A character in the fletch end during the 70's known as the Mighty Sid and the kitman Ocker. Where are they now?

What a great thread and some memories as well.

that shop outside the ground use to get rammed bout 2 hours before ko'

Willie wurst hot dogs....

Sneaking in (RAILWAY END)..

I was once in a taxi with Gary Mercer and Duanne Mann ..

Tony Thornley tripping up on his way onto the pitch and injuring himself....

The little bog near the railway end....

the scoreboard only had certain teams names so usually it said VISITORS.

paying 45 pence to get in!!!!!All in all great memories..

remember us being robbed by hull and billy thomo and the mayhem that followed with the 2 sets of knobs...beating widnes in the lancs cup a week after they crowned world club champs..paul bishop swallowing his tongue...that famous brawl against wigan..the smell of winter green,the toilets,the scoreboard,our only win against saints,,the famous sit in sure it was hudds..the fire to our stand..relief at staying up by beating cas...and the day it all ended,wakey down here...

after 40 odd years too many too mention.how about;

the gang of skinheads forming the fletcher end mob 1972.

the old wooden greenalls stand to the right of the fletch.

the bottle bar under the old wooden main stand[ everyone drinking bullseye brown

johnny bevans debut

every lad in warrington wagging school to go to challenge cup daytime match during the 3 day week

windy corner

strippers b4 the game in legends

trains stopping to watch the match behind the railway end

staying in the windy corner bar all 2nd half if we were getting thrashed

touchdown club and the famous 'hotseat.

HAPPY DAYS!

Old wolfpack membership cards! Crappy yellow business cards with photo on, think it was a tenner. Weslers boiled burgers, fluorescent peas, getting battered by Halifax on a bonfire night- John schuster kicked about 400 goals that night. Daily mirror clapper inflatable things, the wire ball fireball, warren Stevens getting knocked out cold nearly every game. That pass from farrar to Forster off the floor. Graeme bradleys elbow in John duffys throat. Mark htons millionth shoulder reconstruction, bob eccles just being immense. Many magical moments by Kelly shelford. And genuinely believing we were brilliant when we were pretty much awful.

Some belters there! respect

Kinda makes you think that slowly, the rfl are killing the history of the game. Wilderspool, knowsley road, (hull's old ground that the name escapes me atm), Belle vue, the jungle, We are losing the history of our game, no matter how crap and sh!*y the grounds were. We have lost a big part of rugbys history. And that is sad. Sure we have great stadiums like the h.j, saints new stadium, halton stadium and the jjb. But what history will they have. None. Old trafford has stayed in the same place. and has been built upon to make a great stadium, But has lost NONE of it's magic and history because of it. Like the munich clock for example.



We tell our kids and grandkids in the future of wilderspool, central park, knowsley road about our great nights and days. They will think what the hell. But you tell your kids and grandkids about the old days of old trafford and anfield, They will reconise it better as they have stayed in the same place and still have them memories too show.



I really hope that next year warrington wizards get into the 4th round of the challenge cup and we have an away tie against them. What a historic and great day that would be, to go back Home. And I mean the real home of warrington.





The rfl have done some great things in the past and present too lift our game. But our history is sadly dieing because of the reasons above.



I am only 23, watched games at both the h.j and the zoo since 1995. The h.j is great. But nothing compares too wilderspool. And especially a night game and the atmosphere that we generated. My first match on 6th november (i think) 1995. With the fireworks display before the match bradford 2001 on sky, widnes 2002/3 on sky. the 18-16 loss too wigan on a schorching sunday afternoon 2003. These are 3 examples straight away

I've seen some drubbings at wilderspool, some great wins at wilderspool, And the same at the h.j.



what are my memories for my lifetime...



Wilderspool and it's magic and charm it gave each and every fan of not just us, But Too every fan of every club that had the pleasure of watching their team take on the wire. Win or lose. They are my memories.

What was your favourite last game at Wilderspool?



Mine was the Graham Appo hat trick in the last league game, followed by the one against NZ 'A' when they got that kid to play a guitar version of the national anthem jazzed up like Brian May and all the prawn sandwich brigade got upset about it. The other good last game was the last Warrington game played there in a pre season friendly for the next season when everybody said Leikvoll was going to be crap.

Alot of my memories have been mentioned in earlier postings but also.





John Thursfields one and only try - against Bradford in a Friday night game



The streaker in the World Club Challenge match v Cronulla



The Barmy Army chant that went on for 20 minutes at the end of the Warrington v Sheffield game in 1994 when we were champions ( in our eyes anyway) for 24 hours.



The surreal atmosphere at the A team matches on a Friday night in winter.



Brian Johnsons proper rugby boots





But the real memories are the ones created when I was just a little kid going to the matches with my dad.

Parking in the same place on Manx Road every game.The mass of people all walking over the bridge onto Wilderspool Causeway. Sweets from Marshalls. Programme from the man on the corner. The anticipation walking down Fletcher Street. The blue benches in the main stand. The flask of OXO.



Thats why the HJ will never be as special for me as Wilderspool. Even when I was in my early 30s I would still park near Manx Rd. And as I walked towards the ground little things would rekindle memories of previous matches. You could remember walking the exact same path to see the likes of John Bevan and Parry Gordon and Mike Nicholas in the 70s, of Sir Les and Phil Blake and Jonathon Davies in the 80s You could remember the awe and excitement you felt as a small lad. Sadly you cannot recreate those memories when you move to a new stadium. Of course modern facilites and stadia are essential but ..........

My first game aged 8 in 2001. We played Leeds at home on Maundy Thursday and beat them convincingly. I think Rob Burrow made his debut for Leeds that day. In my first year watching Warrington I saw us beat Leeds, Bradford, Wigan and Saints at home. The Wigan and Bradford games were both fantastic games and unbelievably we hammered Saints.



2002 was my first year with a season ticket, and what a dark year that was. I'll always remember Darren Burns' reaction after the final whistle against Castleford.



I don't think i'll ever forget the last game at Wilderspool, the sun shining, the place packed out in Primrose and Blue and us hammering Wakefield. A fair while after the game had finished me and my Dad were sat on the terraces and a man came over and took our picture at the side of the players tunnel. A few years later the negatives came through the post. I loved going to Wilderspool and it's a shame that I was only able to go there for a few years. As much as I love the HJ when it's packed out, it'll never have the character of Wilderspool.

Yes there are many memories of Wilderspool, I share many of the ones already posted and many more. But before everyone gets too misty eyed let me say one thing. If Warrington RLFC had not moved from Wilderspool to the HJ Stadium when we did, the chances are the club would not exist now, certainly not in Superleague. No Andrew Johns, Matt King, Michael Monaghan, Adrian Morley. No Tony Smith. No back-to-back Cup Finals. No serious contender to win SL.



Memories are fantastic, but don't for a second think we would be better in the past.

Of course that is 100% true. I'd like to think that most posters on this thread fully acknowledge that fact and are just reminiscing about happy memories without genuinely pining for a return to Wilderspool (although there will be a few who are).



What's struck me is that it's not just the people who are 30+ who have such fond memories, there are quite a few whipper-snappers who only went to Wilderspool for a couple of years before 2003 who still recognise its magic and speak fondly of it, which is very nice to read.



We've come a long way and you can't go back, but it is nice to remember the past - especially when we're enjoying potentially our best season since 1973-74.



It's also worth stating that anyone can still go to Wilderspool to watch the reserves and Warrington Wizards play. It'll never be the same but it always gets my memories flowing and wandering through the old VIP and Players' Lounge in the Bevan Stand - which is now the public bar - always makes me wonder what the hell visiting VIPs and playing legends must have made of those facilities in the early part of the 21st century! That and the old "Exec boxes", i.e. the portacabins on top of Pondlife Corner. Never has a prawn butty corporate do seen such humble surroundings. Actually, they were probably salmon paste butties on paper plates.



One other memory / person to remember - good old Sheila from the Club Shop (RIP). I once went in there early on a match day to get a ticket and the original Starlights had just arrived for what must have been their first ever "gig" at Wilderspool. They got off their minibus and were looking around the terraced streets in pretty obvious disgust at where they were. One of them said in her southern accent "Euurrggghh - it's looks like f*cking Coronation Street round here". I went in the club shop and happened to mention that particular comment to Sheila and she went nuts and ran out of the shop after them calling them "Cheeky southern buggers".



The old club shop was ace. I remember every year when we used to get the new kits in and loads of people would be shoehorned in there, stripping off in the middle of the shop so they could try them on, then fighting over the one mirror to see if they actually fitted. When you were a kid, you always wanted the home and away shirts AND the shorts and socks, too! It must have cost my dad a fortune!

Also remember queuing for tickets for the 1990 final went down in my lunch hour only to see the queue was half way down fletcher street with the tickets being sold in touchdown club. Took about 2 hours hence late getting back to work.

I always thought. Why couldn't we just buy the surrounding land and build upon wilderspool. as i said in my last post. We are losing the history of rugby league. And that is sad.