Memories of the Pink Final

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Stuart
Was it true or myth about the carrier pigeons being used to send scores in (a bit before your time, obviously)!!

 

[Bluebee2]

I used to have a pink round on a Saturday night. We used to meet the van on the corner of North road and Seymour road in Clayton. Vic the fella in charge used to dish out the papers and away we went. I had loads of regulars to deliver to and used to call at the Haddon Hall pub to catch some in there too, as well as shouting "Pink Final" whilst walking along the streets. Always sold out when City won.

 

[stuart brennan]

Stuart
Was it true or myth about the carrier pigeons being used to send scores in (a bit before your time, obviously)!!

I am told it was true. Then again, you never knew when the older lads were pulling yer leg or not

 

[stiniyamasena]

Yes, i remember buying both "THE PINK" & seafood in the pub on a saturday evening in the pub. I lived in Reddish in those days & everybody, without fail would ask the "seafood man," "HAVE YOU GOT CRABS ?", he probably heard it in every pub he went in.

 

[LongsightM13]

Stuart
Was it true or myth about the carrier pigeons being used to send scores in (a bit before your time, obviously)!!

I am told it was true. Then again, you never knew when the older lads were pulling yer leg or not

I don't know about the MEN but it was definitely true of other football finals in the days when telephones were hard to come by. My mate's dad worked for a couple in the Midlands and he told me in the early days, it was actual match report copy sent by pigeon on small rolls of paper around their legs. They apparently used two birds at a time in case anything happened to one of them.
Apparently they sometimes also used human 'runners' who would set off at half time/4.30 on a motorbike.

 

[awest]

Stuart

Am i right in thinking there was a separate section on the back page with late, late results?. If so, was it there just to add to the drama of the afternoon?

 

[Mugatu]

^^ There was a late goals section, but it wasn't there for the drama. You have to remember that this was before computerised presses, each page had to be type set, i.e. bits of metal put into a frame.
Now that takes quite a while, so they type set the match reports during the second half and took a chance that things wouldn't change too dramatically. They left one column until last to type set, the "late goals" column. Then they ran the presses literally minutes after the game ended.

If they type set it after the game, you'd never have got a copy until maybe 7 or 8 pm and the moment's kind of lost then.

I was told all of this by my Dad whose brother was a type setter at the Express in town.

 

[ob]

^^ There was a late goals section, but it wasn't there for the drama. You have to remember that this was before computerised presses, each page had to be type set, i.e. bits of metal put into a frame.
Now that takes quite a while, so they type set the match reports during the second half and took a chance that things wouldn't change too dramatically. They left one column until last to type set, the "late goals" column. Then they ran the presses literally minutes after the game ended.

If they type set it after the game, you'd never have got a copy until maybe 7 or 8 pm and the moment's kind of lost then.

I was told all of this by my Dad whose brother was a type setter at the Express in town.

My first job was typesetting in local paper,started 1978

 

[stuart brennan]

The vans that used to park outside Maine Road and OT did have their own, primitive printing press.
Those Pinks were editions that were printed off on the Friday, so obviously had features and news stories but no match reports.
The lads in the vans would then print the final scores on them, to catch the crowds coming out of the game.

The mad rush and the fact that reporters were phoning in copy from noisy grounds made for some right cock-ups, including the 25-yard shit referred to earlier.

I also remember a chap by the name of Mister Sitter finding his way into a match report taken down by an inexperienced female copytaker.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

The vans that used to park outside Maine Road and OT did have their own, primitive printing press.
Those Pinks were editions that were printed off on the Friday, so obviously had features and news stories but no match reports.
The lads in the vans would then print the final scores on them, to catch the crowds coming out of the game.

The mad rush and the fact that reporters were phoning in copy from noisy grounds made for some right cock-ups, including the 25-yard shit referred to earlier.

I also remember a chap by the name of Mister Sitter finding his way into a match report taken down by an inexperienced female copytaker.

I would buy the Pink from the van outisde (or the long haired bloke shouting ''final scchhhhhhhhhoooorrrreeeesssss'') and would read the late late results, but by the time I'd got into the social club to see classified results, even later goals had gone in during some games, so after that, I'd leave it until back home on the 99 bus to Sale and get it in Sale Moor