Quote: Brixton Wire "random Wilderspool memories
slightly O/T - a random memory from a Boxing Day game at Naughton Park December 1991 - we were 8 - 4 up at half time. Then there was a fire alarm, and the main stand was evacuated, so everyone went on the pitch. A fireman went into the stand, and started hacking at the seats, to great cheers from the Wire fans ! we lost though after kevin Ellis was sent off in the second half. Russel Smith was ref IIRC.'"
I remember the tannoy announcement was cryptic in an attempt not to initiate panic amongst the crowd.
"A message for all stewards. Mr Fox is under the main stand. I repeat. Mr Fox is under the main stand."
Our group all turned to another and almost in unison announced, "there's a fire".
Anyone who wasn't around at the time and not old enough to remember crap films starring The Bionic Man hot-wiring Migs and avoiding the entire might of the Soviet military single handedly shouldn't be expected to understand the reference.
Actually, two other announcements at Widnes also now come to mind.
When the idea of Super League was still but a damp patch in Maurice Lindsay's silk underwear the original plan was for Warrington and Widnes to merge and form The Cheshire Cats. Yep, that would have worked.
Anyway, a few days passed and Warrington somehow managed to convince the authorities they were worthy of a place on their own, whilst it looked as though Widnes would be kicked out. Who says lightning doesn't strike twice?
The day of Widnes vs Warrington came around soon afterwards and it was a due to be a day of unbelieveable social disorder - something akin to the fall of the Berlin Wall had the gossip in the pubs of Warrington and Widnes been believed. Just before the game Big Jim Mills (it's illegal to write his name without Big at the beginning) appeared on some scaffold with a mic in his hand and made an announcement to the effect that only that morning the authorities had agreed that both Warrington and Widnes would have places of their own in this new-fangled Super League conception.
It worked. Well, Widnes didn't actually get in to Super League but at least there were no demos and the game went ahead.
In another game at Widnes there was a bit of crowd trouble that spilled on to the pitch at half-time.
The police, stewards, pacifist drunks couldn't sort it out so a voice appealed on the tannoy, "...please leave the pitch and stop the trouble. It's the referee's last game and he's very upset."
Surprisingly that didn't hold much weight with the clowns on the pitch but a valiant, yet naive, attempt all the same.
