegation...

[S-Clarke]

4 minutes ago, 31cc said:

Jimmy Case used to summarise on Rupert's 'The Saint' radio station which, along with the catering, was part of the amazing 'matchday experience' we were lucky enough to experience along with 'Arry and Jim, Wigley and relegation...

Will Cope and Case on a Saturday afternoon on the Saint, the sound of many a weekend afternoon! 

Edited 14 February, 2022 by S-Clarke

[The Cat]

Was it Beattie and Prutton who used to do an evening show on The Saint? What were we thinking!

[verlaine1979]

On 13/02/2022 at 04:04, Badger said:

Was the John Miles music taken from ‘Music’ ? 

I was sitting next to John Miles at a wedding a few years ago and told him how that song was inextricably linked to the experience of supporting Saints as a kid. Must be odd when you make something like that and it ends up having a meaning completely outside your knowledge and control. Very charming and funny guy.

[Jessinkalasin]

The best final score

[Noodles34]

Waiting for autographs at the exit gate in the car park. 
Loved Keegan for that and hated Grobelar 

[Pilchards]

Great thread.

Always remembered Mike and naughty boys. Mike Osman, Big Dave plus 2 others who hardly said much. Can’t remember who they were but it was a good warm up show for the game.

[Victor]

Not sure if this is the right time frame for you 40-year-olds:  following the game on Radio Solent, Saints leading by one goal, all the other final scores are in except Saints, the sax solo from 'Baker Street' going on and on and on and on ........... oh! for fcuk's sake, what[s the bloody score?!

[Turkish]

2 hours ago, Jessinkalasin said:

The best final score

Imagine the outcry if they gave a gambling score on live TV now like they used to with the pools score next to the result

[Badger]

On 13/02/2022 at 12:22, badgerx16 said:

When James Alexander Gordon was reading the results on the radio you could always tell the result of a match by the emphasis of the tone of voice as he gave the home team's score.

He was one of the great voices of sport that will live with me from my childhood. Others being David Coleman, Brian Moore, and the commentators from that era, along with Cliff Morgan, Bill McLaren. Many an hour was spent with Eddie Waring or Kent Walton in the background whilst waiting for the results.

On 13/02/2022 at 15:37, alehouseboys said:

Yeah, warm feelings from way back - and as mentioned, the videprinter - who could forget James Alexander Gordon "East Fife 4 Forfar 5". Maybe you had to be there...

Except this score was a myth.

This is a good read: 

https://www.nutmegmagazine.co.uk/issue-7/forfar-5-east-fife-4/

And https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44916496

[Badger]

13 hours ago, verlaine1979 said:

I was sitting next to John Miles at a wedding a few years ago and told him how that song was inextricably linked to the experience of supporting Saints as a kid. Must be odd when you make something like that and it ends up having a meaning completely outside your knowledge and control. Very charming and funny guy.

Taking the thread off tangent for a moment :

Living in the north east in the early 1980's and the local commercial station at the time (Metro radio) used a few bars of 'Music' as a run up to their hourly news.

As you say, must have been strange for him finding out his music ended up in places he wouldn't have expected. Wonder if he was receiving royalties on the back of it.

[Nordic Saint]

6 hours ago, Noodles34 said:

Waiting for autographs at the exit gate in the car park. 
Loved Keegan for that and hated Grobelar 

How much did Grobelaar charge for an autograph?

[Holmes_and_Watson]

5 hours ago, Nordic Saint said:

How much did Grobelaar charge for an autograph?

And is it that when you handed him money, he automatically dived away from your autograph book?

Edited 15 February, 2022 by Holmes_and_Watson

[badgerx16]

On 13/02/2022 at 23:17, sandwichsaint said:

Love this thread, my mum, keeper of the village shop in a small East Kent village, running down the  road to meet the schoolbus and to tell myself and DB, aged 14 and 13 'We've signed Keegan!'. Ran home to check out all available media, in the absence of a television that consisted of tuning across various BBC outlets (essentially Radio 2 and Radio 4) to confirm it was true. Hard to believe even now that Saints had actually signed the EuropeanFootballer of the Year.

I  belive we are still the only English club to sign a current European Player Of The Year.

Edited 15 February, 2022 by badgerx16
To 'b' or not to 'b', that is the typo

[badgerx16]

On 14/02/2022 at 00:11, Whitey Grandad said:

Colour? Luxury!

Watching the cup final on a black and white television was a challenge if one team played in red and the other in blue. It was usually the only live game you’d see in a season.

There is the snippet of apocryphal snooker commentary; "For those of you watching in black and white, the green ball is behind the brown".

[Noodles34]

7 hours ago, Nordic Saint said:

How much did Grobelaar charge for an autograph?

he barged past everyone, when he was playing for Liverpool, literally shoving kids and that out the way, arsehole, always has been and always will be.

Keegan on the other hand was always mobbed but sat in his car and signed every last one, class man, knew his roots, never forgot. 

[hackedoff]

On 13/02/2022 at 12:23, coalman said:

Don't forget that wrestling came after Saint and Greavsie. Watching Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks duke it out while you were waiting for the football to start...

In those days the only play-acting was in the wrestling ring, now it mainly occurs on the football pitch.

[Tom & Gerry]

My favourite  most jaw dropping teleprinter moment goes back quite a long way before radio Solent to Grandstand in 1960.

3rd Division Saints were playing 1st Division Man City away in the 3rd round of the FA cup. Incredibly the half time teleprinter told us that Saints were winning 2-1. We waited nervously for the full time scores, could Saints possibly hold on. There were no other updates broadcast. Imagine the disbelief when the teleprinter chugged out :

Manchester City 1 Southampton 5

That scoreline would be just as unbelievable today.

[STEVEADAMS]

On 13/02/2022 at 21:07, Southamptonsi said:

This post will only apply to those over 40 who can remember the days before social media and 24 hour sky coverage.

At lunch time you might have tuned into  football focus or saint and greavsie.

Afterwards you prepared for the afternoon match day, where all games would kick off at 3pm.

During the saturday afternoon game you have ceefax and teletext to keep track of the scores and the only other way to stay updated was when radio solent could only bring you goal notifications, presented by grant coleman.

There use to be regular songs on radio solent during the game.  I can vaguely remember hearing 'jump' from van halen and a  song by john miles

But were there any other tracks you can remember always being played during the saturday afternoon radio solent coverage?

Loved those tracks waiting for “ there’s been a goal at the Dell” and the full time music, think of those a lot when thinking about football . What do they play now is it similar at all, don’t know being here in Australia 

[spyinthesky]

On 15/02/2022 at 20:45, Tom & Gerry said:

My favourite  most jaw dropping teleprinter moment goes back quite a long way before radio Solent to Grandstand in 1960.

3rd Division Saints were playing 1st Division Man City away in the 3rd round of the FA cup. Incredibly the half time teleprinter told us that Saints were winning 2-1. We waited nervously for the full time scores, could Saints possibly hold on. There were no other updates broadcast. Imagine the disbelief when the teleprinter chugged out :

Manchester City 1 Southampton 5

That scoreline would be just as unbelievable today.

Saints won Giant Killers of the Season for that game.

I think Derek Reeves scored 4 of the goals.

Unfortunately we were beaten by Watford in the next round.

[offsidetrap]

getting the shopping bus down from Andover with the old ladies with their bags on wheels. Having to leave the Dell 10 minutes before the end of the game or you were trapped in Southampton. And all this for 2nd Division football.

[Divergent]

My grainy memory seems to recall midweek sports specials in the 1970’s where either highlights or full matches were shown on tv. I think it was an FA cup replay against Chelsea which we won circa 1975(?). We were buzzing after seeing the match or highlights and decided to expend some energy at Fridays night club. Within hours Channon and possibly Osgood were propping up the bar there being bought pints by all and sundry. Wouldn’t happen now I guess. 

I loved the Pink too - used to queue up for it from 6 and relive the match on Saturdays in the pub afterwards. 

[Badger]

34 minutes ago, Divergent said:

My grainy memory seems to recall midweek sports specials in the 1970’s where either highlights or full matches were shown on tv. I think it was an FA cup replay against Chelsea which we won circa 1975(?). We were buzzing after seeing the match or highlights and decided to expend some energy at Fridays night club. Within hours Channon and possibly Osgood were propping up the bar there being bought pints by all and sundry. Wouldn’t happen now I guess. 

I loved the Pink too - used to queue up for it from 6 and relive the match on Saturdays in the pub afterwards. 

Think the Chelsea win was 1977, 3rd round replay after we started our defence of the trophy. Drew 1-1 at The Dell, but won the replay 3-0 up there. 

[kyle04]

Talking of players and , er, the odd tipple, Shilton used to drink at the Malthouse near Romsey, and would often have to be carried to a taxi on a friday night. Only to be between the sticks a few hours later , 3pm Saturday. How the f*** he managed it I'll never know.