City 1963 (1 Viewer)

[Flying Fokker]

Winter 63. Fact I didn’t know about CCFC

Coaches of today moan about fixture congestion. Coventry City Results Fixtures 1962/1963

disrupted the season of 1963. When Middlesbrough beat Blackburn 3-1 in a replay at Ayresome Park on 11 March, this brought to an end the most chaotic third round in the then 91-year history of the FA Cup. The round had begun on 5 January and lasted 66 days through frost, snow, ice, power cuts, thaw, rain and mud. The third round was spread over 22 different playing days and there were 261 postponements. Sixteen of the 32 ties were called off 10 or more times.

Topping the list was Birmingham v Bury, which stretched through 14 postponements plus one abandonment and a replay, while Lincoln v Coventry was postponed 15 times. The record was set in Scotland, where the Stranraer v Airdrie cup tie was postponed 33 times, while in Yorkshire Barnsley played only two matches between 22 December and 12 March. It was Britain's coldest winter since 1740 and also caused mass postponements in both rugby codes and the loss of 61 days of National Hunt racing.

 

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[slowpoke]

Remember it well Jimmy Hills first full season as manager, took three matches to eat Portsmouth the third game on neutral ground, White Hart Lane, then we had Sunderland at home with 40000+ official gate but gates broken down and estimated over 60000+ in the ground before losing in the quarter final to Man United. Never been a winter like it since.

 

[the rumpo kid]

It would take me loads more than three batches to eat Portsmouth

 

[thekidfromstrettoncamp]

Dietmar and George shut the Blaydon Races that night against Sunderland.The games were given the go ahead at short notice just to get them played might be shedule for Tuesday called off and played the next night.

 

[Old Warwickshire lad]

Snow drifted up the front of our house,you could open the bedroom window and scoop up snow to make a snowball.

 

[slowpoke]

It started snowing in October and snowed every day until March, no schools closed, well mine didn’t, had to walk over a mile to school length of Widdrington Road and Kingfield Road, outside toilets froze and had chemical loos for months, yuk, and no football but the sledging was great.

 

[oscillatewildly]

Snow drifted up the front of our house,you could open the bedroom window and scoop up snow to make a snowball.

 

[oscillatewildly]

It started snowing in October and snowed every day until March, no schools closed, well mine didn’t, had to walk over a mile to school length of Widdrington Road and Kingfield Road, outside toilets froze and had chemical loos for months, yuk, and no football but the sledging was great.

'Every cloud', etc.

 

[oscillatewildly]

Because of the huge sporting backlog I think the 1963 FA Cup Final wasn't played until June.

 

[oscillatewildly]

Whoops! - Just checked - It was played 25th May (which is still quite late for May and considering the final was occasionally played in April)
I collect Cup Final programmes but they're all up in the loft!

 

[slowpoke]

We played our much postponed third round tie at Lincoln first week in March, our fourth round v Portsmouth which was three games because we had two replays one on neutral ground, Tottenham, the fifth round v Sunderland and quarter-final against Man United by the end of March.
The cup run and all the postponements probably cost us promotion we were playing games every two or three days. But as kid it was a great time and and bitten by the birth of the Sky Blue era.