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Odd things no longer seen around the football pitch


In the Net

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On 01/04/2020 at 08:28, pongo88 said:

Good summary of some of the major jobs performed by previous Rovers managers, but you’ve missed the most important one - weeding the flower beds behind the goals. The younger OTIB readers will probably be unaware of Rovers having flower beds at Eastville. This is probably their only real claim to fame. Much more so than da famous quarters. Liverpool had the Kop. Arsenal had the North Bank. Rovers had flower beds 

The cars parked behind the goal at Stamford Bridge during matches always fascinated me.

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10 minutes ago, In the Net said:

The cars parked behind the goal at Stamford Bridge during matches always fascinated me.

Completely off tangent I.T.N., but your avatar suggests that you are (or perhaps, were), a nurse ?

If so, then take special care, and keep yourself safe.

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53 minutes ago, In the Net said:

The cars parked behind the goal at Stamford Bridge during matches always fascinated me.

I’m sure that occasionally people in  these 3 wheel invalid cars  were allowed to watch the match from near the touch line. Can anyone else remember this or am I imagining it? 

3A5D0FF0-E72E-4D78-939D-D6441FAC47A8.jpeg

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1 hour ago, pongo88 said:

I’m sure that occasionally people in  these 3 wheel invalid cars  were allowed to watch the match from near the touch line. Can anyone else remember this or am I imagining it? 

3A5D0FF0-E72E-4D78-939D-D6441FAC47A8.jpeg

The fire icon, is truly apt. Though wasn’t aware of many of these going up in flames unlike their cousins, the Bond Bug, the melted remains of which were commonplace on the roads around Britain in the 70’s.

Treasured memories of those parked up alongside the railing at the Open End. Can also remember with ten minutes to go the long line of bus drivers/conductors leaving the ground to man the football special  buses. Also the men in ‘white coats’ with the half time lettered score boards,  a cunning plan to make sure you bought a programme! 

 

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2 hours ago, In the Net said:

The cars parked behind the goal at Stamford Bridge during matches always fascinated me.

Not just there, but most grounds  I started supporting City in 1969 and they were a commons sight at AG then and for some years after.

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2 hours ago, pongo88 said:

I’m sure that occasionally people in  these 3 wheel invalid cars  were allowed to watch the match from near the touch line. Can anyone else remember this or am I imagining it? 

3A5D0FF0-E72E-4D78-939D-D6441FAC47A8.jpeg

Regular sight down The Gate late sixties early seventies....

My first car was a little red & black Austin A40 …. vividly remember 'bombing' along the Portway towards town with several mates onboard... When suddenly one of these 'invalid' cars came along side us a overtook with ease.... 

Ohh the embarrassment.. shame! ;) 

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3 hours ago, pongo88 said:

I’m sure that occasionally people in  these 3 wheel invalid cars  were allowed to watch the match from near the touch line. Can anyone else remember this or am I imagining it? 

3A5D0FF0-E72E-4D78-939D-D6441FAC47A8.jpeg

As a kid stood on the terraces in the cold and rain, I used to be jealous of those who could watch the game in the row of 4 or 5 of these near the touchline.  As a kid, you don't realise.

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58 minutes ago, WhistleHappy said:

Regular sight down The Gate late sixties early seventies....

My first car was a little red & black Austin A40 …. vividly remember 'bombing' along the Portway towards town with several mates onboard... When suddenly one of these 'invalid' cars came along side us a overtook with ease.... 

Ohh the embarrassment.. shame! ;) 

Haha, a mate of mine had one of those in the standard greenish blue colour.  Didn't have enough power to climb Dundry in 1st gear with 4 on board.  We had to get out and push the bloody thing.

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4 hours ago, pongo88 said:

I’m sure that occasionally people in  these 3 wheel invalid cars  were allowed to watch the match from near the touch line. Can anyone else remember this or am I imagining it? 

3A5D0FF0-E72E-4D78-939D-D6441FAC47A8.jpeg

They used to drive them in from the corner of the Grandstand and uncovered end. 

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1 hour ago, wendyredredrobin said:

Haha, a mate of mine had one of those in the standard greenish blue colour.  Didn't have enough power to climb Dundry in 1st gear with 4 on board.  We had to get out and push the bloody thing.

Were they available in other colours ?

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2 hours ago, WhistleHappy said:

Regular sight down The Gate late sixties early seventies....

My first car was a little red & black Austin A40 …. vividly remember 'bombing' along the Portway towards town with several mates onboard... When suddenly one of these 'invalid' cars came along side us a overtook with ease.... 

Ohh the embarrassment.. shame! ;) 

If it was the early 70s don’t worry, as then these Invacars had a 500cc engine and a top speed of 82 mph! The early models only had a 147cc engine which would probably give an embarrassing top speed. (By the way, I’m not an Invacar nerd, it’s just that I couldn’t believe one could overtake anything so I did a quick Wikki)

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3 hours ago, WhistleHappy said:

Regular sight down The Gate late sixties early seventies....

My first car was a little red & black Austin A40 …. vividly remember 'bombing' along the Portway towards town with several mates onboard... When suddenly one of these 'invalid' cars came along side us a overtook with ease.... 

Ohh the embarrassment.. shame! ;) 

You know when you’re sat in one of those training sessions, and the facilitator asks for your most fascinating fact about your life, well....... my very kindly Aunt gave me one of those Reliant Robins as a gift. It was the Estate version mind, which, if you had slightly impaired vision could - on a good day - give a passable impression of a proper car. 

Now then, to salvage any credibility on OTIB that remains, it did have an 850cc BMC engine - the same as fitted  to the mini at the time. Body weight was a fraction of a ‘normal’ car, so it shifted! Regularly did the Bristol-Tamworth ‘commute’ in the outside lane of the M5. 

The only problem with them, was not tipping over ( my only near-tip was the BBC junction Whiteladies Road at 10mph slightly misjudging the position of the high, granite curb), but in the snow. Having that centralised front wheel meant you were ploughing your own furrow - quite often with alarming consequences!!!! You felt you were in a bob slay travelling down a boulder strewn mountain. Did a good impression of one of those nodding dogs in the front seat ?

The other major embarrassment was that other Robin drivers would wave at you, as if you were in some kind of freak club!!!

Anyhows, don’t tell anyone will you. 

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5 hours ago, WhistleHappy said:

 

My first car was a little red & black Austin A40 …. vividly remember 'bombing' along the Portway towards town with several mates onboard... When suddenly one of these 'invalid' cars came along side us a overtook with ease.... 

Ohh the embarrassment.. shame! ;) 

 

Yeah, sorry about that!

 

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1 hour ago, RedRock said:

You know when you’re sat in one of those training sessions, and the facilitator asks for your most fascinating fact about your life, well....... my very kindly Aunt gave me one of those Reliant Robins as a gift. It was the Estate version mind, which, if you had slightly impaired vision could - on a good day - give a passable impression of a proper car. 

Now then, to salvage any credibility on OTIB that remains, it did have an 850cc BMC engine - the same as fitted  to the mini at the time. Body weight was a fraction of a ‘normal’ car, so it shifted! Regularly did the Bristol-Tamworth ‘commute’ in the outside lane of the M5. 

The only problem with them, was not tipping over ( my only near-tip was the BBC junction Whiteladies Road at 10mph slightly misjudging the position of the high, granite curb), but in the snow. Having that centralised front wheel meant you were ploughing your own furrow - quite often with alarming consequences!!!! You felt you were in a bob slay travelling down a boulder strewn mountain. Did a good impression of one of those nodding dogs in the front seat ?

The other major embarrassment was that other Robin drivers would wave at you, as if you were in some kind of freak club!!!

Anyhows, don’t tell anyone will you. 

My first experience of driving was in a dumper truck on a site in Thornbury. They had rear wheel steering which was over positive, so tended to be difficult to keep straight. Anyway, it was bumpy and my foot kept slipping off the accelerator. I was heading for the new warehouse and swung in a bit fast, so put my foot on the brake nice and hard, it wasn't the brake. We hurtled forward with people leaping out of the way and then I swung the wheel to avoid the foreman's car. Too late, the back wheel hit the rear of his car and ripped the back corner right off. It was a Reliant Robin, which he was very proud of.  I'd like to say he was a Gashead to keep this on topic, it was blue though.

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35 minutes ago, Rich said:

My first experience of driving was in a dumper truck on a site in Thornbury. They had rear wheel steering which was over positive, so tended to be difficult to keep straight. Anyway, it was bumpy and my foot kept slipping off the accelerator. I was heading for the new warehouse and swung in a bit fast, so put my foot on the brake nice and hard, it wasn't the brake. We hurtled forward with people leaping out of the way and then I swung the wheel to avoid the foreman's car. Too late, the back wheel hit the rear of his car and ripped the back corner right off. It was a Reliant Robin, which he was very proud of.  I'd like to say he was a Gashead to keep this on topic, it was blue though.

Funny you should mention this. 

My only ever accident in the Robin was in Cornwall. The ‘A’ road linking Truro and Falmouth. Was driving along minding my own business trying not to attract the attention of any passing Reliant drivers. Entered a narrow section of the road entering a wooded area and straight in front of me was a fully laden gravel lorry. The only problem was that it was speeding towards me on the wrong side of the road.

Very fortunately, the Robin is wedge shaped at the front. I managed to swerve into a wall on the near side, while the lorry took the shell of the off-side of the car way with it from front to back. 

The nearest visit to death I’ve had - apart from sticking my head out of the football special train on the way back from Wolverhampton and missing a passing train by about 3mm. Frightening thing was nobody would have noticed if my head was rolling around outside the toilet given the gallons of claret sloping around following that day’s subway ambush. 

 

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9 minutes ago, RedRock said:

Funny you should mention this. 

My only ever accident in the Robin was in Cornwall. The ‘A’ road linking Truro and Falmouth. Was driving along minding my own business trying not to attract the attention of any passing Reliant drivers. Entered a narrow section of the road entering a wooded area and straight in front of me was a fully laden gravel lorry. The only problem was that it was speeding towards me on the wrong side of the road.

Very fortunately, the Robin is wedge shaped at the front. I managed to swerve into a wall on the near side, while the lorry took the shell of the off-side of the car way with it from front to back. 

The nearest visit to death I’ve had - apart from sticking my head out of the football special train on the way back from Wolverhampton and missing a passing train by about 3mm. Frightening thing was nobody would have noticed if my head was rolling around outside the toilet given the gallons of claret sloping around following that day’s subway ambush. 

 

Which one was that? I was there in about 72 and it was good fun. Black lad with a big head (chalkie White) as he was known then, was exchanging black insults with some local black lads up on the bank.

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9 hours ago, RedRock said:

Funny you should mention this. 

My only ever accident in the Robin was in Cornwall. The ‘A’ road linking Truro and Falmouth. Was driving along minding my own business trying not to attract the attention of any passing Reliant drivers. Entered a narrow section of the road entering a wooded area and straight in front of me was a fully laden gravel lorry. The only problem was that it was speeding towards me on the wrong side of the road.

Very fortunately, the Robin is wedge shaped at the front. I managed to swerve into a wall on the near side, while the lorry took the shell of the off-side of the car way with it from front to back. 

The nearest visit to death I’ve had - apart from sticking my head out of the football special train on the way back from Wolverhampton and missing a passing train by about 3mm. Frightening thing was nobody would have noticed if my head was rolling around outside the toilet given the gallons of claret sloping around following that day’s subway ambush. 

 

The most number of milk bottles I've ever known in one place.  Bad medicine that day.

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15 hours ago, wendyredredrobin said:

Haha, a mate of mine had one of those in the standard greenish blue colour.  Didn't have enough power to climb Dundry in 1st gear with 4 on board.  We had to get out and push the bloody thing.

They all ended up scrapped by the gov - you effectively leased them.  However there are still several to be found. If you go on YouTube and look for a channel called hubnut you’ll see a guy who’s saved one and driving it around.  Crazy things could do 80mph on the flat. 
 

Edit - links:

 

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6 minutes ago, TomF said:

They all ended up scrapped by the gov - you effectively leased them.  However there are still several to be found. If you go on YouTube and look for a channel called hubnut you’ll see a guy who’s saved one and driving it around.  Crazy things could do 80mph on the flat. 
 

Edit - links:

 

I'm not the only one who watches Hubnut, then!

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1 hour ago, TomF said:

They all ended up scrapped by the gov - you effectively leased them.  However there are still several to be found. If you go on YouTube and look for a channel called hubnut you’ll see a guy who’s saved one and driving it around.  Crazy things could do 80mph on the flat. 
 

Edit - links:

 

Sorry, I was talking about the A40 but Hubnut looks like it could be an interesting watch to fill some of that lockdown time.

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Without wishing to derail this thread still further, I am reminded of a story I was told of a guy who bought a bubble car, back in the day and proudly took it out for its first spin. Apparently, some models of these vehicles had no reverse gear as they were so light that they could be quite easily turned around by hand. Access into the vehicle was achieved by opening the entire front door.

bubble;bubble car;car;isetta;microcar;tpt

 

He drove into a car park, driving into a parking space but just too close to a wall in front of him meaning that he couldn't open the door, couldn't reverse out and had to wait for someone to come along to push him back. I so hope that the story it true because the absurdity of it has amused me for years!

No doubt someone will now tell me that it was the storyline of an episode of Mr Bean!

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12 minutes ago, Rudolf Hucker said:

Without wishing to derail this thread still further, I am reminded of a story I was told of a guy who bought a bubble car, back in the day and proudly took it out for its first spin. Apparently, some models of these vehicles had no reverse gear as they were so light that they could be quite easily turned around by hand. Access into the vehicle was achieved by opening the entire front door.

bubble;bubble car;car;isetta;microcar;tpt

 

He drove into a car park, driving into a parking space but just too close to a wall in front of him meaning that he couldn't open the door, couldn't reverse out and had to wait for someone to come along to push him back. I so hope that the story it true because the absurdity of it has amused me for years!

No doubt someone will now tell me that it was the storyline of an episode of Mr Bean!

It`s like those stories about people who build a boat or a plane in their front room and forget they need to get it out.

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On 02/04/2020 at 16:07, wendyredredrobin said:

Haha, a mate of mine had one of those in the standard greenish blue colour.  Didn't have enough power to climb Dundry in 1st gear with 4 on board.  We had to get out and push the bloody thing.

Not sure what year you are talking but did this guy go to withywood youth club ?

There was a couple of these cars that would hang about outside the club that we would climb in and bomb off down Queens rd.One of the guys would take the steering wheel off half way down.....he was a nutter.

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34 minutes ago, Jim Davey said:

seem to remember a flatbed truck driving around the pitch with some dolly birds on the back throwing stuff into the crowd .

The dolly birds were City's cheer leaders and they were throwing pork pies into the crowd. this was in the mid to late 70's..

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