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Pete’s Picture Palace · Posted: Thu May 19, 2022 12:44 am Post subject: Arsenal at a dinner c 1979

This has been sent to me by another member of the forum who had trouble uploading it himself - there are a few Arsenal players and he thought it was the 1979 cup final side - but several of those are missing and John Hollins is there who joined in July 1979 so wasn't there for that final.

This is our collective thinking, clockwise from front:-

Old chap - no idea
Liam Brady
Don't know
Graham Rix
Dave O'Leary
John Hollins
Willie Young
Don't know
Brian Talbot
Paul Vaessen
Steve Walford
Pat Jennings
Don't know
Pat Rice

Can anyone be more precise please? Who are those don't knows? And where are Frank Stapleton, Sammy Nelson, David Price, Alan Sunderland?
All help gratefully received.

Thank you

littlewiggy · Joined: 07 Apr 2013 Posts: 1818 Location: Newport

Can't help on the identities, Pete, my eyesight isn't good enough ... 'cept to say it looks like the Arsenal table at the PFA Awards dinner to me and Chippy Brady won it in 1979.

Or it could be 1980 when Terry Mac (Liverpool) won it.

Not what you were asking I know.

Get My Coat

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Five and In · Joined: 15 Sep 2015 Posts: 1462 Location: Dawlish, Devon

My first thought was that it was a PFA Awards dinner. Great minds etc Wiggy!!

I think the bloke in between Willie Young and Brian Talbot is Ken Friar, club secretary and then Managing Director.

The bloke between Pat Rice and Liam Brady looks like Peter Hill Wood, but I don't think he was involved with the club officially until his dad Dennis died in 1982.

As for the other two.....random blokes that scored tickets off of Stan Flashman? Laughing

Pete’s Picture Palace · Posted: Thu May 19, 2022 4:24 pm Post subject:

Thanks Wiggy and Five, good thinking re the 1979 or maybe 1980 PFA dinner, entirely logical. Maybe Stapleton, Nelson etc were on another table, suppose one or two of the missing may have been on their way out of AFC at the time of the dinner.

Like the Stan Flashman idea, even if your tongue is in your cheek, he probably made a fortune every year at that event. Those were the days.

Flaming Pie · Joined: 26 Nov 2016 Posts: 972

Can’t remember who he is, but sitting in the middle of Rix and Brady might well be a former boxer? It’s not Terry Spinks or Terry Downes, but could be someone from that era . He might be security, looks a hard case Very Happy

littlewiggy · Joined: 07 Apr 2013 Posts: 1818 Location: Newport

Pie's right, the chap next to Chippy who looks like Arthur from On The Buses, and the old fella at six-o-clock are both clearly looking for trouble.

A right pair of street toughs and no mistake.
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Flaming Pie · Joined: 26 Nov 2016 Posts: 972

Littlewiggy, far table , you just about make out the Liverpool team.. Tommy Smith was still going through his Charles Bronson ( moustache ) phase . He’s now signed for Swansea , but The Reds have taken him along for back up. The Arsenal lads have got wind of this and those two tough guys look ready for any action. I’ve heard some of those dinners could be like the Wild West with bread buns being thrown at unsuspecting guests.. It’s obvious when you think about it. Even ‘ Chopper’ Harris is sitting at the Chelsea table Laughing

littlewiggy · Joined: 07 Apr 2013 Posts: 1818 Location: Newport

Good spot that, Pie, I have heard these PFA do's used to get a bit lairy. It's likely why everybody went dressed as doormen, so's they were "match ready" to throw a few hay-balers as soon as Chopper & Tommy ordered extra bread buns.

Copious amounts of Harp & Double Diamond were guzzled as well, enough to sink a ship I heard. In 1981 this resulted in Johnny Wark and his handlebar moustache being given the pointy trophy. The confused Warky had only popped in to use the fag machine too, having been at the Wyatt Earp convention next door.

Nod

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Flaming Pie · Joined: 26 Nov 2016 Posts: 972

Jimmy Greaves talked about these infamous dinners in his book. He said he didn’t mind a few volovants hitting him on the back of the head. What really got his back up was when they started lobbing scotch eggs ( the big ones, not those tiny ones the size of a marble) at him. He wasn’t certain, but he reckons his mate Bobby Moore was the main culprit . Luckily , the game was cleaned up in the 1980s and all that type of nonsense stopped and players could enjoy their cheese and wine in peace Laughing

littlewiggy · Joined: 07 Apr 2013 Posts: 1818 Location: Newport

A deeply troubling tale that, Pie. Sadly, I believe the 1970s were rife for hooliganism and food shenanigans. The latter being a real blight on the game, so I've heard.

I'm reminded of the time Brendan Batson put two Shredded Wheat on top of Ron Atkinson's head for a joke at the Hawthorns in 1979.

Big Ron didn't realise they were there until 1992.

There were lighter moments too, lest we forget, such as the time Jimmy Sirrel was turned away from a well-known London nightspot. Peter Stringfellow apparently told him ... "I'm the only gigolo allowed in here pal, now bugger off home while you're safe."

Laughing

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