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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2012 16:06:30 GMT
Certainly not meant as a cheap jibe at our friend wildebeeste, who is proving to be the finest addition to the TFF for some time. However it probably is as a result of Mr.W mentioning this particular Nottinghamshire town that has stirred a few childhood memories. Memories of my Bartholomew Football wall map, which as we've discussed before, adorned the bedroom walls of a good fair few of us in the early 1970's. Incidentally I saw one for sale on a market stall in Weston- super-Mare this summer but resisted the temptation.  Growing up in mid Cornwall and only having the occasional (2 or 3 times a season) hour long trip to Plymouth to look forward to so that 'professional football' could be seen, I was very envious of those my age who lived sufficiently close to League clubs that they could watch a match every Saturday.  So based on the rough and ready approximations of distance provided by the bartholomew football map, I decided in my early teens that Mansfield was the perfect place to live (purely from a football point of view). Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton, there seemed to be big football centres and a host of clubs within easy reach should you set out in most directions from Mansfield. I've never been to the place, and I doubt I'm ever likely to, but I most probably would have loved a couple of years with Mansfield as my base feasting on 1970's football every Saturday as well as mid-week games of course.  Thinking about it, I'm sure I've only watched 'The Stags' once, and that was 4 or 5 years ago when they came to Plainmoor, giving me chance to pay homage to Wednesday's old goalkeeping colossus Kevin Pressman who was in goal for the visitors that day. Yes, living in London probably gives you access to an equally large number of grounds, but thanks to the Bartholomew map I still think of Mansfield as the ideal home for a football fan. We're only a couple of weeks short of the 2nd anniversary of Barton Down's marvellous thread concerning this much loved old football map, so for all those who may wish to reacquaint themselves with it: torquayfansforum.com/index.cgi?board=otherfootball&action=display&thread=6771&page=1 |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2012 17:19:07 GMT
Starting a thread on Mansfield, eh Joe? That will get the visiting Spireites going. And you suggest I am provocative. Wildebeeste, I had to research the number of the bus between Chesterfield and Mansfield for it's thirty-five years since I travelled that route. But, oddly enough, I've just got off a bus that was eventually bound for Mansfield. And, for when Joe relocates to North Notts, there's this for him: Attachments:
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Post by chambta on Sept 26, 2012 17:22:21 GMT
Mansfield is an ideal home.......if you're a smack head.
It's only redeeming feature is its proximity to the Derbyshire border. Those houses above continue almost to the border whereupon streetlighting becomes apparent.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2012 17:32:57 GMT
The bus driver was from Mansfield I think.
I spoke extremely slowly but we still had communication problems.
How do you pronounce Eckington?
Should I have said Eckie, maybe?
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Post by chambta on Sept 26, 2012 18:53:43 GMT
The bus driver was from Mansfield I think. I spoke extremely slowly but we still had communication problems. How do you pronounce Eckington? Should I have said Eckie, maybe? I've never heard Eckington referred to as anything other than its full, formal title. May I ask your story? Clearly you live this way. Do you intend starting a local Devon/Torquay appreciation society perhaps? |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2012 19:16:26 GMT
My dad grew up in Springwell, a place that no longer exists but was occasionally passed through by Eckington folk on their way to Whittington. He told me that the locals (in those far off days anyway) pronounced it Eckumton.
Joe would be pretty disappointed in Mansfield nowadays. The pits have shut down, the brewery and textile factories have gone, what used to be the town centre has a brutal four-lane highway passing through it and the football club no longer appears on the pools coupon. There is at least a railway station now (after decades without one) but it is not on a main line so you can go anywhere you like from there so long as you only choose between Worksop and Nottingham.
On the plus side the town is the birthplace of Alvin Stardust and of course the great niece of Terry Adlington. But surely the best place for a youngster with his map to live in these days would be Chesterfield. And if Joe should find the Council here a touch too left wing he could always log onto Bob's Board, the fans' forum from which I was once exiled for calling Bernard Manning a racist. In fact even Joe himself would be considered a dangerous pinko by the regulars on there!
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Post by chambta on Sept 26, 2012 20:27:01 GMT
My dad grew up in Springwell, a place that no longer exists but was occasionally passed through by Eckington folk on their way to Whittington. He told me that the locals (in those far off days anyway) pronounced it Eckumton. Joe would be pretty disappointed in Mansfield nowadays. The pits have shut down, the brewery and textile factories have gone, what used to be the town centre has a brutal four-lane highway passing through it and the football club no longer appears on the pools coupon. There is at least a railway station now (after decades without one) but it is not on a main line so you can go anywhere you like from there so long as you only choose between Worksop and Nottingham. On the plus side the town is the birthplace of Alvin Stardust and of course the great niece of Terry Adlington. But surely the best place for a youngster with his map to live in these days would be Chesterfield. And if Joe should find the Council here a touch too left wing he could always log onto Bob's Board, the fans' forum from which I was once exiled for calling Bernard Manning a racist. In fact even Joe himself would be considered a dangerous pinko by the regulars on there! Springwell? Would that be the dip in the road where a couple of houses are? I'm still trying to work out who you are on Bob's Board. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2012 20:56:43 GMT
Chambta, Devon-born, Torquay-raised, lived in a number of places, recently moved to Sheffield where I was a student a long time ago.
I can see the rationale behind Alpine Joe's choice of Mansfield as an ideal football-watching centre.
But surely, with its excellent railway links, Chesterfield would have been a far superior choice?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2012 21:24:17 GMT
Springwell? Would that be the dip in the road where a couple of houses are? I'm still trying to work out who you are on Bob's Board. Well, there's a dip but I'm not sure there are any houses left. There used to be a pond as well but it's been filled in. There's also a staggered crossroads 100 yards to the west where my grandad was killed in a motorbike accident in 1934. That's why it's staggered; previously it was a free for all with no-one having right of way but then again the driving test wasn't introduced till the following year and road safety measures must have been pretty primitive, where they existed at all. Bob's Board is not for me but Coloquix is my son and heir. He played in the annual end of season game for the whites, and was so bad he made Alex Mendy look like Alan Birch. Just looking at the map again and wondering how they managed to make it look as though Mansfield is on the Yorkshire border. That would have caused a rumpus or two during the strike, for sure.  |
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Post by chambta on Sept 26, 2012 21:37:16 GMT
Good man. Presumably our relegation wasn't mourned for long in your house!
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Sept 26, 2012 21:39:24 GMT
How do you pronounce Eckington? Now that's a coincidence. I had never heard of Eckington until yesterday! Leafing through the scrapbook of an old Torquay United hero, I found that his family lived in Eckington. In fact, he would have left there for Torquay around about the same time as wildebeeste's grandad was coming to grief just down the road. So is "Sheffield" not an accurate birthplace for an Eckington boy? In fact, if it is on the road South, is it in Yorkshire or Derbyshire? Or is it in disputed border territory? |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2012 21:55:07 GMT
Eckington has a Sheffield postal address but is in the district of NE Derbyshire.
And I'm just about to pass along the short section of the tram network that Sheffield had the audacity to build on Derbyshire soil.
Just where have I been tonight?
We're talking about the welfare of those who work underground. A further clue: they knocked a Deb'n team out of the FA Vase last year.
That's another Devon/Derbyshire connection. And which Devon team to complete the puzzle?
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Post by chambta on Sept 26, 2012 22:00:25 GMT
Eckington has a Sheffield postal address but is in the district of NE Derbyshire. And I'm just about to pass along the short section of the tram network that Sheffield had the audacity to build on Derbyshire soil. Just where have I been tonight? We're talking about the welfare of those who work underground. A further clue: they knocked a Deb'n team out of the FA Vase last year. That's another Devon/Derbyshire connection. And which Devon team to complete the puzzle? Are you sure the tram network crosses in Derbyshire? I'm certain it goes no further south than the Halfway terminus which is a mile or so into present day South Yorkshire. |
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Post by Jon on Sept 26, 2012 22:00:44 GMT
Just where have I been tonight? We're talking about the welfare of those who work underground. A further clue: they knocked a Deb'n team out of the FA Vase last year. That's another Devon/Derbyshire connection. And which Devon team to complete the puzzle? Leslie Lievesley's birthplace? The same team that suffered a traumatic penalty defeat against the mighty TUFC in the Devon Bowl that caused someone to miss his bus and need dropping off at Exeter on my way back to Torquay? |
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Post by stuartB on Sept 26, 2012 22:01:27 GMT
Just where have I been tonight? Spearmint Rhinos  |
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