Black, Cross - Vardy

[kushiro]

It's happened twice before - a player reaching the landmark of 500 games for Leicester City.  If Sunday is anything like the first two, we could be in for a treat.

 

 

Adam Black 

 

May 6th 1933

 

Things looked really bleak with three games to go. We were 22nd in Division One, propping up the table. The remaining games, numbers 498, 499 and 500 in the career of full back Adam Black, would decide our fate.

 

Apart from three penalties, Black hadn't scored a single goal in his whole career. But against Sunderland at Filbert Street, match number 498, he launched a long ball towards the opponents' goal from inside his own half - and watched in disbelief along with 20,000 others as the keeper misjudged the bounce and it landed in the net. We won 4-2 and still had hope.

 

A win at Birmingham the following Saturday meant it was suddenly in our own hands. Two points on the last day at home to West Brom and we would be safe.

 

It was going well. Just after half time we were leading 3-2. That's when the skies darkened, the heavens opened and a thunderstorm of biblical proportions descended.

 

'Hundreds of spectators ran from the exposed portions of the ground on the Popular Side in their efforts to get as quickly as possible to the covered enclosure, and while they were doing so the ball was kicked in their direction and became lost in the running crowd. The game was held up until police had moved the crowd back and recovered he ball. Another stoppage occurred two minutes later when a considerable number of youths at the Filbert Street end poured on to the pitch in a body right in front of Pearson, the West Brom goalkeeper'.   

 

'For the remainder of the game, the antics of the players provided a constant source of merriment to the crowd, with the play accompanied by endless roars of laughter. To secure a  semblance of a foothold was well-nigh an impossibility. Murphy must have created a record for the longest ever slide. With his arms and legs upraised, he traveled for about eight yards, and W.G. Richardson, in turning to shoot, fell and whirled round like a spinning top. The referee slid over and dropped his whistle. He delved around for it in the water and when he found it, it was so clogged with mud that he had to leave the pitch and get a replacement'. 

 

'The game was farcical, but out of it loomed the one fact which decided the issue. Leicester's control of the ball was remarkable, and at the height of the storm, they scored three in ten minutes'.

 

When the sixth goal went in, the skies brightened and a double rainbow appeared over the ground.

 

6-2 was the final score and we could look forward to another season of top flight football.

 

 

This was how the Mercury cartoonist saw it:

 

 

I've never seen a double rainbow quite like that before.

 

 

Graham Cross

 

April 20th 1973

 

Forty years on and guess what - another relegation fight.  With four games to go we were 19th as we headed for Selhurst Park. Malcolm Allison's Crystal Palace were one of the three teams below us.

 

The Daily Express sent their star man Desmond Hackett to cover the game, and he began his report as follows:

 

'Palace were outplayed and outclassed by an almost leisurely Leicester City'. 

 

We nearly took the lead after just five minutes, when 'Peter Shilton lashed out an almighty drop kick and the startled Palace keeper John Jackson almost fumbled the ball into his own goal'.  

 

This was the game's key moment:

 

'A move started by able veteran Graham Cross finished with Weller, indisputably man of the match, scoring with a low grazing shot':

 

 

Palace did have chances, but Shilts kept them out. 'He was like a monkey', Allison said after the match, 'leaping around the goal'.

 

This is from the Merc:

 

 

 

With that victory we were safe.

 

A couple of months later, Adam Black was pictured in the Mercury at his newsagents on Wilberforce Road, still going strong at 75:

 

 

 

Did you spot the pattern?  When a Leicester player makes his 500th appearance, we win and stay up. So it's simple. Beat Ipswich on Sunday, then find that the Premier League have, after all, dished out the ultimate punishment to Manchester City.

 

 

 

 

Edited 16 May 2025 by kushiro

[CPepFox]

I hope this holds true... thank you once again for your diligent research... 

[Stadt]

Cross isn't heralded like he should be. I love that he won the One Day Cup with Leicestershire too.

Edited 16 May 2025 by Stadt

[kushiro]

Just now, Stadt said:

Cross isn't heralded like he should be. 

 

Too right. This is how wikipedia covers his Leicester career:

 

He spent most of his career playing for Leicester City originally as an inside forward, then later as a centre-half and occasionally a right half. At Leicester he holds the record for the most appearances for the club with 600 between 1961 and 1975.

 

That's it. 

 

Some Oasis B-sides have 5,000 words devoted to them, and our all time record appearance maker has that. It's a travesty.

 

[davieG]

3 hours ago, kushiro said:

 

Too right. This is how wikipedia covers his Leicester career:

 

He spent most of his career playing for Leicester City originally as an inside forward, then later as a centre-half and occasionally a right half. At Leicester he holds the record for the most appearances for the club with 600 between 1961 and 1975.

 

That's it. 

 

Some Oasis B-sides have 5,000 words devoted to them, and our all time record appearance maker has that. It's a travesty.

 

It was Cross and McLintock swapping places as inside forward and right half that broke the mould of the rigid 2-3-5 formation that had been the norm forever.

[The boy Linacre]

He played in 2 FA Cup finals, 2 League Cup finals (winning once), he won the County Championship as he appeared in the 1975 side.

Think but not certain he got an England 'B' cap too

[Foxdiamond]

4 minutes ago, The boy Linacre said:

He played in 2 FA Cup finals, 2 League Cup finals (winning once), he won the County Championship as he appeared in the 1975 side.

Think but not certain he got an England 'B' cap too

Certainly u23 caps

[Foxdiamond]

Adam Black DCM. Not to be sniffed at either

[Foxmeister]

Cross must be up there with Steve Bruce as the best ever English uncapped central defender.

[Foxdiamond]

1 hour ago, Foxmeister said:

Cross must be up there with Steve Bruce as the best ever English uncapped central defender.

Cross and John Sjoberg mainstays of the Leicester side when I started following football 

[OnlyOneCity]

59 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

Cross and John Sjoberg mainstays of the Leicester side when I started following football 

I have a vivid memory of Crossie charging through the middle of the pitch in the FACup replay against Man C in 1968. He had a brilliant game and the result was an outstanding 4.3 win to the eventual league champions, after being 2.0. down.He was a very athletic player and City through and through. Rumour has it that he once sorted out Allan Clarke in the 1969 season when we were relegated, because Clarke was making out he was injured and didn’t want to play towards the end of season.

[OnlyOneCity]

Just now, OnlyOneCity said:

I have a vivid memory of Crossie charging through the middle of the pitch in the FACup replay against Man C in 1968. He had a brilliant game and the result was an outstanding 4.3 win to the eventual league champions, after being 2.0. down.He was a very athletic player and City through and through. Rumour has it that he once sorted out Allan Clarke in the 1969 season when we were relegated, because Clarke was making out he was injured and didn’t want to play towards the end of season.

Against the eventual League Champions!🫢

[FOXYTALK]

10 hours ago, kushiro said:

 

Too right. This is how wikipedia covers his Leicester career:

 

He spent most of his career playing for Leicester City originally as an inside forward, then later as a centre-half and occasionally a right half. At Leicester he holds the record for the most appearances for the club with 600 between 1961 and 1975.

 

That's it. 

 

Some Oasis B-sides have 5,000 words devoted to them, and our all time record appearance maker has that. It's a travesty.

 

I work with him and Loughborough College back in 2008. He was in the estates department, so unassuming and nice to talk too about the city. 

[lcfcfem]

Brilliant. As always 

[kushiro]

22 hours ago, The boy Linacre said:

He played in 2 FA Cup finals, 2 League Cup finals (winning once), he won the County Championship as he appeared in the 1975 side.

Think but not certain he got an England 'B' cap too

No' B' caps, but he was very close to a call-up to the full squad in 1964. There were two withdrawals from the squad for the post-season tour of South America, both wing-halves like Cross. Alf Ramsey called up two replacements from the U-23 squad that was touring Eastern Europe. There were three wing halves in that squad, but Cross was the odd man out. He stayed with the youngsters, then went home to Leicester and a fairly successful summer with the bat, including a half century against the Australians at Grace Road.

 

[Realist Guy In The Room]

On 16/05/2025 at 09:45, kushiro said:

 

Too right. This is how wikipedia covers his Leicester career:

 

He spent most of his career playing for Leicester City originally as an inside forward, then later as a centre-half and occasionally a right half. At Leicester he holds the record for the most appearances for the club with 600 between 1961 and 1975.

 

That's it. 

 

Some Oasis B-sides have 5,000 words devoted to them, and our all time record appearance maker has that. It's a travesty.

 

Acquiesce though.

 

What a tune!

[kushiro]

18 minutes ago, Realist Guy In The Room said:

Acquiesce though.

 

What a tune!

 

Fair comment!

[onekeithweller]

On 16/05/2025 at 01:45, kushiro said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you spot the pattern?  When a Leicester player makes his 500th appearance, we win and stay up. So it's simple. Beat Ipswich on Sunday, then find that the Premier League have, after all, dished out the ultimate punishment to Manchester City.

 

 

 

                 ———————————

Beat Ipswich and Bournemouth. Vardy signs for Man City. Premier League dish out the ultimate punishment to Man City. Vardy triggers the relegation clause in his contract and comes home. We win the Premier League.

[john ridley]

Graham also played abit for Enderby Town also.

[kushiro]

18 hours ago, john ridley said:

Graham also played abit for Enderby Town also.

 

Yep - at both ends of his career. Debut for them aged 15 - at Sileby. I wonder if Bernie was there.