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Thread: Your first match at the Hawthorns

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
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    11,530

    Your first match at the Hawthorns

    I?m sure this has been done before, but I?m prompted to ask the question having posted in another thread about the FA Cup draw !
    Mine was season 1961/2 vs West Ham?we lost.
    Thereafter, I would play football for the school Saturday morning, and then go to the match with a couple of pals from school.
    Can?t remember when I first had a season ticket, but it was during the 1980s.

    Connection with this forum started when there used to be a pre match ?drink & snack? at the Vine or the Sportsman. I need some help to remind me when that was?..

    The board administrator at that time, wore a home baggie shirt with the players name on the back printed as wba-mad.co.uk (in full) Bumped into him at a match this season (Ian - who sat on the WBA Assembly)

    Enough reminiscing!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
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    5,575
    My first game, v. Wolves 1958/59, won 2-1. Kevan scored the winner with three minutes to go. Lived in Leominster at the time and left to catch bus with about 5 mins. left so missed the goal. Knew we had scored from the roar of the crowd, 50,000 plus were there if I am correct.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
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    10,684
    My Ist match was Albion 1 Alf Ramsey's Ipswich town 3 September 1961 ,
    https://www.prideofanglia.com/page.p...961&sequence=0
    I've been going every since my Ist match , from 66 to 1984 when I got married went to most of the away games .

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
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    10,684
    Quote Originally Posted by Prando View Post
    I?m sure this has been done before, but I?m prompted to ask the question having posted in another thread about the FA Cup draw !
    Mine was season 1961/2 vs West Ham?we lost.
    Thereafter, I would play football for the school Saturday morning, and then go to the match with a couple of pals from school.
    Can?t remember when I first had a season ticket, but it was during the 1980s.

    Connection with this forum started when there used to be a pre match ?drink & snack? at the Vine or the Sportsman. I need some help to remind me when that was?..

    The board administrator at that time, wore a home baggie shirt with the players name on the back printed as wba-mad.co.uk (in full) Bumped into him at a match this season (Ian - who sat on the WBA Assembly)

    Enough reminiscing!
    Hi . you can get the programme for this match here
    https://rjprogrammes.com/product/196...ba-v-west-ham/
    There is one on Ebay as well

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Posts
    11,374
    I can’t remember the actual first match but it was probably in the 1963/64 season. My dad was a rugby fan and my school only played rugby in the Winter, so it wasn’t until I left that school at 16 that a neighbour decided that I should go to a football game. He was an Albion shareholder and season ticket holder (he always bought four season tickets every year so he could take friends). All I know is that it got me hooked on the Albion; the players at that time included John Kaye, Ray Fairfax, Kenny Foggo and Ronnie Fenton, amongst many others from those long gone days. I then attended Halesowen Grammar School and although rugby was played there, too, I was hooked on football and was a regular at The Hawthorns, going either on the football special from Grammar School Lane (Midland Red bus), or with the aforementioned neighbour; his seats were in the Halfords Lane Stand, next to the old press box and he always had a flask of whisky in his pocket for half time! Great days!

    I first came to this board in 2006 or 2007, I think; around that time anyway. The board was run by Iain Bate (Donny Valdo), who I have bumped into on numerous occasions at the Hawthorns since. One of the mods was Northy (Northampton Baggie) and being also in Northamptonshire, I suggested that we might travel together sometime. Northy usually, at that time, went to matches with BaggieBoyGeoff, which is how I met him and I am still in regular contact with Geoff. Our pre-match destination was the Sportsman, where I met many from this board. Then of course, came the Baggies Barge, plenty of tales from those trips!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2011
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    974
    My first match was in September 1958 v Preston. We drew 1-1 with Jimmy Dudley scoring for the Baggies. Went with my dad & met up with my grand-dad, who always stood in the same spot at the Smethwick End.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
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    6,809
    I was wrapped up in a blanket in my first ever match at the Hawthorns with the old man. I was a little too young to remember any of the game but I do remember how extraordinarily cold the evening was. It was the 1968–69 European Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final 2nd leg when Dunfermline Athletic beat us 1–0 so we were knocked out of the cup

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
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    4,152
    I have just been looking at the full records as I have done many times trying to answer this question. It was maybe 1961 and it was maybe Forest. I was excited to go but disappointed when I got there that I couldn’t get my usual place on the wall (for reserve team games) and there were all these grown ups blocking my view. Disappointing but from then on I was there for a every game and I reclaimed that spot on the wall until I was old enough to be allowed to go on the Brummie.

    Yes Phil it was a bitterly cold that night. The pitch looked frozen solid. Such a disappointment,

  9. #9
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    Dec 2009
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    11,530
    Quote Originally Posted by soulman101 View Post
    Hi . you can get the programme for this match here
    https://rjprogrammes.com/product/196...ba-v-west-ham/
    There is one on Ebay as well
    Blimey soulman buddy. I’m tempted

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
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    10,684
    Quote Originally Posted by Prando View Post
    Blimey soulman buddy. I’m tempted
    Go for it .
    A nice memento to show your Grand children

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