timbo
Programmes Room Manager 
QUO fan 4life.
Posts: 2,432
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Post by timbo on Nov 12, 2013 21:08:22 GMT
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2013 7:45:21 GMT
This is a nice programme for you to post Timbo and, because I didn't go to the game, I had absolutely no idea what it looked like. Paul Durkin in the middle, I see, and would that be Paul Alcock running the line?
Interesting that Bognor had such a good cup record in those days - they beat Exeter the following year - and that they harboured hopes of playing in the Conference. It didn't work out like that. Bognor were relegated to a lower division of the Isthmian in 1993 and stayed there for ten years. But they were founder members of Conference South in 2004 playing in that division for five seasons before being relegated.
Remarkably Jack Pearce didn't just carry on as Bognor's manager. Instead he carried on and on and on. Over thirty years in total from 1976 to 2007.
Because of Conference South, the Isthmian Premier isn't as strong a league as it was twenty-five years ago (see the name of Yeovil in that 1987/88 league table). Yet Bognor are doing okay this season even though there's still little possibility of the town being known for its football as much as "Butlins, half a pier and Derek Bell".
Derek Bell? That must be the racing driver who is now in his seventies. Wiki says the lucky man still splits his time between America and Bognor.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2013 12:12:00 GMT
The other thing to note about the Bognor game is the crowd: 3,500 according to that piece of paper. I bet a similar game wouldn't get half that now.
That may be due to a sad decline in interest in the FA Cup. Once, for example, you could anticipate a cup game between two teams from the same division being watched by 20-25% more people than the corresponding league game. Now you can probably subtract almost as many. Knocking the prices down doesn't seem to make much difference. Last season I saw Huddersfield v Wigan in the 5th round for either £10 or £15. It was Huddersfield's second lowest crowd of the season that far. The only lower one had been for the 4th round. Notwithstanding live TV, that's crazy isn't it?
And, when, it comes to non-league teams, the presence of so many ex-FL clubs in the Conference, seems to dilute interest. Little more than 1,500 at Tamworth v Cheltenham last week. But how big an attraction are Chrltenham when there are regular fixtures against Grimsby, Luton, Wrexham and so on?
I was at Corby v Dover last Saturday and that's the third successive year I've seen an all-non league game in the 1st round. Nearly 1,400 there and, interestingly, each of the three games has provided good value and a sense of occasion. Maybe that's to do with the games being seen as "winnable" and each side going for it hell for leather.
Next up it'll probably be Macclesfield for me in the 2nd round irrespective of whether it's Gillingham or Brackley. On balance I think I'd prefer it be to Brackley. Either way Macc certainly need the dosh.
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Post by gullone on Apr 12, 2015 14:32:34 GMT
Here are a couple of photos i took that afternoon...  |
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Post by gullone on Apr 12, 2015 14:36:43 GMT
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2015 16:45:05 GMT
I wasn't at our game at Bognor Regis. I was at Chorley v Hartlepool. That's not surprising; I was living just up the road.
I have been to Bognor this season. There's pictures to prove it.
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hector
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Post by hector on Apr 12, 2015 20:47:31 GMT
I was at that game and I remember there was a fair bit of crowd trouble - rumours of Pompey fans in attendance but certainly , Torquay fans had to take shelter on the pitch at one point during the game, as missiles were being hurled in our direction, and certainly at the end of the game we were led onto the pitch because bits of rock were being thrown into where we were standing. (Reference is made to it I have just noticed in the newspaper clipping)
Derek Dawkins endured a fair bit of racist abuse, and I remember him taking a bite from a banana that was thrown at him, from Bognor fans housed in a ground that I think had lost a roof or something in the storms of Michael Fish in 1987.
A scary but memorable day during my favourite ever season as a Torquay fan.
I used to love those cup days away at non-league clubs - we always used to take a big following, days gone now, as we don't even qualify for the first round anymore...
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