In-depth interview with Phil Catchpole
Thought I'd post this separately. I had a good old chat with Phil about his time following the Blues and how he came to be the voice of Wycombe in the Ainsworth era. https://chairboyscentral.com/2019/12/09/the-big-interview-phil-catchpole-i-absolutely-love-my-role/
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Really enjoyed this @chairboyscentral
Great interview, Which leads me onto this, Are they preserving Lillys Walk ? As i drive past the new development quite frequently on Suffield Rd, I notice that Lillys Walk is boarded up,does anyone know when its all completed, will Lills Walk once again reappear ?
Anyone around in the Loakes Park days, im sure will remember the smell of beer from the gate pub at one end, fusing with the smell of dogs rolls and tobacco smoke and the crackle of excitement as the hundreds and sometimes thousands made there way to our sloping Temple.
The thing is even when we moved to Sands, i knew of people who would do the Lillys walk and slowly close their eyes and reminisce of days gone by as they made their way up to the top, and where you can still see the original green iron perimeter fence.
As as far as im aware there is no plaque on the site of Loakes Park to commerate our former home, maybe the council should honour Lillys walk, the place where Chairboys and Chairgirls would dare to dream.
I'm wondering whether the spot I've always thought was the Loakes Park pitch isn't. I assumed it was the car park behind the minor injuries unit at the hospital? Only based on the fact the ground seems to slope in the right way.
And thanks, glad it was a good read!
A quick look on Google for a suitable picture so you could get your bearings and I found this, a view of Looked Park I've never seen before from 1937.
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/556264991469827705/
I know it doesn't quite answer your question but it's a great image of Loakes Park looking back from the hospital end over the gasworks towards what is now the Eden Centre.
If it helps the gasworks that are visible occupied the site that has just been built on behind the Eden Centre.
The straight road running diagonally across the view is Suffield Road (LHS) becoming Queen Alexandra Road (RHS).
Loakes Road is just behind the row of trees at the gasworks end - this is where the gents urinal could be found (mentioned in a previous thread) and the conker trees too.
Bottom Cow Shed would be on the long right hand side of the pitch and the Main Stand on the left in this image.
Ah yeah, that looks about where I thought it was. Thanks! There are same great pics out there.
I got into Wycombe just after the move, and just can't imagine the old ground, even when I pass that road constantly.
Even with the photos it seems amazing there was ever a ground there.
Are there any grounds in, say, the top six tiers even remotely like that anymore? I can only think of Blundell Park with its raised goalmouth.
Allow me a little indulgent reminiscence of Loakes Park. I was born in Wycombe in 1953 and lived in Priory Avenue until I was 4/5 before moving to Flackwell Heath. I had absolutely no interest in football but dad used to take me to Loakes Park presumably just to give mum a break! As clear as day I remember the following:
Walking up past the Gasometers (stinks!), often seeing a greengrocer with his horse and cart. Going through the antiquated (even then) turnstiles. Having no interest in the game I’d spend my time collecting pop bottles and getting the 3d back at the tea hut ( lovely smell!) imagine a 4-5 year old safely just exploring all over the stands and terrace. I recall a blanket going round at half time into which spectators would throw coins - never sure where the money went. On the way home I could never understand why dad was so unhappy if we’d lost! He’d always stop at Frogmore on the way back and pick up an evening paper. Finally on returning home for tea (lovely smell!) dad would check the scores Mum had written down from the radio. Lovely times and my only regret now is that I didn’t get into the football until the end of the 80’s and I can thank @BlueBoy for that !
Briefly back to @ChasHarps reference to Lilys Walk. It will, to me, always be the place where you got the supporters’ coaches to away games.
Great memories @Slaphead, I really enjoyed reading that. It was the smells of Loakes Park that linger for me, the old timers' ciggies in the Cowshed, the tea bar at half-time, the infamous bogs, the gasometer, the players' liniment and some unwashed supporters (including me!).
@Slaphead - POTY.
What were the little cartons of drink they sold at Loakes Park - the ones where you stuck a straw through the film lid. Probably full of carcinogenic colourings and stuff but an essential part of the matchday experience. Them and the worst ham sandwiches in the world.
The coaches always picked up their just before the gate pub, Lillys walk ran adjacent to the gate, but the 100 metres or so between the gasometres will always be Lillys walk to me.
Does anyone else recall the badly spelt graffiti on the outside wall of the bus station where the Jeffways coaches picked up for away games? "Get it down you Zulu wariors".
I only have to smell cigarette smoke wafting on a crisp clear winters days to transport me back to Loakes Park in the early 70s
I remember the sheet too @Slaphead but I associate it with Remembrance Sunday - the local scouts dragging it round the pitch with coins raining down on them.
That smell of pipe tobacco in the cow shed on a cold, damp day. I only have to pass a pipe smoker 35 years on and I’m straight back there.
We used to nip into Loakes Park during the summer after it closed to have a Sunday kick around on the pitch. It was great until the grass got to about 4 feet high. Bloody hard getting a cross in up that hill.
I have memories of walking up past the Gasometers as well, and entering the old turnstiles on that corner, then walking round the corner to finally see the field of dreams ! I was still a young teenager when we moved grounds but I still have many fond memories of loakes park.
Trying to get thread back on topic. Maybe @chairboyscentral and @bluntphil should do a collaborative series of interviews with fans on their memories of what Loakes Park & Adams Park mean to them.
Many football clubs, at all levels of the game, have moved grounds over the last 20/30 years. At the sites of old grounds some have plaques commemorating the stadium that used to stand there, some even have new residential roads named after former players. At the Loakes Park site there is nothing of this kind.
Another question for you longer-serving fans: is the main stand at Adams Park modelled on the paddock (?) at Loakes Park?
Thinking about it, it probably was pipes, or maybe rollups, the old timers were smoking in the Cowshed. Reminded me of my grandad and his Old Holborn 'Blended Virginia' rollups.There was definitely a fug in there on match days. Those old timers were my first experience of the thick Bucks accent. Years later I realised that some of the older ones may have been there in the first season, in 1895.
Pipe smoke, very rare as it is these days, always reminds me of Loakes Park
Hearing 'The Liquidator' takes me back to when you knew the long wait was over and the players were about to come out
I'd say the old main stand at AP was probably a bog-standard construction of it's time, fairly typical of what was being built at new grounds for the larger non-league clubs (which of course we were then).
The paddock and main stand at LP were pretty much unique, the only construction I've ever seen that was remotely similar was one of the old stands at Preston's Deepdale, which we were stood in front of for our game there in 1993.
There's a plaque and some pictures on the ground floor of the hospital, or at least there was once.
That Inbetweeners episode where one guy keeps screaming that phrase makes a slightly more sense now..
Exactly what I thought. I didn’t realise it had a longer tradition.
@chairboyscentral i seem to remember the original design for the main stand roof at AP was a kind of 'wavy' or 'curvy' design, but this was changed for cost reasons to the more standard looking affair we now have. There was an artist's impression of it kicking around in the late 80s, someone may even be able to send a link to it?
Back to the original subject, thanks @chairboyscentral for another excellent article. Hopefully we will be hearing the dulcet tones of @bluntphil commentating on the Blues for a good while to come.
Here you go...
https://ae9ec797-5218-4c64-9688-c2958c176a62.filesusr.com/ugd/13036b_b99d2793e6544d009504d94642aa5f5e.pdf