February 27th 1973

“Bak2 school” / “Nig came up in evng and we tried to construct up the Scalextric – didn’t work – Dad’s gonna try and make it work on Sat” / “Paid Martin S” / “Cup Sund 3 City 1″
I’ve written about my Scalextric kit before – in fact, over a year ago now.
I guess it [...]

February 7th 1973

“Cup City 2 Liv 0 (Colin, Tommy)” / “Arguverge > Argument (agane)” / “Went up Nigs in evng - lent him Phantasmagoria + borrowed family – Anyway – Quite Good really” / “Found out that I was 4th in TD with 60% although I haven’t dun homework for 3 months”
City for the cup… City for the [...]

November 4th 1972

“City 4 County 0″ / “didn’t do much all today except went over field for bonfire evening”
Bonfire night – or Guy Fawkes night – or Fireworks night- is a peculiarly British (and colonies) tradition
Somewhat weirdly, the fifth of November each year is awash with fireworks and bonfires to celebrate the anniversary of the foiling of the so-called Gunpowder [...]

October 21st 1972

“city 4, west ham 3″ / “started project – went to library in morning. got books on the civil war for project”
Here’s one to make my wife laugh.
Not that City squeaked by the Hammers but that, as a 14-year-old boy, I did a school project on the Civil War.
Go on, ask me anything you want [...]

September 23rd 1972

“Stoke 5, City 1 / Went up Gra’s in afternoon – saw his cassette player – Wow!”
Whilst City  get tromped on away from home I evidently suffer “tape player envy”
As I recall, Gra(ham) travelled quite a bit with his parents (was his Dad a pilot or something?) and during a recent family holiday to nowhere less swish than [...]

May 8th 1972

“derby county win football league div 1. Man City end up fourth”
So, ‘my’ team’s dream was shattered as the season came to a close, thanks mainly to a few crappy losses, but mostly as the result of a fan coming to see them play at Southampton.
I suppose that I must have been excited for a [...]

April 1st 1972

“Man City 1 Stoke 2″
This entry is accompanied by an arrow with the word “tradgedy” (yes, that spelling… *sigh*) pointing to the scoreline.
Oh, and drawn fingers doing “the V’s” to Stoke.
Flicking the V’s – two fingers facing forward, thrusting up and down at your antagonist has long been a peculiarly-English gesture of abuse.
It is also used [...]

March 8th 1972 (1)

“City sign Rodney Marsh for an estimated fee of 200,000 pounds”
Rodney Marsh was something of a maverick football star in his prime. He’d been constantly hitting the back of the net for the past six years with Queen’s Park Rangers, having an enviable ratio of almost 1 goal every two appearances. He had also been [...]

January 20th 1972

“Man City picture arrived”
I suspect this ‘City’ embarrassment will live with for some time during these early diary entries. The fact that I have dutifully written in EVERY match result on the day it took place some kind of peculiar testament to how much I ‘loved’ them.
It’s somewhat weird to consider that for most of the 80’s [...]

The 1972 Diary

As you can see, I have decided to remain coy about my real name by fuzzing out the incriminating evidence.
Not surprising when my hand-scribbled cover of this 1972 “personal memo diary”, printed by Northern Novelties (Pencils) ltd., from Bradford, is already proving incredibly embarrassing to the 50-year-old me.
Not only do I describe myself as a [...]