Great memories of the BBG
FORMER RAMS DIRECTOR TREVOR EAST’S FOREWORD TO A NEW BOOK ON THE BBG
Derby County’s Baseball Ground staged its final firstteam game in 1997 and was demolished several years later. A new book marking its 125th anniversary, The Baseball Ground – Gone But Not Forgotten, charts the history of the area of land from farmland through to the first purpose built baseball stadium to one of the most recognisable stadiums in England. Written by Andy Ellis, it highlights why the Baseball Ground was loved by players and fans and equally disliked by visitors because of the closeness of the fans to the pitch, the stands that rose upwards instead of backwards and the infamous pitch. Life-long supporter and former director Trevor East has penned the foreword to the book and his recollections will spark many memories among Rams fans. We reproduce the foreword here.
THERE can be few football grounds anywhere in the world that stirred the emotions of so many for so long as the Baseball Ground.
Unconditional love, passion and excitement from generations of Rams fans, pure hatred and envy from the other 91 clubs in the Football League, largely due to that infamous playing surface.
Walking along Dairyhouse Road and turning into Cambridge Street to see those floodlights towering over the Osmaston Stand never failed to set the pulse racing with anticipation.
The old Baseball Ground hadn’t seen much success post-war, a glorious FA Cup win and a promotion from Division Three (North) the exceptions, and few could have possibly dreamt what was to come. The fantastic highs from the Clough and Mackay eras, the BBG physically rocking and every team in the land dreading Derby County away, not just for the pitch but knowing they were up against a quality side.
I first started following the Rams in the late fifties, thanks to my Uncle Ted who took me along, bought me a bag of Nuttall’s Mintoes and let me soak up the atmosphere (and the smell of the Ley’s Malleable Castings foundry!) standing by the corner flag under the half-time scoreboard.
I could reach up through the railings and touch Tommy Powell’s shorts as he stepped back to take a corner – pure magic.
Later, when we moved from Mackworth Estate to Sunnyhill, Tommy, who also scored two that day, and son Steve became neighbours and friends. I also played for Tommy when he managed Littleover Old Boys and Northcliffe United.
My dad, Ralph, was an honest, hardworking man and there weren’t enough days in the week for work and to watch football, so I was always grateful to Uncle Ted for introducing me to the game that would shape my life and career. One of my earliest, most vivid memories was standing in that position, near the scoreboard corner flag.
It was October
1960, The Rams v Portsmouth, a fantastic 6-2 victory with new signing Bill Curry bagging two goals.
By now I was hooked and hardly missed a match, whether it was first team or reserves. I experimented with different viewing points around the ground. Security was relaxed back then and you could move around the ground, one end to the other, depending on which goal the Rams were attacking. It was even easier at reserve matches where I could act as ball boy on the deserted terraces. Eventually I settled in one spot to enjoy the company of Ron Webster’s mum in the B stand, front row, above the players’ entrance. I’ll never forget one game when Ron was viciously scythed down by the big Blackburn Rovers centre-half, whose name escapes me. He was sent off and, as he walked towards the tunnel, bore the brunt of Mrs Webster’s displeasure plus a packet of digestives on his head for good measure! How dare he kick her little Ronnie? Allow me to mention a few more memories that stand out.
I was a young lad working for Raymond’s News Agency as a trainee journalist when Brian Clough and Peter Taylor arrived at the BBG from Hartlepool. Little did I know then that I would form a lifelong friendship with both families, leading to a marvellous career in sports television and a place on Derby’s board! In the school holidays, I spent many a happy hour with young Simon and Nigel in the shooting box under the C Stand while waiting for their dad to come back from training. I’d pick up a few quotes and, on most Fridays, a nice few glasses in the manager’s office with the national press boys. The tales Brian and Peter used to tell were hilarious, particularly as the afternoon wore on!
I digress: October 1968 and that thrilling League Cup third round replay victory over Chelsea. An incredible atmosphere and what a free kick from Dave Mackay. The whole ground erupted when it hit the back of the net. Local boy Ian Hutchinson, who played for International Combustion, made his debut for Chelsea that night. He was an old mate who used to take me to Stenson Road fish and chip shop on the back of his moped after training. He’d made it to the big time but how he slipped through Derby’s net we’ll never know.
November 1972, a 5-0 thrashing of Arsenal and a typical Alan Hinton right-foot blockbuster to the far corner as he cut inside from the left, leaving Bob Wilson clutching thin air. In later years, I signed Bob to present ITV’s The Match Live and reminded him of that game at every opportunity. He took it in fairly good spirit. Lovely man.
I’d been with Raymond’s for five years and the month before that Arsenal game (October 28, 1972 to be precise), I’d been carrying out my normal Saturday duties in the Baseball Ground press box, organising the seating and phone arrangements for the throng of national football reporters that the Rams’ success was now attracting.
Billy Wright and the Star Soccer cameras were also there that day and after I’d finished my match reports (Derby 2 Sheffield United 1) and locked away the phones in readiness for the next home game, I got a tap on the shoulder. It was none other than Billy, the great former Wolves and England centre-half with 105 international caps. I was flabbergasted! Unbeknown to me, ATV were looking for a trainee sports producer and because the eyes of the world’s press were trained on Cloughie and the Baseball Ground, the first place they thought to look
Seeing the floodlights towering over the Osmaston End never failed to set the pulse racing. Trevor East
was Derby.
Gerald Mortimer, then chief football reporter for the Derby Evening Telegraph, had very kindly pointed Billy in my direction – “There’s the lad you want” – something for which I never failed to thank him whenever we met. After a post-match chat with Billy in the bowels of the B Stand, I travelled to ATV’s Birmingham studios on the Monday, had an interview in the morning, was given the job at lunchtime and handed my notice in at Raymond’s the same day! That would never happen in today’s HR-led world. I’ve been so lucky to have worked a hobby all my life; that unforgettable day launched my career in television and I had Cloughie, the Rams and the Baseball Ground to thank for it.
But there was still plenty to come. As my career progressed, I was appointed Executive Producer for snooker by ITV Sport and I got to know the man who first put snooker on the television map, Mike Watterson.
My phone rang one morning and it was Mike. By now he knew of my love of the Rams.
“I’ve just taken over as chairman of Derby County! I need your advice.”
What? I thought he was having a laugh but it was true. He wanted me to join him on the board. Never mind that, I said, the first thing he should do was bring Stuart Webb back. I rang Stuart, the three of us met that evening at the Midland Hotel (where most of the clandestine Rams’ meetings took place in those days) and the deal was done – Mike as chairman and Stuart as chief executive and director. I joined the board a while later when things had settled down. The boy on the terraces with a bag of Nuttall’s Mintoes was now in the boardroom. We were relegated that year and I found out in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t always a bed of roses being the director of a football club!
Watterson left as financial pressure mounted and boardroom tensions rose. Management changes had to be made and Webby had identified Arthur Cox as the man to take the helm. But how could we persuade a man who’d just got Newcastle United promoted to the First Division to come to the BBG and manage a team newly relegated to the Third? Arthur is a man of great integrity and not someone who changes his mind easily (some might call it stubborn!) but I found him immensely likeable. He agreed to meet Stuart and I at Scotch Corner on the A1(M) and it quickly became clear that despite their success, he was very unhappy at Newcastle. To the astonishment of the football world, Arthur agreed to join the Rams.
It was a massive coup in the club’s centenary year and over the course of the next three seasons, with his encyclopaedic knowledge of players in every division, he reshaped the team and won two promotions to get us back into Division One.
It was a great time to be part of the BBG setup. Stuart, Arthur and I used to meet most Fridays for a sandwich and a glass of rioja in Stuart’s office under the B Stand, just talking football and how we could bring the good times back to the BBG. We were making good progress but we needed the experience of a “Dave Mackay” type of figure to guide us on the pitch. I suggested John Gregory.
I was close friends with Jim Smith from his Birmingham City days. Jim was now at QPR and I knew John wasn’t part of his plans.
“I like him. Do you think we could get him?” said Arthur. I had lunch with Jim in London a few days later and, over the second bottle, I think, we agreed a fee of £100,000 for a player who was to help us back up through the divisions. Arthur still had to persuade John to make the move to Division Three only 18 months after playing for England, but, thankfully, Arthur’s enthusiasm and vision won him over. We didn’t lose for three months after that and clinched promotion in the last match of the season against Rotherham, another great night of atmosphere and unbridled joy at a packed BBG. I could go on and on, I have so many memories: Charlie George’s great hat-trick against Real Madrid (Charlie was a better player for Derby than he ever was for Arsenal); the Francis Lee-Norman Hunter punch up; Stevie Powell making his full home debut as a 16-year-old v Liverpool and nonchalantly flicking the ball over Tommy Smith’s head; how we were “cheated” out of the European Cup by Juventus in 1973 (Rams fans of my generation will need no reminders of the shenanigans that went on in the first leg) and Roger Davies taking revenge on the nose of Francesco Morini.
I stood down from the board in 1988 with great regret. I had begun working for ITV Sport in London by then and had just concluded the deal to put live football on our TV screens on a regular basis for the first time.
Part of my duties was to select the matches to be televised live and other clubs saw my directorship as something of a conflict, particularly after I’d chosen a Derby v Spurs fixture for live coverage.
My career had to come first but, ironically, it was my boss at the time, Greg Dyke (later to become the BBC’s Director General), who asked me to resign and blow me, as Cloughie used to say, Greg joined the Manchester United board a few months later! That’s life.
These days I’m sort of semiretired, if there is such a thing, and living in Cornwall. I will always support the Rams but I was recently invited to join the board of Plymouth Argyle and am loving every minute of it. Like Derby, it’s a great club with committed and truly passionate fans. There are so many similarities to my time as a Derby director: relegation, finding a new coach, promotion and, hopefully, another promotion to the Championship before too long.
The last memory has to be, of course, the farewell game at the BBG against Arsenal on May 11, 1997.
The club kindly invited me to the directors’ box one last time. A 3-1 defeat wasn’t the way we would have chosen to say goodbye but I still have the programme and the memory of that emotional day will always remain with me and thousands of others.
The final word goes to my Uncle Ted. He was an ex-sailor, who became a fireman on leaving the navy. He was from the days when blokes used to do their overtime on a Saturday morning to help make ends meet, rush home to change into their suit and tie and then it was straight down the BBG (via the pub if there was time). He was overjoyed when I became a director and it gave me one of the greatest pleasures in my life to be able to reciprocate his kindness.
I took him to a game, into the boardroom and ordered him his favourite tipple – a large scotch. He stood at the bar, amazed that the drinks were complimentary. Looking around the wood-panelled room, steeped in history, this man who’d stood on the terraces all his life, just said: “Blimey our Trev. I never knew this side of it existed.”
Cancer took him from us a few years later but this magical moment will be treasured forever.
I took my first-born, Jamie, to the BBG a few times in the hope that he, too, would soak up that unique atmosphere and become a Rams fan but, sadly, that wasn’t to be, unlike my three other sons.
So, from me and my Rams fans sons, Duncan, Joe and Matt, a very happy 125th to the Baseball Ground. Even though you, too, are no longer with us you will remain in the hearts and memory of thousands.
The boy on the terraces with a bag of Nuttall’s Mintoes was now in the boardroom. Trevor East