© RockandRollEggs
Bournemouth till I die!
Following the local team (on and off) since 1966.
Where do I begin?
Age 7, season 66/67, in my first football strip. The team were known as Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic Football Club at the time, and to locals with long memories, “C’mon Boscombe!” remains the cheer of choice.
I remember the boots feeling heavy and solid; likewise the shin pads gave a serious touch to the simple joys of dressing up like the big boys.
This shot was taken in the back yard of the family home at 86 Shelbourne Road. My mum used to walk me to matches along Holdenhurst Road and through Kings Park. She wasn’t keen on standing, so we sat in the Grand Stand every second Saturday. Never quite sure what my first game was, but the games against Orient and Brighton in September seem familiar.
Attended Malmesbury Park Infants School at the time. A few months after this photo was taken I was chosen to represent the school in a ‘South Today’ slot with regular host Pat Sloman interviewing me on how to use an abacus. Of course, no one thought of taking any snapshots of the broadcast.
My first 45 - C'mon Bournemouth!
In the world of football singalongs, there’s nothing to rival the sight and sound of the Kop in full voice at Anfield back in 1964, cheering on Bill Shankly’s Liverpool with rousing choruses of hits by local stars The Beatles (She Loves You) and Cilla Black (Anyone Who Had A Heart). But here’s a small addition to the glorious world of terrace anthems…
For over five decades I’ve been custodian of two discs, both recorded in one of those public record booths fashionable at a time when skinheads ruled the terraces and Rod Stewart feather cuts were fast becoming the new ‘in’ style. Inscribed in the grooves are the voices of five cusp-of-teenage schoolboys roaring out their support for the recently renamed AFC Bournemouth and their new superstar goal machine Ted ‘SuperMac’ MacDougall.
Recorded on November 5, 1971, and the following weekend at a booth sited in Bournemouth Bus Station just off the Square, the discs snap, crackle and pop just like those Rice Krispies we all ate for breakfast back then.
But never mind the quality – hear the falsetto-voiced passion of these young Bournemouth School For Boys 2nd formers.
Among the terrace chants heard on these digitised transfers are: “Doin’ The Bournemouth Boot-Walk”, “B-O-V, V-E-R, Bovver Boys Is What We Are”, “MacDougall La-La-La”, “Zigger-Zagger MacDougall”, “Bournemouth 3 Villa Nil, Hallelujah!”
There's a brief – though admittedly not brief enough – chorus of I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major-General from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates Of Penzance. The reason? It’s very likely that the first disc, done on a Friday, was recorded after a school performance at the nearby Winter Gardens. 12 months later, I was back at the same venue watching my first rock gig, Family (who’d just charted with the mighty Burlesque), and puffing my first pack of cigarettes, 10 Consulate Menthol.
The jokes on disc two mostly come courtesy of Warwick Tilley, a lively and likeable classmate who lived round the corner from me in the calm, vaguely green Poole borders suburb of Wallisdown. Today, the area has been colonised by Bournemouth University.
You’ll also hear the occasional cries out for Chelsea (courtesy of Colin French, owner of the best Brian Jones bob haircut on the south coast; see photo) and my ‘big team’ faves Coventry City (I even had the Soccerwatch).
Given that most of us were still 12 years old, there are also the inevitable fart noises and jokes about toilets. That said, the smiles were wiped away from the faces of a couple of us two or three weeks later. Supposedly Christmas shopping, we were hauled into the manager’s office at Woolworth’s in the Square having misread the ‘pick and mix’ sign as ‘pick and nick’. A scary moment and lesson learnt.
As for the Cherries, the win over Villa had cemented our position as league leaders in Division Three, the team’s home for so much of its existence. By the season’s end, we’d dropped down to 3rd; Villa meanwhile, went up as Champions.
As a postscript, days after the second recording, Bournemouth put 11 past Margate in the FA Cup. It was a first round game and hardly a needle match, so regrettably, it was one of the few I missed that season. Ted MacDougall bagged a record-breaking eight goals – a statistic that still stands.
Another afterthought. Had we squeezed into the small booth six months later, I’ve no doubt that we would have filled the allotted 90 seconds with hearty blasts of the new glam rock anthems – Metal Guru, School’s Out, All The Young Dudes. But in late 1971 football still ruled.
In addition to myself and the already namechecked Warwick Tilley and Colin French, mention must be made of Bruce Mitchell, Robert Locker, Chris Roberjot and Pete McMullen, who also contributed to one or other of these discs. All were fine classmates and regulars down the South End. I was especially close to Bruce for a while – the only boy in class who admitted to liking The New Seekers and The Carpenters.
As well as a regular at Dean Court, I was also into Poole Speedway (see photo) during this era (see photo). I travelled to away matches too, as part of the Cherry Bees, the club’s youth association. Some tasty moments there. But that’s another story for another time.
Bournemouth School For Boys Class 2-13 outing to London, c. 1971/1972. L-R: Trevor White (not on the discs), Bruce Mitchell, Mark Paytress, Colin French, Chris Roberjot.