Re: 1954 Challenge Cup Final Replay : Tue May 06, 2014 12:18 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

No, there were only 50,000 there but the stadium authorities doubled the crowd so they could pay tax on 50,000 tickets they never sold, and share out between the two teams gate money they never took! That seems by far the most plausible explanation to me.

They impressively managed to make sure not a single person in on this conspiracy ever grassed. A bit like the fake moon landings, maybe it was the same people what done it.

Can't be true, the game didn't even take place as it wasn't on Sky.

Re: 1954 Challenge Cup Final Replay : Tue May 06, 2014 12:24 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

No, there were only 50,000 there but the stadium authorities doubled the crowd so they could pay tax on 50,000 tickets they never sold, and share out between the two teams gate money they never took! That seems by far the most plausible explanation to me.

They impressively managed to make sure not a single person in on this conspiracy ever grassed. A bit like the fake moon landings, maybe it was the same people what done it.

I love the fake moon landing conspiracies! They're always so certain and so outraged, yet so wrong!

Re: 1954 Challenge Cup Final Replay : Tue May 06, 2014 12:26 pm  

how about you all just pack it in making sarcastic jokes and enjoy the picture.

nice piece of history.

Re: 1954 Challenge Cup Final Replay : Tue May 06, 2014 12:29 pm  

tigerdan wrote:

how about you all just pack it in making sarcastic jokes and enjoy the picture.

nice piece of history.

I can multitask.

Re: 1954 Challenge Cup Final Replay : Tue May 06, 2014 12:30 pm  

If you think access from Salford on a Friday night with 5-6000 is bad? Then spare a thought for the 1954 fans.
I spoke to a couple of old timers who attended the game. They said that the Penines back to Lancashire at midnight thirty was bumper to bumper with coaches.

Re: 1954 Challenge Cup Final Replay : Tue May 06, 2014 12:33 pm  

knockersbumpMKII wrote:

It's interesting to view the original glass plate photos rather than all the many doctored 'cut & paste' media issued photos that show the ground completely full all the way around the stadium(yours looks like a copy of an original plate)
Many photos had differing names/sponsors on the roof of the stand for commerical purposes and it has been shown that the crowd were copied from other sections and pasted onto an enlargement and it then reprinted as 'original' for the press and such like.

The stadium had around 60k for the first final, to suggest it had almost double is extremely doubtful, epsecially when you look at the photographs of the crowds at Odsal for previous finals and their 'official' attendances are around the 60-66k mark

It's kind of sad to dismantle folklore but it is very likely true there were not anywhere near 100k that day..
kindly reproduced from myyorkshire.org (fact or fiction)

Are you Gutterfax in disguise?

Re: 1954 Challenge Cup Final Replay : Tue May 06, 2014 1:26 pm  

is the above photo from a low budget horror movie, it looks like a giant rabbit is about to devour a whole section of the crowd and the terracing they are stood on.

I must look for the DVD.

Re: 1954 Challenge Cup Final Replay : Tue May 06, 2014 2:40 pm  

The conspiracy theories are very funny!

As I said originally, my Granddad refereed the match and this framed picture was bought for him many years ago as a present. He told the story to me many times that the picture was exactly what it was like, and the stated attendance was correct. He is sadly no longer with us, and the picture was passed to me by my Nan. It now sits pride of place on our wall at home, and I look forward to telling my 2 year old son about his Great Granddad when he is a bit older.

I will be at Odsal on Sunday to watch the Saints match and I always look at the ground when I visit and try to imagine what it would have been like.

I'm sure my other Granddad and Great Uncle, who were massive Wakefield and Castleford fans respectively, told me many times that they were two of the people who got in without tickets too.

Amazing stuff

Re: 1954 Challenge Cup Final Replay : Tue May 06, 2014 2:57 pm  

Everybody wanted to watch the mega-stars of the period... Brain Bevan, Harry Bath (c) and Gerry Helme.

Re: 1954 Challenge Cup Final Replay : Tue May 06, 2014 3:03 pm  

Burnley Dave is absolutely correct about the attendance. I was there for the Trinity versus Wigan championship final in around 1959 and the crowd was 97,000 then. My brother and I were actually sat on the field behind the posts. Them wuz the days.....! Having said that, I love the game as much now as I did then.