At one time teams played on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. A hundred years ago in 1919 Christmas Day was on a Thursday. Professional football teams had to play on three consecutive days, starting on Christmas Day. Given that grounds were heavy and treacherous, this meant that they were ‘leg weary’ by Saturday, adversely affecting the standard of play.
Usually the same two teams played each other on the 25th and 26th. These were not always local derbies, but there was a rail service on Christmas Day. On one notorious occasion, Charlton players returning from a match in the north of England had a drinking contest with the restaurant car staff which the footballers easily won.
I'm not sure when trains were withdrawn even on Boxing Day, but I know that in the mid 1970s I decided to spend Christmas Day with my then girl friend and future wife and travel to my parents in Cornwall on Boxing Day. Normally when I was going to Cornwall I would catch The Cornishman which left Birmingham around 10.15. On Boxing Day there was a train at that time, albeit not titled, with more stops and carriages that looked as if they had been retrieved from the scrapyard. But it got me to Penzance.
We didn't go to Christmas Day matches at The Valley. If one had gone, one would have been struck by the smell of Will's Whiffs, cheap cigars sold as packets of five for Christmas presents. Our Christmas Day involved my uncle closing his newsagents in Lakedale Road as soon as he could and coming up the hill with my aunt. Chicken, then a luxury dish, would be cooked. There was always a hamper from the Coop which would include a bottle of wine which for some reason was always Sauterne. This was proclaimed to be 'a nice drop of wine' by my father. My uncle and aunt would then leave fairly early to catch the skeleton bus service back to Belvedere.
We often didn't go to Boxing Day matches as this was reserved for visiting family across the river, but sometimes this would be postponed if the next day was a Saturday or Sunday. Imagine my disappointment when one year we were going to The Valley and I woke to a covering of snow.
The last full programme of Christmas Day fixtures took place in 1957. With the arrival of floodlights it was no longer necessary to squeeze matches into public holidays and fans increasingly preferred to spend the day at home. For an excellent history of Christmas Day football go here: Victorian tradition
Happy Christmas to all Charlton fans. There should be a preview of the Bristol City game tomorrow evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment