In May 1963 two students, Tom Carter and Rod Underwood, were given the task of producing a film as part of their teacher training course. As a last minute decision they bought a cheap cine camera and went down to the Sealand Road ground to film both inside and outside the ground. In addition they recorded a training session on the Annexe before ending with action from an evening game against Chesterfield.
After 60 years this superb 22 minute film has been unearthed and I will be showing it at a meeting of the Senior Blues at the football club on Friday March 5th at 10:30am. I hope to follow this up with a general showing at a later date.
What makes this film so special to my mind is that it is unedited. Although there are some experimental sections in the middle I feel that the film would have lost a lot of its impact if it had been edited down to a few minutes. The footage is certainly very raw but this is advantageous because you get so see unusual views of the whole stadium which would in all likelihood have been cut out.
The film opens with footage of the pitch being marked out before moving to the outside of the ground. There are views of the back of the stand as well as the floodlights which were still a novelty as they had only been in place for three years.
We then move to film of Bill Myerscough arriving at the Stadium in his Volkswagen Beetle before moving inside the ground to see the treatment room and a variety of views inside the old wooden stand.
After six minutes we move out to the Annexe to see the players training with the likes of John Molyneux, John Butler, John Hardie, Elfed Morris Colin Corbishley and Ron Hewitt amongst many others in view. There are great views of the back of the main stand with the greyhound stadium and buildings on Sealand Road also in evidence.
There is a glimpse of Bill Lambton during training and this marked the end of his 18 months as manager. The 1962/63 campaign culminated in another application for re-election as Chester finished 4th from bottom in Division 4. At one point in the film you can see ‘Iron Man Bill’s’ motto “Keep Fighting” on the dressing room door. His training methods were not popular with the players as they reflected his background as a Sergeant Major who had worked with the Army Physical Training Corps.
The next section of the film is more experimental before we switch to the final sequence which is eight minutes colour footage taken from behind the goal at the Kop end of the ground.
My research indicates that this is the last game of the season, a midweek fixture against Chesterfield on May 22nd, with the Spireites playing in an unfamiliar red kit. The visitors won the game 2-0 and there is a view of the first goal within the footage. The attendance was 3920.
In the second half Chester are attacking the Kop with little success. The Cheshire Observer is particularly scathing of the performance calling it poor in both attack and defence with Chesterfield deserving their 2-0 victory. As an attacking force reporter Ralph Houdley stated that at no time did the forward line show any signs of being capable of winning the game. After Chesterfield had scored their second goal centre half John Butler was moved to the attack at which point Chester looked more threatening and the defender can be seen up front in the later stages of the film.
All in all it is a gem of a film and captures the era superbly. It is interesting to see different training methods and the action is very different from the current day especially the speed in which the goalkeeper releases the ball. The views of the ground will certainly bring back memories for supporters who watched the club in the 1960s.
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