The autumn of 1963 was warm and dry. Summer
seemed loath to concede the change of season until November. This was some compensation
for the previous winter; one of the coldest in memory. Then there had been a continuous
cover of snow from Boxing Day until March, causing a massive pile up of fixtures. Even the
F.A. Cup Final had to be postponed. That long winter saw the introduction of the Pools
Panel. Grandstand even featured them in session. Being starved of football, I would watch
them deliberating on the fates of Man. City and Mansfield. It was like a parlour game for
the survivors of a nuclear holocaust.
After the heat of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a year before, we were back on the frosty
beat. Kennedy had held his nerve during that crisis while Khrushchev had
‘blinked’. After Cuba, the threat of global destruction began to recede. Even
CND recognised this and started to dissolve.
When Blackpool visited Turf Moor in October, Kennedy had little more than a month to
live. Encouraged by his Cuban triumph, he was confidently putting himself about on the
world stage. In June, he’d visited Berlin with the aim of bolstering the morale of
that divided city. However when he made his 'Ich bin ein Berliner' speech he hadn’t
realised that ein Berliner was a doughnut.
By this time, though, he was more interested in South East Asia. Fearing communist
expansion there, he had started pumping economic and military aid into South Vietnam.
Hindsight tells us that this policy was badly flawed. North Vietnam was not a vassal of
Red China. Nationalism mattered much more to them than communism. Also, South Vietnam was
unlikely to survive. It was an artificial creation like the GDR. It had no coherent
cultural or political identity. Only Yankee dollars breathed life into it. US
miscalculations couldn’t have been more costly.
Before the Dallas shooting, the Profumo Affair captured our interest, if only for
salacious reasons. National security concerns were of little consequence compared to the
sexual exploits of Mandy Rice-Davies and Christine Keeler. I followed all the prurient
details in 'The People' until bloody Millicent Martin sang on TW3, ‘People who read
The People are the muckiest people in the world’. Thanks to her, my dad immediately
stopped buying the paper. Anyway, Mandy and Christine continued to excite my curiosity. I
imagined that they spent their days just being alluring, slinking around in their short
skirts and clinging sweaters. I wasn’t able to think of them doing mundane things
like unblocking plugholes or even mooching around Tesco’s. It was said that osteopath
Stephen Ward, had procured them. Some time after, I discovered that osteopathy was a
respectable profession. I’d presumed then that it was some dark kind of perversion.
Burnley’s big scandal of the year was, of course, the sale of Jimmy McIlroy. That
had happened in March. Others, too, would leave before the end of 1963-64 season. Among
these was Walter Joyce (father of Warren), to Blackburn and Trevor Meredith to Shrewsbury.
Much more controversially, John Connelly was sold to Manchester United for over £40,000.
These sales helped the club to make a profit out of an operating loss for that season; a
loss which had been largely brought about by a 22% increase in the annual wage bill and a
continuing reduction in gate revenue. The abolition of the maximum wage was beginning to
hit Burnley. Nevertheless, season tickets were still reasonably priced at £3, 3 shillings
for a Ground Ticket for men (i.e. £3.15p). Half -price concessions were available for
juveniles and women qualified for a reduction, too.
In a time of increasing financial stricture, Blackpool came again to Turf Moor. Brian
Poole and the Tremeloes were top of the singles charts with 'Do You Love Me?' while The
Beatles’ 'Please Please Me' was the best selling album. In his programme notes, Harry
Potts seemed rather preoccupied with his ill fortune (with regard to injuries and
results). This was to be a recurring theme during this season. Perhaps fittingly, the
great man wore an alarmed expression in his somewhat penal photo on page three.
Harry told us, 'Following upon our well-won victory over Blackburn Rovers here (3-0),
our players continued their good work by gaining two valuable points from two testing away
games against Leicester City (0-0) and West Ham United (1-1) within the course of three
days. In both these encounters they went about their task with excellent spirit and a
commendable degree of skill, which, had Dame Fortune been just a little more kind,
probably would have doubled our points return from them. It is not often that two scoring
efforts find the underside of the crossbar without either of them bouncing down over the
line, but that was the unfortunate experience Andy Lochhead had at West Ham, while at
Leicester, where once again we gave such a good account of ourselves, our very good
approach work was frustrated of two seemingly certain goals by obstructions that not only
prevented us scoring but also escaped official notice. At West Ham, on Monday night, we
had a new right wing triangle, Meredith being unfit as a result of his injury at
Leicester, and Brian O'Neil being rested. Jim Adamson, Arthur Bellamy and John Price made
up the flank.'
At that time Bellamy (now the club's groundsman) led the Claret scorers with 6 goals in
as many games, having contributed three of Burnley's four goals at Everton (4-3) and
helping to inflict upon the current League Champions their first home League defeat in 43
matches. Bellamy, who would score no further goals that season, had been given the
poisoned chalice of McIlroy's former position after Jimmy Robson's initial failure in the
role. However, the tempestuous Gordon Harris would prove to be McIlroy's most successful
replacement, retaining this position until his transfer to Sunderland in 1968.
Harry continued,'Over the last few seasons at West Ham we have had the experience of
falling a goal behind very early on, but in the first thirty seconds of this latest visit
we thought the tables had turned as Johnny Price scored with a tremendous left foot shot.
Unfortunately our joy was dimmed when a linesman signalled for offside against John
Connelly. The big question was whether he was interfering with play and in the opinion of
most people present he was not, and that the goal should have counted... However, in spite
of the big disappointment the decision was, we continued playing good football and after a
splendid six-man move Gordon Harris hit a tremendous volley into the corner of the net to
establish the lead. A second-half rally that brought West Ham an equaliser led to a
thrilling battle for the extra point and kept the spectators right on their toes
throughout. Their verdict: the best game seen at Upton Park so far this season.'
Although Burnley again performed well at Upton Park, in the sixth round of the FA Cup
in February 1964, they succumbed to the eventual Cup winners 3-2. At that time, West Ham
included three future World Cup heroes; Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin ('ten years
ahead of his time') Peters. A certain John Bond, then nicknamed 'Muffin', was their right
back. Their centre forward, Johnny ('Budgie') Byrne, was the only player to be selected
for England (in 1962 against Northern Ireland), while playing for a Fourth Division club
(Crystal Palace).
At the time of the Blackpool game, Burnley were in mid table with 14 points from 13
games. They had only scored 19 goals in these matches; a sparse return by their former
standards. Their cause had been impeded by injuries to internationals Pointer (ankle) and
Elder (leg injury) and also to Irvine (broken arm), Meredith, Towers and Todd.
Nevertheless, they had beaten Sheffield Wednesday (3-1), Fulham (4-1), Blackburn (3-0) and
Birmingham (2-1) all at home. However, they’d lost to Arsenal (0-3) at home and to
Fulham (1-2) away. Chelsea’s brat pack, then managed by Tommy Docherty, had taken
three points off them and even bottom club Ipswich had managed to defeat them (1-3),
giving the Suffolk club their only League victory so far that season. Ramsey had gone and
pumpkin status beckoned once again.
Blackpool had made a reasonable start to the season, but were three points adrift of
Burnley with a game in hand. Stanley Matthews, at the age of 47, had re-joined his
hometown side, Stoke. With Jimmy McIlroy, he had helped them to achieve promotion to the
First Division.
Harry said that Blackpool had, 'in recent weeks... been bringing in their younger men
to blend with such experienced footballers as Jim Armfield [the prototype wingback], Tony
Waiters, David Durie, Roy Gratrix and Ray Harnley'. Among the youngsters playing for
Blackpool on that day was Alan Ball. But Burnley made no mistake. Thanks to a Gordon
Harris goal, they inflicted a 1-0 defeat on the Seasiders, in front of a crowd of 20,025,
30% lower than at the corresponding fixture three years before.
Burnley would ultimately finish in 9th position but in mid December they were only four
points behind the current front runners, Leeds. Highlights of the season were the FA Cup
run, the double over Blackburn, the respective thrashings of Manchester United (6-1) and
Spurs (7-2) and the draw away at Stoke (4-4), where Burnley came back from a 3-0 deficit.
The low points were the FA Cup exit, Man U’s revenge (1-5), Pointer's loss of fitness
and form and the departure of Connelly. Adamson played his last game for the club during
this season. This was a Burnley side in transition and only half of the side which started
the season at Ipswich turned out in the final game against Spurs. By then both Morgan and
O'Neil had established themselves as regulars.
The Blackpool programme featured a full-page advertisement for P & O Lines' 1964
Cruise Programme. It reflected the rapid change in ordinary people's holiday ambitions.
Enhanced spending power was securing greater home comforts, cars and also holidays abroad,
via an increasing range of package deals. The Costa Fylde was consistently yielding ground
to the Costa Brava. Altham's Travel Services had buffed up their advert to include a
drawing of a typical 'Wakes Fortnight' coach, negotiating palms and cacti in deep exotica.
Actually, it looked as if it had missed the turning for Lytham.
As much as different experiences might be marketed in familiar guises, few of us were
fooled. For this was a time of increasing opportunity and expanding technology. As our
response to the James Bond films indicated, swish gadgetry was something to become excited
about. At last it was time to throw off the austerity of the immediate post war years.
Except that the great British Sunday seemed determined to thwart this. Always dominated by
the sizzling lunchtime roast, it was simply a purgatorial interlude between the weekend
proper and the working week. Until 'Round the Horne' offered partial salvation, the
cloying 'Three Way Family Favourites' and the dismal 'Sing Something Simple' was as good
as it ever got.
