Goldstone Memories - 1964/65

[Spencer Vignes]

Greetings all,

Just to let you know that Saturday's edition of Seagull for the visiting of Preston will be focusing on the 1964/65 season, when an Albion side featuring the ex-Spurs and England legend Bobby Smith won promotion from what used to be Division Four, or League Two in today's money.

If names such as Wally Gould, Mel Hopkins and Barrie Rees mean anything to you - or if you want to brush up on your Albion history - then this is aimed at you. Norman Gall will also be sharing his memories in our question and answer section.

Feel free to share your own memories of the 1964/65 season, or of the men who featured in that side, on here.

Just to recap, to mark the impending 20th anniversary of the Goldstone's demise we are remembering stand-out seasons from our time at the old place in each edition of the programme throughout this season. Oh, for a time machine.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the retro pieces in Seagull - you can't appreciate the present unless you have an understanding of the past.

All the best,
Spencer (Albion fan, sports writer & author)
[MENTION=23620]Spencer[/MENTION]Vignes

 

[Hiney]

Retro Albion - the best bit of the programme!

 

[Daffy Duck]

Remember that season fondly.
First time I'd ever gone on the pitch for the promotion celebrations. Sat on my Dad's shoulders and watched all the players throw their shirts into the crowd.

Didn't get one, unfortunately.

 

[The Birdman]

Did anyone get a piece of Wally Goulds shirt

 

[Spencer Vignes]

Whose shirt would you have wanted the most then Daffy? Not sure off the top of my head whether Bobby Smith played that day; if he did, then that would be a real collectors item.

 

[Ernest]

I was FUMING as I had just been BORN and didn't get my FREE Junior Seagulls team shirt

 

[Hiney]

Whose shirt would you have wanted the most then Daffy? Not sure off the top of my head whether Bobby Smith played that day; if he did, then that would be a real collectors item.

He did.

Team for that game v Darlington

Powney
Hopkins
Baxter
Bertolini
Gall
Turner
Gould
Collins
Smith (Bobby)
Smith (Jack)
Goodchild

 

[fosters headband]

A great season when we scored 102 goals in our promotion run. All 5 forwards as they were known then in the W formation reached double figures. The only down side in that season, was losing one of the best players I have seen pull on an Albion shirt in a car crash, when Barry Rees was killed, he had only played 12 games after signing from Everton.

 

[Daffy Duck]

Whose shirt would you have wanted the most then Daffy? Not sure off the top of my head whether Bobby Smith played that day; if he did, then that would be a real collectors item.

Probably Brian Powney as the rest of them weren't lookers, were they. But that's a female for you, eh?

 

[Spencer Vignes]

Good research Hiney. And Daffy, I'll have to tell Brian Powney that. It'll make his day!

Fosters Headband hits the nail on the head about the only down side being the tragic death of Barrie Rees in a car crash. Without giving too much away from what's in Saturday's programme, Norman Gall (who was especially close to Rees) talks about how he felt when he heard the news. It still chokes him up, even today. Gall reckons he'd have gone on to become a big star.

 

[Insel affe]

A great season when we scored 102 goals in our promotion run. All 5 forwards as they were known then in the W formation reached double figures. The only down side in that season, was losing one of the best players I have seen pull on an Albion shirt in a car crash, when Barry Rees was killed, he had only played 12 games after signing from Everton.

was he the plyer who crashed in a mini

 

[Spencer Vignes]

I don't know if it was a mini, but he was driving back from Brighton to his native north Wales following a Friday night home game against Southport when his car was in collision with a lorry near Nuneaton. Those being the pre-internet/multi media days, most of the players didn't find out about it until they checked in for training on the Monday morning. From that point on the team mentality was 'Let's do it for Barrie' - and they did.

 

[Hastings gull]

A great season when we scored 102 goals in our promotion run. All 5 forwards as they were known then in the W formation reached double figures. The only down side in that season, was losing one of the best players I have seen pull on an Albion shirt in a car crash, when Barry Rees was killed, he had only played 12 games after signing from Everton.

Yes, recall it all so well. The Bobby Smith signing, collecting autographs at the training areas in the holidays and that final match.

 

[Hastings gull]

I don't know if it was a mini, but he was driving back from Brighton to his native north Wales following a Friday night home game against Southport when his car was in collision with a lorry near Nuneaton. Those being the pre-internet/multi media days, most of the players didn't find out about it until they checked in for training on the Monday morning. From that point on the team mentality was 'Let's do it for Barrie' - and they did.

Sorry meant to write in the other post. I still remember him; he was a really good player and what a tragedy.

 

[Hiney]

Here is the club's tribute to Barry Rees in the programme from the next home match (v Tranmere Rovers, 10 April 1965)

 

[Daffy Duck]

Barry Rees was a fabulous player. It was such devastating news to hear that he'd been killed in a car accident.
Don't think any of us that remember seeing him play will ever forget him.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Who was the school boy who wrote the poem? Does he post on here? Does the poem still exist? Can someone check it and see if it CONTAINS artistic USE of CAPITALS? I think I might know who the author is.

 

[Robinjakarta]

My first real and remembered season at the Goldstone at the age of 15 and still a favourite one with some of the highest (the Bobby Smith signing, the goals) and the lowest (the death of Barrie Rees) moments in living memory. Bobby Smith could still play and had a deft touch for a big man, so much so that many of his passes didn't reach their intended targets because he was thoughts ahead of others. He reminded me of Alex Dawson, except Smith IMO was a more complete player. Unfortunately, if I remember correctly, he turned up the next pre-season overweight and that was that: just one season out of him. There were two other ex-Spurs in that side. Mel Hopkins was a classy defender and Jimmy Collins a no-nonsense 'schemer' as they used to call them. And Wally Gould was one of the greatest Albion flying wingers. Archie Macaulay was a pretty useful manager, too, at least until things started to unravel the following season.

 

[Spencer Vignes]

There was a very definite Spurs theme running through that team. Manager Archie Macaulay played for Arsenal but had good contacts at Spurs, which is supposedly how the Bobby Smith, Hopkins and Collins deals came about. I have heard that Spurs had been monitoring the progress of Barrie Rees having been tipped off by the ex-Tottenham contingent at Brighton as to the lad's potential but, alas, fate intervened.

 

[wolfie]

Still my most remembered season. Went to every home game bar one (a 5-0 win over Chesterfield when I had shingles - missed Norman Wisdom performing Sussex by the Sea on the pitch at half time) I can still feel the excitement when us schoolkids queuing outside the old North Road Baths one evening, read in the Evening Argus (as it was then) that Bobby Smith had signed for the Albion, six months after his last England game.