13/01/65: Tottenham (A) FA Cup Pirate Issue

That picture was taken at Aldershot and I reckon by the look of the lights and the kits it would have been action from the nineteen fifties!

These souvenir programmes are not illegal as such as they were not sold as "official" programmes and I know they were common place in the Tottenham High Road during Spurs' heyday. The publisher (or printer) avoided legal action through omitting the word "Hotspurs" from any title nor any reproduction of the club crest. I recall a number of Torquay fans expressing disgust on opening their purchase and then having it explained to them that they had been conned. Not that the official programme was much good either ~ Spurs programmes weren't up to much in those glory glory days I'm afraid, and a typical example of the niggardly attitude of the club towards it's fans at the time.another famous old product that could be bought around the London grounds at that time was Percy Dalston's Peanuts and the sellers used to push through the crowded terraces calling "pea.........nuts, roasted peanuts" and I can een remember small paper bags of them being hurled onto the terraces from the cinder track in exchange for a threepenny bit hurled in the other direction................and woe betide you if one of those hit you on the head ~ they bloody hurt!

A common retort to anyone in a group of lads who suggested sitting in the seats for a game, was that how then would we get any "Percy's" during the match as the terraces were far too crowded to push and shove your way to the buffets and those rubbish and discarded "souvenir" programmes made great "piss tubes" for rolling up and peeing through ~ especially down the back of the in front equivalent "Bloke Behind Me" if he was getting on your tits

Imagine standing behind Miac and being able to get away with that!