|
Post by hereclesdrumming on Aug 17, 2015 15:55:49 GMT
Bloody hell. Pete 'Beynay' Johnson. What a lovely bloke. I knocked about with him and Pat at school. He did not give a 'f' for authority and was the master of funny sarcasm. We went fishing together and I remember the times after we left school meeting Pete at the ground and the great banter. Stoke City and cricket mad. He never had a fight at school from what I remember, mind you he was often not there... I was really upset when I heard he had passed on.
|
|
|
Post by newsteadst3 on Aug 17, 2015 17:27:05 GMT
These kind of stories are worth millions compared to these football culture documentaries we have to endure every 6 months.. .
|
|
|
Post by leader9 on Aug 17, 2015 18:28:16 GMT
Pep. Ay up yoth ,Great to see you on train going to Spurs.Me and the lad Skid knocked off another 12 real ale pubs. Good that thowd lads are still there,this being my 51st year of watching Stoke away from home.
I've checked the date on my Hibs programme and we went up on 16th November 1976 to see us win 1-0.
I cannot find a definite date we sold Greenhoff to the SHIT but it was November 1976.
Talking about Pete and what a great lad he was I could tell so many stories - who could ever forget Petes SCFC tattoo on the inside of his lip.
My favourite story was in March 1975 when we played West Ham and Arsenal away on successive days,we drew them both.
After 2 big days down London I remember about 20 of us who were all stopping at Froggys and Pats in Turnham Green.We all staggered off the tube late at night and were crossing the park when a random man appeared in the middle of our pissed up gang
Pete thought it would be funny to pick up a very heavy waste paper bin and put it on the random mans head.I warned the man that it would be best to run.Pete staggered after him and Pete got closer and closer, a bizarre sight
I yelled at the man, F...ing run mate. he turned round and sped off whilst Pete collapsed and lay on the grass laughing. The random man surprisingly was in fact a very fast runner. RIP Pete so many memories of you and Joyce.
|
|
|
Post by castlelad on Aug 17, 2015 18:36:49 GMT
The Norwich trip was a pisser. We had brek and Mark Bentley bought 2 boxes of Daz before emptying them in the fountains in the centre of Norwich. Soap suds everywhere!! Then there was the trip to Torquay in another friendly which ended with over 100 Stokies playing football on the beach! Unforgettable times
|
|
|
Post by misterj on Aug 17, 2015 21:25:35 GMT
thanks for all the reminiscing boys, excellent. Finally, would just like to say that Pete, out of all the 'departed Stokies' had most to do with Coddy, Hazo (Shelton guy) Mark Bentley, Joycey and 'Cockney Steve' (Henry) Out of the living Stokies there's too many of you to mention but Pat in Holland and Jimmy (Ring Dang) in Hong Kong were two places he loved to go and stay at. When I'm retired and have bundles of time on my hands, I'll get n touch with y'all and we'll put a book together. Remember someone saying that to me at his funeral - that's one for another day..................... As it says on his grave ....'We'll Be With You'
|
|
|
Post by The Stubborn Optimist on Aug 17, 2015 22:16:01 GMT
Pep. Ay up yoth ,Great to see you on train going to Spurs.Me and the lad Skid knocked off another 12 real ale pubs. Good that thowd lads are still there,this being my 51st year of watching Stoke away from home. I've checked the date on my Hibs programme and we went up on 16th November 1976 to see us win 1-0. I cannot find a definite date we sold Greenhoff to the SHIT but it was November 1976. Talking about Pete and what a great lad he was I could tell so many stories - who could ever forget Petes SCFC tattoo on the inside of his lip. My favourite story was in March 1975 when we played West Ham and Arsenal away on successive days,we drew them both. After 2 big days down London I remember about 20 of us who were all stopping at Froggys and Pats in Turnham Green.We all staggered off the tube late at night and were crossing the park when a random man appeared in the middle of our pissed up gang Pete thought it would be funny to pick up a very heavy waste paper bin and put it on the random mans head.I warned the man that it would be best to run.Pete staggered after him and Pete got closer and closer, a bizarre sight I yelled at the man, F...ing run mate. he turned round and sped off whilst Pete collapsed and lay on the grass laughing. The random man surprisingly was in fact a very fast runner. RIP Pete so many memories of you and Joyce. Good to see you and Skiddo too mate. That game at West Ham was on Good Friday 1975. Went with my mate Smiffy, stayed at his brother's in Parsons Green. We drew 2-2 at West Ham then played Arsenal on Easter Saturday, think we drew 0-0. We all met up in a pub in Westminster (I think) on the Saturday night and got hammered, I bet that that's where you lot were staggering back from. We then played Liverpool at home on Easter Monday, pretty sure we won 2-0. Can't imagine that now, 3 games in 4 days!
|
|
|
Post by The Stubborn Optimist on Aug 17, 2015 22:25:02 GMT
The Norwich trip was a pisser. We had brek and Mark Bentley bought 2 boxes of Daz before emptying them in the fountains in the centre of Norwich. Soap suds everywhere!! Then there was the trip to Torquay in another friendly which ended with over 100 Stokies playing football on the beach! Unforgettable times Forgot about the soap in the fountain, pisser. Remember the trip to Plymouth in the Watney Cup? Another epic trip from The Inset. A certain Mr. Grey nicked their official flag if I remember. We were scrapping with Plymouth all day long, seem to remember actually ending up in all four sides of the ground at different times during the game. Didn't "Home on the range!" Get it's first airing at Plymouth?
|
|
|
Post by misterj on Aug 18, 2015 14:10:10 GMT
Has been absolutely hilarious reading everyone's memoirs - in fact it is a book in the making, a young lad at Pete's funeral (Chris) said to me "we ought to do a book called The Mountain Man of Stoke". A more apt title might be 'The Original Boothen Boot Boy' (just a working title you understand) So, if you'd like to e-mail your memories (all the ones in this thread will go into 'the mix' anyhow) and we'll do a small-ish self-published book on Amazon / Kindle that everyone can access for a few pennies. Pat (Holland) says put him down for 5 chapters worth of stories. We won't be condoning / glamourising violence, just pointing out some of the light-hearted S**T that used to take place between rival fans. (let's face it, most of it was banter / 'handbags at dawn' and a lot of people were that drunk they couldn't have seriously harmed anyone anyhow !) My e-mail address is philipjohnson2009@hotmail.com Please give some sort of reference name to use (even if it's made up) and consider that it might be early 2016 before I actually get round to doing it. I'll direct message everyone who's contributed to this thread towards end-of-the-year anyway to ask if you want to submit more ? If someone gives me a lot of material, they'll have their own chapter otherwise I'll categorize into themes (e.g. fashion, drinking holes, songs from the terraces, brushes with the 'law', taking the opposition's 'End', away day transport antics etc etc) Thanks everyone.
|
|
|
Post by symons55 on Aug 8, 2017 12:52:26 GMT
The Norwich trip was a pisser. We had brek and Mark Bentley bought 2 boxes of Daz before emptying them in the fountains in the centre of Norwich. Soap suds everywhere!! Then there was the trip to Torquay in another friendly which ended with over 100 Stokies playing football on the beach! Unforgettable times Forgot about the soap in the fountain, pisser. Remember the trip to Plymouth in the Watney Cup? Another epic trip from The Inset. A certain Mr. Grey nicked their official flag if I remember. We were scrapping with Plymouth all day long, seem to remember actually ending up in all four sides of the ground at different times during the game. Didn't "Home on the range!" Get it's first airing at Plymouth? Yes it did and that was one of my all time favourite "days out" remember running round home park with mental terror written across my forehead !!
|
|
|
Post by str8outtahampton on Aug 19, 2017 14:56:50 GMT
A bit belated I know but thought I'd share this. Big Pete was the original, hard-core home and away fan in the 60's and, as my eldest brother, started taking me to away matches by early 70's. Very noticeable in those days how few Stoke fans there were at London matches, there'd be about 50 or so, in fact so few that if you hung around the player's entrance then local lads on the fringes of the team such as Ian Moores or Sean Hazlegrave would walk over and hand out complimentary tickets. Big Pete was a veteran of Stoke's first euro-ventures at Ajax and Kaiserslautern where maybe a couple of hundred fans travelled, how times have changed with 10 times that many having travelled to the friendlies in Cologne. He was a bit old school having preferred the Vic Ground and saw the new stadium being built, commenting that it looked like a space ship had landed in the middle of nowhere. (Some would agree !) I think he'd have been enthralled by the standard of play now as well as Prem status but would have raised an eyebrow at the lack of English lads in the team. (even Liverpool - supposedly bigger than us - had more English players on the pitch last week ?) He was an original Boothen boot-boy usually meeting up at the Wharf pub before it was demolished to make way for the D road. It was surreal that he'd sometimes be involved in a bit of mayhem at the match and then next morning would be saying hello to John Mahoney and Terry Conroy at Stoke's catholic church ! He put all that behind him later and was just as interested in watching cricket, some of you might know him from being a season ticket holder at Staffordshire CCC matches - all good memories ! I'm assuming it's you Phil who's posted this in memory of your brother Pete Johnson. I've got plenty of memories of Pete, much like Nick has said, when I started to go to aways on my own around 70/71 Pete was always a face I would see, he would always keep an eye out for us young 'uns. At the risk of sounding like some owd codger it was very different in those days. Away games in particular could, very often, be a very scary experience. Although Stoke didn't have massive away followings those lads that did go would look out for each other, much to this young lad's relief. Talk of Pete also brings back memories of some of the other lads of that time, the likes of Joycie, Pat, 'Batch, Scaddy, KP, Froggy, Wilf, Bert, Topsy, to name but a few. Like you rightly say Stoke didn't take many to London back then, certainly not like the 1,500(?) who'll be at Spurs on Saturday. I'll be there with my lad and I'll take a moment to remember Pete Johnson. Apologies, Dave and MisterJ, as this is slightly off-piste. I did not know PJ - altho doubtless was at many of the same games - but I do remember 'Batch. More accurately I knew his sister well. He was the loveliest, most thoughtful, gentle chap. I have a feeling he went on to a very successful academic career. I also have a feeling it was he that organised buses to Carlisle, QPR and elsewhere at the start of the 74/75 season. This was before I had met him, and I remember well a couple of schoolfriends telling me they had "tickets" (I seriously doubt there was in fact a ticket, btw) on the "silly bus". On the Friday evening before the Carlisle game, I pored over the Yellow Pages and called Greatrex Travel (you can see how I had put 2 and 2 together and made something other than 4), desperately trying to source a seat. So naïve. The tales on Monday at school following those trips were brilliant.
|
|
|
Post by The Stubborn Optimist on Aug 22, 2017 11:02:53 GMT
I'm assuming it's you Phil who's posted this in memory of your brother Pete Johnson. I've got plenty of memories of Pete, much like Nick has said, when I started to go to aways on my own around 70/71 Pete was always a face I would see, he would always keep an eye out for us young 'uns. At the risk of sounding like some owd codger it was very different in those days. Away games in particular could, very often, be a very scary experience. Although Stoke didn't have massive away followings those lads that did go would look out for each other, much to this young lad's relief. Talk of Pete also brings back memories of some of the other lads of that time, the likes of Joycie, Pat, 'Batch, Scaddy, KP, Froggy, Wilf, Bert, Topsy, to name but a few. Like you rightly say Stoke didn't take many to London back then, certainly not like the 1,500(?) who'll be at Spurs on Saturday. I'll be there with my lad and I'll take a moment to remember Pete Johnson. Apologies, Dave and MisterJ, as this is slightly off-piste. I did not know PJ - altho doubtless was at many of the same games - but I do remember 'Batch. More accurately I knew his sister well. He was the loveliest, most thoughtful, gentle chap. I have a feeling he went on to a very successful academic career. I also have a feeling it was he that organised buses to Carlisle, QPR and elsewhere at the start of the 74/75 season. This was before I had met him, and I remember well a couple of schoolfriends telling me they had "tickets" (I seriously doubt there was in fact a ticket, btw) on the "silly bus". On the Friday evening before the Carlisle game, I pored over the Yellow Pages and called Greatrex Travel (you can see how I had put 2 and 2 together and made something other than 4), desperately trying to source a seat. So naïve. The tales on Monday at school following those trips were brilliant. You're right about 'Batch Max, he did go on to a career in academia, I think he's based up in Geordieland, either Durham or Newcastle Uni. The silly buses were a joint venture between 'Batch and my mate Russ (whose missus printed the "tickets" whilst at work at Spode offices, they often included the words "no scarves, no runners"). I went to Ajax away with Batch (still got some snaps somewhere of the trip), that was probably the silly trip to end all silly trips and is worthy of a chapter in a book in itself.
|
|