For several years while we lived in Maldon we supported Ipswich Town, the nearest top-flight football team. I first started going when a small group of teachers at The Plume, including Bob Barnes, Dave Ford and I, decided to buy season tickets and travel to all home matches and some away ones.
Bob had a particular interest in Ipswich: as a PE teacher at the school he had coached a lad, Mick Stockwell, above, who was by then in the Ipswich first team, a very likeable young man who was a fine footballer, a good sportsman, and someone particularly useful to the team as he was willing to play in any position - I think he once had to take the place of the goalkeeper.
David showed a keen interest in coming to matches so, whenever one of my colleague's season tickets was available, he joined us - and he proved to be very knowledgable about the team. Gill also came when she could.
It was a great day out as, if the team was at home on a Saturday, we would start our enjoyment with lunch and a couple of beers at the Steamboat pub in Ipswich and then walk across the river to Portman Road, joining the thousands of fans as they converged on the stadium. We saw some great games, particularly the one at which Ipswich, at that time briefly in the Premiership, beat Manchester United at home 1-0. Manchester accused Ipswich of cheating: our sponsor was the chemical firm Fisons and they looked after the pitches, so had grown the grass a little longer for the match.
This ticket is for the last game I attended, shortly before we left Maldon. It was a present from Bob.
No comments:
Post a Comment