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Autograph request gone wrong.


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2 hours ago, 1960maaan said:

Never got many autographs, I have City from 74 & Gillingham from when Mike Gibson joined them, both through my Dad's mate. In fact I can only remember getting a few Chelsea players when their reserves played at Eastville. Ina Britton, John Dempsey , possibly Marvin Hinton and Peter Bonetti, few names for the kids there.
My one that went wrong, and I'm still not 100% sure who the players were. Watching the West Indies tour match at the County ground. We always blagged our way into the Pavilion, so end of session the players obviously came towards us. I think there were 3 of us, around 14/15 years old and as the players came off, 3 came over. I think it may have been Gordon Grenidge, Deryck Murray and possibly Van Holder, I walked up, ask for an autograph and without saying a word the three stared at us and we meekly stepped back out of their way and they went into the Pavilion. TBF they had always intimidated the English batsmen, so 3 little ***** wanting autographs a stare was enough. 

Ha, I managed it actually. I blagged my way into the pavilion once back in the day, and managed to scoop the autographs of most of Somerset. I simply walked right up to a young Ian Botham and bold as brass asked for his signature. He said, 'sure mate', put down I think what was a cigar and signed it right away. Also got Joel Garner, who really was a gentle giant. Viv Richards' I was desperate for. 'Not now boy', he said gruffly. He was in a rotten mood as he'd been out for just 2. But I persisted and eventually got it. Also claimed Roebuck, Rose, and Dredge.

Also in my cricketing collection of autographs is one Geoff Boycott. My experience of the man was a bit different to others, found him kind and attentive. Was pretty bowled over as he was my childhood hero.

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4 minutes ago, OneCity said:

Ha, I managed it actually. I blagged my way into the pavilion once back in the day, and managed to scoop the autographs of most of Somerset. I simply walked right up to a young Ian Botham and bold as brass asked for his signature. He said, 'sure mate', put down I think what was a cigar and signed it right away. Also got Joel Garner, who really was a gentle giant. Viv Richards' I was desperate for. 'Not now boy', he said gruffly. He was in a rotten mood as he'd been out for just 2. But I persisted and eventually got it. Also claimed Roebuck, Rose, and Dredge.

Also in my cricketing collection of autographs is one Geoff Boycott. My experience of the man was a bit different to others, found him kind and attentive. Was pretty bowled over as he was my childhood hero.

I always felt guilty when we were roaming around, expected to get thrown out., Having the Uni next to Glos ground, we were able to hop the wall and if we were early enough just walk in to the Pavilion as they rang the bell for play. Bumped into Tony Brown one day when it was raining, too worried to get an autograph, just blurted out "yep" when he asked if it was still raining . 

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4 hours ago, ralphindevon said:

Not football but I can remember Geoff Boycott being the opposite of smiling, willing Albert Adomah.

A group of kids looking for an autograph was frequently turned down with a few choice words. TBF I think he would put by a few minutes after play but any other time.....beware!

A few years back, former England cricketer Ryan Sidebottom made a comment in the press about Boycott being rude when being asked to sign things. Yet, I remember 2 kids asking Sidebottom to sign an autograph when he was sub at an ODI match v New Zealand at the County Ground. He ignored them and then beckoned a steward over and told them to move the kids on. Double standards? (He wasn’t on the pitch at the time, by the way)

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4 minutes ago, East Yorkshire CideRed said:

A few years back, former England cricketer Ryan Sidebottom made a comment in the press about Boycott being rude when being asked to sign things. Yet, I remember 2 kids asking Sidebottom to sign an autograph when he was sub at an ODI match v New Zealand at the County Ground. He ignored them and then beckoned a steward over and told them to move the kids on. Double standards? (He wasn’t on the pitch at the time, by the way)

But to counterbalance this, people I’ve asked for autographs/photos with who were absolute gents include Lee Johnson, Jamie McAllister, Rob Newman & darts legend Wolfie Adams.

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3 hours ago, Lanterne Rouge said:

A top man is Albert. When he came back to AG with Boro (the game where he shanked one over the bar when it was easier to score but I still maintain he couldn`t bring himself to!) a young lad at the front of the SS asked him for his autograph while he was warming up and he signed his Boro training top and gave it to him.

One player who will always get a round of applause from me whenever he steps out at AG, players like him are what the game should be about.

There’s probably nothing in it but perhaps because he was poached from non-league by Barnet rather than  come through a big clubs academy makes him a little more grounded and maybe grateful for his (well deserved) success. One of my favourite players over the last few years.

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Was in my local a years ago Harry Enfield was having Sunday lunch with some woman(wife?)

when another woman went up to him and asked for an autograph!!

In his Frank the self righteous brother mode shouted at her

"OI! NO! I AM EATING. LATER"

The whole pub just looked at the woman as she turned away red faced not knowing where to hide

After he had his food he spent a good hour at the bar signing autographs etc Even for the rude woman

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After school one day during the play off season I was with my friends on college green and spotted McIndoe’s Bentley outside the Marriott.

Two of us waited for about two hours for him to come out and despite the fact he was very clearly in a rush he stopped for a photo with us and signed my city shirt that I had with me and my friend’s notebook. Was 13 at the time and was absolutely over the moon. 
 

13 years later I have absolutely no idea where the shirt is ?

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48 minutes ago, OneCity said:

Ha, I managed it actually. I blagged my way into the pavilion once back in the day, and managed to scoop the autographs of most of Somerset. I simply walked right up to a young Ian Botham and bold as brass asked for his signature. He said, 'sure mate', put down I think what was a cigar and signed it right away. Also got Joel Garner, who really was a gentle giant. Viv Richards' I was desperate for. 'Not now boy', he said gruffly. He was in a rotten mood as he'd been out for just 2. But I persisted and eventually got it. Also claimed Roebuck, Rose, and Dredge.

Also in my cricketing collection of autographs is one Geoff Boycott. My experience of the man was a bit different to others, found him kind and attentive. Was pretty bowled over as he was my childhood hero.

Different to my experience of Botham. Was watching him net on the outfield when he came back to the County Ground with Worcs and I went up to him and asked for his autograph as he was walking off (in the good old days of being allowed on the outfield) and he told me to **** off. I was 9 ?. Always thought him a massive ***t ever since.  Got a similar response from Curtley Ambrose when the Windies were playing but Richie Richardson asked me to bowl him some balls and I got him out.  Took me a while to figure out he’d probably let me ? Gus Logie was similarly great from memory as were most of the Australian touring team - Ian Healey in particular.  Feel sorry that the kids don’t get to mix with their cricketing heroes anymore like we could back then.

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One of my earliest attempts to get a footballer's autograph was after a Gloucestershire Cup Final match at Eastville, back in the early 1970s.

A group of young boys waited for ages at the stairs behind the stand, when, finally, out walked John Galley and the late Stuart Taylor.

Despite wearing my red and white City scarf, Stuart Taylor stopped, smiled and signed my match programme with pleasure.

Unfortunately, the great John Galley just barged through with a nonchalant 'Not tonight fans': I remember being very disappointed, not just at the missed autograph, but also at JG's attitude.

A years or so later, I waited for the Sunderland team coach to leave Ashton Gate following that wonderful 4-3 victory on the first day of the 1970/71 season.

I was holding a few pages from Shoot magazine, one of which had a full page picture of the young Mick McGiven, who I recognised through the coach window.

Thrusting the page through the coach window, MMcG signed the photo with a smile, and I shall always remember his look of embarrassment as his teammates teased him, throwing comments that this was the first and probably last time he would be asked to sign an autograph.  

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19 minutes ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

Indeed, but have you seen any photographs of her lately?

Most disappointing.

Blimey Phil, Kate Bush is my age - almost 63.

Very harsh to compare her looks unfavourably to when she was a wisp of a girl of 19.

What do you expect her to look like?

 

 

 

 

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In the summer of 1989, Notts Forest were on a mini tour of the Bordeaux area of France. I was staying at my French exchange partners house and to my surprise Notts Forest had a game against the local village team. It was a tiny ground but all the Forest team were there, Lee Chapman, Franz Carr, Des Walker, Nigel Clough etc. I got all their autographs and even watched the game sat next to Steve Hodge. There was one missing though. At the end of the game on the way out I spotted him, Stuart Pearce. He wasn't doing anything so I went over and asked him for his autograph. His response without even looking at me, "maybe later!" and then he walked off. 

So if you're reading this Mr Pearce, just like your Forest team, you're not famous any more, so I'm no longer interested!

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48 minutes ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

Blimey Phil, Kate Bush is my age - almost 63.

Very harsh to compare her looks unfavourably to when she was a wisp of a girl of 19.

What do you expect her to look like?

 

 

 

 

She is my age as well, but it is not her looks, i.e. face, to which I was referring, more the way she has really let herself go.

Obviously, none of us compare now to how we looked in our youth, but, without wishing to sound disparaging, 'Quand Meme', as we say over here.

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1 hour ago, lenred said:

Different to my experience of Botham. Was watching him net on the outfield when he came back to the County Ground with Worcs and I went up to him and asked for his autograph as he was walking off (in the good old days of being allowed on the outfield) and he told me to **** off. I was 9 ?. Always thought him a massive ***t ever since.  Got a similar response from Curtley Ambrose when the Windies were playing but Richie Richardson asked me to bowl him some balls and I got him out.  Took me a while to figure out he’d probably let me ? Gus Logie was similarly great from memory as were most of the Australian touring team - Ian Healey in particular.  Feel sorry that the kids don’t get to mix with their cricketing heroes anymore like we could back then.

Had a similar experience with Richie Richardson and same as you with curtley too, though I did manage to get Courtney Walsh, and duress from him and that he was saying to get out of his way! 

The South Africans too were great, most of them getting everyone to form a queue for each autograph, with Shaun Pollock being the instigator of it. 

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4 hours ago, Bedred31 said:

I still miss the amateur anarchy of the Weston Cricket Festival, where some of the worlds best cricketers would regularly have to leave the security of the hopelessly small village pavilion to access luxuries like the toilets and the refreshment tent. I successfully wore down Botham and Richards by sheer persistence, but was brutally knocked back by Bob Willis, who obviously needed a slash more than the chance to give his autograph to an obsessive teenager.

My Dad took me there in 1950 and again for several years. August Bank holiday when it was first Monday in August, always against Glamorgan. Dad born in the Rhondda and I still have autographs in my treasured book. Harold Gimblett of Somerset and Gilbert Parkhouse to name a couple.

Occasionally, we now take our dog there for squirrel hunting and I just close my eyes and dream of such times.

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A good few years ago I was shopping at Cribbs for Christmas presents when I saw Lee Peacock gliding through the aisles, wearing the biggest and most extravagant fur coat I'd ever seen. I shuffled over, not sure if just to say hello or ask for an autograph, when suddenly, as if he was in the middle of the match and was about to challenge me in the air, he backed up - his large frame and larger coat sending me sprawling into a display of some sort on the shelving next to me.

He spun around and offered a 'Sorry, mate' as I picked myself up and composed myself, before he nonchalantly strode out, his coat billowing, ready to torment the next fragile teenager that dared get too close to him.

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3 hours ago, East Yorkshire CideRed said:

A few years back, former England cricketer Ryan Sidebottom made a comment in the press about Boycott being rude when being asked to sign things. Yet, I remember 2 kids asking Sidebottom to sign an autograph when he was sub at an ODI match v New Zealand at the County Ground. He ignored them and then beckoned a steward over and told them to move the kids on. Double standards? (He wasn’t on the pitch at the time, by the way)

Must be a Yorkshire thing ? 

Having said that, I’ll never hear a bad word said about Terry Cooper and his relationship with fans

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I thought I would add my bit to the cricket autographs line.

Back in July 1974 (I had to check the date, it was so long ago), I was lucky enough to have watched what was, for me, one of the greatest one-day matches of all time - the Gillette Cup semi-final between Somerset and Surrey at Taunton.

One-Day cricket has obviously evolved over the years, but a combined total of over 500 runs were scored on that day - I assure any of our younger members that this was an absolutely phenomenal run rate at the time.

I enclose a link to the scorecard https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/gillette-cup-england-1974-416590/somerset-vs-surrey-quarter-final-416606/full-scorecard, and, should any of you be interested to look at it, you will see some famous names, including John Edrich MBE and our own Lord Botham, who, amazingly, did not even get to bat!

Anyway, the (then) teenage Ian Botham and 'Dashing' Peter Denning gladly signed their autographs, as did the afore-mentioned John Edrich and, perhaps surprisingly for any who watched cricket back then, the ever sour-faced, scowling Geoff Arnold - Robin Jackman unfortunately declined, although, to be fair, my request was made after the match ?.

One abiding memory, however, concerns our reliable fast bowler and something of a cult hero at the time, Hallam Moseley.

Half way through Somerset's exciting and ultimately successful reply to Surrey's score of 254, my teenage friend and I made our way to the Somerset members' bar, where, to our surprise, we met Hallam and asked him for his autograph. 

He signed without a second thought and, emboldened by our success and his friendly demeanour, I proffered him a five pound note* and, as we were too young to do so, asked him whether he would mind going in to the bar and getting us each a pint of cider - *it was back in 1974!

Hallam looked at me and my friend, two embarrassed teenage boys, took the note and went in to the bar.

A few minutes later, Hallam came back carrying three pints of cider together with my five pound note! 

'Sorry', he said, 'They wouldn't accept the note as it was creased!' and, without further ado, returned my five pounds, winked at us and went back in to the bar.

Obviously, this wouldn't happen today - there was still a possibility he would need to bat! - but what a memory.   

How times have changed.

    

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7 hours ago, ralphindevon said:

Not football but I can remember Geoff Boycott being the opposite of smiling, willing Albert Adomah.

A group of kids looking for an autograph was frequently turned down with a few choice words. TBF I think he would put by a few minutes after play but any other time.....beware!

Boycott did the same to me, I was about 12 years old. Watching a Somerset game, and as the players came off I asked him for his autograph, he just looked at me, turned round, then said “Sharpie will sign it, he’s done nothing all day”. and walked off, ( sharpe was one of his team mates). Boycott was a horrible bloke.

 

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