Fans of BCFC-Bluenoses and Small Heathen to boot please take note.....when I was a season tix holder at The Vile we beat you 5 1 at a canter....My sister Gill is a Small Heathen too and my little brother is a Baggy....Boing...! Boing...! My old man took me to Vile park when I was 4 in 1962 when he would buy me a bag of sweets from the corner shop near the ground in Trinity Road, give them to me and sit me on one of those red stanchions which kept the crowds at bay.
My bum was so numb after watching the game in between his arms as he stood behind me protecting me as the crowd ebbed and flowed and moved and swayed back and forth depending on the action on the pitch.
I remember watching the fatty goalie Colin Withers and Charlie Aitken as a young Scottish left-back (he holds the record for Villa apearances, something near 700 games from the early 60's to something like 1975. Mind you we were rubbish for most of that time, even losing to the Blues in the League Cup final 3-2 in 1963 (?)
I am old enough to have attended a game at Villa Park in the 1966 World Cup...a nil all bore draw between West Germany and Argentina, with a player sent off from each side.
I was only 8 and watched the game from a Birmingham City Police command post in the Holte End as I couldn't see a thing from so low down in the ground....
I was passed over the heads of the crowd to the arms of a waiting Bobby and had the best view from the Holte End any 8 year old could wish for....
My Dad Les Bracey was a genuine Astonian as was his Dad, my Grandad Wilfred Bracey, both born in Price Street in the Gun Quarter by the Bull's Head Pub.
They all attended Summer Lane School at the top of the hill near to Constitution Hill.
My Dad worked in the Gun Quarter for a Gunsmith, carrying rifles and shotguns to the Proof House nearby.
The whole family supported The Villa, including my uncle Norman.
My Dad played Football in Harborne for a club and Roy Ulyett, the Sports Argus cartoonist drew a cartoon of Les Bracey in the 1950's and dubbed him the 'Harborne Tarzan' due to an uncanny likeness to American swimmer and film star of the time Johnny Weismuller. the Olympic Freestyle Swimming Gold Medallist and Champion who played Tarzan in the Tarzan films of that era.....Happy memories of less complicated days......!!!!
PS I would love to get hold of a copy of that Sports Argus cartoon of my Dad....are they online or is the Sports Argus from the 1950's online anywhere...say the Birmingham Mail and Sports Argus online archive.....? Any ideas anyone....?
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