Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request TRFC Boxing Day match - 1960's

I'm trying to find out the date of a Boxing Day match at Prenton Park in the mid - 60's ,when it snowed heavily during the match & obliterated the pitch, although the game did finish.Does anybody out there have the details ? I think it was either 1964 or 1965.

Bob.

Somebody on the Cowsheds forum may be able to help you with that.

I think it was the same season they played Chelsea in the FA Cup third round(drew 3-3)1965-66. I was in the cowshed and could hardly see the edge of the penalty box.

The Chelsea game was 1962-63 season, but there was no home Boxing Day fixture then.

I've just checked the Complete Record book, and the mid '60s home Boxing Day fixtures were:
1963-64 v Barrow (1-1)
1964-65 v Rochdale (4-1)
1966-67 v Luton (1-0)

Sadly, as much as the book is a treasure trove of information, it does not comment on the matchday conditions, and as I was born in the early '60s, I'm a bit too young to remember!

This only a vague memory, but during the terrible snowbound winter of 1962-1963, Tranmere was one of the few grounds in the whole country that was left playable one Saturday (no idea why) and the TV cameras went there and broadcast the match - possibly the first time a game had been televised from there. Does anyone else remember this?

I floated the question over at the Cowsheds, and got this reply from one of the older posters over there (cheers ego!). Anyway, hope it helps:

"I'm sure I was at all of those mentioned, and I think the one you remember as snow filled was the Rochdale match. However, I've always remembered it as 5-1 and a cup match! So much for my memory - I'm sure the Complete Record is accurate - there's so much I never knew about the early history, it's fascinating. The snow that day was amazing, it would never have gone ahead now."

could you tell me what date and match was the 1st floodlit match at Tranmere please
I remember a few of us kids bunking in and then being passed down right to the front
Not sure if crowd was was about 20,000 then

Quoting from "The Football Grounds of Great Britain" by Simon Inglis, "Floodlights were first switched on at Prenton Park in September 1958 before a game v Rochdale".

The Complete Record book gives the attendance as 16,878, and the date as 29/09/58.

thanks
a coincidence that Rochdale is mentioned in both queiries

Here's more info on the Boxing Day game from one of my fellow posters on The Cowsheds forum (thanks Michelob!):

The season in question would be my chosen speciality subject if I ever appeared on Mastermind. I attended that Rochdale match and am pretty sure that we experienced a white out. I see that the attendance as 13,497 while about 2,000 braved the elements to trek across to Rochdale two days later for our 1-0 win on a freezing cold but sunny day with the pitch surrounded by banks of cleared snow. The away match was actually a rearranged one as we'd been to Spotland 2-3 weeks earlier for a match that began and ended in thick fog! There was time, however, for Charlie McDonnell to put us 1-0 up before a match that probably shouldn't have started was abandoned after 20 odd minutes.

Interestingly, that 1-0 win at Rochdale saw us score our 70th league goal with three days to spare before New Year's Eve and had we continued at that rate we'd have ended the season with 140. Unfortunately, as promotion nerves set in, the games got much tighter towards the end of the season and we notoriously missed out on promotion by a single point after a dfensive minded set up saw us lose our last match 1-0 at Donny.