Tommy Lawton - NCFC and England center forward - fascinating historical view.

[SmiffyPie]

I have to admit that i saw him grace the Meadow Lane turf, it was back in 1952, i was 5 years of age and my grandfather & father were avid Notts supporters.
I have to admit that i have very little recollection of the few games that i was taken to Meadow Lane but i was told years later that i was passed down over heads & shoulders to the front, a few rows below my family, it seems incredulous that is what used to happen but it was normal for kids them days. So yes, i saw the great man play, my dad used to say he headed the ball from our pitch over to the Forest ground, i had a few years believing that before it clicked that he kidded me, low and behold along came another great header of the ball, Mr Tony Hateley, now he was my hero whom i remember quite well, as by that time i used to go down the Lane on my own, he was/still is my legend. It used to be a full day then, straight to the ice stadium from Meadow Lane, for the Panthers game, fab time to be a kid.

Remember the kids thing very well, not passed over but the crowd always used to open and let the youngsters through to the front. I remember so vividly holding onto the white palling fence on the pitchside wall.

[Devon Pie]

Patterdale Road, Woodthorpe.

I grew up in Woodthorpe and Tommy?s son, also called Tommy, was among the local lads in the 1960s who put their jumpers down for goalposts on the patch of grass known as ?The Dump? (now housing) on Breck Hill Road and the recreation area next to The Vale pub on Thackeray?s Lane. I seem to recall that Leeds United, hoping that the gene pool had survived, gave Tommy junior a trial but don?t know if anything came of it. On the next street to Tommy another of my contemporaries was the son of Reg Leafe, who refereed an FA Cup Final in the 1950s and later, in a European Cup game, disallowed four Real Madrid ?goals?.