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'good quality food and drink' not my memory at all! :DThat smell of onions and questionable burgers mixed with cigarette smoke and piss from the pop-stand bogs - any whiff off cigarettes still takes me straight back there now.The ball ending up going in one of the food cabins window was a definite highlight. Youth team players getting sent out to retrieve the ball from Asda car park .Physio Eric Brailsford taking so long to get on the pitch that the player had invariably recovered (or more likely got bored of waiting)
Quote from: keyser_soze on November 26, 2021, 11:08:54 am'good quality food and drink' not my memory at all! :DThat smell of onions and questionable burgers mixed with cigarette smoke and piss from the pop-stand bogs - any whiff off cigarettes still takes me straight back there now.The ball ending up going in one of the food cabins window was a definite highlight. Youth team players getting sent out to retrieve the ball from Asda car park .Physio Eric Brailsford taking so long to get on the pitch that the player had invariably recovered (or more likely got bored of waiting)I'm sure it probably happened quite a few times but the ball went in the food kiosk on the pop side during the Doncaster v Carlisle game on 19th January 1991. A 4-0 victory on a bitterly cold day. I remember it as it was my first ever Rovers game.Totally agree with the posters who mention the smell. That tobacco mixed with burgers/onions smell is so evocative and it takes me back every time. We used to stand behind a group of older gents one of whom used to smoke Zephyr in his pipe throughout the game. Even as a non-smoker it smelled bloody lovely. Mal Smith he was called and he was a flagman at Donny station. All those old characters seemed to just disappear when we moved to the Keepmoat. Loads of faces I never saw at a game again! The walk down to town I miss. A pint in The Rockingham, The Grand St Leger or the Park Hotel. Simply being able to stand throughout the game and change ends at half time is a massive miss too. I appreciate the need for progress and that Belle Vue was a shithole that was forever going to be the millstone around our neck. It was our shithole though and I don't half miss the old place. It really lost something for me when we moved. What always puzzled me though was that it was often spoken about as one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in English football. Prime development land next to the Racecourse on one of the busiest roads into town. And it ends up as a bloody housing estate!
Belle Vue felt like a fortress. It was intimidating, especially to the big clubs who we came up against in cup games. It felt like being at home!The Keepmoat, on the other hand, is like a neutral venue. It isn't intimidating whatsoever, and more often than not we look like the away team! In fact, I dare say we've lost more games at the Keepmoat than we've won.
Climbing over the corrugated fence and the policeman stopping me and saying" Oy get back in"
Quote from: TommyC on November 26, 2021, 01:08:38 pmQuote from: keyser_soze on November 26, 2021, 11:08:54 am'good quality food and drink' not my memory at all! :DThat smell of onions and questionable burgers mixed with cigarette smoke and piss from the pop-stand bogs - any whiff off cigarettes still takes me straight back there now.The ball ending up going in one of the food cabins window was a definite highlight. Youth team players getting sent out to retrieve the ball from Asda car park .Physio Eric Brailsford taking so long to get on the pitch that the player had invariably recovered (or more likely got bored of waiting)I'm sure it probably happened quite a few times but the ball went in the food kiosk on the pop side during the Doncaster v Carlisle game on 19th January 1991. A 4-0 victory on a bitterly cold day. I remember it as it was my first ever Rovers game.Totally agree with the posters who mention the smell. That tobacco mixed with burgers/onions smell is so evocative and it takes me back every time. We used to stand behind a group of older gents one of whom used to smoke Zephyr in his pipe throughout the game. Even as a non-smoker it smelled bloody lovely. Mal Smith he was called and he was a flagman at Donny station. All those old characters seemed to just disappear when we moved to the Keepmoat. Loads of faces I never saw at a game again! The walk down to town I miss. A pint in The Rockingham, The Grand St Leger or the Park Hotel. Simply being able to stand throughout the game and change ends at half time is a massive miss too. I appreciate the need for progress and that Belle Vue was a shithole that was forever going to be the millstone around our neck. It was our shithole though and I don't half miss the old place. It really lost something for me when we moved. What always puzzled me though was that it was often spoken about as one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in English football. Prime development land next to the Racecourse on one of the busiest roads into town. And it ends up as a bloody housing estate!Yep, I heard Walmart was desperate to buy it so as to extend Asda, but now't came of it.
Quote from: Bentley Bullet on November 26, 2021, 01:39:36 pmQuote from: TommyC on November 26, 2021, 01:08:38 pmQuote from: keyser_soze on November 26, 2021, 11:08:54 am'good quality food and drink' not my memory at all! :DThat smell of onions and questionable burgers mixed with cigarette smoke and piss from the pop-stand bogs - any whiff off cigarettes still takes me straight back there now.The ball ending up going in one of the food cabins window was a definite highlight. Youth team players getting sent out to retrieve the ball from Asda car park .Physio Eric Brailsford taking so long to get on the pitch that the player had invariably recovered (or more likely got bored of waiting)I'm sure it probably happened quite a few times but the ball went in the food kiosk on the pop side during the Doncaster v Carlisle game on 19th January 1991. A 4-0 victory on a bitterly cold day. I remember it as it was my first ever Rovers game.Totally agree with the posters who mention the smell. That tobacco mixed with burgers/onions smell is so evocative and it takes me back every time. We used to stand behind a group of older gents one of whom used to smoke Zephyr in his pipe throughout the game. Even as a non-smoker it smelled bloody lovely. Mal Smith he was called and he was a flagman at Donny station. All those old characters seemed to just disappear when we moved to the Keepmoat. Loads of faces I never saw at a game again! The walk down to town I miss. A pint in The Rockingham, The Grand St Leger or the Park Hotel. Simply being able to stand throughout the game and change ends at half time is a massive miss too. I appreciate the need for progress and that Belle Vue was a shithole that was forever going to be the millstone around our neck. It was our shithole though and I don't half miss the old place. It really lost something for me when we moved. What always puzzled me though was that it was often spoken about as one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in English football. Prime development land next to the Racecourse on one of the busiest roads into town. And it ends up as a bloody housing estate!Yep, I heard Walmart was desperate to buy it so as to extend Asda, but now't came of it.I remember a hotel complex being mentioned at one point.
No idea who he was or even what he looked like, but still makes me smile now. Every time the opposition committed a foul a voice from behind me would shout "ref stick him in your jotter"
Camaraderie.
Quote from: Colin C No.3 on November 26, 2021, 11:25:07 pmCamaraderie.Was he the Italian boy?
Archie from Goldthorpe, "oomchiwawa". Always had a band of hillbillies with him.I've heard he's sadly passed away now.