‘Drop ten, turn and face’ Quilty’s Football Yarns 3 LWT and Brian Moore

‘Drop ten, turn and face’

Quilty’s Football Yarns 3

LWT and Brian Moore

Playing, supporting and coaching. To me these three activities are just different takes on something that became one of the most important and time consuming things of in my life, Football. I’ll speak chiefly on the latter here but bear in mind that they were all impacting on me as a person 12 hours a day, for nine months of every year, ever since I can remember.

The earliest recollection I have of football was when my step dad Cyril took me around to his parent’s house in Haggerston to watch the 1961 FA Cup Final on TV. I’d parked myself under the dinner table to watch and in spite of the game passing me by, remember everyone being happy as Spurs beat Leicester City 2-0. There began a great tough love affair. Even today I’ll give new Spurs supporters this piece of advice.

“Welcome to a lifetime of nearlyness, punctuated by the occasional actuality”

Family ties

As it would turn out me becoming a Spurs fan had been a very close run thing. In North East London there are many families who literally split internally for their football allegiance. Usually Tottenham and Arsenal but occasionally West Ham. My own extended family was no exception but my Quilty grandparents, were definitely all Arsenal. They lived in old flats not a hundred yards from Highbury in Avenal Road. That’s the way I would have surely headed team-wise but for the fortunate intervention of divorce. Mum and Dad split when I was seven years old and across I drifted into the light to support Spurs.

My relationship with my own father became a distant one. Not because he was an Arsenal fan and I was now Tottenham, it was more because I lived in Hackney and he had a new life and family out Carpenders Park way near Watford. The main way we kept in touch was through football. Dad worked at London Weekend Television in their ‘Outside Broadcast Unit’ covering the Big Match. As time went on going to games became the main way we saw each other. I’d make my way to White Hart Lane, seek out the Outside Broadcast trucks and he’d come and pick me up. At Tottenham they had a small TV gantry where commentator Brian Moore and a sound guy would sit. 

Fortunately for me there was always room there for a little one and there we sat hovering above the Shelf-side, ‘Heaven on a Saturday’ for this fan. Dad’s job was Floor Manager and he handled all the links between the commentary box and the production van parked outside the ground. Over the years he got me into countless Spurs games and then as the 70’s began several League Cup finals. In 1971 at the Spurs v Villa final he took me and my late friend, Tony Fuller, into Wembley to take up a position way up in the roof above the cameras, probably the best spot in the house. Two years later we were back again this time watch Spurs beat Norwich. We never had tickets to get in but Dad dressed us up in LWT jackets and we nodded through. Pitch-side was always chaotic at Wembley finals. Dad tells the story of one final where the LWT and BBC Outside Broadcast staff had a punchup on the side of the field. Apparently as the game was finishing the BBC were claiming ‘exclusive rights to interviewing the winning players. A push and shove brawl eventuated just off camera!

As the years rolled on Spurs entered the 80’s with a successful side and Wembley Cup Finals were back on again for me. In 1981 my Dad got me a fantastically situated seat for the Spurs Man City FA Cup final. It was just up behind the Royal Box area! In the event Spurs were 1-0 down at Half-time. Not being particularly religious I went out at half time and plonked all my spare cash in a collection box and made a wish. Thankfully Tommy Hutchinson diverted Glenn Hoddles free kick into his own goal and we were level at 1-1.

Being a student at Leeds University at this time I had to return north unable to make the midweek replay. My Dad got me ticket and I was fortunately able to pass it on to my step dad Cyril. Back up in Leeds I got to watch the replay in the share house where I lived with good mate and Man City supporter Bren Mclaughlin. My future wife Terrie relates the story of watching us watching the game fearing that we were about to kill each other. The replay was one of the best FA Cup Finals of all time, five goals in a match swinging one way then the next. Our 3-2 win was our first in the FA Cup since 1967. Dad was now doing less Football broadcasts and instead doing programmes like Please Sir, On The Buses, Jasper Carrott, Dempsey and Makepeace and the Stanley Baxter show. Thus, the following year 1982 was the last time I he got access at Wembley. Spurs had Liverpool in the League Cup Final. Dad slipped Terrie and I in through the turnstiles and we took up great seats behind the goal. Unfortunately it was the Liverpool goal and we were stuck with thousands of crazy scousers as we lost the game 3-1. An inauspicious end to years of football joy courtesy of London Weekend Television