WSF. The Origins Of Casuals In Brighton.

[thecavern]

Haha very honest of you. Her mate was a dark one wasn't she? It's true that Biba
did look the part always had a good audience too.

 

[Taybha]

yep i thought i had more chance with her/his pal,never really had the piss ripped out of me for it probably due to the fact that most had had a bash also

 

[Rowdey]

I've always thought it was Biba.. Barry and Biba ?

Unlikely to be two transexuals with the almost the same name..

Edit: in the original post Cavern said Bibi, now see you call her Biba, so i was right

 

[1 night only]

Quality read thanks Cavern

 

[smudge]

That Spurs game was definitely one of the liveliest weekends in town around that era.

 

[1066 seagull]

Your recollections are admirable. I had totally forgotten about owning the layout of the reels of a JPM fruit machine (from memory three melons paid the highest - two quid I think). And yes that handwriting chap in The Cavern, although for some reason we called the place Annabell's (was that just me or was it also known as that?)

As well as the WSF I remember an older firm/group/mob called 'The Longheads' who use to show up for the 'big' games - or is my memory failing me?

Anyway look forward to reading more, you create a great sense of time and place...

 

[brulee]

drilled pennies with cotton would get u four bells. 10p. tottenham night. burnt boats on the beeches,one stabbing at the clock tower. tottenham fans locked up underneath the underpass.crazy days

 

[daveinprague]

Doing reggae parties around town at the time I ended up knowing a lot of people by face, but not really by name...

I dont know what crew it was, but..and cant even remember when it was, its dim history...but anybody reading it, and were there will remember...

I turned up at the station to go to Cambridge, and met somebody I knew who said...8 quid for ticket? ..weve got a van...2 quid..
sounds good..
I was directed to the vehicle that was parked down the road under the station, and it had a small hatch on the side for getting in and out...

I got in and found probably 15 people in the dark inside...

Going through Croydon we stopped at off license and basically robbed the place...think I was the only one who actually bought anything, and getting back in the van, discovered the middle of the van full of crates of beer, vodka, bacardi, whisky, cigarettes...

We got pretty pissed.... when we hit Cambridge.. lots of windy roads, people started hurling...only way to get rid of the vomit was piss it out the hatch..lovely finding yourself on the floor at any point from that moment....we looked and smelled delightful...

arrived at ground....one of those seen it all sergeants took one look at us emerging from the hatch and told us all to stay where we were..

Made us go thru the kids entrance to get us off the street....
I feel asleep on the terrace.... woke at halftime and it was 1-1 and it stayed that way...

After the match find out that the effing driver has gone to see family miles away and wasnt back..so headed into center of Cambridge, where a cinema queue..i kid you not..was attacked... remember seeing a shoe go through a 1st floor window following a kicking attempt on a cinema patron...

Then we stopped in some dorp called Royston...next to a large wall that was decorated with Brighton graffitti... whilst in fish and chip shop q...somebody saw cambridge fans going into some pub disco affair... it went off in there..police came..arrested a few... didnt leave Cambridge till really late..

pretty boring story, but anybody who was in the van will probably remember a lot more than me...

 

[brulee]

strange. i went to cambrige once. our coach got an escort all the way back to london.

 

[thecavern]

Your recollections are admirable. I had totally forgotten about owning the layout of the reels of a JPM fruit machine (from memory three melons paid the highest - two quid I think). And yes that handwriting chap in The Cavern, although for some reason we called the place Annabell's (was that just me or was it also known as that?)

As well as the WSF I remember an older firm/group/mob called 'The Longheads' who use to show up for the 'big' games - or is my memory failing me?

Anyway look forward to reading more, you create a great sense of time and place...

Hi 1066 Seagull, thanks for the positive feedback.
Annabell's was the official name for the ground floor you are 100%.
The Cavern was the basement bar and upstairs was Night Fever.
The Longheads you mention were a good few years older and used the Wagon and Horses in Church Street.

Well pleased you remember the handwriting fella and the fruit machine stuff.http://northstandchat.biz/images/smilies/winking0066.gif

all the best,

 

[thecavern]

I've always thought it was Biba.. Barry and Biba ?

Unlikely to be two transexuals with the almost the same name..

Edit: in the original post Cavern said Bibi, now see you call her Biba, so i was right

It was Biba you're right. And Barry eh? I didn't know that.

cheers lads.

 

[El Presidente]

I'll be transferring this thread to NSC GOLD in due course, after more excerpts from TheCavern's forthcoming book!

This stuff if BRILLIANT

 

[Ernest]

Biba became resident in Coasters and used to hang around Rory, had my first TS encounter with her in the bogs there.

 

[Seasidesage]

"another time we invaded a game at selhurst park. It was around ‘82 palace home to blackburn rovers last day of the season. It was decided this would be an ideal game to infiltrate selhurst park and cause mayhem. At brighton station we were an easy 100 lads. At preston park another forty. It had been planned for weeks in advance i remember an older guy beaky a local face had been involved with the planning. It was all cloak and dagger nonsense with splitting up diversions at east croydon and selhurst park to confuse the ob. The first kick off was at east croydon. A palace firm was spotted on another platform and were called out the fight spanned across several platforms with scuffles breaking out everywhere. I saw a distress flare go whizzing across me to a fence where some palace fans were climbing out. It was pandemonium. A by-stander was pummeled for whacking someone with his briefcase and women were screaming. Beaky was furious. We had blown our cover already for a flash in the pan. But he need not have worried. What happened next at selhurst park would become infamous"

we met up at the turnstiles; some coming from thornton heath station some from selhurst as arranged. A few nods and we
went through. To our left was a large group of traveling fans and when all of our number was through we started to walk slowly along through the main stand near the touchline. Palace fans were singing. Some began looking. It wasn’t a full house but as we snaked along i could the sense the eyes of some of the home crowd trying to make sense of what they were seeing.
Quizzical looks were exchanged. As planned we kept walking. We moved along and eventually ended up on the opposite corner to where we entered. By this time it was clear that a few people had recognized some faces. The game started.

One of our firm d.s
spotted crellin, supposedly their top boy who he’d had previous with at a home game and broken his tooth, part of which stayed in his hand and went poison. At half time we walked back round to the food vendors. On the way back someone threw a cup of tea over a home fan and it kicked off.
.

what actually happened was at half-time this lairy little cvnt walked all the way round the touch-line and said to one of bha's lads ;beaky ''m gonna stub this fag out in your eye' the bha fella said 'get on with it then you palace cvnt' and hey presto the cvnt got battered!!"![/QUOTE]

Thats the most important bit!

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

Really interesting read. It's great to get an idea of what the culture was like back then. Although the violence should be condemned, your generation certainly seems a lot more exciting than todays Sky generation, half of whom wouldn't know the culture of football if it bite them in the arse.


Cheers, thecavern. Keep it coming.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

that's true actually we did have no fans there, we all decided it would be more enjoyable watching Sussex win the Gillette cup at Lords that very day #bad fans!#

Yes that was a very surreal day. Some bloke came up to me in the Taverners Bar and said " you were bloody lucky today we'll do you at your place". Then proceded to buy me a drink as he was a Sussex fan

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I'll be transferring this thread to NSC GOLD in due course, after more excerpts from TheCavern's forthcoming book!

This stuff if BRILLIANT

Absolutely. Handsome articulate writing from a clearly smart writer. And out of a clear blue sky. Nobody expected THIS.

The only thing that could clearly let the side down, as it were, is lack of equally stylish photo-evidence. If there was a photographer of some craft and style documenting the scene as it unfolded then that would be the best thing ever. If thecavern is thinking of a book, then would respectfully suggest he refrain from including any blurry photos of spotty yoof in ill-advised trackies that would only detract from the tale. The prose deserves the very highest standard of accompanying photography. IMHO, like.

 

[honey boy zimba]

wsf

Biba all so worked London to Brighton trains charging men for a bit of hows your father in the toilets on the way up.Tony Millard was often seen with her in Coasters.Not much on here about mad jock ,he was really mad but also game as f*** saw him once steam into Man Citys main boys on his own they were so impressed they took him for a drink.this was outside brighton station also wsf had it with some bha skinheads after a match luton I think these were some regular suporters who frequented the nothstand came mainly from lewes uckfield area anyway wsf had a black guy called Ray Fubara he came from nigeria and could really handle himself went to Falmer school in 80s skinheads started abusing him as he was standing on his own outside queenshead pub Ray went in and then rest followed out and ran skins back up to station .Similar event also happened in cavern(anabells) SCOOTER BOYS had a go at him went down and ko,d 3 of them on his own wsf steamed in but scooter boys didnt fancy it and ran up back stairs and out.

 

[the wanderbus]

that's true actually we did have no fans there, we all decided it would be more enjoyable watching Sussex win the Gillette cup at Lords that very day #bad fans!#

We had about 30 fans at that millwall game, having no interest in cricket whatsoever 2 mates & myself were among them & spent the entire game shitting ourselves.

 

[Marlton & Hove Albion]

Biba all so worked London to Brighton trains charging men for a bit of hows your father in the toilets on the way up.Tony Millard was often seen with her in Coasters.Not much on here about mad jock ,he was really mad but also game as f*** saw him once steam into Man Citys main boys on his own they were so impressed they took him for a drink.this was outside brighton station also wsf had it with some bha skinheads after a match luton I think these were some regular suporters who frequented the nothstand came mainly from lewes uckfield area anyway wsf had a black guy called Ray Fubara he came from nigeria and could really handle himself went to Falmer school in 80s skinheads started abusing him as he was standing on his own outside queenshead pub Ray went in and then rest followed out and ran skins back up to station .Similar event also happened in cavern(anabells) SCOOTER BOYS had a go at him went down and ko,d 3 of them on his own wsf steamed in but scooter boys didnt fancy it and ran up back stairs and out.

Ray Fubara. A chill just ran down my entire body. He was a year above me at Falmer. He shows up one day and all the usual racist nutters from the estate are queueing up to show him who is boss. Imagine the shoe on the other foot. You show up on day one as a 16 year old at Muhammed Smackyourteethin High School in Lagos surrounded by 750 (a dozen or so quite handy) would be hard nuts and figure out this isnt about learning, this is full contact survival.

Give credit where its due. Within a week, he'd figured out that he was up to any one on one ruck and those that ran Falmer figured out what a keen and useful new weapon they had acquired. He was a big boy and game for anything. I recall he was gone in a flash but that was a mad term.

Holy Shit.....Ray Fubara