BfB

This season marks the centenary of Bradford City’s famous FA Cup winning campaign in 1910/11. To mark the occasion Dave Pendleton, curator of bantamspast Museum at Valley Parade has written a history of the period 1908-15 when Bradford City was one of the strongest teams in English football challenging at the top of Division One.

The book, Glorious 1911 includes a wealth of detail and a large number of previously unseen and long-forgotten photographs and archive images. A formal launch of the book has been arranged at Pictureville cinema at 8pm on Sunday 21 November when there will be a showing or historic Bradford City films as well as a talk about City’s golden era.

Tickets for the event are available from the Pictureville booking office, price £6.50 each. GLORIOUS 1911 will go on sale before kick-off on 20 November in the bantamspast museum (price £12) and it will also be available from Waterstones’ Wool Exchange shop from 20 November. Additionally a limited number of enamel badges and a special scarf have been made to commemorate the 1911 Cup triumph and these will be available at Pictureville along with a souvenir programme.

The Pictureville evening marks the first in a number of events that have been organised to celebrate the centenary including a dinner at the Midland Hotel on 26 April, 2011, an exhibition at Bradford Industrial Museum and a visit to the graves of City’s fallen heroes in the Great War – including that of Jimmy Speirs who scored the club’s winning goal against Newcastle United in the 1911 Cup Final replay at Old Trafford.

For more details go to www.bantamspast.co.uk or mail glorious1911@paraders.co.uk

Who else made the trip to the Weston Homes Community Stadium last Saturday for the FA Cup 1st round game against Colchester United?

I imagine that a large proportion of the people in the away section were southern based Bradford City supporters. Did any of you feel unwelcome at this game? I certainly did. It wasn’t the behaviour of the home supporters or the stewards though.

It was the fact that this newish stadium which was opened in 2008 is very isolated on the northern edge of Colchester. The options that you have are to pre-book a car parking space at the ground for which you pay £6, or you can use a park and ride scheme.

My friend and I arrived in plenty of time and having done our homework on the location of the ground and the facilities. This was essential as we ended up having a 25 minute walk from where we parked the car to get to the ground. I don’t mind walking but it was as we approached the stadium that I felt uneasy and not welcome.

Stewards and notices were located at the end of roads near to the ground making me feel like we shouldn’t have made the long journey from Yorkshire. I can understand the local residents not wanting people parking at the end of their driveways and thus blocking access to their house but the “tactics” used weren’t very hospitable. This 25 minute walk made the walk to the New Meadow in Shrewsbury on the opening day of the season feel like a hop, skip and a jump. (People who have been to the New Meadow will understand what I mean.)

Once at the ground we were then greeted with a barcode operating system to enter the ground; no turnstile operator although the steward on the other side of the turnstile was friendly enough. However, even this faceless barcode entry system niggled me. It reminded me of the self scan checkouts that you now find in a supermarket.

I suppose this is a sign of our ever changing society but what has happened to good old face to face communication? (Do I sound like a grumpy old man?)

Maybe Colchester United should have stayed at their old site at Layer Road? At least you could get a good pint at the nearby CAMRA award winning Donkey & Buskins. As for these new grounds, they just feel lifeless and in some cases unwelcoming.