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    #76
    I am absolutely not dropping any of my affectations.

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      #77
      Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
      That entire video, the genre it stems from and attitudes it represents, make a compelling case that football really isn’t worth bothering with.
      Yes, as someone elsewhere noted, "If you're 'traumatised' watching your team lose to Burnley, there's a strong case for sitting at home doing a jigsaw with your Nan and watching Colombo on a Saturday afternoon rather than exposing yourself to the mental anguish."

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        #78
        Are you saying that what’s needed here is “Blitz Spirit”?

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          #79
          Fucking love Columbo. ACABEFCWIS. (All Coppers Are Bastards Except For Columbo Who Is Sound)

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            #80
            Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
            Can we put an end to this “Boleyn Ground” affectation please? It was always Upton Park and this pretentious alternative name only gained any traction well in to the Premier League era.

            As the Guardian pointed out when it was closed “Boleyn Ground, suddenly de rigueur, is a strange kind of semi-neologism that was spectacularly rare until very recently; it only got into double figures for all-time Guardian mentions in 1991”.

            Also, it shouldn’t be ignored it was a shit ground, however much it was better for football than the Olympic Stadium (although I see colchestersid has pointed this out himself).
            To outsiders our ground was always "Upton Park". That's why newspaper reports would rarely refer to the Boleyn Ground. Similarly we were widely known as the "Hammers" whereas to us we have always been the "Irons" playing at the "Boleyn".

            I could provide evidence of this from my collection of programmes and handbooks going back to 1895 - the first official mention of the ground in the 1904 handbook called it the Boleyn Castle Ground in East Ham (Upton Park in those days was a few hundred yards to the north)

            The London Stadium on the other hand is becoming generally known as the "Cesspit".

            Comment


              #81
              Originally posted by colchestersid View Post
              I went to the Boleyn Ground about 750 times. Not 100% sure on the exact number but only missed a small handful of games since leaving school in 1985. I have been to the London Stadium for just over 45 minutes. A friend couldn't make it and lent me his season ticket, I left five minutes into the second half. I won't be back.

              Like a lot of West Ham I was against the move but that opposition was muted by the fact that the Boleyn had been ruined anyway by the redevelopment post Taylor report. Most nostalgia amongst West Ham fans is specifically for the era up to 1994 (when they seated the Chicken Run and knocked down the South Bank) - that was when the character of the ground was lost although there was a bit of a revival at the very end.

              Also it's hard to overstate how much people miss Green Street, Barking Road and the surrounds. It may be a shithole but it at least it was our shithole.
              This sums up the problem with West Ham fans. They had all this but were prepared to leave all that behind to be the next Manchester City. They've lost their heart, their soul, their entire identity and it was given up chasing the dream.

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                #82
                I think that's unfair. It was Gold Sullivan Brady who wanted the move, and Johnson who facilitated it. The fans may have been guilty of not protesting enough, but as this thread shows there's a lot of division among fans' groups (as there are at many clubs). Financially the move made sense if only because Johnson ensured that the taxpayers funded it in large part.

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                  #83
                  Always worth digging this out again :

                  KARREN BRADY - First lady of football

                  Saturday August 16, 2014 (it’s not, she wrote this in 2011 as a prediction)

                  THE day has arrived. Finally, we kick-off in the sold-out Olympic Stadium this afternoon and we are ready.

                  Mark Noble will lead us out as we make our Olympic claret and blue-print a reality - and it really has been a Noble cause.

                  Three years ago, some doubted we could make it work. For no reason other than self-interest, they questioned our joint vision with Newham Council, our bold legacy plans on a grand scale.

                  Opinion was presented as fact and decades of tradition were cast aside in favour of personal gain. That just Spur-red us on even more.

                  I've received so many positive messages. Even Daniel Levy sent me a message of good luck from the Bahamas and I will certainly raise a glass to him today.

                  England manager Harry Redknapp will be my guest after an amazing summer saw us get World Cup glory again.

                  His boys back from Brazil brought the trophy home to spend the next 12 months in our museum and his success is another triumph for the Academy of Football.

                  Our fans have followed us the short way from Upton Park to Stratford, back to the old borough of West Ham.

                  It is great that many are keeping to their usual traditions, visiting the same pubs they have for generations and meeting up with friends old and new for pie and mash.

                  It is about good old East End values and, for us now, the pie's the limit.

                  That has been the most fantastic thing about the move, however difficult it was to leave behind the beloved Boleyn. In a way everything and nothing has changed at the same time.

                  We have heard from supporters who had lost touch with the club who are coming home and we have reached out to so many more who had felt that Premier League football was beyond them.

                  We have spent the last three years consulting with supporters and involving them in what you see today — a stunning Olympic Stadium fit for purpose. We have kept our promises.

                  We have delivered exactly what we promised.

                  Football takes centre stage right now but this summer has seen wave after wave of major events — from 107-odd thousand who turned out to see Madonna in July, to the triumphant third staging of the National School Games in May after more kids than ever got involved across the country.

                  We are open all year round and there is always something going on. The Olympic Stadium has lit a flame in all of us.

                  When I look out the window on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and see what great British endeavour has created — from the Velodrome to the Aquatic Centre — it is a joy to behold.

                  Our fans arriving today by rail and car will walk through the John Lyall gates into an East London transformed — an East London that is as strong as the original Iron Works that forged our great club. Before kick-off at 3pm, we are going to parade a line of our Olympic heroes.

                  Yes, there will be the gold medallists from 2012 but there will also be representatives from all walks of life who played their part in making today a reality.

                  This is a community stadium on a grand scale and it has set the bar for the world to follow.

                  To look at what we have achieved and even contemplate that the Olympic Stadium we know and love could have been demolished is enough to make you shudder.

                  We would not be looking forward to this autumn's Twenty20 cricket internationals or the World Athletics Championships in 2017.

                  And our prospects of bidding for more major events would have been greatly reduced.

                  We can look back with pride on February 2011 and know that we all did the right thing.

                  Comment


                    #84
                    Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                    I think that's unfair. It was Gold Sullivan Brady who wanted the move, and Johnson who facilitated it. The fans may have been guilty of not protesting enough, but as this thread shows there's a lot of division among fans' groups (as there are at many clubs). Financially the move made sense if only because Johnson ensured that the taxpayers funded it in large part.
                    That's a good point ad hoc, I'd forgotten what a bargain the Olympic Stadium actually is in financial terms. I can't blame West Ham for taking the stadium, it was the deal of the century from a mayor and London Borough who were desperate not to have a white elephant on their hands, as plenty of other Olympic stadiums have turned out to be.

                    Comment


                      #85
                      Originally posted by colchestersid View Post
                      To outsiders our ground was always "Upton Park". That's why newspaper reports would rarely refer to the Boleyn Ground. Similarly we were widely known as the "Hammers" whereas to us we have always been the "Irons" playing at the "Boleyn".
                      I’m aware of that, what irks me is that it was suddenly adopted by non West Ham fans. It should have remained your sordid little secret.

                      Comment


                        #86
                        BDG: Featuring Gollivan as Big Vern https://www.theguardian.com/football...-of-infighting

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                          #87
                          Is Squires killing off his own creation in that last frame? Or was it another West Ham mascot he designed?
                          Last edited by Ray de Galles; 13-03-2018, 11:14.

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                            #88
                            That strip is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo wrong. Liquor makes Pie n' Mash, it doesn't ruin it.

                            I'm having some tonight.

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                              #89
                              The local London news on the BBC yesterday had quite a prominent item pointing out that the public finances are on the hook for any increased policing costs arising from the current unrest. Johnson's luck may have run out as far as the consequences of his follies not getting sustained coverage goes.

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                                #90
                                Ray, BDG designed Herbie the Hammer.



                                Hammerhead is the mascot getting the ultimate sanction in the last frame.

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                                  #91
                                  Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
                                  Is Squires killing off his own creation in that last frame? Or was it another West Ham mascot he designed?
                                  BDG designed Herbie the Hammer "looking up as if excited to see a heron"



                                  Since 2011 they've had Hammerhead



                                  I see they've also had Bubbles the bear at some point. This fast and loose mascottery is far worse than anything else they've done.

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                                    #92
                                    Thanks both, I dug out his strip about it while checking. It also shows his obsession with those tacky castellated towers from Upton Park which pop up in this week’s excellent Brooking frame.

                                    Love the advertising hoardings and Sullivan’s bongo mag too.

                                    Comment


                                      #93
                                      Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                                      BDG: Featuring Gollivan as Big Vern https://www.theguardian.com/football...-of-infighting
                                      Best strip in ages

                                      Comment


                                        #94
                                        Originally posted by longeared View Post

                                        I see they've also had Bubbles the bear at some point. This fast and loose mascottery is far worse than anything else they've done.

                                        It looks like Bubbles's arse is on backwards

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                                          #95
                                          in the late 80s/early 90s I went a few times with a mate who's a West Ham fan and lived a short walk from the ground. I sort of hated it - to be frank, I was fucking terrified most of the time, but I did keep going back because there was something about it (not least seeing one of the best games I ever saw live - a 3-3 draw with Forest) that made it unique. I knew it wasn't somewhere I'd ever feel like I belonged, no matter how many times I went, but that was probably the point. I felt the same the one time I went to the Den, I feel the same when I go to Elland Road (large chunks of my extended family are Leeds fans). A bit envious, a bit like I can't wait to leave, a little bit privileged to have been allowed in at all.
                                          Yes, this is exactly how I feel about all of those places. When I used to go to Elland Road when I lived in Leeds (late 80s/early 90s and again in the late 90s), I kept arguing with myself "Do I really hate or am I really impressed by and envious of this?"

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                                            #96
                                            Heard something last night that West Ham have refused to pay for a fit-for-purpose radio system to go into the stadium which means that the police - who would be using it - refuse to go into certain areas of the ground for safety's sake. This is to be added to the threadbare stewarding and general ill-design (for football) of the stadium.

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                                              #97
                                              Ah, it seems this is fairly old news. I haven't been able to find anything about whether the Airwave system was ever installed

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                                                #98
                                                I think airwave is going to disappear very shortly anyway and be replaced with a new system.

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