Blades first foreign tour

[ourbob]

Come on then clever clogs.

Where?
Who?
Year?

 

[blade too long]

scotland to play celtic
for british championship 1902

 

[ourbob]

My kids would be distraught if I told them they're going on a foreign holiday to....

....Scotland.

 

[grafikhaus]

Not the first but relevant to Wendy's latest Galactico. In (I think) 1976 I got an Interrail ticket and decided to follow the Blades on their pre-season tour to Nantes, Ostend and Heracles. Before checking with the club right up to setting off - and having them confirm that the schedule was correct - off I set.

I camped just outside Nantes for the first match and made my way to the ground, in my United shirt with the iconic Currie '10' on the back. I went in a nearby bar and was surprised by the lack of crowds in the street. The French treacle behind the bar said 'Non! Non! Non! La Baule!' Summoning up my basic school French, I said 'Si! Oui! Jawhol! The ball! Yes!' She said 'Non, no, no!' and fucked off behind the bar to get a local paper. From that, I saw that the match had been switched to La Baule - a fading, casino town about 70 miles away. I raced back to the railway station and asked a French railway-type bloke 'Ou est la train pour La Baule?' (told you I was a polyglot ). He pointed to a departing train and gave me a laconic 'La.' I went out to the taxi rank and was quoted £25 - one way. Back then, that would have (nearly) bought you a 3-bedroom semi. Anyway, a lot of money).

Pissed off beyond belief, I made my way back to the camp site and it had begun to rain. Not for the first time supporting United, I felt tears welling up. I thought 'Fuck United!' I had a months paid-for rail travel in Europe. I got my map out and spent 4 weeks travelling the four corners of Europe (my favourite? The gorgeous Heidelberg.)

Always darkest before the dawn.

 

[BushBlade]

Best I can do is I think we toured Scandanavia in the thirties.

 

[ourbob]

Not that easy to find out cos nothing comes up on google.

 

[spongebobblade]

Best I can do is I think we toured Scandanavia in the thirties.

We had a 6 match tour of Scandinavia at the end of the 35/6 season. Quite possibly organised after we had reached the Cup final and were therefore better known

 

[ourbob]

Not that early according to the stats.

 

[Silent Blade]

Denmark in 1936

 

[Snowman]

If Carlsberg......

 

[ourbob]

I'm going on the information from a program here.

 

[ourbob]

We have a winner.


Me.

 

[Canterbury Blade]

Way off lads, first foreign tour....?

Has to be Southend. It was a lunar lunar mile off modern day..

.??

 

[ourbob]

I won.

 

[John Street West Terrace]

Millmoor 1979 ,,, The Jam later wrote a song about it ... Walls Come Tumblimg Down

 

[BushBlade]

View attachment 36066

I won.

You asked when the first foreign tour was, not the first foreign pre season tour.

 

[Silent Blade]

You asked when the first foreign tour was, not the first foreign pre season tour.

Correct. Before 1959, foreign tours were always after the end of the season.

 

[Gabsblade]

Millmoor 1979 ,,, The Jam later wrote a song about it ... Walls Come Tumblimg Down

Weller but not The Jam.... it was The Style Council

 

[blade too long]

My kids would be distraught if I told them they're going on a foreign holiday to....

....Scotland.

in 1902 it was going to a foreign country, took 2 days by horse drawn coach

 

[broomhillblade]

Whilst on the subject of foreign tours, after Jimmy Hagan retired in 1958 his pal, Stanley Matthews, invited him to be a guest player in Blackpool's tour of Australia. Hagan, aged 40, turned out to be the star of the show. Here's an extract from 'The Jimmy Hagan Story':

As Hagan’s thoughts turned to his future, when the season ended he was invited by Stanley Matthews (who rated Hagan as "one of the best inside forwards of his day") to tour Australia with Blackpool as a guest player. Typically, Jimmy did not go just to make up the numbers and have a good time. He took every game seriously.

On their way to Australia, Blackpool had a match in Hong Kong against a Combined Chinese side. Expecting a tough match, the Chinese had picked their strongest team, and had worked out a strategy to keep Matthews quiet by putting two defenders permanently on the great man.

Hagan realised immediately what was going on and took over the mantle of schemer and playmaker. With the defenders concentrating on Matthews he took charge and, in a dazzling display of vintage Hagan, scored three goals in four minutes.

The Chinese team never recovered and Hagan went on to score six goals in a 10 – nil victory. And this from a 40-year-old whose playing career was supposed to be finished!

Once in Australia, Hagan played in all five of Blackpool’s matches during May 1958 and had a great tour, scoring six (possibly seven – the records are a little unclear) goals in one game alone. Although Matthews surely did not invite him for his goal-scoring ability, Hagan ended up as the highest scorer of the team with 28 goals.

Tomorrow is Hagan's "100th birthday", incidentally.

 

[broomhillblade]

in 1902 it was going to a foreign country, took 2 days by horse drawn coach

Joking apart, football teams seemed to travel everywhere by train in those days. The network was comprehensive and the trains were frequent. In some cases journey times were less than by modern motorways.

 

[blade too long]

Joking apart, football teams seemed to travel everywhere by train in those days. The network was comprehensive and the trains were frequent. In some cases journey times were less than by modern motorways.

let the micks build HS2

 

[grafikhaus]

Best I can do is I think we toured Scandanavia in the thirties.

I think you're right. In 'Sheffield United - The Complete Record' (Fuck how I wish I'd bought a spare when it was £5 in The Works) in the section 'United's Friendly, Charity and Benefit Games' - (Pages 598-613) it shows a six-game series against Danish teams in Denmark from 28th May to 8th June, 1936. And here's the rub. When is a tour a post-season tour or a pre-season tour? There are many more. From 9th May to 20th May, 1953 we played four games in (West) Germany and one against Heracles in Holland (Page 599).

Some appear in the aforementioned 'United's Friendly, Charity and Benefit Games' section, some appear in the 'League Seasons' section (Pages 267-514). In 1965, from May 15 to June 13, 1965 (Page 418), we had an eleven game tournament in New Zealand. Trouble is, in each game our opponents were Blackpool (they could have just stayed at home...etc.)
From May 7th to May 14, 1972 (Page 432) we played three games in Zaqmbia - each against a 'Zambia XI'.
From June 6 to June 15, 1974 (Page 436) we played two games against Cypriot clubs, one against Levski Spartak on June 10, a game against Hamilton Academicals on June 13 and a final game against Lvski Spartak. I don't know if this was a tri-nations tournament or which country it was held in, but all six games are marked as 'N' (Neutral?)
And between Aug. 24 and Nov. 15 (Page 478) we took part in the unlamented Anglo Italian Cup, playing Piacenza in Italy (Sept. 6) and Cesena in Italy (Nov. 15) with home games against Udinese (Aug. 24) and Ancona (Oct. 5) in the same tournament.

Talking of nonsensical 'friendly' tournaments and games, on Oct. 14, 1975 (Page 440) we played Wednesday at Bramall Lane in The County Cup in front of a crowd of 14,663 (telly must have been shite that night), and on Nov. 21, 1989 (Page 468) we played Wednesday at Hillsborough in the Zenith Data Systems Full Member Cup in front of a barely-believable crowd of 30,464.

Other ways of parting the punter from his hard-earned I've spotted were The Watney Cup, The Texaco Cup, Anglo Scottish Cup, League Group Cup, Pennine Radio Cup, Football League Trophy, Simod Cup, Associate Members Cup, Full Members Cup, Sherpa Van Trophy, Yorkshire & Humberside Cup, Steel City Challenge Trophy, Johnstone's Paint Trophy and The Checkatrade Trophy.

To think some of you buggers can't be bothered watching us v Preston in The FA Cup!

 

[Silent Blade]

Our manager Reg Freeman fell ill in the post season tour of Germany in May 1955 and had to return home. Never returned to work and passed away two months later

 

[benn5712]

Someone av a dig through t' archives. Remember a cold winters night match early 70 ish played Dinamo Kiev at BDTBL. Could have been first
Soviet CLUB team to play in England. Beat us 2 -1.
Got my programme autographed by a couple of players, they pointed to themselves on team photo. Some shady looking KGB types hovered about in heavy coats and wide brimmed hats. Stand to be corrected as usual.

 

[Silent Blade]

Someone av a dig through t' archives. Remember a cold winters night match early 70 ish played Dinamo Kiev at BDTBL. Could have been first
Soviet CLUB team to play in England. Beat us 2 -1.
Got my programme autographed by a couple of players, they pointed to themselves on team photo. Some shady looking KGB types hovered about in heavy coats and wide brimmed hats. Stand to be corrected as usual.

Oleg Blokhin was playing for them. Tom McAlister's 1st team debut

 

[ourbob]

Oleg Blokhin?

Can't work out if this is a piss take.

 

[Silent Blade]

Oleg Blokhin?

Can't work out if this is a piss take.

Played for Dynamo Kiev from 1969 to 1988. Why piss take?

 

[benn5712]

Nice one, we stood close to the tunnel as it was on John st then. They played in blue short sleeve shirts. Not cold enough for em

 

[Blade for Sale]

Oleg Blokhin?

Can't work out if this is a piss take.

A piss take? The man is a legend!
All-time top goalscorer record for both Dynamo Kyiv (266 goals) and the Soviet Union national team (42 goals), as well as being the overall top goalscorer in the history of the Soviet Top League (211 goals). He is also the only player to have been capped over 100 times for the Soviet Union and holds Dynamo's appearance record with 582 appearances during his 18-year spell at the club. With Dynamo, Blokhin won eight Soviet league titles, five national cups and two European Cup Winners' Cups. He also competed for the Soviet Union at the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games and 1982 and 1986 FIFA World Cups. During his playing career he won the Soviet Footballer of the Year award three times and the Ukrainian Footballer of the Year award nine times (both records). In 1975, he was named European Footballer of the Year, winning the Ballon d'Or, becoming the second Soviet and the first Ukrainian player to achieve such a feat.