More Portsmouth, this time from Pompey’s golden season of 1949-50 as they retained the League without the help of overpaid foreigners (i.e. the good ones) and dodgy VAR decisions.
This 1-0 win against the Magpies was unfortunately deemed to have insufficient goals for 1949 TV audiences and is unavailable on You Tube.
Their Christmas Eve fixture V the giants of Portsmouth Electricity would have been illuminating.*
My Dad, who is featuring so much in this blog he may get a contract, claims to have seen this great Pompey side with a mate in the Forces, but since he was 14 I doubt that. He also claims to have stood in the “wrong end” at an Old Firm game in the late ’60s.
The programme is one sheet of paper folded twice to give six pages of staple-free stuff. It’s a design classic.
Oddly, I was a teenage Pompey fan during the glory years (Div 4); an attachment based seemingly only on a visit to a Chichester convent and Bognor Regis Butlins in 1979.
I still have the scarf.
In 1992 I spent a honeymoon in Portsmouth; I still have the wife.
It was 1993 before I actually made it to Fratton Park, but in the last decade I’ve been back annually to tick pubs.
As Duncan and Simon will confirm, Southsea is the southern home of Proper Pubs.
Near the ground, Fratton Road is the least gentrified of the city’s many ungentrified suburbs, replete with kebab shops, carpet centres, gaming arcades, and surprisingly great street art.
Rather like Norwich, but with less obsession with guest beers, the area is full of attractive corner pubs like the Rutland Arms, which offer little but comfortable seating, cheery locals, the Pogues on repeat and decent Goddards.
But you’ll be wanting the Spoons, I guess. Just think, in 1949 those supporters were still 30 years away from the first Timbo emporium.
The take home points from the John Jacques were; “Gary Anderson can’t check-out, that’s his problem” (something to do with darts rather than hotels apparently), and “Bournemouth are gonna score any minute” (to be fair, hey did, just as I left).
There was also a vigorous argument over which county Farnham was in (“It’s ‘amshire, innit ?” “Nah, it’s Lunnon !”, and on and on). Pub Curmudgeon would have exploded with rage.
I drank my £4.50 bottle of near undrinkable fizz on a high table watching West Indies v Sri Lanka, and hoped Mrs RM was proud.
“Undrinkable fizz ?” you ask.
To make it worse, nearly everyone else was on the cask. And singing “Nellie the Elephant”.
*Oh, you do better.
What match did you go there to see on your honeymoon?
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Oh, Dave, I didn’t watch football on my honeymoon !
It was strictly a beer and curry trip.
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Just checking…
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Newcastle Utd colours – black & white striped shirts, black knickers!
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Pierre Cardin.
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Lovely stuff. I like the kick off times on the half time scoreboard page in those pre-floodlight days. No match on your honeymoon? Pal David went to one on his wedding day a season ago. It’s a top pub city too.
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We had actually planned to go to the Proms after the wedding and Thai meal to hear Bruckner 7th, but brought wedding forward to annoy in laws.
Did get a tick on wedding day, Five Bells in Eaton Bray.
Truth.
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I know afternoon kick offs linked to factories clocking off at lunch time but never realised there was so much variety in KO. No 3pms?
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Too dark on 27 December to kick off at 3. Clubs could presumably determine time for themselves in those days.
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Pre floodlights, of course 👍, just odd to see such random kick offs.
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“There was also a vigorous argument over which county Farnham was in” –I feel like I’ve seen this sort of thing on your blog (and Simon’s) fairly frequently: disagreement over where the borderlines fall between different regions. Is it due to changing borderlines? Or the GBG getting facts wrong? Or just strenuously defended differences of opinion? 🙂
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Good grief…..it was annexed by the good folk of Surrey and according to…..er…..Rightmove is one of the happiest places to live in the UK…..just after Leigh on Sea 🙂
There was (sigh) a lovely little pub as well, The Bat and Ball, that I used to frequent….
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Boundstone. Us GBG tickers used to despair when the Bat & Ball moved between Farnham and Boundstone headings.
Farnham is lovely, and you can visit Aldershot with its Ghurka cafés and be back by dark.
Leigh on Sea are on drugs.
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County boundaries are THE topic of disagreement between Mudgie, Simon and myself.
Just remember that Manchester is in Greater Stockport and you’ll be fine 😉
Farnham is an oddity, a smart Surrey town that looks like it’s in the heart of Hampshire.
County boundaries have changed over the years, particularly affecting Pennines towns like Todmorden.
I have zero interest in county boundaries outside the ones the Beer Guide uses!
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I have fond memories of the Bat and Ball in Farnham. Used to go there after a game of cricket at The Bourne. The Hop Blossom is decent Fuller’s house and the Billy Cobbett used to be properly lively, especially at weekends. Curiously, as you approach the Shepherd & Flock roundabout from the A31, there’s a sign proclaiming “Welcome to Farnham – Craft Town” and yet I’ve rarely ever encountered draught Bass there at all…
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Ha ! Yes Bobby, I presume they mean they knit their own protective face masks from the finest silk.
I’ve never seen Bass there either…
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Did you ever make it to Portsmouth’s beautiful Tangier pub before it got converted into a shop?
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Walked past it but never went in as had a dozen to do in the Beer Guide.
NB Are you the PubTicker new to Twitter ? Are you competition for Simon, Duncan and myself ;-0.
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I am indeed. With some spare time during lockdown I decided that it might be time to do something with my back catalogue of pub photos & visits. I’m not in danger of ticking off a fraction of what you’ve achieved, but I enjoy visiting new pubs, and work sometimes sends me around the country which helps.
I’d quite like to visit all the camra real heritage pubs of national importance, but again I’ve only done a fraction.
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I’ll bet you’ve done more pubs than 90% of CAMRA members who stick the same free house every time, just ordering different beers !
Feel free to ask on here if you want any help doing a blog rather than tweets.
Great pic of that Cardiff Bulmastiff pub the way.
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Thanks Martin, I appreciate it.
I’m going to stick to sporadic tweeting for now and see how I go. Hopefully we can all get back ‘in the field’ soon!
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