seagull line

[Lindfield by the Pond]

Remember Mum and Dad gave me a £5 phone card to call home from university early 90s. Blew it all in 1 call from Hall of Residence to the SL instead - premium rate meant my card credit disappeared faster than the Argos catalogue. See kids, you don't know you're born! The cost of staying in touch with the Albion back then meant a choice between going hungry or calling Tony Millard. Tony won everytime!

Phone cards were great. M&D never gave me a phone card

 

[jimhigham]

Best Seagull Line call for me? Final day of the 1987/88 season. Stampeded out of my Saturday job into the nerparest phone booth to hear we'd bagged promotion. Jumping up and down in the middle of Canterbury High Street to the bemusement of the tourists.

 

[AnotherArch]

Apart from when games were playing or just finished, the important news that everyone wanted to find out always came last. This 'important news' was things like injuries, new signings and, on the rarer but very important occasions, ticket sales arrangements. In those days, living significantly outside the Argus circulation area, it was my only source of information.
Bearing in mind that the line became premium charge rate, just hearing the introduction was costly. You then had to wait and hear the reserve team results, the Seagull Lottery results and another useless piece of information before getting to what you really needed to know. Woe betide you if the line crackled or you misheard the details, as you would then have to sit and wait (and pay) for the loop to come round again. Probably the most money ten second renditions of 'Sussex by the Sea' have ever earned.