Notts County 1949-1979

Beaver Bowling - sounds interesting ;D

Again, Timbo, there’s so much to say about those programmes you’ve posted. How about this for starters? Tommy Lawton centre-forward for Notts in 1948; Tony Hateley in 1961. And from that 1948 programme a word too about Bert Head then playing for us but later a notable manager at Swindon and Crystal Palace.

As for 1961, just imagine that overnight coach trip down from Harwich for the FA Cup tie at Plainmoor before heading back a few hours after the game. Not an inch of motorway in that journey which would have either avoided London completely or taken the North Circular through suburban Middlesex.

That 1972 match really saw us playing out time on our six-year stint in good old Division Three. There’s some great old Notts names in their line-up, some of whom served the club man and boy: Brian Stubbs, Les Bradd, David Needham. There’s also Mick Jones, later to become manager of Argyle.

You’ll also see Don Masson – a smashing player - in both the 1972 and 1979 Notts teams, either side of his QPR, Derby and Scotland days. And the 1979 keeper, Raddy Avramovic, was one of the relatively few non-British Isles players in the league in those days just a year after the lifting of the ban on foreign players. I also think I’m right in saying Brian “Killer” Kilcline made his Notts debut in the Plainmoor leg of that League Cup tie.

Investigate the 1979 programme further and you’ll see a picture of the famous gable of the former main stand at Notts County, the local MP as chairman and quintessential Nottinghamshire adverts for Home Ales and the National Coal Board. Also, of course, the manager Jimmy Sirrel, after whom one of the current stands at Meadow Lane is named.

Fast forward to the 2009 Notts County v Torquay programme and how will fans of sixty years hence interpret these extracts?

The 2nd Leg of that League Cup Tie in 1979 was my first ever game attended at Plainmoor.

Memories of the match itself are all a blur - even the scoreline(!), but the enduring image I have always retained is that of sitting high in the wooden grandstand, wrapped in my newly bought bobble hat and scarf combo, with the overwhelming odour of embrocation fluid and the nearby refreshment bar wafting through the Plainmoor air.............

........Waiting for the "Gulls" of Torquay United, resplendant in their white Bukta-made home strip, to take to the field.

Pure magic.