It might discourage swallow dives and rolling around on the ground - especially if they hadn't been very thorough in cleaning up after the horse show! Many parks pitches still have similar deterrence to going to ground too easily.View attachment 31652
This was Wembley in 1970 for the FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Leeds United. The game was played earlier than usual on 11 April due to the World Cup in Mexico. The week previously, the Horse of the Year Show had been held at Wembley and the pitch was in a very poor condition. Terry Cooper of Leeds said, "You needed hooves to play on that pitch".
How would todays players cope on that pitch...
Cheers Frank, I've looked it up and I'm a bit confused. Wiki says Horse of the Year Show was at Wembley Stadium in 1970, but that it was held at Wembley Arena from 1959 for four decades. The International Horse Show was held at Wembley Stadium once though apparently, so maybe it was that.
There were 2 separate shows as you say. No idea why one was held outdoors that year.
I played on Parkes Hall Social pitch, Lower Gornal, in the Wolverhampton Sunday League.
Whoever arranged to have the Horse of the Year Show at English footballs home at the time should have been horse whipped!View attachment 31652
This was Wembley in 1970 for the FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Leeds United. The game was played earlier than usual on 11 April due to the World Cup in Mexico. The week previously, the Horse of the Year Show had been held at Wembley and the pitch was in a very poor condition. Terry Cooper of Leeds said, "You needed hooves to play on that pitch".
How would todays players cope on that pitch...
View attachment 31652
This was Wembley in 1970 for the FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Leeds United. The game was played earlier than usual on 11 April due to the World Cup in Mexico. The week previously, the Horse of the Year Show had been held at Wembley and the pitch was in a very poor condition. Terry Cooper of Leeds said, "You needed hooves to play on that pitch".
How would todays players cope on that pitch...
It was the era where you could tackle from behind and it was expected that the full back or centre halves would let the opposing forwards ‘know they were in a game’. Refs were far more lenient then. I’m probably wrong but the only sending offs I can think of from that era were for fighting rather than fouling or fouls.
You can see green grass at Wembley something not seen at the Baseball ground from October to May during that era.
Am I right in remembering that yellow cards were introduced, then stopped and then reintroduced over the 70s and 80s. For a period of time the ref only had a red card, in fact he may not have had one of those as I remember a couple of sending offs where the ref just pointed to the dressing room. There were still cautions but it was literally the ref writing the name in the book and if there were several people around the ref, you never knew who had been cautioned or not.
i think they used it every year to keep the horses "stabled" before trotting them across to the Arena. It was just bad timing on this occasion that the cup final was moved forward a month.
) was more times than not !Seems this might be a myth. Horse of the year show actually moved from White City to Empire Pool not the stadium in the late 60s, but the Royal International Horse Show was held on the pitch twice in 68 and 69. The damage to the turf for the 1970 final was probably a result of the horse show, but a long term one, after poorly restored turf went through a British winter and failed to fully recover the following spring, rather than an immediate effect of a poorly planned event schedule. The gist being the groundsmen were to blame rather than the administration. ( Pitch apparently fully relaid after 69 show.)
The plot thickens! This history has it at Wembley Stadium for 2 years, and '68 was the first of those on this Pathe video.
www.bmhs.co.uk
Yes, two years, but turf fully relaid after the 69 show. So not directly before the 70 FA cup final.
Just been talking to my wife about your post, in particular Penwood Forgemill as I recalled she used to mention him. These days she suffers from vascular dementia and her memories are sometimes a bit confused. It cheered her up no end though, as she remembered going to see the horse at his stable. - somewhere near Penn Common?The plot thickens! This history has it at Wembley Stadium for 2 years, and '68 was the first of those on this Pathe video.
Brief History of RIHS
Disappointed there's not more love for Penwood Forgemill, was sure one of his old stable lads would be on here!
Down the road from The Stags Head. Where's the stags head you ask....6 foot from it's tail I would respond. Boom Boom
That's lovely thanks. My Grandad used to take me out looking for dandelion and burdock, he lived off the Dudley Rd, but we used to walk over Penn Common and look towards the stables. I'm not horsey at all, but he was a little horse (relatively) that used to jump the massive fences, so always a bit of a plucky hero.
Think that this was discussed before but Oliver looked again too....
Revie changed there colours from yellow top blue shorts when he first took over as manager
Ex players reckon Giles was even worse (off the ball when the ref was looking elsewhere). Still loathe that team many years later. Truth was they were good enough without cheating. Revie was a vile individual however...
I could not agree more , my dad always said Revie was vile player too
Go on Dave deck him
