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General Category => Altrincham FC First Team => Topic started by: York Alty on May 26, 2010, 10:59:42 PM
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I started watching Alty in 1979. I can clearly remember Noel White giving out free tickets, seemingly at random, outside Moss Lane. I can also remember the Golf Road once singing (at christmas) "Noel, Noel,Noel's the chairman of Altrincham" to tune of the crimbo carol. Peter Swales and Noel White played pivotal roles in getting the club motoring well before I started getting into Alty so I'd love to read any memories our more long standing fans have of this pair. A lovely piece on the main site, but we're looking for the anecdotes. So memories please...
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Vividly remember my dad's stories of the summer 61 White and Swales takeover at a moribund Moss Lane. Story goes that when they walked in to the ground the door fell off its hinges. Brought in some glamour, big names for the 61/62 season and issued super cheapy season tickets ( ten bob?), bringing in huge crowds. A couple of seasons later Freddie Pye, then Swindells, and the rest is history.
Never met Peter Swales, but I did once interview Noel White for a school project. Very kindly, unpatronising, and extremely generous with his time. Those were the days.
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Approximately, 30 years ago I was captain of the Altrincham Supporters team which played the Bowdon Hotel at Moss Lane in a end of season friendly. Noel White was captain of the opposition, & played centre half. He in his earlier years plaed for the Cheshire County Amateur side.
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I can remember every single home game without fail Brian Sweeney telling us how he'd stormed into Noel White's office that week and given him what for......"you could plant potatoes on the wing" was one of his favourite constructive criticisms...he also had some beef about the supporters building the middle section of the popular side 20 years since but could never understand what his complaint was...just that the fans had built it I think...........
Brought in some glamour, big names for the 61/62 season and issued super cheapy season tickets ( ten bob?),......should have seen it was unsustainable madness bloody sugar daddies.......
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well over thirty years ago george I started at the Bowdon in 1979 and never played in the same team as Mr White or played against you .
Did Dave baldwin Play ? Heald green Alty's Dad Charlie the Chef would have been in goal, possibly the late great Henry Burke starring up front.
supporters team at the time to include Noel (cant believe he still plays )and Nigel Tomlinson
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well over thirty years ago george I started at the Bowdon in 1979 and never played in the same team as Mr White or played against you .
Did Dave baldwin Play ? Heald green Alty's Dad Charlie the Chef would have been in goal, possibly the late great Henry Burke starring up front.
supporters team at the time to include Noel (cant believe he still plays )and Nigel Tomlinson
former classmate of mine at Bradbury Grammer !!
he is a relative of Noel White if memory serves me well
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..he also had some beef about the supporters building the middle section of the popular side 20 years since but could never understand what his complaint was...just that the fans had built it I think...........
Well he had a point! That middle section blew away in a storm didn't it?
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..he also had some beef about the supporters building the middle section of the popular side 20 years since but could never understand what his complaint was...just that the fans had built it I think...........
Well he had a point! That middle section blew away in a storm didn't it?
It came down shortly after the Chester FACup replay when it had had the BBC studio on top of it. I can't prove any connection but the strong suspicion was that the extra burden helped an already rather dodgy structure on its way ...
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Approximately, 30 years ago I was captain of the Altrincham Supporters team which played the Bowdon Hotel at Moss Lane in a end of season friendly. Noel White was captain of the opposition, & played centre half. He in his earlier years plaed for the Cheshire County Amateur side.
Circa 1948 ;D
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Brian, Even I was only 8 in 1948.
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Brian, Even I was only 8 in 1948.
Then why don't you join in like Gareth does at training?! ;D
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Gazelle,
Henry Burke? - was this the guy I knew, regular in the Stamford Arms, parents lived on New Street and he lived in a flat being the top half of a 12930s semi in Timperley somewhere off Riddings Road? Mates with the now ever present in the NWS after home matches, Paul Sinclair of Sinclair & Coombes infamy?
TA
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Thats the man
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Thanks, Gazelle,
He was a star, lovely geezer. I read his obituary in the SAM a few years ago. A very sad loss. He was so pretty young to have such a terrible condition.
Much missed....
TA
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Brian, Even I was only 8 in 1948.
Only the very young and the very beautiful can be so aloof
Hanging out with the boys, all swagger and poise
I don't even care what other people are there
I just stare and stare and stare
I see your shadow in the swimming pool
I see your face in the shaving mirror
Time and time and time again
I follow your footsteps so quietly up the backstairs
And I hope and I pray you're never going to find me there
Smooth skin and tenderness long ago on a dark night
Wish I could see you once again just to remember it was true
I want to be still beside you - quiet and still beside you
Listening to your breathing and feeling your warmth again
War baby - you were a
War baby - this means
War baby - I'm scared, so scared
Of whatever it is you keep putting me through
I don't think I could stand another ten years of this fighting
All this stabbing and wounding - only getting my own back
I don't want to batter you to your feet and knees and elbows
When I'm kneeling like a candle at the foot of my own bed
Corresponding disasters every night on the TV
Sickening reality keeps gripping me in its guts
All my friends talk and joke and laugh about Armageddon
But like a nightmare it's still waiting there at the end of every day
War baby - you were a
War baby - this means
War baby - I'm scared, so scared
Of whatever it is you keep putting me through
I don't think I could stand another ten years of this fighting
All this stabbing and wounding - only getting my own back
But later that same evening we were out in the car talking
When I suddenly wondered who the hell it was we were trying to fool
Co you were the first one that I ever wanted
And it's you I come home to at the end of every day
Like a mother-sucking baby, demanding and so helpless
A little old balding man, all wrinkles and bulging eyes
War baby - you were a
War baby - this means
War baby - I'm scared, so scared
Of whatever it is you keep putting me through
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Noel has been one of the most brilliant Alty fans and quite simply should be recognised a a collossus in the English game. A man of passion and very high morals. Why he hasn't recevied an OBE or something I just don't know.
He knew my late Dad back in the 30's and they used to play together in the Brown St, Bold St, Byrom St area of Hale, not far from where Peter Swales used to have an office also.
When my Dad left us in 2003, he was on the 'phone to me for nearly an hour the minute he read Dad's obituary in the paper. A great friend.
Lots of folk didn't like Peter Swales, but he really cared about the game. They were an awesome partnership. In these days they would have driven Alty into the league and upwards had they had the benefit of the cash that slops around in the game now. Noel assembled a brilliant board, nearly 10 of them at one point, and each had their own job to do. It was a team off the picth that was at least as good as the one on the pitch from 1972 to 1980.
We really should campaign (write to Cameron & Co.) to get Noel the recognition he deserves.
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My Dad bought his first record from White & Swales (it was a Beatles one,but can't for my life remember which one), and it was from the shop he got into the club, and ended up going most Saturday nights to the Red Robin Club.
So my dad had Noel to thank of getting into the football club, which in turn got me onto it. If only he hadn't got that bloody record :D