Old Baggies - WBA Former Players

Nowadays, we’re well used to seeing players jet off to America, Africa, all sorts of European climes as they look to bond and get fit ahead of a new season. But the ever expanding fixture list has put an end to what was a great tradition of times gone by, the end of season junket, the players getting to play a few games somewhere sunny to round off their latest campaign, prior to going off on their own holidays to somewhere slightly less exotic, like Bridlington or Broadstairs.

Photo from WBA archive

Tours back in the 1960s were extraordinary things, given that these were days before the UK populace had felt the benefits of cut price package holidays, holidays which even then saw us venture little further than Majorca or Torremolinos. But footballers got the chance to taste a brand new continent, be it the Americas or Africa. Some were reluctant to go where others, like Albion’s long serving left-back Ray Wilson, lapped it up.

“May 1966, and there I was, a teenager, walking along the Copacabana beach in Rio. It was just amazing, I absolutely loved it. To be in Peru, walking around in Lima was something you couldn’t explain. I was a year out of school and here I was, having a walking history lesson. Even now, going to South America is a big deal but 40 years ago, David Attenborough went, but nobody else did! I absolutely loved those tours. To be in Brazil, to actually see that huge statue of Christ the Redeemer and then to be able to sit at the base of it and look out over Rio. At that time, how else could that have ever happened to you?”

Even though it was after season’s end, Albion’s players were still expected to earn their keep, playing in a series of exhibition games against local opposition, which saw them do plenty of country hopping on that 1966 trip to South America.

“Going to South America, that was some flight. We went to Kingston, Jamaica, we refuelled, then went on to Peru. When we were in South America, we went from Lima to Buenos Aires, then to Montevideo, then back to Buenos Aires, because there was this testimonial game we were supposed to be playing that kept getting put off. On the way back, it was from Rio to Dakar in Senegal, from there to Zurich, then back to London. They talk about David Beckham and his air miles, but we were doing it all economy class!

“We went to watch River Plate play, huge stadium, they had the 1978 World Cup Final there. Incredible spectacle, flares going off, amazing noise. We were supposed to play a benefit for the goalkeeper a few days later, but he had a nightmare, they lost and it was down to him and the crowd were going spare. You’ve never seen anything like it here, however bad somebody might have played. So they cancelled his testimonial! The idea was to let it calm down and play it a week later. We went off to Montevideo, got another game in, went back to Buenos Aires, but they still wouldn’t let him have his game! We hung about for the best part of a week there, then went to Brazil.

“One of the diversions was out to Uruguay, just to fill in time I think it was. We played against what was pretty much the Uruguayan national side in Montevideo, I got half a game there, I remember I hit the post with a header from a corner, and then, a month or two later, you see them playing in the World Cup. That was pretty exceptional.



Photo from WBA archive

“The flying was amazing as well, it was pretty primitive stuff compared with nowadays. We were stranded in Buenos Aires airport the one time. We were due to fly on this Dakota and as we were waiting, the side of the plane fell off and we had to wait around for another two hours while they nailed it back on again! It was like climbing into a World War Two bomber, like a Lancaster or something.

“A few of the lads really didn’t like flying. Chippy Clark was one, and I remember we were flying out to Canada and we’d been reading about these volcanic eruptions near Iceland, a new island had been formed out of it, the pilot was talking about it as we flew over, so all the lads went over to the one side of the plane to have a look out the window and take pictures. Chippy was shouting, “Get back, you’ll tip the plane over!” We were all a bit naïve back then.”

Tours were terrific opportunities for a team to give its newer faces some first team experience without the pressure of league points being at stake, much as we do in pre-season now. Ray was a major beneficiary of that policy in 1966.

“We took a few of the young lads, myself, Nicky Krzywicki, Ian Collard was another, all going out there as cover and to get experience away from the pressures of playing in the First Division. I played in the last game of the tour, against Flamengo in the Maracana Stadium, this huge bowl that held about 200,000 at the time. It looked empty when we played, but there was probably 80,000 in there! But it’s such a big place, the spectators are miles from the action. I played instead of Graham Williams and afterwards, Jim Gaunt came down and said, “Graham, this heat’s doing you good, you’ve lost a lot of weight!” He was that far away, he thought Graham was playing! “Bomber, what’s happened, I’ve never seen you run so quick!” It was Nicky Kryzwicki who’d played instead!

“We tended to have somebody from the British Embassy assigned to us for these tours to help smooth any problems out and as we were leaving, I remember the guy was in tears because they loved having us out there, they didn’t want us to go. I guess it’s a lonely job so far from home, especially then, and they just liked having contact with somebody from back home.”

1967 was an odd year, with no end of season junket, not least because Albion had parted with manager Jimmy Hagan and were in transition between him and the Alan Ashman era.

“I think the tours were just a way of generating cash during the close season, that’s why they were always after the season had finished, rather than pre-season tours like you have now. There was no TV money, so you had to generate your own. The close season tended to be a bit longer so you had the time to go away for three weeks, you’d get a month off, then you came back for pre-season somewhere around the 17th July, because the season started a couple of weeks later than it does today. Pre-season used to be an exercise in brutality really, you’d run up and down Forge Lane. Jimmy Hagan was a great one for having you running. Looking back, he was strange character. He talked so much sense, but in the end, he just didn’t trust anybody. He’d follow you around almost, just to keep an eye on you and it upset people. It was a shame because he knew his stuff, but his man management was just awful. That whole tracksuit revolt, it just beggars belief really. What was that all about, why did he create that situation?

“Alan Ashman was a lovely bloke, great man manager but he needed a good coach. Him and Jimmy Hagan would have made a great team if they could have worked that way, but Jim would never have worked under someone as a coach. But Jim knew footballers, he brought in a lot of good players, most of the cup winning side, gave youngsters like Bomber, Ian Collard and Graham Lovett their chance. It was probably easier to give younger players a chance then because now, you’re chasing instant success all the time, where in the 1960s, you had time to blood younger players – it was pretty much expected that you’d do that. It created a very strong bond, it was common to be here 10 or 12 years, and that’s why the Former Players’ Association is so strong today, because we grew up together and we’ve stayed close ever since. It’s a bit like Army reunions!”

Normal end of season service was resumed in 1968, Albion heading off for Africa a few days after the small matter of an FA Cup Final. The timing was a little tight to say the least.

“It was the worst time we could have gone. We won the FA Cup on Saturday and set off for Africa on the Monday. By the time we got back, all the euphoria had gone, and it was a shame because the lads never had chance to appreciate it. It was a pretty rough tour. We had the Battle of Kampala where Asa Hartford managed to get sent off twice, but all the guys were a bit that way. But we went there as Cup winners, they were there to kick us and show us that they weren’t impressed by that. They’d just run up and kick you whether the ball was there or not. Then we’d kick back and it just degenerated.

“In the Uganda match, it was all out war, like being in “Zulu”, I’ve never experienced anything like it! It was nothing to do with football. And the heat was just unlike anything we’d experienced, playing in the hottest part of the day, 90 degrees, altitude. We did well just to finish the games. But they finished Clive Clark, he got kicked so badly in Uganda, he twisted his knee and ruptured his ligaments so badly that he never really recovered. He was one of the bravest players I’ve ever known. So quick, the only way people could stop him was to kick him, and these were the days when defenders could kick forwards. But Chippy kept coming back and back for more.

“We started the tour in Dar es Salam, in Tanzania – we went to Kenya, and Uganda as well. We got taken out on a boat, we were at Oyster Bay on the beach, we moved up to Kenya, Kilaguni national park, the Masai Mara, and all we’re doing is sunbathing. Footballers! Actually, we went off on the safari, and we saw an elephant. Everybody’s getting over excited, we’re snapping photos of this elephant, then an hour later, we’re all sick to death of seeing elephants everywhere! It was an education and something that stayed with you in later life. We try to go back to South Africa on holiday as often as we can, Africa is a fascinating continent. The safaris are a wee bit sanitised having been there a few times so we tend to get a 4x4 and disappear off the main roads and that really is a great thing to do.

“I tried to get to see some of the country, the people, that was one of my interests because I did A level Geography, and it was fascinating. I went into the bazaars, came home with hunting spears, face masks. I found this ancient knife, 14 inches long, and I tell you, you could still have a shave with it now. I came back loaded with stuff because I just couldn’t get enough of it.

“We stayed in the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi which was world famous then, balcony out the front, behind it there were cabins where we stayed. We didn’t know at the time, but they were targeted by the Mau Mau tribe that were fighting the British rule, because not only did the British take their land, they made them pay tax on the bits they left them. So they weren’t fond of the Brits, and you could see that in the way the games went!

“The difficulty we had back then, in Kenya especially, was we were 6,000 feet up. We were told not to go out in the sun, but the one day, it was cloudy, so we thought it would be alright. But at that altitude, even if it’s cloudy, you burn! Dick Sheppard ended up in hospital, Dennis Clarke as well, with heatstroke. I went to see them and the blankets on the bed were actually kept off him by air blowing through, because they couldn’t let it touch his skin. Apparently, they’d been sneaking out on the balcony to get the rays! They were in there for the best part of a week, we had to leave them and come back for them later.

“But that turned out to be a big tour for me because it was the first time I was looked on as a defender, because I’d moved to left-back from left-wing, and I went to take over from Graham. That was huge for me, he’d only picked the cup up three days before! I got in the side six or seven weeks into the next season, we won 6-1 at Coventry, and that was pretty much the end of Graham’s playing career. But that tour in Africa really paved the way for me.”

It meant plenty more overseas football for Ray, a subject we’ll return to in the second part of this feature.