62 replies to this topic

[Middleton Bull]

rochdale hornets tried it a couple of years ago

I remember that match - I seem to recall that Braziers won

[Futtocks]

I remember that match - I seem to recall that Braziers won

It was their superior mobility and handling...

[Griff]

..........and had to pay my 9p to get in I was gutted

9p ???? I very much doubt it .........

[keighley]

It was their superior mobility and handling...

They were on a streak where their form was red hot. Their winger scorched down the touchline. They played great balls of fire over the tannoy.

[Wolford6]

Not 1963, but the late 1970's. A rugby game at St Georges' Playing Fields in Bradford. At 1pm a pitch inspection showed the pitch to be under two inches of snow but soft. We rang the opposition and they wanted to play, so we cleared the markings. Kicked off at 2.30pm in what seemed like a heatwave. The snow had melted by fulltime and all the players were sweltering.

I've never experienced weather like it before or since.

[Johnoco]

Not 1963, but the late 1970's. A rugby game at St Georges' Playing Fields in Bradford. At 1pm a pitch inspection showed the pitch to be under two inches of snow but soft. We rang the opposition and they wanted to play, so we cleared the markings. Kicked off at 2.30pm in what seemed like a heatwave. The snow had melted by fulltime and all the players were sweltering.

I've never experienced weather like it before or since.

I went to St Georges and that may have been 1979. That was a very bad winter too. Very deep snow that was around for months.

[Griff9of13]

Not 1963, but the late 1970's. A rugby game at St Georges' Playing Fields in Bradford. At 1pm a pitch inspection showed the pitch to be under two inches of snow but soft. We rang the opposition and they wanted to play, so we cleared the markings. Kicked off at 2.30pm in what seemed like a heatwave. The snow had melted by fulltime and all the players were sweltering.

I've never experienced weather like it before or since.

That's Bradford for you; it's always had it's own micro-climate!

[alan30058]

9p ???? I very much doubt it .........

Nine "old" pence was the price in 1963 for under 15's.
My Dad always gave me a shilling to go to the match 9d to get in and 3d for my programme.

[petero]

The brazier effect was very common throughout R/L in those times especially at Leigh it was. I can recall a photo in the 'Leigh Journal' that depicted a pinch-bar of some substantial size, being driven into the pitch to show the depth of frost in the ground this after the braziers had failed. The bar wnet in about some 6 to 9 inches before it bent and would not penetrate further!!
Makes you wader what the hysteria brigade that write the papers and give out the news would make of such a winter today if one like it occurred?

I was an apprentice at that time and we had to turn up fpr work regardless, but the tradesmen were laid off in some cases for up to fourteen weeks, and any benifits for hardship, out of work items included, could then not be claimed unless someone had been out of work for 6 weeks or more, a lot of building tradesmen were pretty hard-up come the end of such a period then.

[Griff]

Nine "old" pence was the price in 1963 for under 15's.
My Dad always gave me a shilling to go to the match 9d to get in and 3d for my programme.

Ah yes. They didn't invent new pence until 1971.

And then we had to suffer the expression "one pee" or, worse still, "one pence"

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

Braziers are old tech - in 1991 Halfax cadged a tar burner from a local road gang and used it to thaw the pitch at Thrum Hall so that they could play us in the Cup. Apparently the pitch never recovered!

[Donny Saint]

Can you tell me the full title of the programme and when it was transmitted.
I would love to see it and hopefully it will still be avaliable on BBC i player.

sorry someone beat me to it for you.Just got back to the computer:(

[alan30058]

sorry someone beat me to it for you.Just got back to the computer:(

Watching this programme was wonderful and brought back so many happy memories,
Everyone I speak to that remembers 1963 always smiles when they remenice about that winter and recall special moments they had at that time.
No tales of impending doom due to global warming..just about making the most of what was happening and enjoying every minute of it.

Edited by alan30058, 22 January 2013 - 12:27 AM.

[Griff]

No tales of impending doom due to global warming..just about making the most of what was happening and enjoying every minute of it.

Ah! I remember the 1970s when the buzzphrase was global cooling. How far we've come since those days .......

[fieldofclothofgold]

Watching this programme was wonderful and brought back so many happy memories,
Everyone I speak to that remembers 1963 always smiles when they remenice about that winter and recall special moments they had at that time.
No tales of impending doom due to global warming..just about making the most of what was happening and enjoying every minute of it.

It was my first winter at work and I thought it was colder because I was getting up earlier than I did for school.We had dense fog ,ground was deep frozen plenty of snow

[Hawkwindbag]

According to the splendid, if obscure (and possibly now very rare) "Windsor's Rugby League Annual 1963/4", only seven games took place in 69 days between 21st December 1962 and 2nd March 1963:

Castleford v Warrington, Wed 30th Jan: "... valiant de-freeze efforts by the Castleford club ..."
Widnes v Oldham, Sat 2nd Feb
Castleford v Leeds (Cup), Sat 9th Feb
Liverpool City v Roose (Cup), Sat 9th Feb: "... with the aid of the de-freeze chemical GL5 - the application of which on the already brazier-browned Naughton Park pitch was worthily supervised by well-known referee Charlie Appleton - Widnes were able to lend their ground (for this tie) ..."
Widnes v Hull K R, Sat 16th Feb
Barrow v Dewsbury, and Whitehaven v Bradford Northern, both Sat 23rd Feb

There is also a photo of an unfamiliar looking Wheldon Road landscape, with the caption "Voluntary workers at Castleford fight the frost with 150 braziers".

[Wolford6]

Just recalled something from 1963.

My mother's family were tenants at a farmhouse on top of the hill that overlooked our village. There was only a track to the house and only tractors and landrovers could reach it.

Three brothers and one's wife lived in the house. All were over 60. My Uncle Dai died in the middle of the snowbound winter and the Coop Funeral Service using the borrowed Coop Builders' landrover tried and failed to reach the house.

In those days, the local Coop also had a joinery shop that served the Builders Dept and also built coffins for the Funerals Dept. The joiners shop built a wooden sled and members of the building team, together with family members, dragged the coffin up the hill, put my Uncle Dai's body in it and dragged it a mile through the woods down the hill to to my grandparents' house.

Daft as it seems, there were no chapels of rest in those days and the body traditionally stayed in the house for direct transfer to the church and then on to the cemetery. or crematorium. I remember my Uncle Dai's coffin stayed on trestles in the front room of my Nan's house for a few days until the funeral could be arranged.

[MrPosh]

Just recalled something from 1963.

My mother's family were tenants at a farmhouse on top of the hill that overlooked our village. There was only a track to the house and only tractors and landrovers could reach it.

Three brothers and one's wife lived in the house. All were over 60. My Uncle Dai died in the middle of the snowbound winter and the Coop Funeral Service using the borrowed Coop Builders' landrover tried and failed to reach the house.

In those days, the local Coop also had a joinery shop that served the Builders Dept and also built coffins for the Funerals Dept. The joiners shop built a wooden sled and members of the building team, together with family members, dragged the coffin up the hill, put my Uncle Dai's body in it and dragged it a mile through the woods down the hill to to my grandparents' house.

Daft as it seems, there were no chapels of rest in those days and the body traditionally stayed in the house for direct transfer to the church and then on to the cemetery. or crematorium. I remember my Uncle Dai's coffin stayed on trestles in the front room of my Nan's house for a few days until the funeral could be arranged.

I assume he must have been cremated?

I can't imagine they were able to dig many plots at all that winter.

[Wolford6]

I assume he must have been cremated?

I can't imagine they were able to dig many plots at all that winter.

I think he probably was, I didn't go to the funeral. My dad's parents were buried, but most of the other family funerals I've been to were cremations. One thing I can't remember is there being any smell from my Uncle Dai's coffin, because they wouldn't have been able to embalm him.

Not something that will bother me; I'm leaving my body to Leeds or Cardiff Medical School, whichever is the nearer when I pop my clogs.

[Stan Doffarf]

I think he probably was, I didn't go to the funeral. My dad's parents were buried, but most of the other family funerals I've been to were cremations. One thing I can't remember is there being any smell from my Uncle Dai's coffin, because they wouldn't have been able to embalm him.

Not something that will bother me; I'm leaving my body to Leeds or Cardiff Medical School, whichever is the nearer when I pop my clogs.

I would expect them to contest the Will.