User:Struway2/Sandbox

1931 cup final

 * Buildup (players)
 * Bham finally safe from relegation on ???
 * Each team to have special badges on kit, Bham with city's coat of arms, Albion with arms of the borough
 * Bradford's injury (put Bradford's importance to team into context, top scorer every year since 1921/2 etc), Cringan injury, Briggs flu
 * Preparation (most went to a "sumptuous" country hotel at Bushey on Tuesday aft, Bradford Cringan and Briggs followed on the Thursday, Liddell not till the Friday evening after work)
 * Cenotaph on the Thursday, then theatre


 * Buildup (general)
 * Ticket allocation and prices (Standing, 3s and 5s; seats, 7s 6d, 10s 6d, 15s, and 21s)
 * Transport ("nearly 50" special trains ran from Bham; appeal for ppl to buy train tickets in advance)
 * Central League game at Stans on Sat k/o brought fwd to 2.15, after which the second half of the Cup Final to be broadcast in the ground
 * Police called to four separate domestics (!) on Fri night when the man discovered his wife had pawned his best suit expecting to redeem it for church on Sunday without considering he might want it for the cup final (serves him right for spending her housekeeping on a cup final ticket and the train fare to London)
 * People hanging round St Andrews right up to Saturday morning on the offchance of more tickets materialising


 * Buildup (Wembley)
 * After the game they'd have to clear up and replace equipment for the dog meeting on the same night (!)
 * Radio broadcast to begin at 2.30


 * Post-match (players)
 * Blues: dinner @ Russell Hotel in London with wives, club officials, civic representatives, survivors of 1886 semi-final etc; coach trip to Brighton on the Sunday; return to Bham on Monday aft, met by Lord Mayor and cheering crowds from station platform up to Vic Square
 * Albion players went to Madame Tussaud's to see the waxworks of both captains, and then some took wives shopping, before train home
 * Bham Mail editorial on Monday praising sportsmanship of both crowd and players, particularly when the Bham goal was wrongly disallowed for offside: "There was no swarming round the official in the clamorous and excited manner so often seen in League games, but just a quiet and philosophic acceptance of the ruling and the position."


 * Post-match (general)
 * Trains back ran every quarter hour til 5am Sunday, buses running all night to get people home, no trouble: "The sportsmanship of the people is highly commended. In a great local clash, in which one set of supporters had necessarily to face disappointment, there appeared to be no frayed tempers and little evidence of over-indulgence."

1956 cup final
A few days before the match, Birmingham were hit by news of the death of club vice-president Bill Camkin, who as managing director during the Second World War had kept the club going while air raids and fire wrecked the ground and destroyed the club's records.