INFLATABLE SEAGULL - £1.11 delivered

Notters said:

Hmmm, should we go all out with balloons, streamers, seagulls and beach balls... or should we have none of it as it hasn't worked previously?

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Seaford by the sea said:

Retro memories - However, for a short period at the end of the decade, something would raise the spirits of those still visiting the stadia of England. Around 1987, City supporter Frank Newton brought a large inflatable banana to a match in Division Two. The reaction was unexpectedly positive for such a violent environment and quickly more and more bananas found their way onto the sweeping Kippax terraces for home games. It was, however -- as has often been the case down the years -- the away experience that really had to be seen to be believed that season.

Wherever City travelled, thousands followed, and by the time the teams emerged, the majority of away fans held an inflatable of some kind. The visual impact was quite stunning. Football, in its dire hour of need, had been partially rescued by a sea of blown-up childrens' toys. This quickly became newsworthy. "Bananas To You Maggie" screamed the back page of the Daily Mirror. Football had after all only succeeded in delivering bad news stories for the best part of a decade and this was well worth publicising. From the journey to the ground, to the prematch pubs, the inflatables craze had completely taken over.

You can watch a great news report of how inflatables took over the terraces right here.

The fad took a real hold during the 1988-99 season, with City coming out to an away following of over 13,000 at Stoke on Boxing Day, seemingly all holding aloft one object or another. The arresting sight was completed by the players themselves carrying inflatables and tossing them over the fences into the crowd. The highest form of flattery is to copy and Stoke returned to Maine Road with 3,000 blow-up Pink Panthers later that same season.

However, the fight between a giant Godzilla and an unfeasibly large blow-up Frankenstein at The Hawthorns was seen as perhaps the pinnacle of this shortlived but warmly remembered phase. In a few short months football had travelled from the horrors of knife-wielding gangs on the terraces, nail-spiked golf balls and airborne darts to this. As with today's over-excited political correctness, an army of killjoys were waiting just around the corner and the claim that thousands of large plastic objects were obscuring people's view of the game was put forward. Gradually, the craze blew over, with one last humdinging day out afforded the bananas, paddling pools, crocodiles and cigars at Valley Parade, Bradford, where City scraped a last minute equaliser through Trevor Morley to edge promotion ahead of Crystal Palace.

Arsenal were the first to officially ban the objects from their ground. As ever, a harmless bit of fun that reached its zenith at West Bromwich Albion one sepia-tinted 80s evening, was laid to rest by the know-it-alls that still infest the sport to this day.

There will be not a single inflatable among the City fans seated in tidy rows at The Hawthorns on Wednesday. Not one supporter will be standing. Stewards will prowl incessantly to gauge language, posture and etiquette. Our great game has come a long way, but has also suffered great over-sanitisation in the process.

Inflatable seagulls day anyone? v blackburn (kids cheap tickets day)

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Seaford by the sea said:

Retro memories - However, for a short period at the end of the decade, something would raise the spirits of those still visiting the stadia of England. Around 1987, City supporter Frank Newton brought a large inflatable banana to a match in Division Two. The reaction was unexpectedly positive for such a violent environment and quickly more and more bananas found their way onto the sweeping Kippax terraces for home games. It was, however -- as has often been the case down the years -- the away experience that really had to be seen to be believed that season.

Wherever City travelled, thousands followed, and by the time the teams emerged, the majority of away fans held an inflatable of some kind. The visual impact was quite stunning. Football, in its dire hour of need, had been partially rescued by a sea of blown-up childrens' toys. This quickly became newsworthy. "Bananas To You Maggie" screamed the back page of the Daily Mirror. Football had after all only succeeded in delivering bad news stories for the best part of a decade and this was well worth publicising. From the journey to the ground, to the prematch pubs, the inflatables craze had completely taken over.

You can watch a great news report of how inflatables took over the terraces right here.

The fad took a real hold during the 1988-99 season, with City coming out to an away following of over 13,000 at Stoke on Boxing Day, seemingly all holding aloft one object or another. The arresting sight was completed by the players themselves carrying inflatables and tossing them over the fences into the crowd. The highest form of flattery is to copy and Stoke returned to Maine Road with 3,000 blow-up Pink Panthers later that same season.

However, the fight between a giant Godzilla and an unfeasibly large blow-up Frankenstein at The Hawthorns was seen as perhaps the pinnacle of this shortlived but warmly remembered phase. In a few short months football had travelled from the horrors of knife-wielding gangs on the terraces, nail-spiked golf balls and airborne darts to this. As with today's over-excited political correctness, an army of killjoys were waiting just around the corner and the claim that thousands of large plastic objects were obscuring people's view of the game was put forward. Gradually, the craze blew over, with one last humdinging day out afforded the bananas, paddling pools, crocodiles and cigars at Valley Parade, Bradford, where City scraped a last minute equaliser through Trevor Morley to edge promotion ahead of Crystal Palace.

Arsenal were the first to officially ban the objects from their ground. As ever, a harmless bit of fun that reached its zenith at West Bromwich Albion one sepia-tinted 80s evening, was laid to rest by the know-it-alls that still infest the sport to this day.

There will be not a single inflatable among the City fans seated in tidy rows at The Hawthorns on Wednesday. Not one supporter will be standing. Stewards will prowl incessantly to gauge language, posture and etiquette. Our great game has come a long way, but has also suffered great over-sanitisation in the process.

Inflatable seagulls day anyone? v blackburn (kids cheap tickets day)

Click to expand...

skr80 said:

Available again:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003PW9Q32/?tag=ho01f-21

buy via the Express goods uk on the right and remember to click via the NSC link to Amazon

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