Pop Side seating

[Mucker1884]

9 hours ago, philmycocu said:

It's on a retail/commercial park not an industrial estate, pubs, restaurants and hotels nearby, and when the circumstances arise the atmosphere is top notch ? 

 

5 hours ago, MuespachRam said:

Ha ha...yep and don’t forget Halfords, the fireplace workshop and toys  r us (RIP) 

 

5 hours ago, Emson said:

None of which are on Pride Park. 

Have you ever been there ?

 

4 hours ago, RamNut said:

Halfords is still there.

From Sainsburys to the Boots/Ex Toys Are Us, are all Wyvern Retail Park, not Pride Park.  That includes Halfords and neighbours.
I believe Costco and the fast food outlets (BK, KFC, Pizza place?) are classed as Pride Park (but stand to be corrected).

[Mucker1884]

1 hour ago, richinspain said:

I loved, indeed am still in love with, the BBG. However it was never a viable option to stay there. I feel honoured to have had that place as part of my earliest memories. I'm nearly 56, l first went there in around 1966, so old second division days. Obviously I can't remember my first game, but I do REM my feelings from those days, and I know that they are from those days because I remember leaving the house and walking to the ground from Havelock Road where I was born and moved from in 1968. Obviously they are more "recent" memories, but the smell of the BBG is still there in me. I don't even have to try to remember it. It's just there. That smell was a "special" smell, especially for a midweek game. That photo that @Angry Ram posts every now and again makes my hairs stand on end and that smell envelopes me.

I couldn't have fonder memories of the place, however it was time to move on. Like all loved one, one day they will no longer be there. But like all loved ones their memory lives on. PP will be like that for many some day. I've been less than a dozen times, but it gives me a tingle when I see it. And if you get to go every other week appreciate it. Those of us who no longer have either miss them both.

Along with the post above from @uttoxram75, two of my all time favourite posts on here.  A subject close to my heart, but in total agreement with the sentiments.

Great post to you too, @richinspain.  ??

[Inverurie Ram]

8 hours ago, uttoxram75 said:

 

fckin love Derby, fckin love Derby, fckin love Derby.........

 

So that's how it goes? I keep hearing that on the telly, and I thought it was fcem up Derby, fcem up Derby...........and then again the cynic inside me kept singing fcit up Derby, fcit up Derby, fcit up Derby...........

I would like to defend the BBG, I would like to defend Pride Park, I would like to defend @uttoxram75 & @MuespachRam even though I've never met these wonderful guys, but one day I will, I would like to defend our defenders and hope one day our defenders could defend a lot better without me having to defend them, and I would also like to remind our fans to stop attacking our defenders, stop attacking our players, our coaches, our grounds, our pubs, our fans and just like the good old days attack their defenders, attack their players , attack their coaches, attack their grounds, attack their pubs, and attack their fans........

Is it me, or is the whole world back to front these days?

"Attack......attack, ........attack, attack, attack"...........

fclin love Derby, fclin love Derby, fclin love Derby...........

Ps......It would be a whole lot better if we had defenders that were better at defending than they are at attacking.

Simplicity Is Genius. Jim Smith RIP.

[Inverurie Ram]

Ps........Please can we have our Pop Side seats back?

[angieram]

I often wonder if there is a male/female split on the ground issue?

I go to watch football, which I can do much better in modern stadiums and yes, to me, safety and comfort is important. I actually stopped going to football altogether because of my feelings about overcrowding, cages, evacuation etc. This was before Hillsborough, Bradford but I was already terrified about the way fans were treated. It would have been bloody impossible to get everyone out of the Baseball Ground safely in the event of an emergency and even on a normal match day the crush on exit was very unpleasant.

I really dislike Brentford, Luton, Sheffield Wednesday away - no personal space and not a hope of seeing the game properly. And don't even get me started on the state of the toilets!

We used to park on the side streets and walk down to the Baseball Ground. Where would people park these days now that all those houses would have at least one or two cars? There are loads of places to park in and around Pride Park and a varied food and drink offer.

I like the view of the pitch I get at Cardiff, Reading, Bolton, Middlesbrough.  No matter where I am, I know I will be able to see the game. When I read fan surveys, Pride Park consistently scores highly for all round fan experience. 

Maybe the one advantage the Baseball Ground had for me was atmosphere but I also remember miserable crowds and people stomping on the upper tier of the Ossie End stand cos they were fed up with the play. Pride Park is brilliant when it gets going, and we can all play a part in improving the atmosphere if we really want to. 

 

 

 

[Mucker1884]

8 minutes ago, angieram said:

I often wonder if there is a male/female split on the ground issue?

I go to watch football, which I can do much better in modern stadiums and yes, to me, safety and comfort is important. I actually stopped going to football altogether because of my feelings about overcrowding, cages, evacuation etc. This was before Hillsborough, Bradford but I was already terrified about the way fans were treated. It would have been bloody impossible to get everyone out of the Baseball Ground safely in the event of an emergency and even on a normal match day the crush on exit was very unpleasant.

I really dislike Brentford, Luton, Sheffield Wednesday away - no personal space and not a hope of seeing the game properly. And don't even get me started on the state of the toilets!

We used to park on the side streets and walk down to the Baseball Ground. Where would people park these days now that all those houses would have at least one or two cars? There are loads of places to park in and around Pride Park and a varied food and drink offer.

I like the view of the pitch I get at Cardiff, Reading, Bolton, Middlesbrough.  No matter where I am, I know I will be able to see the game. When I read fan surveys, Pride Park consistently scores highly for all round fan experience. 

Maybe the one advantage the Baseball Ground had for me was atmosphere but I also remember miserable crowds and people stomping on the upper tier of the Ossie End stand cos they were fed up with the play. Pride Park is brilliant when it gets going, and we can all play a part in improving the atmosphere if we really want to. 

 

 

 

This thread just keeps getting better.

So much common sense spoken.  Yet another great post.  ??

 

I really must start limiting myself to just giving a "like"!

[SEAO]

34 minutes ago, Mucker1884 said:

This thread just keeps getting better.

So much common sense spoken.  Yet another great post.  ??

 

I really must start limiting myself to just giving a "like"!

 

[Sith Happens]

17 hours ago, Tamworthram said:

I suspect you're suffering from a small case of selective memory. Whilst by no means always the case, there have been some great atmospheres at PP. Also, if you were in the Popside (I was a regular) it probably seemed like it was noisier because of the low roof and enclosed space. It only takes half a dozen people to make a hell of a noise in my lounge especially if the mother in law is one of them.

Having been to both, although not to the BBG in the glory days, my best memory of atmosphere is a PL match against Liverpool which we won 3-2, the atmosphere was amazing that day. That was at PP.

[Sith Happens]

11 hours ago, MuespachRam said:

And you genuinely think that having a ground exactly the same as all the other new grounds slapped on an Industrial estate is good...?
give me an individual ground, with history and soul any day.... I would much rather go to Highbury than the Emirates....or Upton Park than whatever their ground is called now... or Maine Road than the Ethiad...etc etc etc 

At least on PP when I happen upon a lady standing on the street corner the only money she is asking for is for charity. ?

[SEAO]

As the thread has developed from my original post I thought I might share my earliest memory of the BBG

November 1955 at the age of seven is my first memory. Remember in those days there was no such thing as football on the television. We had BBC in black and white and that was it. I was aware My Dad went to watch Derby County play. Who they were, what division they played in , why he went was all a mystery. Dad always worked on Saturday mornings and then went to the pub after finishing. Usually he would roll in about 3.00p.m and go to sleep . Occasionally though he went to a football match, and this particular day he came in about six o’ clock and put his bag on the handle inside the door as usual. Mam asked him how they had gone on and I distinctly remember him saying lost 6-1 to Boston ,

                I must have shown some interest because that Christmas I got my very first Charles Buchan annual from my Dad. This was to become his present for me for at least the next six years. It cost 10 shillings and sixpence ( 53p) in today’s money and was always a  prized possession as it was full of stories and  glossy pictures of footballers.

                January 22cnd 1956 I got my first taste of what it was all about. Dad took me to the Baseball Ground to watch Derby play a team called Bradford City. We went by train from Burton Station , catching the 1.18p.m to Derby accompanied by two of Dad’s brothers Stan and Ken. On arrival at Derby I was led up Midland Rd. only for Dad and Stan to go into the Midland Hotel for a pint while uncle Ken took me for a walk somewhere. Sometime later having met up again we went along  London Rd. turning right up Bateman St. on to Osmaston Rd.

For the first time I saw a green trolley bus and was in complete awe as to how those poles coming out the roof of the bus managed to stay on the wires which hung over the road .It was here I first became aware that we were approaching our destination . People wearing black and white scarves and waving noisy rattles , a man shouting all the latest team news as he sold his newspapers and another man selling a little grey booklet called a programme. Dad bought one for 3d ( 1.5p) and gave it to me- my first of many (whatever happened to all them?).

                The noise and babble would have grown as we turned right into Shaftesbury St. up the slight incline and then gently down to the place where there were lots of people milling about which Dad said was the Baseball Ground. there was alweays smoke in the air from the nmerous chimneys and cigarettes. We turned left and queued to go into the Osmaston Upper stand which cost the princely sum of 4/6d (22.5p) to sit down. Through the click of the turnstile,into the building, up three flights of stairs wide enough to take six people and then at the top up a further couple of steps back into the cold January daylight. Wow ! so this is the Baseball Ground football pitch - with a diamond of rolled brown mud and four green corners all marked out with white lines the purpose of which I didn't yet understand .

Looking down and around I could see the crowds coming in at the far end of what was the Popular side and making their way to their favourite standing spot under the roof which was painted with the sign OFFILERS ALES in large white letters. At the opposite end, stood a three tiered stand called the Normanton end with a small area called the boys pen under the scoreboard ,and on our right was the single tier main stand  stretching the length of the pitch where the directors and rich people sat with a  small terrace area in front.

In the middle of that was an opening which led under the stand . This Dad said was where the players came out just before kick off at 3.00p.m. A man dressed in black and white top hat and tails walked around path on the perimeter of the pitch with his rattle . encouraging the crowd to use  theirs and boys with baskets over their shoulders moved slowly along the path around the pitch selling peanuts and sweets .

                Of the game I can remember absolutely nothing. I know that Derby won 4-1 and 15285 people  were there but that’s it. The important thing was that from that day on I was hooked and my love affair with the game of football and Derby County had begun. That programme was read from back to front over and over taking in the names of players – fixtures and results so far. I learned Derby were in the Third Division North and the league table showed me they were currently lying second. I looked  on a map to see where Bradford was and also some of the other teams Derby had played. Workington, Barrow and Carlisle it all sounded very romantic. I never went to another game that season , but  Derby stayed second scoring over 100 goals but just missed out on promotion (no play offs in those days) but I now had my heroes and I started to read reports of the games in the papers and cut out the pictures of the players as they appeared in print.        

I watched my first Cup Final in 1956 a match played between Manchester City and Birmingham City. It was i think, the only game televised that season and was memorable in that Manchester City who won 3-1 had a German ex prisoner of war called Bert Trautmann in goal. He had the misfortune to get hurt in a collision and played on holding his neck for the rest of the game (there were no substitutions in those days). Later X-rays showed that he had broken his neck.

 The FA Cup was the competition all footballers most wanted to win and all boys dreamed one day of playing on the hallowed turf at Wembley. The final in front of 100,000 spectators was always a tremendous occasion on the first Saturday in May at 3.00p.m. It was  showed on BBC television and watched by millions. There were no prying cameras on coaches or in dressing rooms, no pundits offering inane pearls of wisdom for hours on end, no adverts to distract the viewer. The brass band played and the crowd, with supporters of both teams standing side by side with no segregation, sang Abide with Me before the teams came out to a mighty roar. The long walk from the tunnel to the half way line on a pristine pitch mowed in contrasting stripes before presentation to a Royal dignitary increased the anticipation of the fantastic game to come. And the final whistle then usually signalled the end of the football season and kids started to play cricket. That was the way it always was   

The following season 1956-57 I went to Derby more often, watching nine games in all. Each time Dad paid for me to sit in the Osmaston end at 4/6d per time. I would have gone to more but I think he found the extra expense a bit draining. I have very good memories of this season as Derby was  now my favourite team and I started to hang on every spoken and written word about them. I had my favourite players – Jack Parry ,Tommy Powell and Geoff Barrowcliffe- when the latter did something good I can still here Dad saying Good old Barrer! I picked up the magic of the FA Cup as Derby beat Bradford City in the first round and I was able to see the goals replayed on television for the very first time but what the programme was I don’t remember at all.  In the second round I saw them knocked out by New Brighton (non league) and the dreams were over for another year. Dad didn’t miss a home game that season and went to several away as well. My programme collection grew, supplemented by ones from places like Hull, Bradford and Doncaster and all read from cover to cover.

Derby won the Third Division North at a canter that year setting up records that still hold today. Most team goals in a season and most goals in a season by one player (Ray Straw). One game that really sticks in the mind was against Barrow- Derby were 0-2 down at half time and for the first time I became aware of the amount of noise that could be generated by the Baseball Ground crowd as the Rams fought back to draw 3-3. It was an eye opener but fell way short of the cacophony of sound that would be created ten to fifteen years later.

 

 

               

[GB SPORTS]

1 hour ago, Mucker1884 said:

 

 

 

From Sainsburys to the Boots/Ex Toys Are Us, are all Wyvern Retail Park, not Pride Park.  That includes Halfords and neighbours.
I believe Costco and the fast food outlets (BK, KFC, Pizza place?) are classed as Pride Park (but stand to be corrected).

No I think the boundary is the Derwent.

[Philmycock]

2 hours ago, angieram said:

I really dislike Brentford, Luton, Sheffield Wednesday away - no personal space and not a hope of seeing the game properly. And don't even get me started on the state of the toilets!

We know who to blame for that, don't we? @DarkFruitsRam7 ?

[Geriatram]

Barrow in Furnace, January 1957 was my first match as a fully blown Rams fan, I was 13 and allowed to go without my dad. It was indeed 3-3.I still have the 1957 Charles Buchan soccer annual, note the term soccer. As for the atmosphere in those days the only time I recall it being loud was when we scored, we called it the Derby roar but there were times when it was just as quiet as PP and you could hear individual comments from the pop side all over the ground. I had my first season ticket in 1966 in C stand and it was just like the West stand on the A, B and C stand, very quiet at times, that is until Oct 1968 the Chelsea cup match, we were even standing on our seats that night, I dont think that noise was ever repeated again at the BBG. But that said just being at the BBG was a wonderful experience for me and I will never forget it. Just to put things into perspective, the pre match music in 1957 was Elizabethan Serenade by Derby composer Ronald Binge listen on you tube and see why it was so quiet.

[Philmycock]

32 minutes ago, Geriatram said:

Barrow in Furnace, January 1957 was my first match as a fully blown Rams fan, I was 13 and allowed to go without my dad. It was indeed 3-3.I still have the 1957 Charles Buchan soccer annual, note the term soccer. As for the atmosphere in those days the only time I recall it being loud was when we scored, we called it the Derby roar but there were times when it was just as quiet as PP and you could hear individual comments from the pop side all over the ground. I had my first season ticket in 1966 in C stand and it was just like the West stand on the A, B and C stand, very quiet at times, that is until Oct 1968 the Chelsea cup match, we were even standing on our seats that night, I dont think that noise was ever repeated again at the BBG. But that said just being at the BBG was a wonderful experience for me and I will never forget it. Just to put things into perspective, the pre match music in 1957 was Elizabethan Serenade by Derby composer Ronald Binge listen on you tube and see why it was so quiet.

Bet it was hot in Barrow?

Joking aside, I went and searched for that song, wow!!! Can't imagine the teams running out on the pitch to this, but think we should, it's be unique and pretty damn cool, bloody love it! ? 

Derby born and bred...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Binge

Thank you @Geriatram I've learnt something new today, let's get DCFC to play this before matches!!!

[RamNut]

Ronald Binge sounds like a Viz character.

[Reggie Greenwood]

5 hours ago, richinspain said:

I loved, indeed am still in love with, the BBG. However it was never a viable option to stay there. I feel honoured to have had that place as part of my earliest memories. I'm nearly 56, l first went there in around 1966, so old second division days. Obviously I can't remember my first game, but I do REM my feelings from those days, and I know that they are from those days because I remember leaving the house and walking to the ground from Havelock Road where I was born and moved from in 1968. Obviously they are more "recent" memories, but the smell of the BBG is still there in me. I don't even have to try to remember it. It's just there. That smell was a "special" smell, especially for a midweek game. That photo that @Angry Ram posts every now and again makes my hairs stand on end and that smell envelopes me.

I couldn't have fonder memories of the place, however it was time to move on. Like all loved one, one day they will no longer be there. But like all loved ones their memory lives on. PP will be like that for many some day. I've been less than a dozen times, but it gives me a tingle when I see it. And if you get to go every other week appreciate it. Those of us who no longer have either miss them both.

Blimey you must have still been a toddler then (2?) I’m 60 first game (first team game had been to ressies) 1970 Manure Home won 2-0 Hector and Fitzpatrick OG. 
Loved the BBG with a passion but to have made it a modern seated stadium would have been near impossible. If rail seating/ standing was available then maybe different scenario 

[Reggie Greenwood]

6 hours ago, TexasRam said:

Have to disagree it was a great location, it was full of character, walking to the ground down the small streets passed the heaving pubs, programme sellers and the chippy I’ll never forget it. Much better than now walking to a soulless industrial estate, no atmosphere around the place.
Unfriendly to Women, children and families???? I was a child going there and never found it unfriendly. I guess it’s the snowflake generation now who would feel intimidated and offended by the atmosphere, but to me that’s what made match days great and unfortunately something we can never get at PP. 

I’d go back To the BBG in a heartbeat 

“Snowflake “ what a nonsense expression 

[King Kevin]

2 hours ago, philmycocu said:

Bet it was hot in Barrow?

Joking aside, I went and searched for that song, wow!!! Can't imagine the teams running out on the pitch to this, but think we should, it's be unique and pretty damn cool, bloody love it! ? 

Derby born and bred...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Binge

Thank you @Geriatram I've learnt something new today, let's get DCFC to play this before matches!!!

Ahem ,updated version.

[richinspain]

2 hours ago, Reggie Greenwood said:

Blimey you must have still been a toddler then (2?) I’m 60 first game (first team game had been to ressies) 1970 Manure Home won 2-0 Hector and Fitzpatrick OG. 
Loved the BBG with a passion but to have made it a modern seated stadium would have been near impossible. If rail seating/ standing was available then maybe different scenario 

I was about 3. I remember a bit later holding onto the floodlight pylon in the corner between the Popside and the Normanton End. There was no separation then between the two. I was just high enough up to see over all the adults. A bit later my dad made me a wooden seat that slotted into some holes at about head height in the old stand that was behind the Popside, before it was knocked down to build the Ley Stand. That was around 1970 if my (failing) memory serves me.

[Gone]

3 hours ago, Reggie Greenwood said:

“Snowflake “ what a nonsense expression 

Not really, sorry if it offended you ?