My memories of Boothferry Park stretch back to the late 1940’s. I remember vividly the Raich Carter days, his skill on the ball and how he taunted the opposition with his foot on the ball, totally directing operations. Of course he had skilful wingers in Eddie Burbanks and Ken Harrison. I remember our first overseas player was Viggo Jensen- he was a magnificent all round player. Long serving goalkeeper Billy Bly made many memorable saves.
The installation of the first floodlights at Boothferry Park along the East and West stands, brought gasps of amazement when they were switched to full power, it was just like daylight!! The advent of floodlights brought many interesting friendly games against British and Continental opposition, it brought the game to a new era.
The first time I ever worked a turnstile at Boothferry Park was at the South Stand on 11th December 1965 for the visit of Bristol Rovers when the attendance was 16,349. The next match was on Boxing Day 1965 when the attendance was 40,231 for the visit of Millwall. On turnstile 13, I admitted 1292 at 4/- ( £258.40 in today’s money) and most of it was in silver which meant a lot of counting.
Gordon Towse
