Pre internet

[One Team]

9 hours ago, SuperDziek said:

Having watched (with @CyderInACan) the highlights of 1989/90, please can we have some comments  for a bygone era, even if you didn’t see it or it’s not justified. Having seen Dave Rennie put one in the open end from a penalty I’ll start with:

Dave Rennie didn’t contribute enough goals from midfield......

Out of likes but good thread this. 

Clubcall and Radio Bristol were the order of the day for me.

The internet was great in the mid 90s when the old City List started. Less than 50 of us as I recall, superb time’s before this forum!

[Ronnie Sinclair]

Radio Bristol midweek games, they'd be playing a record, then the dreaded jingle "Radio Bristol Sport - Goal News", as they cut off to Ashton Gate to advise us City had conceded.

[Red-Robbo]

2 hours ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

Page 307 when we were in the third tier, but page 305 after we got promotion.  Oh, the joy of staring at teletext and waiting for the page to refresh.  Didn’t Gary Lineker once describe a game as being ‘about as exciting as watching a match on teletext’?  I thought “What’s wrong with watching a match on teletext?”.

 

Ceefax Sport used to get audiences of 19 million in those days. Higher than the news output.

Managers, players and officials often used to ring the editor and senior writers with gossip or to be interviewed or - often - to quibble with the match reports.

I remember the editor telling me about how a tired and emotional Bobby Gould rang him late one night to object to a match report. 

"The whole piece is completely inflammable!" started the confused Gouldster before claiming "you've walked up to my face and stabbed me in the back" adding, bizarrely, "my players are more than just men". He then apologised repeatedly for waking the editor's wife despite being repeatedly assured that the ed was now divorced and no wife was present to be disturbed by the call.

Great days.

 

[glynriley]

10 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

Ceefax Sport used to get audiences of 19 million in those days. Higher than the news output.

Managers, players and officials often used to ring the editor and senior writers with gossip or to be interviewed or - often - to quibble with the match reports.

I remember the editor telling me about how a tired and emotional Bobby Gould rang him late one night to object to a match report. 

"The whole piece is completely inflammable!" started the confused Gouldster before claiming "you've walked up to my face and stabbed me in the back" adding, bizarrely, "my players are more than just men". He then apologised repeatedly for waking the editor's wife despite being repeatedly assured that the ed was now divorced and no wife was present to be disturbed by the call.

Great days.

 

I always remember returning from a game once, and my Mrs asking "Whos' Wimbletonpen?"

"What?" says I.

"Whos' Wimbletonpen?"

"Sorry love, what you going on about?"

She gets up the ceefax page to show me. Paul Wimbleton had scored a penalty but they's missed out the gap between his name and 'pen'...!!

 

 

 

[Harry]

I watched the most tense affair on Ceefax once. 
I was in holiday at a Centre Parcs in Holland with my then girlfriend. 
England were playing away in Italy to qualify for the 98 World Cup. We needed a draw in Rome to go through. 
I ditched the missus and went to find a bar that might have live football on. Couldn’t find anywhere that was showing it. 
The only place where I could keep up with events was in a small cafe who said he’d put it up on the tiny tv on teletext. 
That was good enough for me. At kick off I was joined by a Spurs fan who’d also been searching for somewhere to see the game. 
The pair of us settled in with Dutch canned lager, at a small table, in a small cafe watching teletext on a tiny tv. 
 

94 minutes later, the full time score was confirmed. 0-0. Literally, we watched teletext for 94 minutes and NOTHING happened. And we were ecstatic

Little did we know the events that had unfolded in Rome. Paul Ince’s bloodied shirt. 94th minutes craziness with Ian Wright hitting the post and then Italy immediately going down the other end and Christin Vieri heading a golden opportunity wide, which would have eliminated us with the last kick!! 
 

We knew none of this. All we knew is that we’d witnessed absolutely nothing happen on the teletext and we were delighted!! 

[Red-Robbo]

8 minutes ago, glynriley said:

I always remember returning from a game once, and my Mrs asking "Whos' Wimbletonpen?"

"What?" says I.

"Whos' Wimbletonpen?"

"Sorry love, what you going on about?"

She gets up the ceefax page to show me. Paul Wimbleton had scored a penalty but they's missed out the gap between his name and 'pen'...!!

 

 

 

 

The classic was to have a mangled headline because the system could only handle a certain number of characters and cut off if you exceeded them.

The headline: "Mauresmo seizes Italian title" was broadcast missing the last two letters.  

[NcnsBcfc]

2 hours ago, GrahamC said:

When we were pissed off, about 100 supporters (at most) used to congregate by that horrible red plastic entrance bit opposite the portakabin club shop and chant “sack the board” for about half an hour, to absolutely no effect. I might have been one of those 100..

Now anonymous individuals who probably haven’t bothered to get dressed write deeply unpleasant stuff online.

As the OP, that wasn’t Rennie’s job, he was the defensive midfield screen & very good at it, too..

and who can forget his patented flick ons at Corners.....

I've never seen a City player since master that art since.

[Kingswood Robin]

2 hours ago, Sir Geoff said:

That was the last time I remember us having any sort of coherent set piece routine.

Yes, it certainly feels like it.

Although there was that time when Cole Skuse played the ball back to the halfway line from the edge of the box......

[SuperDziek]

2 hours ago, GrahamC said:

When we were pissed off, about 100 supporters (at most) used to congregate by that horrible red plastic entrance bit opposite the portakabin club shop and chant “sack the board” for about half an hour, to absolutely no effect. I might have been one of those 100..

Now anonymous individuals who probably haven’t bothered to get dressed write deeply unpleasant stuff online.

As the OP, that wasn’t Rennie’s job, he was the defensive midfield screen & very good at it, too..

In my defence, I was under the influence of drink (blame @CyderInACanfor opening a bottle of port after a few beers last night) when writing that post. That said, Rennie could have notched a few penalties though instead of putting them in the park end!

Think Rennie went on to play in the Prem with Cov as well - what a team that 89/90 one was. 

[Kingswood Robin]

Pre internet/mobile phones. While on holiday abroad, I always remember having to wait until MONDAY to find out we'd drawn 3-3 with Rovers the previous Saturday. Couldn't get the results until the Sunday papers were in the shops - on Monday. 

[Bob Taylor is GOD]

1 hour ago, Steve Watts said:

I hate it when people call Bob Taylor "God"...  I mean I know some people think he's wonderful and all, but God really is no Super Bob!

[red panda]

As a student, away from Bristol and with no TV to watch Ceefax, for midweek games I'd need to rely on Sportsdesk at 9.55pm on Radio 2 (I think). If I was in the bar at that time, or Sportsdesk didn't give all the results, then I had to wait until the next day's papers and hope the result was there (though sometimes it would be shown as L-L ) 

[Port Said Red]

Updating the Shoot League tables on a Sunday morning, this was probably more 70's than 80's though.

I know the digital age has it's problems, but can you imagine what Lockdown would have been like with 4 TV channels and about a dozen radio stations? Sport would have been finished completely with no real alternative revenus streams.

[IAmNick]

1 hour ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

The classic was to have a mangled headline because the system could only handle a certain number of characters and cut off if you exceeded them.

The headline: "Mauresmo seizes Italian title" was broadcast missing the last two letters.  

You'd think that would have been solved after all these years...

[slartibartfast]

4 hours ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

I went to see Nick Hornby reading (I think) from High Fidelity at George’s on Park Street, and there was a question and answer session afterwards and all these Clifton worthies were asking deep questions about his literary technique, so I stuck my hand up and asked if he thought Gus Caesar (who was then playing for us) was the worst centre half Arsenal had ever had.  This brought him to life and he talked excitedly about football for a good twenty minutes, much to the irritation of the literary set present.

Great book H F, the film ,not so much as it turned transatlantic .

[Oh Louie louie]

Wonder what nick would have made of ashton road in the 80s.

Another gooner wrote a book called colin ward, about his visit to ashton gate.

Not as romantic, as nicks book, but a damn good read.

[downendcity]

4 hours ago, Ronnie Sinclair said:

Radio Bristol midweek games, they'd be playing a record, then the dreaded jingle "Radio Bristol Sport - Goal News", as they cut off to Ashton Gate to advise us City had conceded.

The full jingle was " Radio Bristol Sport - Goal News FFS!"? 

[downendcity]

3 hours ago, IAmNick said:

You'd think that would have been solved after all these years...

I always thought GN a pain in the ass.

[SecretSam]

16 hours ago, SuperDziek said:

Having watched (with @CyderInACan) the highlights of 1989/90, please can we have some comments  for a bygone era, even if you didn’t see it or it’s not justified. Having seen Dave Rennie put one in the open end from a penalty I’ll start with:

Dave Rennie didn’t contribute enough goals from midfield......

oooooooooooh where did you see that, is it online? That was a mental season. Us and the Slags going for it. Joe Jordan did a total rebuild of the team over about six months, brought in Taylor, Turner, Rennie, Shelts, Smith, Bailey...who then utterly bossed it. Plus Mark Gavin, playing like his legs were made of spaghetti

[SecretSam]

9 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

Clubcall is superb value for money and dialling 0898 121176 gets you news from the club and not just minutes of waffle from John Cox and then a 30 second update from Alex Lockhart on a reserve players thigh strain

True story: I once shared a house with this lass, she said "I've never rung up one of those premium $ex lines", so I gave her that number and said "this is really dirty, I ring it a lot"

The look on her face when she rang it...

[mozo]

16 hours ago, SuperDziek said:

Having watched (with @CyderInACan) the highlights of 1989/90, please can we have some comments  for a bygone era, even if you didn’t see it or it’s not justified. Having seen Dave Rennie put one in the open end from a penalty I’ll start with:

Dave Rennie didn’t contribute enough goals from midfield......

I watched those season highlights on Youtube and was really confused by how generally the football was really agricultural and scruffy, but then every now and then you'd see City putting together some nice flowing moves.

[SecretSam]

2 minutes ago, mozo said:

I watched those season highlights on Youtube and was really confused by how generally the football was really agricultural and scruffy, but then every now and then you'd see City putting together some nice flowing moves.

The pitches were horrific, but yeah, I remember thinking we were Brazil in red jerseys (loved that year's kit, mind)

[CyderInACan]

31 minutes ago, SecretSam said:

oooooooooooh where did you see that, is it online? That was a mental season. Us and the Slags going for it. Joe Jordan did a total rebuild of the team over about six months, brought in Taylor, Turner, Rennie, Shelts, Smith, Bailey...who then utterly bossed it. Plus Mark Gavin, playing like his legs were made of spaghetti

 

[mozo]

1 hour ago, SecretSam said:

The pitches were horrific, but yeah, I remember thinking we were Brazil in red jerseys (loved that year's kit, mind)

Yeah I'll never love a kit so much as that one. Still got a signed one stashed away from my childhood.

[pongo88]

8 hours ago, slartibartfast said:

The 60's, Grandstand's teleprinter (NOT vidiprinter) .You would be glued to the screen from 4:40.   Then it would come up .something like   R o t h e r h a m 3  B r i s t o l C i t y.....then a long ,long pause as if taunting you..........3.   No RB to keep you informed, total agony !         

Ah, the excitement of the teleprinter! The good old days - players with Brycream and the overpowering smell of liniment as they ran onto the pitch. 
 

 

8 hours ago, slartibartfast said:

The 60's, Grandstand's teleprinter (NOT vidiprinter) .You would be glued to the screen from 4:40.   Then it would come up .something like   R o t h e r h a m 3  B r i s t o l C i t y.....then a long ,long pause as if taunting you..........3.   No RB to keep you informed, total agony !         

Ah, the excitement of the teleprinter! The good old days - players with Brycream and the overpowering smell of liniment as they ran onto the pitch. 
 

 

8 hours ago, slartibartfast said:

The 60's, Grandstand's teleprinter (NOT vidiprinter) .You would be glued to the screen from 4:40.   Then it would come up .something like   R o t h e r h a m 3  B r i s t o l C i t y.....then a long ,long pause as if taunting you..........3.   No RB to keep you informed, total agony !         

Ah, the excitement of the teleprinter! The good old days - players with Brycream and the overpowering smell of liniment as they ran onto the pitch. 
 

 

8 hours ago, slartibartfast said:

The 60's, Grandstand's teleprinter (NOT vidiprinter) .You would be glued to the screen from 4:40.   Then it would come up .something like   R o t h e r h a m 3  B r i s t o l C i t y.....then a long ,long pause as if taunting you..........3.   No RB to keep you informed, total agony !         

Ah, the excitement of the teleprinter! The good old days - players with Brycream and the overpowering smell of liniment as they ran onto the pitch. 
 

 

8 hours ago, slartibartfast said:

The 60's, Grandstand's teleprinter (NOT vidiprinter) .You would be glued to the screen from 4:40.   Then it would come up .something like   R o t h e r h a m 3  B r i s t o l C i t y.....then a long ,long pause as if taunting you..........3.   No RB to keep you informed, total agony !         

Ah, the excitement of the teleprinter! The good old days - players with Brycream and the overpowering smell of liniment as they 

[RedRock]

Teleprinter, Ceefax ......been there, done that.

The best though, for an exile some 100 miles away, was landline phone calling Beryl Fudge direct at the Ground for the latest score on the Freight Rover semi final vs Hereford. Her joy of City leading with a few minutes to go and likely heading to Wembley was transmitted down the phone line to an equally ecstatic fan. Can’t beat that for personal service! 
 

Still think we should name the Club shop after her. Top lady and City to the core. Pity we’ve lost that type of personnel in our new ‘business’ set up. Supporters services in those days would always go the extra mile and then some. 

[Southport Red]

Used to go to the newsagents on Sea Mills Square about 6:30 on a Saturday for City Match Reports AND PHOTOS in the Green'un.  When you consider Peter Godsiff was phoning it in from Hull or wherever and someone transcribing then typesetting his words, to have it written, edited, typeset, printed and distributed out to all those newsagents on an hour and a half after the final whistle was pretty impressive really.

 

[slartibartfast]

23 minutes ago, pongo88 said:

Ah, the excitement of the teleprinter! The good old days - players with Brycream and the overpowering smell of liniment as they ran onto the pitch. 
 

 

Ah, the excitement of the teleprinter! The good old days - players with Brycream and the overpowering smell of liniment as they ran onto the pitch. 
 

 

Ah, the excitement of the teleprinter! The good old days - players with Brycream and the overpowering smell of liniment as they ran onto the pitch. 
 

 

Ah, the excitement of the teleprinter! The good old days - players with Brycream and the overpowering smell of liniment as they ran onto the pitch. 
 

 

Ah, the excitement of the teleprinter! The good old days - players with Brycream and the overpowering smell of liniment as they 

Yes, the all pervasive smell of liniment, haven't been fortunate enough ,or rich enough to sit near the tunnel for years, does it still waft ?

[Isawjonshaw]

9 hours ago, Major Isewater said:

And yet he was a great little player for us , his career here sadly overshadowed by the importance of said misses . 

I remember he then joined them and scored for them beating us at home 2-0 at the start of the following season.  I may have that completely wrong mind!?

[Curr Avon]

18 hours ago, SuperDziek said:

Having watched (with @CyderInACan) the highlights of 1989/90, please can we have some comments  for a bygone era, even if you didn’t see it or it’s not justified. Having seen Dave Rennie put one in the open end from a penalty I’ll start with:

Dave Rennie didn’t contribute enough goals from midfield......

Pre-internet meant me rushing home from School for lunch on a Monday in early January to listen to the FA Cup 3rd Round draw on Radio 2, followed by a sprint back to the playground with the news.

By eck times were shit back then.