The Kippax Last Stand - 30/4/1994

[casualdeyna]

I was a Kippax kid, used to sit on one of the barriers and try not to fall off when the crowed surged forward because if you weren't quick getting your place back some other little urchin would nick it, and you were forced to complain to your dad that you couldn't see anything!

Crazy that they just bulldozed the Kippax and scrapped pretty much everything, they could have made a fortune selling bits off.

My dad knew a security guard at Maine Rd from the pub, it was him that told him they had bulldozed it and were in the process of taking the rubble away. So my dad, for the price of a pint or two, organised to be let in discreetly so he could take a bit of the rubble before it was all taken away. He got someone else in the pub (those were the days, when you could literally sort anything out through "some bloke down the pub!") to polish and mount the piece of concrete of the Kippax, he put a City badge on it too and we've had it ever since, I've inherited it now.

Now there is no way we could ever prove it was genuinely from the Kippax because it never came direct from the club, we could've been displaying any old piece of concrete, but my dad is adamant of it's authenticity as he picked the piece out and I've no reason to doubt him. I've been offered money for it but I want to pass it on to my son when he is old enough like my dad passed it on to me.

 

[bavarian blue]

Coventry City, I couldn't get off school, my mum wouldn't let me, she went though, she took the afternoon off work.

I was at Xaverian College in Rusholme , headmaster Brother Cyril was a Big Blue.He gave everybody a half day off , priorities.

 

[1.618034]

was she concious?

One of my Uncles stopped going to City a couple of years after they tore the Kippax down because he said the club just wasn’t the same anymore without the Kippax

I stopped going regularly from that day on. Only went to a handful more games at Maine Road. It just wasn't the same and I was glad that we eventually moved away from what was a lobotomised stadium.

The fact that within 4 years we were in the 3rd tier is no coincidence for me and it pissed me off greatly for 9 years!

Only started going again regularly when we moved to the CoMS. I'd made my peace with all-seater stadia by then and it felt like, and it was, a fresh start for the club.

 

[Man_City_Loyal]

I stopped going regularly from that day on. Only went to a handful more games at Maine Road. It just wasn't the same and I was glad that we eventually moved away from what was a lobotomised stadium.

The fact that within 4 years we were in the 3rd tier is no coincidence for me and it pissed me off greatly for 9 years!

Only started going again regularly when we moved to the CoMS. I'd made my peace with all-seater stadia by then and it felt like, and it was, a fresh start for the club.

nice edit haha

 

[1.618034]

nice edit haha

;-)

 

[manchester blue]

Commit no Nuisance.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

My first game in '68 and many thereafter on it. The scoreboard end was still – just – the scoreboard end. Uncovered. If my memory isn't playing tricks on me, they used to hang up the halftime scores marked on squares of wood over there (or perhaps more plausibly, tin), a bit like in cricket. We weren't the only ground to do that, far from it. It was the norm. I think we went to an electronic scoreboard the next season, or the one after that.
I'll tell you exactly where I used to stand. I'd go in through the schoolboys entrance – there were some fucking big schoolboys going through there, I'll tell you – I'd make my way up the Kippax steps, and then make my way down through the terraces. Never had any problem, although I had to push and shove a bit on derby day. There was a stanchion that stands more or less under the Trumann's For Steel hoarding. You can easily see it in the old photos. I'd stand either to the left or the right of it, usually slightly to the left as you're looking at the pitch. I've never liked being pitchside – you can't get an idea of the overall pattern of the game, at least, I can't – and I didn't like being up at the back – too far away from the action. On the other hand, I was jealous of missing even a split second of what was going on on the pitch, so I didn't want that stanchion in my way at any point. Hence my choice of location. Half-time, up the terraces, and down the steps for a Wagon Wheel, and a cup of piss masquerading as tea. I don't know if I was ever a Kippax kid, really. Too middle class. And I've got a southern accent, so I kept my mouth shut most of the time. People'd turn round and look curiously at me if I shouted out. So no, not really a Kippax kid.
Nobody took me, ever. I went on my own, until I got a girlfriend, and converted her to the cause (she was brave to go and stand on the Kippax with me, there were very few girls on those terraces in those days, and there were a lot of misogynistic comments directed at refs, opposition players etc.) I think the point for me was not to be with family, but to get away from them, at least for those afternoons. To find another family, of sorts. Each to his own.

Still miss it.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I was one of those who walked round the pitch before and at half time selling drinks crisps and sweets. The employer was stadia catering. It was the only way I could watch City without having to pay. You got 10p for every pounds worth you sold. It wasn't for the money although it helped, it was just to watch the match and be so close up to the players. Denis Tueart was substituted one match and I made my way to the tunnel. I asked him as he came off for his tie ups which if you remember were just bandages. He gave them to me and I wore them for the next school match. I told everyone they were Dennis Tuearts but know one believed me.

Great post!

 

[CatMan]

Used to stand as close to the opposition fans as possible. Must have been mad as was once hit with one of the many coins that away fans seemed to throw. Also saw a chap end up with a bloody cheap plastic dart in his cheek.

Bizarrely the strangest thing I ever saw there was some Scottish chap having to completely undress his upper body in a blind panic after somebody flicked a half smoked fag end from behind him before it went down his shirt collar.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

Used to stand as close to the opposition fans as possible. Must have been mad as was once hit with one of the many coins that away fans seemed to throw. Also saw a chap end up with a bloody cheap plastic dart in his cheek.

Bizarrely the strangest thing I ever saw there was some Scottish chap having to completely undress his upper body in a blind panic after somebody flicked a half smoked fag end from behind him before it went down his shirt collar.

He probably wanted to smoke it to save money on buying his own Woodbines.