"Dodgy" does not do justice to the hideousness of the "facilities" of that toilet or the vile, overpowering odour that permeated the bend on warm days. It was probably the worst of all the gents in Vicarage Road and that is saying something.... Incidentally when conditions allowed, I used to stand on the bend far enough away from the "bogs" and reading something that SEJ wrote a while ago realised that I must have been standing very close to him in the early 60s - especially when we beat QPR 3-2 after being 2-0 down - our first victory over them, I believe, for many years. It was the weekend when that woman won the pools and blew the lot in record time as shown on a TV program.
It would indeed. I remember watching the programme when the BBC was reading out the results and cheering once again when they got to our result. It also reminded me that a QPR fan complete with scarf who was standing close by on the bend at half time was giving it "large" as they used to say with "Rhinjahs" 2-0 up. At the tender age of around 11, I danced around him poking my tongue out at the final whistle.
Interesting to see the rear elevation of Tommy Lawrence (Liverpool goalie) behind the celebrating Hornets. Not exactly the svelte figure of today's players....
See below an amazing chance encounter with the great Tommy Lawrence www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-31188264/bbc-reporter-accidentally-interviews-former-liverpool-keeper
I see our yellow and red balloons were already flying higher than the blue and white ones even before the game....
It's navy blue, as theyve had in most of their kits over the years. http://images.radiotimes.com/remote...jpg?quality=60&mode=crop&width=700&height=422
Glorious, large, high res version: http://media.*****images.com/photos...verhead-kick-to-picture-id1215355?s=2048x2048
There were a total of 40 Watford fans at the Feethams - I spoke to most of them before the game! Don't recognise any of those in the photos.....
Which forum "member" do we suspect this is....... http://media.*****images.com/photos...-and-decides-to-picture-id1215371?s=2048x2048
Oh yeah the tobacconist. It can be seen very clearly in this famous pic.. https://sports-images.vice.com/imag...0.8378848063555114xh;center,center&resize=0:* with people at the upstairs windows. Notice also people up on the roof above the shops and on the car park upper floors.
Fantastic looking at some of those images of the VR ground from earlier. Thanks for searching them out and posting them everybody, it is appreciated. Looking at just how relatively flat and open the ground was in those days, it seems hard to understand how we ever got any kind of atmosphere going, yet I seem to remember it being a bit of a cauldron - it must be my young mind playing tricks.
It could be a cauldron at the back of the Rookery - unfortunately the sound never quite made it out to the pitch let alone the other end. It was the combination of the design of the Rookery stand itself with its shallow banking, which kept the sound in,together with the distance of the back of the stand from the pitch, increased by the greyhound track. Only on "Special Nights" under floodlights could much atmosphere on the Vicarage Road terraces be created under the night sky. When visiting grounds like Elm Park (Reading), Priestfield (Gillingham), Loftus Road and even the Kennel in the 60s let alone the bigger grounds like Roker Park, I used to be jealous of the closeness of the fans to the pitch and the atmosphere that could be generated because of that. Of course, now that the stands are virtually on top of the pitch, there is the potential for all the ground to be a cauldron. Unfortunately the predominance of Chorleywood, Amersham and the like types (of whatever ages) seated along the sides means that it is hard work to create consistent noise. It was always so.
I remember going to my first game in div 4 vs Darlington in 1977 and being stunned at how much noise about 7000 people in a largely open stadium could make. Instantly hooked.
Was there ever a reason given/explanation as to why the old Rookery was built with such a shallow rake? It wasn't as if all terraces were designed like that back then, so it's always baffled me why it was designed and built like that. Any ideas?
I'm not sure but I suggest that the existing banking (shown in old pictures) was so shallow that it would have cost a substantial amount to add soil to it or to construct steeper concrete terracing. So the existing slope was terraced and the stand (without its eventual back initially) was built using whatever funds were available at the time - Watford were in the 4th Division and signing Holton from Arsenal. There's a picture in Oli Phillips Centenary Book of the stand being built. I have probably watched close to 1,000 matches from both old and new Rookery stands (and I am not exceptional in that I'm sure), but being well over 6ft tall certainly helped in the old days!
