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BigTone

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Morning All, my Nephews Son in Adelaide has become something of a Bristol City fanatic (Good lad). So much so he is doing a school project about the history of City and Ashton Gate. Anyone who has some interesting titbits (I know yours are interesting Dolls) then your contributions would be much appreciated and I will pass them on. Ta muchly in advance.

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Didn't a German bomb help City get a new stand from the Government compensation scheme? Your nephew could look into that.

I was very reliably informed that after the financial debacle of 1982 and the subsequent next couple of years, we received an advance payment from the Billy Graham Organisation to hire the stadium (for Mission England) in 1985. We were so cash strapped at the time, the advanced payment cleared important, outstanding bills that BCFC had trouble paying.

We bought a million pound player for £300,000 in January 2017. This goes to prove that if you do your homework and read the small print, you'll reap the rewards. In this particular case, it's also the funniest news item to have come out of BCFC this century. It makes me, and most of the fan base, laugh out loud to this day!

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9 minutes ago, Norn Iron said:

Didn't a German bomb help City get a new stand from the Government compensation scheme? Your nephew could look into that.

I was very reliably informed that after the financial debacle of 1982 and the subsequent next couple of years, we received an advance payment from the Billy Graham Organisation to hire the stadium (for Mission England) in 1985. We were so cash strapped at the time, the advanced payment cleared important, outstanding bills that BCFC had trouble paying.

We bought a million pound player for £300,000 in January 2017. This goes to prove that if you do your homework and read the small print, you'll reap the rewards. In this particular case, it's also the funniest news item to have come out of BCFC this century. It makes me, and most of the fan base, laugh out loud to this day!

Will you pass on our - belated - thanks to the German embassy?

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51 minutes ago, BigTone said:

Morning All, my Nephews Son in Adelaide has become something of a Bristol City fanatic (Good lad). So much so he is doing a school project about the history of City and Ashton Gate. Anyone who has some interesting titbits (I know yours are interesting Dolls) then your contributions would be much appreciated and I will pass them on. Ta muchly in advance.

Y not do some sort of history on Aussie city players. Luke wilshire and Paul agostino which would tie in with where they r living. I’m sure we’ve had more Aussie players in the past

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4 minutes ago, onlyotib said:

Y not do some sort of history on Aussie city players. Luke wilshire and Paul agostino which would tie in with where they r living. I’m sure we’ve had more Aussie players in the past

And David Seal and Bailey Wright. But not Neil Kilkenny. 

And funnily enough the only Bruce I can recall playing for us wasn’t Australian. Very odd. 

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6 minutes ago, onlyotib said:

Y not do some sort of history on Aussie city players. Luke wilshire and Paul agostino which would tie in with where they r living. I’m sure we’ve had more Aussie players in the past

.... and then there's the legend that was Nick Carle.  

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3 minutes ago, CyderInACan said:

And David Seal and Bailey Wright. But not Neil Kilkenny. 

And funnily enough the only Bruce I can recall playing for us wasn’t Australian. Very odd. 

But I believe he once went there on Halliday...

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The stand built after the war, later named the Williams, was constructed in 1950-52.

There was steel "rationing" so the football club applied for an allocation. The City Supporters Club also applied for and was granted an allocation.

Even then, there was only enough steel to build a stand that stretched from one penalty area line to the other. Harry Dolman agreed that the Supporters club should have a clubroom in the stand "in perpetuity".

The other consequence of the bombing was damage to the pitch in the corner of the pitch next to the current media centre. For many years, this area became easily waterlogged until the pitch drainage system was improved in more recent times.

The first floodlights installed in 1952, were made by Harry Dolman's engineering company Brecknell Dolman & Rogers. There were about twelve individual posts , six each side of the pitch. They had a hinge mechanism so that they could be lowered to the ground when not in use.

In 1949 just four years after the end of the Second World War, City signed Alec Eisentrager an ex German Prisoner of war. He became a City legend and only died a couple of years ago. Manchester City also at the same time, signed Bert Trauttmann, another POW, a goalkeeper who also became a Man City legend.

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30 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

The stand built after the war, later named the Williams, was constructed in 1950-52.

There was steel "rationing" so the football club applied for an allocation. The City Supporters Club also applied for and was granted an allocation.

Even then, there was only enough steel to build a stand that stretched from one penalty area line to the other. Harry Dolman agreed that the Supporters club should have a clubroom in the stand "in perpetuity".

The other consequence of the bombing was damage to the pitch in the corner of the pitch next to the current media centre. For many years, this area became easily waterlogged until the pitch drainage system was improved in more recent times.

The first floodlights installed in 1952, were made by Harry Dolman's engineering company Brecknell Dolman & Rogers. There were about twelve individual posts , six each side of the pitch. They had a hinge mechanism so that they could be lowered to the ground when not in use.

In 1949 just four years after the end of the Second World War, City signed Alec Eisentrager an ex German Prisoner of war. He became a City legend and only died a couple of years ago. Manchester City also at the same time, signed Bert Trauttmann, another POW, a goalkeeper who also became a Man City legend.

Wow!  

Impressive knowledge CA.

I knew about Eisenstrager but not much else.

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Ashton Gate was originally Bedminster's ground and also used by the cricket club. Opened in 1895. Bedminster merged with Bristol City in 1900. Bedminster were originally called Southville 1887 but changed their name to Bedminster in 1890. WG Grace refereed some of Southville's matches. Bedminster had the better team and stadium when they merged with Bristol City in 1900, this is reflected in the fact that most of the players retained by the newly merged club were the Bedminster ones.

Bristol City were formed as Bristol South End in 1894, although there was a club called Bristol South that had disbanded earlier in 1894 that was founded at some point in the early to mid 1880s. The directors of the new club Bristol South End had all been associated with the Bristol South club. 

 

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1 hour ago, Norn Iron said:

 

We bought a million pound player for £300,000 in January 2017. This goes to prove that if you do your homework and read the small print, you'll reap the rewards. In this particular case, it's also the funniest news item to have come out of BCFC this century. It makes me, and most of the fan base, laugh out loud to this day!

Surely 10 million Norn?!? :D

58 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

The stand built after the war, later named the Williams, was constructed in 1950-52.

There was steel "rationing" so the football club applied for an allocation. The City Supporters Club also applied for and was granted an allocation.

Even then, there was only enough steel to build a stand that stretched from one penalty area line to the other. Harry Dolman agreed that the Supporters club should have a clubroom in the stand "in perpetuity".

 

Always wondered why the Williams never stretched the full length of the pitch. Mystery solved! 

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3 hours ago, BigTone said:

Morning All, my Nephews Son in Adelaide has become something of a Bristol City fanatic (Good lad). So much so he is doing a school project about the history of City and Ashton Gate. Anyone who has some interesting titbits (I know yours are interesting Dolls) then your contributions would be much appreciated and I will pass them on. Ta muchly in advance.

I would recommend the Harry Dolman book Tone, it covers a huge amount of the club history. I was particularly interested in the fact that we were very much one of the pioneers of floodlit football, playing in especially arranged friendlies until the FA ratified their use in league games. 

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2 hours ago, cidered abroad said:

The stand built after the war, later named the Williams, was constructed in 1950-52.

There was steel "rationing" so the football club applied for an allocation. The City Supporters Club also applied for and was granted an allocation.

Even then, there was only enough steel to build a stand that stretched from one penalty area line to the other. Harry Dolman agreed that the Supporters club should have a clubroom in the stand "in perpetuity".

 

Really fascinating stuff. 

There’s a fantastic panoramic picture of the ground taken in the 1950s in the “Ashton Gate - 100 years in pictures” book. I’ve tried to copy a picture of it here (taken on my phone - apologies for the quality). It seems to show that at that time one side of the Grandstand (nearest the open end) wasn’t quite finished and didn’t extend the full length of the Enclosure. 

57A70B27-C658-490C-B7BB-754286D54250.jpeg

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5 hours ago, BigTone said:

Morning All, my Nephews Son in Adelaide has become something of a Bristol City fanatic (Good lad). So much so he is doing a school project about the history of City and Ashton Gate. Anyone who has some interesting titbits (I know yours are interesting Dolls) then your contributions would be much appreciated and I will pass them on. Ta muchly in advance.

Just sent you an email ?

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6 hours ago, BigTone said:

Morning All, my Nephews Son in Adelaide has become something of a Bristol City fanatic (Good lad). So much so he is doing a school project about the history of City and Ashton Gate. Anyone who has some interesting titbits (I know yours are interesting Dolls) then your contributions would be much appreciated and I will pass them on. Ta muchly in advance.

During the early 1900's City often sported Edwardian Blue shirts away from Ashton Gate. Most famously in their 1909 FA Cup Final appearance at The Crystal Palace. 

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3 minutes ago, Curr Avon said:

During the early 1900's City often sported Edwardian Blue shirts away from Ashton Gate. Most famously in their 1909 FA Cup Final appearance at The Crystal Palace. 

And the only surviving film footage of this match is owned by ex-chairman Scott Davidson.

 

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5 minutes ago, Norn Iron said:

And the only surviving film footage of this match is owned by ex-chairman Scott Davidson.

 

I have a commemorative paper towel (yes really!) that was produced for the pre-match dinner - they were rather formal back then. 

It lists both teams vital statistics and has pics of the players and details of both City and Man U's progress to the final.

LJ would've loved the team back then. Most were 5ft 5 or 5ft 6. Our tallest player was the right back Annan who was a man mountain at 5ft 10.

Another interesting fact is that "Fatty" Wedlock was 10 stone 6.

That must make me "Clinically Obese" Robbo!  :noexp:

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50 minutes ago, Norn Iron said:

And the only surviving film footage of this match is owned by ex-chairman Scott Davidson.

 

You are almost correct. Film footage did exist of the 1909 Final and was shown in halls around Bristol. It was also advertised in 1934, on the 25th anniversary of the game as being shown in Bristol. So it was still in existence then. However, from that point on it disappeared. It is believed that it was destroyed during the blitz as a copy was, it seems, deposited with the library. However, one would assume a copy was deposited in Manchester somewhere too. Unfortunately, a lot of film from the silent era was made of nitrate which was highly flammable. Films were made to watch just for a short period back then, the fact a copy still existed 25 years later was good going.

What Scott Davidson purchased was a copy of the record that accompanied the silent film of the match to play in synchronicity with it.

Edit: I forgot to add that John Motson supplied the commentary :laugh:. 

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24 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

I have a commemorative paper towel (yes really!) that was produced for the pre-match dinner - they were rather formal back then. 

It lists both teams vital statistics and has pics of the players and details of both City and Man U's progress to the final.

LJ would've loved the team back then. Most were 5ft 5 or 5ft 6. Our tallest player was the right back Annan who was a man mountain at 5ft 10.

Another interesting fact is that "Fatty" Wedlock was 10 stone 6.

That must make me "Clinically Obese" Robbo!      

Did we have a woman's team back then RR? 

If so any 'vital statistics' ? 

NB : asking for @Rudolf Hucker …. honest .. :) 

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10 minutes ago, handsofclay said:

 

What Scott Davidson purchased was a copy of the record that accompanied the silent film of the match to play in synchronicity with it.

Thanks Hands for the info. It makes sense then why we've never been allowed to even see a snippet of it!

So what we have so far for a future DVD release of the famous 1909 match is a slow panning shot of Robbo's teamsheet on a printed napkin to the original piano music recording. Even if it was released in 7.1 Dolby Atmos and 4K Blu-ray, I'm not going to buy.

Just for fun but if a DVD could be produced for sale in the club shop etc, has anyone got something genuine to add to a napkin and piano music?

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Open the correction on this...@handsofclay will probably know.

Rovers are known as the Gas for obvious reasons.

The term 'shithead' for us, came from an original name of 'sheet heads'.

Our original ground had Advertising sheets put around the ground to stop people watching the game for free as you could overlook the ground.

That's how I've understood it.

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