Unfortunately, due to playing commitments I couldn't always make it down to Tigers. Being an amateur club at the time the admission prices to Tigers games were a lot lower and in contrast to today there would only be one or two thousand spectators for most games. The one match for which the schoolboy pass did not work, however was the big game on the day after Boxing Day versus the Barbarians.

The Big game

Everyone wanted to be there, rugby players, and their friends, would come from all over the east midlands for that game. The ground would be full to its capacity of 18,000. Hold on I hear you say, "He can't mean 18,000, that's more than the current capacity at Welford Road!" But glance with me to the right in 1970 and you will see a huge mound of cinders that used to stand where the A&L stand now is at the Welford Road end. This mound would be covered with standing spectators for the Babaas game, the game of the year for most of the Leicester players.

In this game it was fairly usual for the Tigers to get off to a good start and take the lead. Tigers worked as a team and managed to outfox the string of internationals whilst they got used to playing with one another. As the game progressed the Babaas would begin to find some cohesion to go with their undoubted individual flare and start scoring tries from all parts of the pitch. The Tigers would try to hang on to their lead with fierce tackles, roared on by the tigerish crowd. It was always great stuff to watch.

At the end the players would form the traditional tunnel to clap the opposition from the pitch. Unlike today, this happened at the Aylestone Road end because the changing rooms were the located in the Club House. This made it more natural that the address of the Leicester Football Club was and is Aylestone Road whilst the ground was known as Welford Road.

The ground was also used for matches between the Midlands and touring sides and would be close to full to see if the Midlands team, that always included several Tigers, could put one over on the All Blacks etc. Very occasionally they did.

Somethings never change... but some do

However, for the regular friendlies, and not so friendlies against the likes of Northampton, Coventry and any of several Welsh teams (Llanelli, Pontypool, Cardiff, Swansea, Newport), the crowd was smaller and I was able to walk up and down the Crumbie Terrace. Most of the time I could watch a lineout on the north side of the pitch at 10 yards range. In those days the Tigers almost never won against Welsh opposition or Coventry. This was the Coventry of David Duckham. At that time two of the teachers at my school played for the Tigers, Mike Harrison (centre) and Robin Money (full back).

Top notch coaching

In 1968, the Tigers made the best signing in their history. They obtained a coach called Chalkie White. Chalkie attracted quality players. He was a coach who encouraged his players to think and he was especially good at coaching the backs. We started to beat Welsh sides at home and, perhaps more significantly, Coventry.

Towards the end of the 70s a string of players joined who went on to represent England; Les Cusworth, Dusty Hare, Clive Woodward and Paul Dodge. There was also Barry Evans, an excellent winger who scored lots of tries. It was a team in which the backs outshone the forwards, unusual in the history of the Tigers something that was put right in the 1980s.

There was a tradition of players having names that made it easy to identify them on the field. Eric Bann wore E. Garry Adey wore G. RObin MOney wore O. Brace (Peter Wheeler) wore B. Bleddyn Jones, and a later era Jez Harris, wore J. Did Dave Forfar wear F? Somehow numbers don't have the same associations.

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