Hull City v Watford 1964
Programme of the Week Hull City v Watford 12th December 1964
Here’s the next review of a football programme from my collection that relates to a game being played in the next few days.
On Saturday 22nd April 2017, it is Hull City v Watford at the KCOM Stadium in the Premier League. 53 years ago, in the 1964/65 season, the teams met in Division 3 (now League 1) just before Christmas at Boothferry Park.
So, what was happening then?
Well the programme cover features a black and white photograph of Boothferry Park. It is taken from the corner where the South and East stands joined. I’m sure it was the East Stand where I would have stood on my visit there to see the Wolves, some years later.
The cover of the programme is gold and black and has adverts for local traders above and below the photograph. It also proudly states the clubs name as Hull City A.F.C. Ltd.
The programme cost 6d and comprises 16 pages. The cover has colour on it, but the rest of the programme is black and white. Inside this programme, like many in the collection of that era featuring Watford (home and away), there are three newspaper reports of the game. This programme has the team changes and goal scorers neatly notated, along with the supporters own ratings out of ten for each side’s players!
Hull City v Watford 1964
Hull City are managed by former Everton and England International C.S. (Cliff) Britton. Britton had previously managed Burnley, Everton and Preston North End. In the previous season he had led Hull to a respectable 8th place though at this stage of the current season, they lie in 12th.
Two names leap out at me from the home side’s line up, Ken Wagstaff and Gerry Summers. Just a month earlier, Hull City had paid Mansfield Town a record £40,000 for Wagstaff. He would go on to play 378 times for the club and score 173 goals. Birmingham born wing half Gerry Summers, later worked as first team coach at the Wolves under the Managership of Ronnie Allen in the mid / late 1960’s.
Watford are player – managed by Ken Furphy, who has recently taken over from Bill McGarry. McGarry led Watford to a 3rd place finish the previous year and has left to manage Ipswich Town. However Watford have slumped and at the half way stage sit below Hull City in 17th place.
There are some interesting names in the Watford squad. At centre half is Terry Mancini, at the start of a career that would include QPR, Arsenal and the Republic of Ireland. The one team change was that Dennis Bond came in at inside right, replacing regular starter Ken Oliver. Towards the end of his career, Bond captained Dagenham, whose side include a work colleague of mine in a London Merchant Bank!
However not in the side is Sammy Chung. His Watford career, spanning 8 years and 220 appearances was nearly over and he was about to join McGarry as coach at Ipswich Town. A few years later, they left Ipswich and presided over a 1970’s renaissance at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Hull City v Watford 2017
This weekend (2017) three points will help Hull city in their fight against relegation from the Premier League. A win will move them away from the bottom three leaving Swansea, Middlesbrough and Sunderland facing the drop. For Watford, sitting 10th, it has been another very acceptable season. A strong finish could see them climb to 8th when the season ends.
The 1964 game ended in a 1-1 draw. Watford took the lead through Bryn Jones (brother of Spurs Cliff) with Hull’s Wagstaff getting a bizarre equaliser in the 28th minute.
Jones slammed a clearance against Referee A.W.S. Jones’ head, flooring him. Play continued and Wagstaff scored with the Ref on the deck waiting for treatment! The linesman awarded the goal.
Both teams improve as the season continues and eventually Hull City finish fourth, just missing out on promotion by two points! Watford end up 9th much as they may in 2017.
The match programme, with three newspaper reports, is available here for £2