And the fucking dog shit!
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East marsh the changing rooms where called the cowsheds..simply because they where
?..mabley green by lesneys had proper changing rooms.sunday mornings when every pitch was in use was a sight to behold ..think altogether something like 115 pitches.
Picture of Hackney Marshes from 1951.
Was it easy to find the pitch you were meant to be playing on?
All the goal posts where numbered .. it was all fairly well organised..most teams in your leagues home games where at the marshes so even if you where away most weeks you would be on a pitch near your 'home ' pitch if you understand..some pitches where far better than others..if i recall properly all the junior pitches where nearer the cowsheds.
The Further away your pitch was from the river lea the better it was.
The Pitches along Homerton Road are now mainly made up of 7 a side size (don't know if that's an official size) they are excellent, flat as a pancake, grass well covered and always cut at a good length even in winter. Even more impressive as this is where loads of teams use them to train on too, so I'd say they are in use every single day including weekends!
Think the 7 a side pitches are regulation for kids and youth development football.
Yep starts 5 a side then 7, then 9, before 11 a side on a junior sized pitch before you reach adult pitches.
Far removed from my experience of playing as a kid.
Sometimes found ourselves playing on full pitches with full size goals at age 12 and under.
Ridiculous really.
I remember too
took you 10 minutes to get out of your own half.. all you needed to do is kick the ball high towards goal to score as the kid in goal couldnt jump nowhere near its height
I've posted this before, so sorry for the repetition but this is the Hackney Marshes Centre
Hackney fucking Marshes!!!!
played there as a kid when it was a fucking shithole. Started playing there again about 3 years ago, honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing, the bar in particular is lovely.
fair play for them doing it up though as it is the heartbeat of grassroots in London. Think it was lottery funded if I’m not mistaken?
I remember too
One of my best mates was a GK. He was almost the smallest of all my friends age 10. He was also blind as a bat.
We used to beat his team about 40-0 when we played them.
Amazed his team played every week.
They are bloody great for an old duffer like me!
Every team (U13's) also had at least one player that had developed beyond his age, so was like a man at the age of thirteen, with a fluffy moustache!! All they had to do was stick their laces through the ball from the halfway line and it often went in!! We had a 'keeper that would score about 5 times a season, from a goal kick, massive bugger he was. He scored more goals than me the bastard.I remember too
Only ever played on the marshes once, back in '75 for my Primary school.
We had won the Haringey Cup, which basically got you in the Sydney Black Cup. This was for all the London Borough Cup winners. We played Lauriston over there. We had to go over an enclosed bridge to get to the marshes. Anyway we won the game 2-1 and eventually got to the semi finals before losing to a school from Greenwich, at New River - bloody heartbreaking.
I'll get me coat....
When i was at school we use to play Enfield grammar at Rugby, and they had several like that. One ginger fella in particular,he was built like a 20 year old when were 13,14 and 15! An animal to play against,but typically of that school an absolute gentleman, well beyond his years.
We had a game against them one Saturday and were short by several players,so i climbed the fence at the back of our school into the estate and round up a few school mates that lived there.My mate Terry forgot his boots and had to play in the shoes he had turned up in.Summed us up,to a tee.
Needless to say we got absolutely smashed .
Ha.. city v west ham rearranged for next weds to avoid fixture pile up.
Logical thing to do really ,just coming out iof the break.
Grammar was my old school!!!
Trying to recall who that might have been. There was a lovely kid by the name of Simon Williams in that rugby team, a colossus of a boy. He went on to represent GB in the 1990 Commonwealth Games and came back with the Gold Medal in the shotput at the age of just 20yr!! He also went to the Barcelona Olympics '92 where he was in the discus. He was built like a brick shithouse, at 13/14yrs old he was about 6ft 3' and would also run the 100 meters in sub 11 seconds!
I played in that Rubgy team for a season, as I was dropped from the football team for turning up late for a game. He was our number 8. I tackled him once in training and he dragged me from the halfway line to score a try with me still stuck to him like a limpet.
I left in 84, so would have been between 79-83.