Memories of the Football Combination

[Emu]

I remember Mark Graves seemingly being an ever present in all the football combination matches I used to attend!

What was his brother called that played for Argyle too I think?

 

[mervyn]

It was good for the players too. Before substitutes were allowed it meant that if a player wasnt in his club's first team, then he played for the reserves. It tested our players , because as someone has already said, there were often big names on show. One former Argyle player, who never got in the first team, told me that although that was a disappointment he did at least get to play at Highbury, WHL, Upton Park and Stamford Bridge. He also said that Ipswich was the best playing surface. Something to do with Fisons being based there perhaps.

From my time in East Anglia I can give you the answer to that MM. Throughout the 60s and 70s Ipswich had a pitch almost as good as today’s standard, at a time when most were a quagmire from January onwards. (Do you remember the Baseball Ground, where the pitch often needed to be re-marked at half time?) The reason is that the pitch lies above a broad underground fast flowing stream which provided instant drainage in Winter combined with constant moisture rising up at other times. Bobby Robson reckoned it gave them an extra 10 points per season.

 

[Pogleswoody]

I remember bunking off from Tottenham Tech College in Seven Sisters Road on a Wednesday afternoon in (around) 1978??

Spurs vs Argyle Football Combination. White Hart Lane. Midweek 2.15 KO.

My main memory is wearing a scarf. When Argyle (and Spurs) came out, I waved my scarf and shouted Come On Argyle!! Both teams actually stopped and looked over in my direction! Several waved at me! Not a big crowd that day!

All I remember is the glorious naughtiness of being there instead of double APC. (Air Pollution Control).

Only players I remember is that Ralph Coates led Spurs out. An England international! I suspect there were lots of known names but I can't remember any.

 

[Devongreenowl]

I remember bunking off from Tottenham Tech College in Seven Sisters Road on a Wednesday afternoon in (around) 1978??

Spurs vs Argyle Football Combination. White Hart Lane. Midweek 2.15 KO.

My main memory is wearing a scarf. When Argyle (and Spurs) came out, I waved my scarf and shouted Come On Argyle!! Both teams actually stopped and looked over in my direction! Several waved at me! Not a big crowd that day!

All I remember is the glorious naughtiness of being there instead of double APC. (Air Pollution Control).

Only players I remember is that Ralph Coates led Spurs out. An England international! I suspect there were lots of known names but I can't remember any.

I saw the home game against Spurs In 76 I think it was and Ralph Coates was in that side too, as I think was Martin Chivers. In fact from memory, most of their side were fairly well known names. Remember Ralph Coates having an even more outrageous comb over than Bobby Charlton! :lol:

 

[Pogleswoody]

I remember bunking off from Tottenham Tech College in Seven Sisters Road on a Wednesday afternoon in (around) 1978??

Spurs vs Argyle Football Combination. White Hart Lane. Midweek 2.15 KO.

My main memory is wearing a scarf. When Argyle (and Spurs) came out, I waved my scarf and shouted Come On Argyle!! Both teams actually stopped and looked over in my direction! Several waved at me! Not a big crowd that day!

All I remember is the glorious naughtiness of being there instead of double APC. (Air Pollution Control).

Only players I remember is that Ralph Coates led Spurs out. An England international! I suspect there were lots of known names but I can't remember any.

I saw the home game against Spurs In 76 I think it was and Ralph Coates was in that side too, as I think was Martin Chivers. In fact from memory, most of their side were fairly well known names. Remember Ralph Coates having an even more outrageous comb over than Bobby Charlton! :lol:

Good player tho'!! A love child of Nobby Stiles and Bobby Charlton!! :lol:

I was actually convinced that Chivers played in the game I saw but (according to Google) he was in Switzerland 1976-78 and signed for Norwich in 1978? I went to (that) college in 1977 and left in 1979 tho'.
I wonder if he might have played for Spurs Reserves when he came back? Before going to Norwich?? Weird!

 

[Devongreenowl]

I remember bunking off from Tottenham Tech College in Seven Sisters Road on a Wednesday afternoon in (around) 1978??

Spurs vs Argyle Football Combination. White Hart Lane. Midweek 2.15 KO.

My main memory is wearing a scarf. When Argyle (and Spurs) came out, I waved my scarf and shouted Come On Argyle!! Both teams actually stopped and looked over in my direction! Several waved at me! Not a big crowd that day!

All I remember is the glorious naughtiness of being there instead of double APC. (Air Pollution Control).

Only players I remember is that Ralph Coates led Spurs out. An England international! I suspect there were lots of known names but I can't remember any.

I saw the home game against Spurs In 76 I think it was and Ralph Coates was in that side too, as I think was Martin Chivers. In fact from memory, most of their side were fairly well known names. Remember Ralph Coates having an even more outrageous comb over than Bobby Charlton! :lol:

Good player tho'!! A love child of Nobby Stiles and Bobby Charlton!! :lol:

I was actually convinced that Chivers played in the game I saw but (according to Google) he was in Switzerland 1976-78 and signed for Norwich in 1978? I went to (that) college in 1977 and left in 1979 tho'.
I wonder if he might have played for Spurs Reserves when he came back? Before going to Norwich?? Weird!

Not sure when he actually left Spurs though - sometime in 76 I think. The game was in January or some other cold month! So he was probably still at Spurs. Fairly certain he played. Argyle had a good reserve side then as a lot of the good youngsters were starting to come through. Shame the club never went on from those times. Exeter's academy has been far superior in recent years.

 

[jerryatricjanner]

I remember Mark Graves seemingly being an ever present in all the football combination matches I used to attend!

What was his brother called that played for Argyle too I think?

Dean possibly?
I used to go to see the big London teams occassionally and it was sometimes around the 2,000 mark if a few name players were expected.

 

[Gary S]

Great post that brought back a lot of good memories.

It was a competition that provided a good level of football for
our youngsters, and for players looking for fitness and to regain form.
Wish something like it still existed today, though I suspect a lot of
the other teams hated our being in the league due to the distance involved.

My own proudest moment when it came to talent spotting at reserve games
came at my first temporary job, when I told fellow Argyle fans that there
was a young lad called Kevin Hodges that was going be really useful. Nobody
believed me, but a few days later he was called up for his debut, and the rest
is history.

 

[pastiesforlife]

A season ticket used to include free entrance to all Combination games. My grandad was a season ticket holder and sometimes used to sneak me under the turnstiles to watch a game. The two elderly ladies who had adjacent seats did not attend, so I always got a seat. They would be nearly 130 now.

One day we met three Argyle first team players by the refreshment kiosks in the Mayflower. Must have been injured or no first team away game that day. It was in the days of white kit with band on chest. They all signed my programme. Can’t remember who they were. Possibly Mike Bickle and Dave Burnside. Programme could be worthy a fortune now. I’ll try and find it.

 

[pafcprogs]

This is a fantastic thread

I was a regular in the seventies as I was too young for regular away trips....


My first actual away game was the 3-3 game referenced above at Palace.....


A few of us frequented the Devonport for the reserves, rather than our traditional halfway along the Popular side.....I recall we had two regulars we stood with who we called the Bin men, although we never knew what they actually did...given their attendance at midweek games ...not a lot I suspect!

Specific memories I recall Ricky Sbragia getting dogs abuse when sent off, as a thuggish Birmingham tried to kick us off the park......there was a load of grass over the tunnel in those days and fair bit of it got flung at the Brum players at the end resulting in it being removed and a warning issued. I also recall a Jim Montgomery shrug of embarrassment when he was asked by a crowd member if he condoned the way they were playing, whilst retrieving the ball for a goal kick.

There were also the afternoon kick offs which meant that every now and again we could bunk out of the Sports Hall which Sutton High were using , having registered , to watch the game. Until someone ratted us out and we all got brought to book.

I also enjoyed a Q & A session with Lenny Lawrence when he joined as reserve team manager at the Far Post. I asked him how he would measure success and he replied , to finish one place higher than last season.

The look on his face when I told him we finished as runners up the season before was a picture.

I think the loss of the Combination was the beginning of the end for decent level reserve team fixtures for Argyle and held back our clubs development. It always seemed a bridge too far from SWL up to League standard, which was where we ended up.

Thanks for this thread. happy memories indeed....although I don't miss racing through a darkened Central Park past the dodgy loos to get back to Peverell after an evening fixture!

 

[Sainghin Green]

This is indeed a great thread!

I too used some lockdown time to catalogue my modest collection of programmes and other Argyle memorabilia. What I discovered was just how much football there was to take in at Home Park at certain times - lots of it non first team matches with loads of opportunties for to spot budding talent on the Argyle books and against the reserves of the big teams many present and future star names.

I discovered that from 20 March to 24 April 1965 I managed to see 14 games at Home Park - 3 League games, 3 Reserve games, 6 South Western League games, a Wessex Youth League game and the Semi-Final of the Devon Professional Bowl.
In the Arsenal Reserves team match in that period featured Tommy Baldwin, Jon Sammels, Joe Baker, Frank McLintock, Stuart Storey and Mike Furnell. in the Bristol City Wessex Youth League team was Chris Garland.

I also discovered from my autograph books that when Notts County Reserves visited Home Park I got Tony Hateley's autograph. I wonder if having autograph hunters at reserve matches only happened at Home Park. Probably not I would think.

The lack of regular reserve team football against periodically very decent teams at a competitive level must have had an impact on the ease with which first team fringe players could adapt to first team playing conditions. The game moved on though and Argyle with it.

 

[Greenheart]

It was good for the players too. Before substitutes were allowed it meant that if a player wasnt in his club's first team, then he played for the reserves. It tested our players , because as someone has already said, there were often big names on show. One former Argyle player, who never got in the first team, told me that although that was a disappointment he did at least get to play at Highbury, WHL, Upton Park and Stamford Bridge. He also said that Ipswich was the best playing surface. Something to do with Fisons being based there perhaps.

From my time in East Anglia I can give you the answer to that MM. Throughout the 60s and 70s Ipswich had a pitch almost as good as today’s standard, at a time when most were a quagmire from January onwards. (Do you remember the Baseball Ground, where the pitch often needed to be re-marked at half time?) The reason is that the pitch lies above a broad underground fast flowing stream which provided instant drainage in Winter combined with constant moisture rising up at other times. Bobby Robson reckoned it gave them an extra 10 points per season.

That's interesting because during the few times Argyle's been mentioned on Talksport, Alan Brazil has said he remembers the Home Park pitch always had a lovely surface when he played here for Ipswich.

 

[philevs]

What a great thread this is! Really took me back to Wednesday (I think) evenings at HP starting in about 1964-65 and getting really close to the pitchside, so close I can still remember the smell of the embrocation as they ran out! Being incredibly impressed by the pace and energy of the players compared to anything I'd ever seen before. And the feeling of 'my' player getting into the first team, remember that especially with Steve Davey.

 

[Devongreenowl]

What a great thread this is! Really took me back to Wednesday (I think) evenings at HP starting in about 1964-65 and getting really close to the pitchside, so close I can still remember the smell of the embrocation as they ran out! Being incredibly impressed by the pace and energy of the players compared to anything I'd ever seen before. And the feeling of 'my' player getting into the first team, remember that especially with Steve Davey.

Embrocation is a brilliant word. So much more evocative than simply Deep Heat! :thumbup:

 

[Barrie Davis]

Ah, memories of my formative years. I recall going to just about every reserve game between 1964 and 1970 when I moved away. I particular, I remember being at a game on a very hot day, the first day of the 1965/66 season. It was usual to hang around after the game to hear the first team result from afar. We were disappointed about a 4-1 loss to Portsmouth and there were whispers that Doug Baird, our scorer, had been 'a passenger' for most of the game having been injured after 10 minutes. This was baffling as this was the first day that clubs could name, and use, a substitute in the event of a player being injured. We did not know that Derek Ufton, in his first game as manager, had named his allowed 12 players, John Hore being the No.12 but, just before kick off, John Newman cried off with a throat infection so Hore played. We fielded a team of 11 with no sub available when Baird got injured. Keith Peacock is designated with being the first substitute used under the new rule but I like to think that Argyle has its own place in the record books as it fielded its sub from the start of the match. The following year, on the first day of the season, I was at the usual reserves match at HP and it was announced that the Argyle first team were winning away 1-0 at Bury at half time. We were waiting around for ages after the game to hear news from the announcer of the first points of the season. He started talking with some hesitation in his voice "Bury - 1......." We thought "At least one point then"...... Argyle Nil". We looked at each other quizically only then to hear an apology from the announcer. He blamed dodgy information down the phone. This thread has highlighted questionable professionalism from the man in the box over years