Hottest/Coldest/Wettest/Snowiest/Foggiest matches attended?
Came up with this idea while posting some pictures on another thread.
My thoughts...
Hottest - Stockport (H) - first match of 2003/04 season. Players allegedly throwing up at half-time. Leyton Orient (A) - last match of 1994/95. Final hurrahs for St Martin and Big Cyrille (and a cracking Regis goal to boot).
Coldest - Mansfield (A) 1993/94. There may have been many colder, but this one sticks in my mind. 3-0 defeat, awful performance, Brownie's debut.
Wettest - Pompey (A) - the abandoned game two years ago. Absolutely no contest for me here. Second, by some distance, Merthyr at Loakes Park, 1989-90. Honourable mentions - Aylesbury (A) in the FA Cup, 1987/88, Bristol Rovers (H) 2012/13.
Snowiest - Macclesfield (H) 2008/09 - another abandoned game. Came from nowhere, and it was still only October. Also Leek (H) 1985/86, first of the four Trophy games. Dartford (H) 1984/85, also in the Trophy, 6-1. Walthamstow (H) 1986/87, 7-1.
Foggiest - Bracknell (H) 1990/91 in the B & B. Welling (A) 1992/93 - Thommo sent off if I remember rightly.
Comments
A couple of others (though the passing of time may have skewed my memory somewhat).
Fog: Colchester (A) in the BLT - could only tell we'd scored by the cheers from the bench/players.
Rain: Barking (H) in the VOP promotion season - I recall this being ridiculously wet as well.
The Bracknell game can be viewed at 1:11:00 here
- watching the whole video again, the camera appears to have been situated by a couple of our moaniest supporters; Telford being a personal favourite.
The Boxing Day game at Swindon in Alan Smith's first season was unbelievably cold
The abandoned Merthyr game at Loakes Park must come close to one of the wettest. though fair play to the martyrs they didnt moan like the gas did. Remember Rochdale away first season in the league must of had all seasons in one afternoon. One of the coldest i remember was the 0-0 draw at Grimsby midweek, most memorable moment came from the great fish & chip meal before the game.
Notts County away in April 2001 was the worst rain I've ever seen at a game - the match abandoned after 5 minutes because the pitch was a lake and the markings were migrating across the pitch. The wettest I think I personally have ever got at a game though was Oxford away in February that year when Rhino scored a last minute winner to make two hours standing in horizontal rain worthwhile. And again in 2001 - Grimsby away in the FA Cup at the start of that fantastic run to the semis was possibly the coldest I've been.
The foggiest game I've been to was Oxford v Pompey back in the 90s - an incredible 5-5 draw, the last two goals being unseeable. Think this was just after the backpass rule came in, which along with the conditions, helped the score line.
Another category - windiest. I'd go for Doncaster away in 1993/94. Was a nice sunny day, but the wind was absolutely bitter.
Has to be the Merthyr Downpour for me. It was so heavy that only one person remained on the terrace and the bottom half on the pitch and the Cowshed were under about a foot of water! It was that bad Frogmoor was flooded and we had to step over beer crates to get to the bar in the Bell! Coldest was also the foggiest for me and its quite recent, But I'm plumping for the 2nd half of the Eastwood Town FAC match a few years back. Even from the half way line I could not see the goal! But there have been others like York away in the FAC 1986, that was incredibly cold and the pitch was frozen, should never have been played. Snow, well that Dartford game springs to mind in the Trophy as the snowiest pitch anyday. Worst pitch goes to Bury last season. Incredible that it was allowed to take place. Also remember Stalybridge Celtic in 92/93 being the muddiest ever!
that QPR home game is surely the windiest?
The Merthyr abandoned game was an absolute Monsoon, the coldest i ever remember was the 0-0 draw v Tooting at Sandy Lane in the 86/87 season. it was absolutely bitter on the vast open and mainly empty terraces that day.
The San am cup final in Ibiza, is the hottest conditions ive seen WWFC play in, it made my Estrella go warm in what seemed seconds.
@M3G That Eastwood Town cup game was a real curates egg. So bad on so many levels but also the very essense of the FA Cup. I remember the bad visability but I remember it more for the awful floodlighting than the fog that had come down.
I also remember at least one awful tackle on a Wycombe player and the slope that carried the ball away like the rolling cheese contest.
Really hope we get a cup draw like that this year.
@ChasHarps Tooting, you should have worn a coat not that League-line Joggers T-Shirt! Or joined me and Mr C in the Stand with our Tenants Super! A real winter warmer.
The fog in that Bracknell game is absolutely extraordinary!
Wettest for me would be either Oxford away in 2001, or at the three sided ground on New Years Day in 2005? We lost that game 2-1 and wore yellow shorts. Odd what sticks in the mind.
Coldest, Oldham at home just after we beat Leicester, and windiest is definitely the 2-2 draw at home to QPR!
@ChasHarps @M3G Don't really remember the Tooting game that much, let alone as to whether it was really cold, but everyone looks well wrapped up. Great terracing though.
Windest has to be a tuesday night game at mansfield where the wind blew two goals in for us. The rain was lashing and the elevated position of the ground combined with the lack of 4 sides made it appalling
Sandy lane Tooting, Shame they let it get so dilapidated in the End. A true Gem of a ground. Wonderful memories, cant believe that is some 28 years ago now. Pretty sure that's me in the Stand at the back stood up with Mr. C. Can anyone remember the Bar under the Stand. It was like walking into a stripped out night club it was that dark! A maze of old beams.
I remember a game against Birmingham at AP in the League Cup - I think it was a Tuesday evening. The pitch was basically underwater. If my memory serves, we were 3-0 down after about 20 mins, levelled up at 3-3 on about 88 mins and they went and scored a winner.
For the wettest there was when we played Bedford Town at Loakes Park in the 2nd of our cup marathons, remember thinking it wasn't worth going in the cowshed as I couldn't get any wetter. For the foggiest there was a match at Staines Town where we spent most of the time trying to guess what was going on.
@M3G
I didnt realise there was an out of work managers conference at Sandy Lane that day ?
Just look at the amout of sheepskins in front of the stand. As the Toots only just finished above the relegation drop, i imagine the 'hungry guvnors' were sniffing after Dave Donaldson's job !!
@Jocks_little_helper I remember that Bedford game. There was pretty well no-one behind the goals, but the shed was absolutely rammed. If there had been that density of people all round the ground, then I'm sure the record attendance would have been broken.
I was there as well, i've never been so wet watching a game as that one.
Didn't it rain (with lightning) quite a lot during a game with Bristol Rovers? i seem to recall...
@robin we were probably huddled together on the Gasworks end
I was up the hospital end of the shed mate.
It's been mentioned a couple of times already but the game at Eastwood in the FA Cup sticks in the memory for so many reasons. The fog and mist that day made the whole game seem even more of a horror show than it already was.
Wet - Pompey away, if I'd jumped in a swimming pool I wouldn't have been wetter.
Hot - last game at Underhill Barnet away. Later in town you could tell who was there, the right side of the face bright red with the "Barnet burn"
Cold (& foggy) Mansfield away (not sure of date maybe around 99ish?) knees wouldn't work afterwards!
I agree on Bedford for the rain, tho Merthyr was worse, and I remember Leek for the snow. For coldest, Cambridge away on Boxing Day 2000. Not helped by it being such an awful performance of course.
Foggiest I remember is Marlow, 93/94 in the B&B Cup
https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/t31.0-8/12045755_10156158156420457_7869860723704887005_o.jpg
Wettest.... the already mentioned Portsmouth
Coldest.... Wigan (A) December 2000, remember using the hand dryers to warm up at half time
I've got a very bad memory, but I'll go for:
Coldest: Windsor & Eton away on a Tuesday night. May have been an AC Delco cup match. Makes me feel ill thinking about it. Runner up: an away match at Chester, although that may have been because I forgot my coat. Remember someone burning a whole in his scarf so he could smoke through it while keeping his face warm
Wettest: Merthyr Home. It was @kiscokid who was left standing on the hospital end
Windiest: Doncaster away. We went a few goals up with the wind and defended stoutly against it
Hottest: Leyton Orient away. Cyrille Regis' last game - absolute scorcher
Snowiest: Leek at home. Told off by John Goldsworthy for snowballing the Leek keeper
@ChasHarps @M3G God, I'd forgotten that Tooting game. Horrifyingly cold. Wasn't the crowd something like 195? The terracing in that ground was quality.
380 plus a dozen penguins !!
The Bedford game was top- of my wettest memories. Luckily I lived then within a short walk to the ground. The muddiest pitch I can remember was at Newbury Park Ilford in an amateur Cup game. Foggiest was at home one Christmas against Oxford City. I thought the game was abandoned but that doesn't get mentioned in the results archive