The Heavyroller

[Flaming Pie]

In the past few weeks l’ve become aware of The Heavyroller on YouTube . Some fantastic footage of pre- 1970s football for nostalgia buffs to enjoy. I didn’t realise that some of these games were even televised.. There’s a good selection of Everton 1950s and 60s.Harry Catterick wasn’t keen on letting the cameras into Goodison Park( not much footage has ever been seen of the great 1962-63 and 1969-70 teams ) .. Just spent over an hour watching The Busby Babes. Some of it’s a bit grainy,, but l never thought I’d ever see such relatively watchable footage of the pre-Munich United teams. We all know how great the likes of Edwards, Byrne, Pegg , Taylor, and Coleman were, but didn’t realise just how good the likes of Liam Whelan and Johnny Berry were also.

[farmersboy]

Why haven't I heard about this before? I've just watched 2 Pompey games from 58/59 and 60/61 (both relegation seaons) It brought a tear to my eye seeing such players as Jimmy Dickinson and Peter Harris when I've only read about them. This was way before MOTD so presumabley there was occasional coverage.
The Chelsea v Pompey game of 58/59, featured ridiculous frozen pitch, Ron Tindall playing on with concussion, Jimmy Greaves and Pompey losing a 2 goal lead with a horrendous back pass by Jimmy Dickinson.
I wonder where they got the footage and wether there will be any more.

[Flaming Pie]

farmersboy, it’s a great find isn’t it. What got me was reading about Johnny Berry. The poor lad sustained terrible injuries and never played again. He was also suffering from amnesia and couldn’t remember the crash. Apparently he kept asking why his great pal , Tommy Taylor, one of the team that had died, hadn’t been to see him in hospital? Looking at that footage Berry looked a fabulous little winger.

[colchestersid]

https://www.youtube.com/user/theheavyroller/videos

Link takes you to their list of videos

[farmersboy]

There is something for everybody on here. I've just watched Pompey v Wolves 1956/57. Eight minutes of good picture and the best experience of the crowd and atmosphere I have seen. Much better than the usual disjointed Pathe News coverage that we usually see. The commentator sounded like a young Cliff Mitchelmore and I'm sure a caught a glimpse of the lady, Joyce Tynan, I think, who has often been featured in later years, supporting Pompey.

[Pete’s Picture Palace]

WOW WOW WOW

Palace v Oldham 1961 - 2 brilliant Johnny Byrne goals, a comeback win, an Oldham missed penalty, kids running on the pitch. Heaven!

Flaming Pie - this is fantastic and will delay my next website update by days!

[Flaming Pie]

Keep being drawn to watch Man Unt pre-Munich games on this channel. Just watched Man United v Shamrock Rovers Preliminary Round European Cup 1957. United won 3-2. There’s a lovely comment by the son of Maxie McCann, who scored Rovers first goal. He said : “ Thanks for sharing this, don’t know where you got the footage, but this is the first time I have ever seen my dad play”.

[yachtsmun]

Oh. My. Word.

That's one hell of a rabbit hole to spend time down. Just watched Bedford v Arsenal in 55-6 FAC. Just wonderful. Many thanks for pointing the way, Flaming Pie.
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Always looking for pre-1980 Cowes homes, pre-1987 Cowes aways, and any other bits and bobs relating to Cowes F.C. and I.W. football in general. Someone has to.

[Flaming Pie]

Yachtsmun, lm watching as many as l can. I don’t know how YouTube works, but l’ve got a horrible feeling that this great footage will disappear soon! It’s strange that the footage just fades away sometimes in the second half. Last game l looked at Birmingham were beating Man Unt 3-1 , l think 1957? , then it disappeared . I notice David Coleman is commentator for a lot of the games. I thought Dave hadn’t been invented until the 1960s! Last time l was in your neck of the woods l was a teenager watching Jimi Hendrix at The Last Great Festival , not that far from the stage. Over 50 years ago now

[Pete’s Picture Palace]

Flaming Pie wrote:

Yachtsmun, lm watching as many as l can. I don’t know how YouTube works, but l’ve got a horrible feeling that this great footage will disappear soon! It’s strange that the footage just fades away sometimes in the second half. Last game l looked at Birmingham were beating Man Unt 3-1 , l think 1957? , then it disappeared . I notice David Coleman is commentator for a lot of the games. I thought Dave hadn’t been invented until the 1960s! Last time l was in your neck of the woods l was a teenager watching Jimi Hendrix at The Last Great Festival , not that far from the stage. Over 50 years ago now

Presumably either no floodlights or not powerful enough for TV cameras. About 20 years ago I had the pleasure of watching the Palace v Walthamstow Avenue footage (FAC 1956/7) with commentary by Kenneth Wolstenholme, with a few of the Palace players involved. What was really fantastic was the pi##-taking they all handed out to each other. Just team-mates like any other team at any level, ever.

[beaudog]

Superb action from a couple of Manchester united / City games from around 1970. Particularly enjoyed the game where Francis Lee scored a hat-trick at Old Trafford. The game was played at a fast pace, the commitment was there for all to see and the passion of the occasion. Look forward to finding a few more of these clips and bringing back memories. Thanks to everyone who has brought this to our attention.

[Fishy]

Only 2 words - SUPERB THANKYOU
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Millwall league AWAYS wanted
45/6 Newport; Swansea; Leicester.
47/8 Coventry.
48/9 Newport.
49/0 Walsall; Exeter.
50/1 Port Vale.
51/2 Port Vale 1/5.
52/3 Swindon.

[derby1884]

Watched 8 or 9 these so far. As everyone has said, fantastic.

What strikes me initially is how refreshing it is to see the game played as it should be and not the interminable pass-it-across-the-back-four-keep-possession-at-all-costs that has turned me off top level football.

The second thing I noticed is just how fast some of these wingers actually were. Hails of Peterborough and Walden of Northampton just two examples.
Fascinating, too, to see how Northampton's 3-sided ground operated when there was a substantial crowd. And how they had to delay the game to get the ball back when it ended up on the cricket pitches!

I use the ClipGrab programme to download videos from YouTube - tempted to do so with everything Heavyroller has uploaded just in case they do suddenly vanish. Which would be a great shame.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/derby1884/sets/

[Jim LFC]

Thanks for the heads up FP some great stuff. Not too much LFC on there but for most of the featured years they were languishing in the second division.

I did however find this

https://youtube.com/c/FootballGaffesGalore

"Ye Olde Football Channel" features individual goals from the late 60s onwards and is totally addictive. Goals you'd forgotten about or didn't even know existed are all there. I was gobsmacked to see the Chris Lawler goal at Sheffield Wednesday in 1969 ( my first away game) but the 4 Derby goals against us in the same season brought back some unhappy memories....

Something for everyone, enjoy!

[Flaming Pie]

Jim, l did actually play against Chris Lawler. We took the kids to a caravan site in Borth , N Wales mid 1980s. I think Chris lived in Anglesey at the time. There was an advertisement near the clubhouse ‘ Chris Lawler Coaching Day’ or something similar. At the time l hadn’t played in a game for years, but in your head , you still think you could play in a match no problem. After a bit of coaching for the kids, Chris played in one team and l played in another. I soon found out l was okay doing a few keepie uppies, but was too old to play for any length of time. I recall bringing down some young lad ( he was far too fast for me) with an ‘ accidental’ tackle that Tommy Smith would have been proud of .Chris gave me such a withering look, lm sure he would have sent me off if he could but l was on my holidays having a good time

[Jim LFC]

Flaming Pie wrote:

Jim, l did actually play against Chris Lawler. We took the kids to a caravan site in Borth , N Wales mid 1980s. I think Chris lived in Anglesey at the time. There was an advertisement near the clubhouse ‘ Chris Lawler Coaching Day’ or something similar. At the time l hadn’t played in a game for years, but in your head , you still think you could play in a match no problem. After a bit of coaching for the kids, Chris played in one team and l played in another. I soon found out l was okay doing a few keepie uppies, but was too old to play for any length of time. I recall bringing down some young lad ( he was far too fast for me) with an ‘ accidental’ tackle that Tommy Smith would have been proud of .Chris gave me such a withering look, lm sure he would have sent me off if he could but l was on my holidays having a good time

Great story!

I have a similar story relating to Paul Reaney. I was assisting him in one of his kids training sessions at Pontins in Blackpool. I say assisting him, I was the chief ball retriever! Anyway Paul was quite an amiable guy and was very enthusiastic in his session which, to be fair, could have been better attended. I never got to play against him but he did mention what happened to Peter Osgood. Apparently Osgood was playing in a similar scenario in a southern holiday camp when one of the campers violently tackled him so badly that he described it as one of the worst fouls he had received in his life. Wonder which opposing club the hatchet man supported?!