Wigan Album

I could be wrong but I reckon there’s only one building left standing on that skyline...........?

And a week after the Cherrys victory, Liverpool beat Leeds to lift the FA cup for the first time. A Lancashire double !
Couldn't stop me singing Ee-Aye-Addio all night in the Empress Ballroom !

I was a regular but this was one match I didn't attend, that day was the girl who was to become my wife's 21st birthday. We both went to Wembley a month later to watch what was to be, as you say Keith, a great game.
I presume it is KB who has posted this pic,if it is, you've heard the story about your dads ale and my wife's 03-00 am dash to Billinge hospital to give birth.

Great pic, Keith! I was there that day, and later I attended my first Wembley. Nothing could match the atmosphere on Central Park on match day. I can still smell the pipe smoke from the old uns in the Popular Stand side of the ground!

1965 was a year when Wigan won the Challenge Cup at Wembley playing Hunslet and the score was 20-16. The next time Wigan won the Challenge Cup was 20 years later in 1985 playing against Hull. In 1965 there are no floodlights, and away from the ground there is a building in Greenough Street that was Maidwell sewing factory. Behind is a tall chimney, I don't know where that was. There is also another structure that appears to be the first multistorey car park in Millgate. But most puzzling is what appears to be a block of flats in Scholes that has been built, likely to be Crompton House. I thought the flats were built later on in 1966-68, Woodcock House being the first.

My first final,in my opinion the 1965 final was the best, also Roy Evans was one of Wigan's best second row players, maybe I'm bias because he came from Spring view.

And around the empty pitch the tension remained.
Keith, Is it true that John Barton had signed forms for Man' Utd on a fencepost in a farmer's field?
And do you also have information on the events that took place in 1937. You'll find the programme at Album > Sports > Boxing.
It looks as though my dad could have locked horns with Martin Ryan.
Thanks.

Hi Alan was you on the coach trip from John Rigby to that Wembley final? I was and pleasantly surprised that the school recognised a rugby LEAGUE game

Philip: 'All around the pitch the tension remained'? 34-0 up at half-time? Tension? What tension? :)

Mr X . Douglas House was the first block of flats built. The others were built later in a didferent style.

Thanks Jarvo. My want for a word indeed. Let me try 'And the buzz remained, with a thirst for more'. Any good?

Hi Farrie50! Long time no see! I went to the '65 final with my dad and younger brother Billy. The following year, when we played Saints in a match decided weeks earlier by the disciplinary committee (suspending Colin Clarke and punishing the club for making a stand against live televising of matches) I went down on the John Rigby coach with Bomber in charge! I remember listening to the Cooper/Clay fight on the coach on the way back! Dreadful game at Wembley. That summer would have been ruined altogether but for England winning the World Cup!

Roy: got me in one, best wishes. Alan: I share your nostalgia for the smell of aromatic pipe smoke despite never smoking myself. Philip G: yes, John Barton was on the books of Man U, sadly I cannot confirm the interesting fencepost story. Many ex Wigan players “dabbled” and more than dabbled with boxing over the years. Notably Brian McTigue but even more impressively a son of a Newport docker, named Jerry O’Shea. He was a full time professional boxer with an impressive career record (which begs the question how did he find time to become a Welsh International and a full time Wigan player). Jim Sullivan thought him the toughest/hardest player he’d ever encountered.

Thanks for your kind reply Keith. I had the John Barton tale from an elderly gentleman called Mr Hewitt, back in the mid-sixties. He lived in Edge Hall Road and became a frequent visitor to our Bispham matches, and, to some degree, had 'scouted' along the way (for want of a better term). Busby later asked him 'Have you brought this lad here?', and then predicted that he would, one day, play for England.
Sorry I can't provide you with further info regarding the area of farmland yet my thanks for your extra Boxing piece.

Keith, Not a 'dyed in the wool' Rugby, nor Boxing, man myself, and certainly hadn't previously heard of O'Shea (Shea also noticed). But I've just discovered that he was the first player to have scored a try, conversion, drop goal and penalty goal in an International match. You're also probably aware of George Chilvers's colourised photo of him, at Item 17671. Regards.

Apologies, Phillip G, you beat me to it but here's my correction any way. I should have written Jerry Shea, not O’Shea. Subconsciously I must have been influenced by that irrepressible and talented actress and entertainer, Tessie O’Shea, who while appearing in Blackpool in the 1930’s adopted "Two Ton Tessie from Tennessee" as her theme song. Getting back to Jerry Shea the boxer, in his professional career he had 71 contests, winning 54, drawing 7 and losing 9, between 1916 and 1924. He played for Wigan from 1921 to 1924, making 71 first team appearances and had 6 of his professional fights while still a Wigan player.

Just for the record, the attendance for the above match was given as 7,757 with receipts of £832, an amount that equates to £17,000 today.

No problem with the Shea/O'Shea combo Keith, but that lad A.N. Other must have confused many. Your man Shea seemed to have picked-up points wherever he trod - a good 'strike' what. Take care.

Keith, I was interested by that attendance figure. At first glance the crowd seems to have been much bigger than that, with the Duggie side, Hen Pen etc looking well populated. And then I remembered what used to happen at Central Park at half-time. If Wigan played towards the Kop end in the first half there was a mass migration from the Kop to the other end of the ground, in the hope of catching some more Wigan tries at that end also! A practice that died out - for obvious reasons - when we made the move to that other place.

Alan. I wasn't allowed to go to the 1965 Final as being too young (at 12 !) to go on my own but remember it well on the TV. However the next year (at 13!!) my parents let me and my best friend from WGS to go down to London on our own on the train to go to the Match. Those were the days eh ?

Funnily enough in the late 1980s when I was living well away from Wigan, people used to ask me who I supported. When I said Wigan RL they replied oh you just siupport them because they win everything. I used to reply that not only did I go and watch them when they were in the old 2nd division, but as far Wembley was concerned my first live experience was 1966 when they were (unjustly) thrashed by Saint !!, then 1970 when Castleford won by breaking Colin Tyrer's jaw and getting away with it. Then up in 1984 when they froze in the Final to be easily beaten by Widnes. But of course I was there in 1985 for the all time greatest game (and the subsequent Wembly wins. So I used to say yes it only tookk me 20 years and 3 awful defeats to see them win the Challenge Cup live.
By the way I could not speak for 2 days after the 1985 Final I ad lost my voice. I could have died and gone to heaven that day.

Alan, my instinct was that the attendance given was on the low side, and your explanation certainly gives a sound reason why that might appear so. However, I remember hearing, but I have absolutely no way of proving it, that the declared attendance was "underestimated" because that meant the club paid less in tax. I must stress that was a random story I heard and it may be complete baloney. Nothing to do with attendance but I thought I'd fit this in, Barton missed that year's cup final because of a broken arm.

Carolaen: I too was at that 1970 final when Hepworth brutally broke Tyrer's jaw. You can see the incident on YouTube [if it's still on]. The close-up shots of Tyrer's mouth and jaw are horrific. Referee Lindop shied away from sending Hepworth off, and I reckon the stink caused by that tackle was one of the reasons Sid Hynes got sent off the following year for supposedly planting Murphy. '85 was a fantastic game. I went down for the weekend with the Royal Oak and we celebrated with a couple of shandies before going to the opera that Saturday night. Keith: I've heard those tales about underestimating the attendances, and I'm sure you're right. Rumour has it that the attendance for the Manly game was far higher than was reported! I was at the game when John Barton broke his arm against Saints on Good Friday. I was in the Hen Pen and we watched him come off the pitch. One of the blokes at the tunnel asked him how bad it was and he just shook his head. He knew then he'd be missing the final. Great player.

Excellent, Philip.

Thanks Jarvo - thought for a while that you'd fallen out with me.
You might already know that Dave Clarke passed away last week. I believe you and he sometimes caught the same train to your respective Stoke and Wolves grounds.
Continued thanks to Keith.