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Unusual angle. Taken from the top of a floodlight, presumably. Funny how the cooling tower and the gas holder look the same size from there.

So Boro's 'Billy Kick' didn't really exist. But there was a player called 'Billy Kikhard', and his mate 'Jem Crushem'. At least, this old Leicester Chronicle cartoon says so:

This was one of those days when people were rushing to find out news of the Ashes series. It was day three of the second Test at the MCG, with England looking to square the series. After Australia were bowled out for exactly 600 in their first innings, Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe batted all day to finish on 283 for 0 at the close. There was no rush - this was a Timeless Test, and the match was still in progess the following Saturday. To complete the sporting action that day, the All Blacks, who you'll recall hammered Leicester Tigers in October, played the last match of theit UK tour against England at Twickenham. They won 17-11 - and that made it 28 wins out of 28 on the tour. The team has gone down in history as The Invincibles. They certainly left a mark on Leicester. The Tigers adopted the 'New Zealand formation' - seven forwards and eight backs. The star of the All Blacks team was George Nepia, the Maori full back, who played in every single game on the tour. Ten years later he was offered a huge amount of money to come to London to play for the Streatham and Mitcham Rugby League side.

Match 24 Saturday January 3rd Middlesbrough v Leicester City On New Year's Day, Manchester United played their game in hand, and after their hammering at Filbert Street they got back on track with a 1-0 win over Chelsea at Old Trafford. That brought the Londoners' long unbeaten run to an end, and left the table like this as we headed north: For our inside left George Carr it was a homecoming. He was brought up on Teesside and started his career at nearby South Bank. He was from a footballing family and his elder brother Jack was in the Middlesbrough team that day at outside right. A third brother, Billie, was also in the Boro' squad. Here they all are in a contemporary cartoon: Middlesbrough brought in the wonderfully named 'Billy Kick' to their forward line. At least that's what readers of the Leicester Mail were told. Unfortunately it was a typo - the player's real name was the rather less memorable Billy Hick. Leicester's holiday results were the best of all the 88 clubs in the Football League, and we started this game in the same vein. After just two minutes, Chandler picked up the ball near the halfway line and beat a man before setting up Duncan, who shot low past keeper Jack Clough. Boro's hopes weren't helped when centre half Maurice Webster was injured and spent the rest of the game hobbling on the wing, with the rest of the line-up having to be reshaped. We pressed for a second, with Hugh Adcock in great form - 'the best outside right we've seen at Ayresome this season', said a local reporter. On 30 minutes, Adcock 'beat his man cleverly and passed to Duncan, who lodged it at Chandler's feet, the centre-forward beating Clough with a lovely drive to register Leicester's 50th goal of the season'. We were then reduced to ten men, Adcock going off for lengthy treatment, and this led to Boro's best spell of the game. They were awarded a penalty when Pat Carrigan fouled Jack Carr, and it was Billy Hick who made it 2-1 at half time. With Adcock back on it took us just four minutes of the second half to restore the two goal advantage, Duncan heading in a centre from Harry Wadsworth. Boro' rarely threatened after that, and with seven minutes to go came a special moment for local boy George Carr. He picked up the ball outside the box, beat one man then rounded the keeper to make it 4-1. Adcock then added another just before the whistle. If second half efforts from Bamber and Chandler had gone in instead of hitting the bar and post we'd have repeated our Christmas Day haul of seven, but we were quite satisfied with 5-1. Channy's goal meant he had now scored in sixteen of our last 18 games - a truly remarkable run. Here's that sequence in detail: It's actually the most consistent run of scoring in the club's history. Let's do a comparison. If, for simplicity, we look at twenty game sequences instead of 18, then Channy was now on a run of scoring in 17 out of 20 (adding in the following two games). Jamie Vardy's best sequence is 13 out of 20 - a period that includes his record eleven in a row The closest anyone has ever come to matching Channy was Arthur Rowley, who twice managed to score in 16 out of 20 in the 1950s. Rowley scored more total goals in those spells, but the key here is consistency. As influential writer Ivan Sharpe put it in this week's Athletic News, commenting on Channy's form: 'the regular scorer, the man who can score the odd goal in the hour of need, is a far greater force than the forward who scores as many goals in hat-tricks, on days when success is of smaller value'. Sharpe ended the article by tipping Channy for an England call-up. The squad for a trial game was due to be announced a few days later. What else happned that day? As so often recently, our supporters' joy on finding out our own score was tempered by news of rivals' results. They all had home fixtures, and they all won - United 2-0 v Stoke, Derby 6-1 v Portsmouth (with a Fairclough hat-trick) and Chelsea 4-1 v Oldham (with a hat-trick from Harold Miller). We had won four in a row with an aggregate score of 17-2, we were unbeaten in seven, but the table showed that we were exactly where we were at the start of that run - chasing the top three. How did supporters find out results back then? In the Mercury that week were two articles that showed us how things were, and how things would soon be. The first report was on scenes at Leicester railway stations of people desperate to get the latest news from the Ashes series in Australia: Every morning, a train from the suburbs steams in, and out rush these old fellows with a sprightliness that would put a schoolboy to shame. They come at a trot up the platform and reach the street, breathless no doubt, but anxious not to miss a copy of the Mercury racing special, containing the very latest from the Test match. The other report was on plans for a new transmitter at nearby Daventry, which meant Leicester would finally have proper radio coverage. It would allow owners of cheap crystal sets to pick up BBC broadcasts. Up to now wireless buffs had needed expensive equipment to pick up the signals from distant transmitters, and there were very few in the city tuning in. Before the end of the decade the first live sports broadcasts would begin - the start of a story that took us through Sports Report, Final Score, Ceefax, Five Live and Sky Sports News before everything changed with instant online results. But 100 years ago, we got everything from newspapers. For the next week, those papers would be full of previews of the big day the following Saturday. It was FA Cup time.

As noted elsewehere, Man U lose three at home in a row in the League for the first time since 78/79. If we're talking about all competitions, they hadn't lost three in a row since March-April 1963. It was very late in the season but they still had three games against Leicester City to play after that - one home, one away, one at Wembley. Three games we needed to win in our quest for the double. In United's next home game, on Good Friday, they stopped the rot - they held us to a 2-2 draw, with Bobby Charlton scoring a controversial free kick, taken before we'd lined up a wall. The next day was the return game and we won 4-3, leaving us top of the League with five to play, though Spurs and Everton were a point behind with a game in hand. After a draw against Wolves four days later we then lost our last four games in the League to finish 3rd, and also lost the Cup Final.

Man U have lost three in a row at home for the first time since 78/79. The second of those three was the greatest game ever:

When young Barrie worked at hospital radio in Nottingham he was 'publicity and promotions manager' and on air he called himself 'Barrie James'! Another attempt to hide his family's connection to to the Pierrepoint family (the UK's most famous exectutioners). A reminder of the story:

Here's bearded Frank during that Cup run. He mentions this game in his book, proud that the Sunday People gave him 10/10. It was at the end of this season that he almost signed for Liverpool before we stepped in:

Great view of a packed Bentley's Roof at the start of this:

Right here's the answers (set to music): 1) He's magic, you know: 2) He's got no hair but we don't care: 3) Chant about him and Gary Lineker unprintable... 4) ..though it's similar to a famous chant about: (he revealed his new haircut at Filbert Street) 5) What was our Sven chant? 6) Another unprintable chant: (for younger readers, that's Barrie Pierpoint, notorious LCFC chief exec 1990s) 7) Oh Frankie, Frankie... (opposition fans had a different version): At Huddersfield he let his beard grow during their FA Cup run then when they lost at Birmingham in the QF it came off.

Earlier in his career.

Lots of people on the right track - anyone know numbers 3 and 6? I'll post the answers after tonight's games

Just a bit of fun. Seven questions that start easy and get pretty tough. All the answers have a Leicester connection. 1) Who's this? 2) Who's this? 3) And this? 4) What's going on with these lads at Filbert Street in 2000? 5) And from about the same time, who's this a tribute to? 6) Nottingham Hospital Radio 1970s. Who is circled? 7) a) Who is this? b) Who is he playing for? c) Why did he shave his beard off the following day? Have a go and I'll give the answers later (it's bedtime here now).

Don't know if this has been posted on another thread:

Yep - definitely the Argentina game. That's Enrique Wolff in the background: Weller's 4th cap - he wouldn't win any more. Shilton's 20th cap - he'd win 105 more.

A little extra for Peaky Blinders fans. That keeper in the photo of Goodison Park is Dan Tremelling: The TV series was set in Small Heath of course - the part of the city in which Birmingham played (and still do). Tremelling was the only player from the club ever mentioned in the series. But then he was a bit of a legend. His penalty save on the last day of the previous season stopped Cardiff City winning the League, handing Huddersfield the first of their hat-trick of titles. And it looks like he's borrowed Arthur Shelby's cap.

Match 23 Saturday December 27th 1924 Leicester City v Manchester United Supporters in Leicester that morning faced a dilemma. The team were on the crest of a wave, and Manchester United were in town. But across the country a storm was raging, and with half of Filbert Street uncovered, many wondered if they really wanted to spend 90 minutes exposed to gale-force winds and driving rain. At Everton, a huge tarpaulin was caught by the wind and slammed into a goalpost, breaking it in half. The game kicked off ten minutes late to allow for emergency repairs: At Leicester the club flag, flying proudly over the Filbert Street end, flapped so forcefully against its supporting pole that it snapped it in two. The pieces narrowly missed people queueing at the turnstiles, 'falling into the open space behind the refreshment bar'. Many thousands who had been planning to see the game decided to stay home - and they would regret the decision. After our seven goal bonanza on Christmas Day, no-one imagined we'd put in an even better performance against United. But that's what happened. Let's review the action with the help of two of the great sports journals of the day. First, Kernel in the Football Post, who described the games's key moments in that evening's paper; After 19 minutes, City deservedly took the lead, and it was a brilliant effort by Chandler. Taking a pass near midfield, the centre-forward dashed away on his own and not only beat both backs but also eluded the keeper as he came out before placing the ball in the net. The crowd went nearly frantic for quite five minutes. The second half opened in sensational fashion. Adcock beat Grimwood and centred nicely across the goal. Chandler first tried to convert it but the ball struck a defender and rebounded to Duncan, who dashed up and put it in the net, the visitors appealing vainly for offside. With fifteen minutes to go, Chandler, seizing onto the ball from a throw-in, tried a shot from 25 yards. It hit Silcock's leg and found its way into the net. As for United's response, Kernel told us that: The extent to which the Manchester side were subjugated may be gathered from the fact that while in the first half keeper Godderidge had very little to contend with, in the second he didn't have a single shot to stop. 'Jacques' of the Athletic News had time to reflect on what he'd seen before writing his commentary for Monday's paper: Leicester City are not likely to achieve a greater performance than this, and I say it with full knowledge of Duncan's six successive goals against Port Vale. In this match they completely conquered the worst conditions imaginable in mud and water, a driving wind and rain. Though losing the toss, they played such magnificent football that Manchester United, powerful side though they have proved themselves to be, were never able to do much more than desperately and vainly defend their goal. Despite the awful conditions, the Leicester men were quick on the ball, rapid and accurate in their passing, and from first to last the Manchester United half-back line was an utterly beaten force. So much did the home side by their dash and combined skill dominate affairs that the home backs had an easy task, while their custodian was a mere spectator. The crowd who braved the anger of the elements saw as fine an exhibition of football as they are ever likely to see, when we take into consideration the difficult conditions. On this form, the City are a great team, and while the forwards played splendidly, individually and as a combined force, one must not forget that they owed much to the half-back line. Chandler led the line with his dash and ability. Duncan was a great craftsman, and it was noticeable that the wings had a great understanding with the wing half-backs. Even in the mud, they worked the triangular scheme with such success that Mann and Greenwood, the opposing wing half-backs, could make nothing of them. The Leicester Mail reporter singled out our wingers: Adcock and Wadsworth appeared to revel in the mud. They fell and rolled in it, but they were up and after the ball again in a wonderful manner. Once Wadsworth was charged over the line and had to dig mud from under his sleeve and out of his eyes, whilst United's Frank Mann, who has the misfortune to be bald, ceased to have that appearance long before the match was over. Leaders Derby faced the same conditions at Hull, where 'the storm reached its height during the game and players sank to their ankles in mud'. Most of the play was 'purely farcical', but the referee allowed the game to run its course. It finished 1-1. At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea stretched their unbeaten run to 16 with a 3-0 win over bottom club Coventry. That left the table like this: Our three goals took us level with Derby as top scorers in Division Two. The table also reveals the contrast between the leading pair - United's strength so far had been their defence - at least until they arrived at Filbert Street. We were now playing the best football of any side in the division, and in those more egalitarian days, it's fair to say that the only sides in the whole Football League playing at a higher level were West Brom and Huddersfield, breaking clear at the top of Division One, with early pace-setters Notts County and Birmingham falling back. Here are the men responsible - our strongest line-up that season, first selected at Derby in early December and pretty much unchanged for the rest of the season: These men were becoming household names, getting rave reviews week after week, their exploits capturing the imagination of football lovers all over the country. But still we were only fourth. Chelsea didn't have our style but kept grinding out results, while the top two had been unchanged for over three months. As we looked forward to 1925 we knew we had a real scrap on our hands if we were to win out in this brutal promotion race.

Yeah - I kind of wish I'd gone along to one of those games when I had the chance (but I've only ever been to about two Tigers games in my whole life). By the way, I should correct something. I said that when the Tigers v Barbarians game was first played in 1909 it was 'almost as if they saw the success of Leicester Fosse's traditional Christmas Day fixture and wanted a piece of the action'. But that's misleading. It seems the Barbarians were first invited because Tigers' previous regular festive visitors, Fettes Lorettanias, could no longer send a team. Who on earth are they, I wondered. Well, Fettes and Loretto were (and still are) private schools in and around Edingburgh, and this was a combined team of their old boys. Apparently in the late 19th century they were a very popular touring side, thanks to the effors of one Andew Ramsey Don Wauchope. And here's a nice piece written around that time (from the Mercury in 1906):

Is this the one? Bikes at 3.35:

No sniggering please - this is the Mercury reporter's description of the penalty incident at Port Vale:

Match 22 Friday December 26th 1924 Port Vale v Leicester City Heading for the Recreation Ground in Hanley that day would have been a nine year old Port Vale fan called Stanley Matthews. He lived a mile from the ground and he probably ran the whole distance. Running, along with kicking a football, was his great love. He was already building a reputation as an athlete. Every year he entered the annual Boys' 100 Yards Handicap, held at the Victoria Ground, home of Stoke City. The very first time he entered, aged just six, he came first (with a 45 yard start over the eldest boys). As he got older, and that head-start shortened, he would win it three more times. Stanley's hero was Port Vale centre half Bob Connelly, who had been marking Arthur Chandler in the game at Filbert Street on Christmas Day. Their personal duel had finished fairly even. Chandler put Leicester ahead early on, but after that, Connelly kept him quiet (while Johnny Duncan ran riot). Duncan's double hat-trick took him above Channy at the top of the Division Two goalscorers list. It is not clear who was supposed to be marking him that day, but we have a pretty good idea. For this return game, Tom Cooper was restored to the Vale defence for just his second appearance, in place of Jack Braddock. With that change, Vale's defence was considerably tightened up. This is the place Leicester visited that day: It looks like an industrial wasteland because that's exactly what it was - 'squalid ugliness on a scale so vast it became sublime', as writer Arnold Bennett put it. Bennett's works, which include wonderfully authentic portrayals of football matches around the turn of the century, somehow made the Potteries romantic. In the photo you can see the Recreation Ground, scene of today's game, at the bottom, in the very centre of Hanley. On the left is the Cobridge Athletic ground, from where the club had recently moved. And the arrow at the top is the site of their present home, Vale Park, back in Burslem where the club were born. Arnold Bennett's home was very close to the Cobridge ground, on Waterloo Road, the main route from Hanley to Burslem which you can see stretching up the left hand side of the picture. The Leicester team had a very early start that Boxing Day morning, stopping in Derby on the way to have breakfast. And in those less partisan days, there would have been a fair few Stoke fans heading for the game too, curious to see the team they'd be facing in the FA Cup two weeks later. The first chance of the game fell to the home side. Alf Strange, future England star, 'sent in a magnificent shot that rebounded from the crossbar'. Then Leicester's Billy Newton let fly from distance and saw his shot strike the bar at the other end. It was at this point that the main characters of the previous day took centre stage once again. Johnny Duncan was fouled in the Vale area and Leicester were awarded a penalty. Duncan it was who stepped up to face Tom Fern. Did the keeper adopt his 'putting off' attitude? We don't know - but he did manage to outwit the Leicester captain, whose shot was saved as Fern dived to his right. Then just before the break, 'Fern was loudly applauded (and deserved it) for a maginificent save, again from Duncan, fisting the ball over the bar with his arm extended'. According to the Leicester Mail, 'for several seconds the crowd were dumb with amazement before they broke out in cheers and applause'. After 45 minutes it was still goalless. The few Leicester supporters in the crowd would have been persecuting themselves with typical football supporter logic - 'Why didn't we save a couple of those Christmas goals for today?' During the half-time break, one of the main exit gates was pushed open and dozens of people rushed through to add to the already huge holiday crowd, though from reports it's unclear whether the gates were forced or if it was a safety measure of some kind. Three minutes into the second half we finally took the lead, Chandler scoring with what the Mercury called 'an overhead kick'. This is unlikely to have been a bicycle kick of the Klaus Fischer / Shinji Okazaki variety, more likely Channy hooked the ball over his head while facing away from goal, as he would do so many times later in his career. Vale's response to going behind was very different from 24 hours earlier, and they were on top for much of the second half. Strange again came close, this time hitting the post, and then seeing a shot beat Godderidge but hit a defender. The pressure paid off fifteen minutes from time when Harry Hooper failed to clear and centre forward Wilf Kirkham rushed in to score the equaliser. We knew we needed the points, and we stepped up our game in search of a winner. Adcock got away on the right and was closing in on goal before a cynical challenge stopped him in his tracks. From the free kick, George Carr got in a header which flew past Fern for a priceless goal. 2-1 was the final score, and we had four points out of four with two thirds of this hectic holiday programme completed. Just how vital Carr's winner was the players realised when they heard the other results. All three teams above us had won: With none of the teams immediately below us winning, a gap opened up between the top four and the rest: It was turning into a gripping promotion battle, with four outstanding teams chasing two slots (just like 2023/24). And the excitement would go up yet another notch the following day, when Manchester United arrived at Filbert Street.

The last Christmas Day game at Filbert Street was a 4-1 win v Rotherham in 1953. Jon Holmes mentioned it on his podcast this week as one of his very earliest memories. Football Ruined My Life - Jon Holmes, Patrick Barclay, Colin Shindler, Paul Kobrak | ポッドキャストランキング

Football Ruined My Life - Jon Holmes, Patrick Barclay, Colin Shindler, Paul Kobrak | ポッドキャストランキング

There's going to be a few follow-ups for these festive games - and not just because I want to re-use the six reindeer logo while it's still seasonal. Johnny Duncan's double hat-trick 'equaled the world record', said the Mercury's banner headline. Well - did it? Only one player had ever scored six times in a Football League fixture before - and that was way back in 1899 when Steve Bloomer did it for Derby against The Wednesday. So Duncan equaled that record. But to speak of a 'world record' is a bit far-fetched. You only have to go north of the border to find John Petrie, who scored 13 for Arbroath in their famous 36-0 win against Bon Accord in the Scottish Cup in 1885. And a player called Jeno Karoly had scored 11 for MTK Budapest in the Hungarian top flight in 1905 (not that you could expect the Mercury to have known that). In the subsequent years, Bloomer and Duncan's record would be eclipsed - and the main reason was the change in the offside law at the end of this 1924/25 season. Our own Arthur Chandler equaled it in the famous 'sixth swan' game in 1928. Then in a crazy few months in the 1935/36 season, the English record was broken by Ted Drake (Arsenal - seven), Bunny Bell (Tranmere - nine) and finally Joe Payne (Luton - ten goals).

I did wonder if there was a Robin Hood connection.