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| Hereford
United supporters |
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Football
fans are by definition fanatics, and producer Howard Belgard looks
at why one particular place in one particular ground has such a hold
over one group of supporters. |
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I suppose
this one was never really in doubt, after all when you think of
communities in odd places football fans tend to spring to mind.
With respect to those who populate the terraces at Aggborough and
St. George’s lane; Hereford United’s Edgar Street was the obvious
choice.
It was not only the club’s history that attracted me, the ground
itself and the fan’s relationship with it, was a documentary waiting
to happen. Hereford United came to the nations consciousness in
1972 when Ronnie Radford left Newcastle’s players stranded in the
mud to score, quite probably, the most famous F.A. Cup giant killing
goal of all time.
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| Ronnie
Radford shirt and number |
We
managed to scour the BBC archives to find the original BBC commentary
(the one that kick started John Motson’s career). At the end a breathless
Motty describes "the young boys coming on the pitch, say it all."
We managed to track down some of those, now, not so young boys.
Along with this legendary football game I also included archive
of the club’s darkest hour. In 1997 Brighton drew with Hereford
on the last day of the season, which meant the club dropped out
of the league. To say the fans I met are still scarred by that day
is an understatement.
I wanted to contrast the fan’s passionate relationship with the
Meadow End terrace with the down to earth even cynical view of the
grounds man. Colin had worked at Edgar street for years - much of
it single-handedly. He wanted the club to move to new premises which
he felt would be safer, and in his words "the club was just throwing
good money after bad."
However the group of fan’s I spoke to all wanted to stay. The club’s
history combined with what they felt about the individual places
in which they always stand means more to them than almost anything
else.
At the outset I thought the recording of this episode would be fairly
straight forward ( that obviously put a curse on the whole proceedings)
A whole recording day was scrapped before Christmas because of ill-health
(mine) and again in the New Year for the same reason (someone else’s.)
When we did eventually raise a microphone in anger; over a period
of half an hour the weather alternated between bright sunshine to
torrential rain to blizzards. Mixing the interviews to make them
sound seamless took more time than the rest of the programme put
together.
Still not daunted I drove down to the ground one last time to get
the crowd atmosphere for the game against top of the table Dagenham
and Redbridge. I was five minutes away when I learnt that the game
had been called off as high winds had blown the roof off the Meadow
End!
Feeling that the radio gods were not favouring this particular venture
I pressed on regardless and convinced a group of disgruntled Hereford
fans to stand on the empty terraces and go through emotions they
experience during a normal ninety minutes.
All in all sick as the proverbial caged bird.
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Transmission
dates
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| 28th
April |
Sixth
Sense |
| 5th
May |
Hospice |
| 12th
May |
A
student's view |
| 19th
May |
Long
Lartin |
| 26th
May |
Meadow
End |
| 2nd
June |
The
bench |
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All
programmes go out at midday
BBC Hereford and Worcester
94.7 104 and 104.6 FM
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