War, weather and coronavirus - how football at The Shay has been stopped
WHILST THE nature of the enforced football shut-down is unprecedented, the suspension of the game is not unique, writes Halifax Town historian Johnny Meynell.
Back in July 1915, the FA called a halt to all professional football because of the horrors of the First World War, having come under fire for not suspending proceedings when war broke out a year earlier.
The 1939-40 season had begun under a cloud with Germany’s demands to Poland, and their invasion on 1 September 1939 led to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announcing two days later that the country was now at war.
The Football League was immediately suspended and did not resume until 1946-47.
The return to peacetime football was not kind to Halifax Town, and they would experience a torrid time, finishing bottom of the Third Division (North) for the first time, having set a club record of eight consecutive defeats during the course of that season.
And for the first time, they were forced to undergo a prolonged period without staging a home match as Britain suffered one of its worst winters on record.
Stranded at the foot of the table, the Shaymen had had the fillip of the wholly unexpected victory over runaway leaders Doncaster Rovers on 18 January, but their next home game a fortnight later would be their last for two months.
But that was bettered when they had a three month break in 1963 due to the big freeze.
Successive home matches with Reading and Bristol Rovers were postponed with snow lying deep across the Shay pitch, as was the scheduled match with Notts County on 26 January, a fixture that the newly created Pools Panel, of which local referee Arthur Ellis was one of its members, forecast a draw.
A week later Halifax beat Brighton 1-0, and then lost 4-2 to Shrewsbury on February 23.
But with games against Carlisle and Swindon called off, things weren’t looking too promising for the visit of Millwall on 2 March.
The Shay pitch now had a thick layer of ice covering it, with secretary Norman Howe liking it to an ice rink, but thinking along those lines, it was almost as if he’d struck gold.
Once referee Les Tirebrook had confirmed the inevitable – that the pitch was unplayable – Howe came up with a scheme to make money by taking full advantage of the state the Shay pitch now found itself in.
So, on that Saturday afternoon, the club opened its gates to let people use the Shay’s temporary ice rink, charging adults 2s 6d and children 1s 6d, and 1s for spectators, and incredibly, once word had got out, hundreds poured through the turnstiles to enjoy themselves skating on not-so-thinice.
It was a remarkable exercise and one that paid off – literally. For the few hours that The Shay stayed open £64 was taken at the gate, whilst Howe himself was kept busy serving cups of tea at 6d a time as records played over the tannoy system.
So successful was the venture that the club staged iceskating again the following day, and again on the Monday evening, and although charges were not made at the gate, donations taken meant that in the end almost £100 had been raised to aid Halifax Town’s cause.
But by the Tuesday, the thaw had begun, putting an end to any further skating, and by the following weekend things were returning to normal; Town drew 1-1 at Southend before staging what was their first home match the following Friday evening, exactly three months since their last game at The Shay.
Over five thousand spectators turned out for the visit of Colchester United, but in time honoured tradition, Town disappointed and lost 2-1..
Relegation became unavoidable, and indeed, was confirmed with five games of the season remaining.
By then, the fans had long since drifted away and the club slipped further into debt. All the more reason, then, to view Norman Howe’s ice skating idea not so much an exciting novelty, but more a moneymaking necessity.
By the time of the next protracted winter which decimated the football fixtures, Halifax Town found itself at its lowest ebb.
Stranded at the foot of the Fourth Division table since mid-October 1978, Lawson had paid the price and the board had installed former manager George Kirby in the hope he could turn things around.
Town managed to pick up a few points here and there, though it still left the side nine points off safety, these in the days of two points for a win.
The following week’s home defeat by Wigan Athletic was more in keeping with the side’s form, but the Shay faithful, whose numbers had been dropping by the score would not see their side play at home again until the following March.
As a prelude to what was to come, Town’s home game with
Doncaster Rovers on 23 December was called off because of a frozen pitch, and whilst the side played the Boxing Day derby match at neighbours Huddersfield Town and the game at Northampton Town, both of which were lost, Halifax Town remained inactive for nearly two months.
In the New Year freezing conditions gave way to snow, and lots of it, so much so that towards the end of January, the club acquired a bulldozer to clear the pitch of mounds of the stuff in the vain attempt to stage their matches.
For Halifax Town, these were particularly desperate times, their only source of regular income coming from the Shaymaker Lottery.
In those days, visiting teams picked up a percentage of the gate receipts, so Town were happy to return to action on 10 February at Crewe, even if they did go down 1-0.
The following week, with the Shay pitch under two feet of snow, the fixture with Rochdale hit the dust, and two attempts to stage the midweek game with Doncaster Rovers proved futile.
After games against Port Vale and Darlington, Town finally returned to The Shay when they hosted Portsmouth, 11 weeks since the last home game.
War, weather or coronavirus...football at The Shay has been stalled by all manner of means but we always came out the other side. I’m sure we will do again.