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Villa memories No9 by WAK

W

Wakadowakado

Guest
On the 29th January 1887 Villa won their first F.A Cup Final at the Oval beating W.B.Albion 2-0. It was the fiftieth match of the season in Queen
Victoria's Jubilee The club were photographed with three trophies English
Cup weighed 19oz Birmingham Cup 25oz and the Birmingham Charity Cup
weighed in at a massive 250oz Dennis Hodgetts and Archie Hunter scored the vital goals in front of 20,000 spectators
 
Thanks Bob, The Villa played in Cardinal red and blue stripes probably supplied
from Mr Mc Gregor's shop! He certainly knew about the Club's financial resources according to C.B. Fry's Magazine article 1903
 
You mentioned in an earlier post wak--- that McGregor had a draper's shop. I sold some Midland Football annuals from the early 1900s recently which were full of adverts for the 'Mcgregor boot' and the 'McGregor ball'. Sounds as if it was more of a general sports shop and run by a man with significant contacts in the Football League.
Harry Parkes eat your heart out!

Bob
 
Hi Bob, Absolutely. After he founded the Football League with his own inspiration and was an officer at the Villa The shrewd Scot was on the committee at the F.A for a long period. What a find if someone in Brum, possibly a deltiologist, could come up with an
illustration of his shop front. There's a search for someone! WAK
 
You know WAK, Ishould be ashamed of contributing to this post about the Villa cup winners being a Blues fan of some 45 years. Trouble is that a photo of the Blues FA Cup winning team will be a lot harder to find than a pic. of McGregor's shop front !

Bob
 
Bob, the interesting thing here is David Gold bought the 'Blues' an F.A Cup in May 2005 that nobody else could win for £478,000 (the replacement one Villa had stolen from Shillcock's shop.) Remember Karen Brady has appeared
on Sir Alan Sugar's apprentice programme so the good times may come! WAK
 
An intriguing and dare I say slightly gloating post WAK!
1. Yes he bought the replacement FA Cup. Should I be impressed? No thanks, I'd rather win it than buy it!
2. I don't think that Karren Brady appearing on the Apprentice increases our chances of winning the FA Cup very much do you?

Moving back to historical aspects my 1st cousin Andrew was the Villa mascot in the 57 Cup Final against Man. Utd. and when chatting to my Brother in Law he said he plays golf with Peter McParland at their golf club near Poole in Dorset. A few days later I watched and taped a TV programme comparing football in 1957 with 2007, using footage and interviews from the 57 final and comparing with the 2007 final. The main contributors were Peter McParland, Les Smith and Jimmy Dugdale. It was interesting in a general football sense but particularly to Villa fans who remember that game and those players. Hope you saw it.

Bob
 
Thank you for the memories of a loyal player era. I did indeed see it and there is no doubt Taylor was fouled and the goal would not stand today but having
said that football was played as an honest hard man's game At that time you
could rely on Stan Lynn putting a penalty away. Aldis asked me if I would
like to raise charity money selling his '57 shirt. I also remember a close buy at the time.- Charlie Athersmith's descendants offered me his 1897 International
medal I agreed the price and never heard from them! still Johnny Dixon was
the anchor Villa man all his life. One final point, as a young man I particularly
liked Ray Barlow the W.B.A half . Do you rember him? best wishes WAK
 
I hope this doesn't stay as a personal correspondence between thee and me WAK as I'm sure this thread must inspire memories for many forum members.

I don't remenber Ray Barlow, having only started watching football in 1963 but I know his name of course. Coincidentally, I was only reading in the last few days about a hold up or blackmail attempt or something at the Hawthorns pub and it was mentioned in passing that Ray lived there for many years as a 'guest', walking about 50 yards to a game!

With regard to your other comments I assume you refer to the foul not on Taylor but on Ray Wood. Today it would of course not be just a foul but a serious case of assault and Wood would (?) be persuing a massive compensation claim!

A story I remember being told from the 57 final was that Johnny Dixon was introducing the team to the Duke of Edinburgh and introduced Stan Lynn as the left back. Moving down the line he then introduced Peter Aldis as the left back, to which the Duke said 'you have a lot of left backs in your team don't you!' If I have remembered this correctly it is remarkable that the Royal guest, in this case the Duke, paid this much attention! (apologies if my memory of this is playing tricks).

Stan Lynn was of course at the Blues when I first went to St Andrews. I'm sure Blues and Villa fans remember him with affection and I was saddened when he died a few years ago - a good honest pro.
Bob
 
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