Memory Lane for Fan of Big Tone

[Mapperley Pie]

[Blake]

Is this from a match program? I miss Colin Slater. He was the commentator I listened to when I first started watching football.

[Robbie]

Tony Hateley at the beginning of his career helped Notts to promotion, then approximately ten years later was influential in helping Notts to gain promotion once again after coming back to his boyhood club.

And Colin Slater was there to witness both occasions. I'd like to think that Colin is looking down from above & likes what he is seeing from Notts as they try to achieve promotion this year too.

[Mapperley Pie]

 

Is this from a match program? I miss Colin Slater. He was the commentator I listened to when I first started watching football.

[Fan of Big Tone]

I miss “uncle” Colin too, a real gentleman with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Notts County.

aAs well as Tony Hateley there’s some great names mentioned in that article, Jack Wheeler, John Sheridan, Stan Newsham and Peter Bircumshaw whose brother Tony also played for Notts.

Thanks for the memories @Mapperley Pie

[liampie]

2 years after my first game, i have never collected programmes but i dud buy some at times, mostly special ones. tony hateley is always a good read. i miss uncle colin too.

[Countyman]

I might have that programme somewhere in my collection. Could you give us a summary of what was said in the text?

[CliftonMagpie]

I tried to see if Google Lens could read some of the text, but it mostly said nonsense. If you click on the image and then press to see the full resolution, you can read most of the text.

[Chris]

It was a real pleasure to interview Colin Slater, PON might be the only one to have his story from his words. Colin will always be our dear Uncle Colin! I actually used to call him at first, he always insisted that I called him Colin, but I tended to be much politer than that. He wrote some excellent tales, including for us.

I'm sure him recounting legends such as Tony Hateley would be a great read.

[Fan of Big Tone]

11 hours ago, CliftonMagpie said:

If you click on the image and then press to see the full resolution, you can read most of the text.

Yes that what I did and it was easy to read after that.

[TheSkipper]

I decided to type out the article from the photo to make it easier to read. The text is clear enough, but some visitors might have difficulty if their vision isn’t great. I’ve also hidden it behind spoiler tags for anyone who would like to read it.

Spoiler

Colin Slater relives some of his visits to opposition territory and recalls some of the fascinating football characters he's met along the way.

It had been a season of recovery… winning back some of the lost fans, restoring pride, all that sort of thing. Now it was reaching its climax. The coveted prize of promotion was in sight, but not yet within reach. In order to cinch it, what special preparations would be made to ensure that the players were relaxed and generally in the right mood for the final hurdles?
Answer: none.

So it was that with three games to go until the end of the campaign, Notts headed for Aldershot on St George's Day, 1960. In keeping with England's national day, some brave hearts and strong deeds were needed.

But alarm clocks set for early morning were the first essential. The team coach departed from Meadow Lane promptly at 8 a.m., no thought having apparently been given to an overnight stay.

Coming into midfield that day for his first game of the campaign, on account of an injury to regular John Sheridan, was John Newton. The start time must have reminded him of being on the early shift in his days as a miner in the local pits. But then, he wasn’t the only former miner in the team. Skipper Bob Forrest, who had come from Leeds, had formerly worked at Rossington Colliery.

While many of the travelling party were content to immerse themselves in the morning papers, the real card addicts, including Forrest, were soon at more serious business on the tables at the rear of the coach.

At fairly frequent intervals, as was common on all journeys, trainer-physio Jack Wheeler, then in the third of what were ultimately to be 26 seasons in that position, walked around, reassuring himself and manager Frank Hill that "the boys are OK, boss."

Actually, the boys were in a confident frame of mind, beaten only once in a run of seven games and having battered Aldershot 5-3 at Meadow Lane at the end of January.

If anybody had any niggling doubts, they were kept to themselves. Such doubts concerned the absence of Sheridan and of Peter Bircumshaw from the left wing, though Alan Withers was a more than capable deputy in that role. Their styles were different, however, Bircumshaw having a ferocious shot which had brought him 18 goals in 22 appearances, and Withers being more content to lay on chances for others.

Though Aldershot was to become a fairly frequent destination throughout the Sixties, this was my first visit. I was unprepared for what we found in the garrison town.

Though the venue is called the Recreation Ground, it was a surprise to find it actually formed part of a park used by local inhabitants and was situated quite centrally in the town.

The crowd exceeded Aldershot's average, at over 5,600 – including a healthy contingent from Nottingham. They were rewarded with a 1-1 draw, the Magpies' goal coming from Tony Hateley, his sixth in eight matches since being controversially drafted into the team in place of top scorer Stan Newsham.

The result left the promotion issue virtually settled, but not absolutely certain. If Notts suffered heavy defeats in their two remaining fixtures and Northampton ran up cricket scores in winning theirs, goal average would be the deciding factor.

Nevertheless, when the official party stopped for dinner on the homeward run, it was judged by chairman Len Machin to be in order for a few bottles of champagne to be ordered.

Oh, by the way, Notts won the remaining two games: 5-4 at home to Darlington and 3-0 the following midweek at Oldham, finishing runners-up to Walsall and back in the third tier. The recovery, to that stage, was complete.