Remember though, we were victims of the black arts....Allison had picked a quarrel with hypnotist and occultist Romark, who employed his powers to defeat us...
"Always one to seek an extra edge, the ever-flamboyant Malcolm Allison got in touch with the hypnotist/illusionist Romark (real name Ronald Markham) during his spell as manager at Crystal Palace in the mid-70s. The pair fell out, however, amid reports of an unpaid bill, and Romark apparently placed a curse on Palace. Then, on the eve of Palace's 1976 FA Cup semi-final against Southampton, Romark contacted Lawrie McMenemy's secretary, Val Gardner, and arranged a meeting with the Saints manager. "I took the coward's way out and agreed to see him," McMenemy wrote in a May 2005 Southern Daily Echo column.
"When he came in, his eyes immediately struck me. He had peripheral vision, both eyes staring in different directions. He surprised everyone by asking for two chairs to be placed in the centre of the room facing away from each other two yards apart, then got an apprentice to put his head on one and heels on the other. When he took the chairs away, the lad stayed suspended in mid air. I was even asked to sit on the lad's stomach and still he stayed suspended. George Horsfall, our reserve-team trainer, came in shortly afterwards and, after telling him what had happened, he did the trick all over again. He wouldn't tell us how it had been done, but George was born in India and it may well have had something to do with the old Indian rope trick." Ruse or not, it did the trick, Southampton beating Palace 2-0 before going on to upset Manchester United in the final.
Romark's work was not yet done, however. The curse apparently transferred to Allison himself, who went on to manage Manchester City, and on the eve of their 1980 FA Cup third-round tie at Fourth Division Halifax, the Halifax manager George Kirby enlisted Romark's assistance. Speaking in the Lancashire Evening Post, the striker John Smith recalled that, two days before the tie, "I'm sat there with this guy called Romark, and he was saying … 'you will go to sleep now, John Smith, and then you'll overcome the power of Manchester City. You will play the greatest game of your life, John Smith. When I count to three, you'll wake up again.' I was trying not to laugh and I'm thinking, what's all this about? What a load of nonsense." Smith would subsequently lay on the winner for Paul Hendrie in a 1-0 win for the Shaymen. "All the headlines, though, were about that hypnotist," said Smith, "but we beat Manchester City through courage, hard work and belief."
The mysterious Romark would later attempt to prove his powers by driving blindfolded through the streets of Ilford, only for his journey to reach a rather abrupt end after approximately 20 yards when he crashed into the back of a police van. "That van was parked in a place that logic told me it wouldn't be," he claimed. After being imprisoned for embezzling his mother, Romark died of a stroke in 1982."
Have any teams ever attempted to harness psychic power? | The ...
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So pick your enemies as carefully as your friends....I still remember the heartsick feeling of school on Monday....though relegation in 82 was worse, I agree..
