|
|
Topic Originator: sammer
Date: Fri 20 Aug 23:17
Tonight was not the first time the Fife derby has been abandoned due to a problem with electricity. On Saturday, September 6th 1958, the Dunfermline v Raith Rovers game at EEP was halted with the score at 1-1. It always puzzled me how a game could be abandoned at that time of year so I assumed a flash flood had made the pitch waterlogged.
In fact after speaking to veteran Pars fan this summer I discovered the abandonment was due to a thunderstorm with accompanying lighting which was crackling over the stadium. Spectators struggled to see the action amidst the stygian gloom for this was before DAFC had installed floodlights. Due to the poor visibility and danger to players they were taken off the field and eventually the game was abandoned. The spectators felt that the referee had little option given the appalling weather conditions which did not let up.
The replayed fixture was a 3-3 draw, just after we had suffered a 7-1 hammering at EEP to Rangers.
sammer
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Socks
Date: Fri 20 Aug 23:59
Tiny Wharton was the referee for that game in 1958. The Dunfermline Press report of the game makes for amusing reading, describing him stopping the game a number of times to check the North-East corner of the pitch. I found it hugely amusing - the thought of him with his huge frame splashing through something akin to a duck pond and saying `play on` before finally abandoning it immediately after the Pars equaliser. The report also notes that many in the crowd were unhappy at the game being stopped despite conditions obviously being ridiculous
I wrote about this game in the recent `On This Day` book, and it was most enjoyable game I researched in the whole project.
I can`t think of very many abandoned games involveing the Pars. I was at the Scottish Cup game at Broadwood in 2004 but I think that`s the only other time I`ve been there when it`s happened. I remember one at Tannadice (around 1991 I think) but I wasn`t at the game. I think those two, along with tonight`s, are the only 3 in my time watching the Pars.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: OzPar
Date: Sat 21 Aug 00:54
"I wrote about this game in the recent `On This Day` book, and it was most enjoyable game I researched in the whole project."
I don`t know anything about this book. I must have missed its launch. Can you supply some details, Socks?
I remember watching Tiny Wharton in the mid/late 1960s. Despite his size, he seemed to keep up with play. And while he stood no-nonsense, he was a fair referee too, from what I can recall.
Around that time, Aberdeen had a goalie called Tubby Ogston. I don`t think he was overlay fat, just a big fella. He got a major transfer to Liverpool but didn`t establish himself there. He was destined to be in the shadow of the great Ray Clemence.
Tiny and Tubby are the sorts of names you would have expected in the Melchester Rovers line-up in The Tiger comic. Nowadays, our super-sensitive woke generation would freak out if they saw such names being used. [SIGH]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: sammer
Date: Sat 21 Aug 01:35
Actually it was Socks` `On this Day` book which alerted to me to the Raith game in 1958. It`s a good read. I was kindly donated a copy this summer and then gleaned more detail from an actual spectator on the day, a former Primary Teacher of mine and lifelong Pars fan who was also a tremendous judge of a player: he put me in the school team aged 10.
Tiny Wharton was a great character and much loved I think in the Scottish game. Presumably he was a blue nose with the usual affiliations but Celtic fans speak well of him. He was actually brought up in Springburn, more a Celtic area of Glasgow and is well remembered for letting a short free kick pass between his legs for Charlie Gallagher to score a rasping drive in a 5-1 defeat of Rangers.
Statistically very few games are abandoned, so it is odd that two of them in Pars history have been with Raith Rovers, especially when we have often been in different leagues. And both times electricity was involved, although Socks is no doubt correct in stating that parts of the pitch were also waterlogged. It must have been some day. My former teacher said it was simply unplayable so I assume the complaints were more about money.
sammer
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Foghorn Leghorn
Date: Sat 21 Aug 01:44
I remember an abandoned match in the nineties, just can’t recall where. I’m sure it was Clydebank or Hamilton and was at the time Petrie was with us because we saw him pre match wearing club attire and eating a sausage supper, so we knew he wasn’t playing. Due to the fog, from where we were, you couldn’t see beyond the half way line.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: allparone
Date: Sat 21 Aug 02:22
We had a cup game against Clyde at Broadwood abandoned in 2004 due to snow on the pitch. Unlike tonight I was glad it was called as the conditions were horrendous.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: back oh the net
Date: Sat 21 Aug 03:53
Tinpot club wae a tinpot board and a ***** fan base wee team right enough hope the sfa throw the book at them
Come on ye pars ⚽️
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Level par
Date: Sat 21 Aug 06:33
Remember being at Hamilton (old stadium) in the 90s and fairly sure it was abandoned in the first half due to fog. Same game that foghorn is talking about above probably.
Was also at Broadwood against Clyde when the snow came
Been a couple that didn’t start due to the weather. Raith again a few seasons back in Pre season when we were already in the ground And most annoyingly after driving all the way up Ross County on a Tuesday night in winter. Got to the ground to find it called off just before kick off due to a waterlogged pitch.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: GG Riva
Date: Sat 21 Aug 07:17
I`ve never been at a game which was abandoned in almost 60 years of following the Pars, but I was at two games which should definitely have been stopped.
The first was a New Years day match v East Fife. Sleet fell incessantly before and during the game and the sodden pitch saw players gamely trying to stay on their feet as they slid through large puddles and slush. How the ref never stopped the game in such farcical conditions is beyond me. It finished 1-1.
The second game was played in similar conditions, again at EEP, v QOS. My brain must have been numbed by the cold as I can remember very little about it, other than a Queens player was substituted and taken to hospital, suffering from hypothermia. Again, you have to wonder what was going on in the ref`s head.
Not your average Sunday League player.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: neils
Date: Sat 21 Aug 07:39
The only game I was at that was abandoned was Raith!
The game in July (Tunnocks Cup?) Where there was a quick biblical downpour, made it into the ground with a decent crowd, and was called off before KO.
IN July.....
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: parfection
Date: Sat 21 Aug 07:42
I too was at the abandoned game at Hamilton in the early ‘90s (15th of January I believe). It was one of the very last games ar the old Douglas Park. As I recall it, there was little or no fog when the game began. It started in the far corner of the ground and spread as if a malevolent dry ice machine was working overtime. By the time of the rearranged fixture, the Accies were sharing Clyde’s ground ar Broadwood - itself, ironically, the venue for the other abandoned match, albeit due to snow.
Both these games were certainly due to inclement weather and neither compares in that regard with last night’s debacle. With that in mind, I thought that both sets of fans displayed great forbearance in the event yesterday evening. There were some scuffles post ‘match’ but these same nutters would, in all likelihood, have indulged their passion for pugilism after 90 mins also.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: p4r5f4n
Date: Sat 21 Aug 08:30
There was a game I remember at Tannadice in the late nineties that was abandoned at half time due to the pitch flooding due to incessant rain. It was a midweek match and started fair but not long after the start the rain came on and just got heavier and heavier. The ground staff spent half time with squeegees and brushes trying to clear the pitch and I think even a small tractor but to no avail and the game was abandoned. We were still walking back to our cars when the rain stopped and the sky cleared.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: helensburghpar
Date: Sat 21 Aug 08:55
Been to a few over the years. East Fife at home was abandoned in the 80s at half time. Think Shaggy Jenkins scored and it was one all when game was stopped. Hamilton`s old Douglas Park in the 90s against Clyde who were playing there at the time. We were two nil up until the fog came down. Replayed at Broadwood as Clyde had moved there As previously mentioned Dundee Utd at Tannadice due to rain when we were two one down and Clyde at Broadwood due to snow.
Post Edited (Sat 21 Aug 08:58)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: veteraneastender
Date: Sat 21 Aug 09:04
Last night one of the commentarors (Jonathon Sutherland ?) mentioned the electric atmosphere inside the ground - I wonder if Off The Ball will slag him off this afternoon !!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: veteraneastender
Date: Sat 21 Aug 09:28
"Tiny Wharton was a great character and much loved I think in the Scottish game. Presumably he was a blue nose with the usual affiliations but Celtic fans speak well of him. He was actually brought up in Springburn, more a Celtic area of Glasgow and is well remembered for letting a short free kick pass between his legs for Charlie Gallagher to score a rasping drive in a 5-1 defeat of Rangers."
It was Bobby Murdoch - the pass wasn`t direct from the free kick, but as near as makes little difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxLgmfB73sI
Advance to 0:55.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Grant
Date: Sat 21 Aug 09:29
There was a photograph going around recently that seemed to show Tiny doing a masonic handshake before a match, dodgy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: RhinoPars
Date: Sat 21 Aug 09:39
I remember one game at Easter Road where Hibs I think were playing Dundee and were leading by a few goals. With about 5-10 mins left the fog rolled in and from the middle of the old main terracing you couldn`t really see either goal. The ref showed common sense and let the game finish. To have replayed the match with Hibs so far ahead and so little time left would have been unfair.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Parahandy
Date: Sat 21 Aug 11:07
There was a New Year abandoned game v Cowden round about 1984
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: GG Riva
Date: Sat 21 Aug 12:24
Quote:
helensburghpar, Sat 21 Aug 08:55
Been to a few over the years. East Fife at home was abandoned in the 80s at half time. Think Shaggy Jenkins scored and it was one all when game was stopped. Hamilton`s old Douglas Park in the 90s against Clyde who were playing there at the time. We were two nil up until the fog came down. Replayed at Broadwood as Clyde had moved there As previously mentioned Dundee Utd at Tannadice due to rain when we were two one down and Clyde at Broadwood due to snow.
I think you're referring to the same game as me further up, hp and I believe it was played to a finish. I was standing on the North terracing and the water poured down the front of the enclosure in sheets because the slush had clogged the guttering.
Not your average Sunday League player.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Socks
Date: Sat 21 Aug 15:54
Oz, we released the book in February. There wasn`t any great fanfare around it, partly due to the weird circumstances of the last year and a lot of it beause various aspects of my life have been a bit mad over the last 6 months meaning that I haven`t had much time.
Ross Hart kindly did a nice article on it that was published in the Dunfermline Press. The online version of it is here:
https://www.dunfermlinepress.com/sport/19111499.win-copy-pars-on-day-book/
Too late to enter the competition now though!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Parallel Lines
Date: Sat 21 Aug 22:25
Pars v Averdeen when we won 3-2. Rossi scored that say. The fog was so bad you could not see the other goal from the Nortie stand. I think the Aberdeen fans xwere singing to that effect. How that game wasn`t abandoned is only known to the ref.
I looked for my pet in all the books on animals and birds and then I found it in the Book of Revelations.Marty Feldman
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: OzPar
Date: Sat 21 Aug 22:51
Thanks, Socks. I shall be placing an order and look forward to reading it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: ParfectXI
Date: Sun 22 Aug 11:03
I was at the game vs Dundee Utd at Tannadice, the downpour was unbelievable but the wind as well. I’m sure Big Duncan Ferguson was playing one of his first games and almost scored wind assisted from the halfway line. To date that’s the only abandoned game I’ve been to.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: widtink
Date: Sun 22 Aug 11:22
Quote:
Parallel Lines, Sat 21 Aug 22:25
Pars v Averdeen when we won 3-2. Rossi scored that say. The fog was so bad you could not see the other goal from the Nortie stand. I think the Aberdeen fans xwere singing to that effect. How that game wasn`t abandoned is only known to the ref.
I remember that game well... Aberdeen took the lead early on.
Both sets of fans singing "where the ******* hells the ball" 🤣
Admin
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: veteraneastender
Date: Sun 22 Aug 13:14
There’s more than a few games that I wish had been abandoned !!!
Some that should never have kicked off in the atrocious conditions.
Post Edited (Sun 22 Aug 13:15)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: LiviBill
Date: Sun 22 Aug 14:02
I remember this match and it was definitely Hamilton. Also had our eardrums assaulted by the old Hamilton supporter who spent the whole time shouting abuse at everybody including the Hamilton team, Management and the board
LiviBill
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: allparone
Date: Sun 22 Aug 14:10
Quote:
LiviBill, Sun 22 Aug 14:02
I remember this match and it was definitely Hamilton. Also had our eardrums assaulted by the old Hamilton supporter who spent the whole time shouting abuse at everybody including the Hamilton team, Management and the board
His name was Fergie. He gets a mention now and again on Off the Ball.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: shrek par
Date: Sun 22 Aug 14:48
Pars v aberdeen in the fog,put my back out during that game,kept getting told to sit by the stewards and couldn't was in flaming agony.
Admin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: shrek par
Date: Sun 22 Aug 14:49
Was freezing fog too.
Admin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Parboiled
Date: Sun 22 Aug 16:18
It was indeed Shrek, walking back home after getting the bus to Rosyth I had to pee against a tree, and my todger felt like an icicle.
As for the match, I was seated near the middle so could make out both goals -just.
Felt sorry for the fans at each end, like going to the flicks and only half a screen!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: helensburghpar
Date: Sun 22 Aug 17:36
GG Riva , Think you could be right about East Fife game being completed. The game I`m thinking of was Cowdenbeath. It was abandoned at half time. Don`t know how East Fife game finished though. Weather was shocking.
Post Edited (Sun 22 Aug 18:24)
|
|
|
|
|
|
