Ice Age Champions

[davieG]

Posted: Wed 09 Jan 2013

Author: John Hutchinson

http://www.lcfc.com/...w=full#anchored

Inspection of a frozen Filbert StreetImage by: Leicester City Archive

In the latest of his ‘The Week in History’ blogs, Club Historian John Hutchinson recalls the 50th anniversary of a game which was a big step in Leicester City being heralded ‘Ice Age Champions’.

Even at the time, Leicester City’s postponed third round FA Cup match against Second Division Grimsby Town 50 years ago this week, was seen as something special. This was because it actually took place!

Three days earlier, on the original date scheduled for the 32 third round games, 29 of the ties, including Leicester’s game at Grimsby, had been postponed due to the harsh weather conditions.

The whole country was caught in the grip of the coldest, most severe winter for over 200 years. There were huge snow drifts, gale force winds, freezing fog, and temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees centigrade. Shortages of coal, gas, water and electricity made conditions particularly harsh. In the days before most houses had central heating, people shivered in their homes, scraped the ice off their bedroom windows and put several layers of old coats on their beds to keep warm at night. Many roads and railways were rendered impassable by snow and ice. As the winter conditions dragged on, melting snow caused floods. Walking down the terraced streets of Leicester proved hazardous as avalanches of melting snow frequently crashed down from roofs onto the pavements below. Because so many games were postponed the ‘Sports Mercury’ ceased publication for the duration of this protracted harsh winter.

The conditions were so severe that the third round that year took an amazing 66 days to complete. The round saw a total of 261 postponements. The game between Lincoln City and Coventry City was called off no fewer than 15 times.

Leicester’s game at Grimsby was one of the few that did take place, but it was touch and go. The groundsmen spent three days clearing the snow at Blundell Park in time for a pitch inspection on the morning of the Tuesday scheduled for the match. Even so, there was ice in the goalmouths and down the centre of the pitch. The referee, after donning boots with rubber studs, ran up and down the pitch, took a few shots at goal and then declared the pitch playable. It was bitterly cold that night though, with temperatures dropping to minus 10.

The players also wore rubber studs in an attempt to keep their feet on a pitch where it was an achievement to stay upright. Ice lurked between the hummocks and divots of the rock hard turf.

Leicester scored twice in the first 17 minutes, through Davie Gibson and Ken Keyworth. Graham Cross conceded a penalty in the 23rd minute. Davie Gibson’s second goal, 11 minutes before the end, made the final score 3-1.

Despite the dangerous conditions, the press singled out John Sjoberg, “who never put a foot wrong”, Mike Stringfellow for “his best display yet for Leicester”, Gordon Banks for being “dominant”, Davie Gibson for his “artistry”, Ken Keyworth for his “leadership” and Frank McLintock, who “roamed the whole field”. The team returned to the changing room battered and scarred after an exhausting 90 minutes.

In the event, this victory proved to be very significant. It was the first step on the way to Leicester City’s FA Cup Final appearance at the end of the season.

It was also the second game in a Club-record run of 10 successive victories, which not only took Leicester to Wembley, but also to the top of the old First Division three months later, a run which saw City hailed as “Ice Age Champions”. What made this run even more remarkable was that, in the days before substitutes, the same eleven players played in nine of these games.

A big factor in this run was that, from February onwards, Leicester City were able to keep playing despite the conditions. Fortuitously, the previous summer, the Filbert Street pitch had been re-laid and the top soil had been treated with a blend of fertiliser and weed killer, a combination which generated enough heat from the resulting chemical reaction to offset some of the frosts. Bill Taylor, the groundsman, also placed oil drums filled with burning coke around the pitch to raise the air temperature. These were removed four hours before kick-off. Even so, the pitch at the Double Decker end would be frozen.

Gordon Banks wore rubber studs while in the shadow of the Double Decker. He wore the usual leather studs at the softer Filbert Street end. He filed these down to expose the nails in order to increase his grip at that end!

When Leicester City beat Grimsby 50 years ago this week, no one anticipated a season in which some clubs went two to three months without a home game. Nor did anyone anticipate the pools companies setting up a panel made up of ex-players and other assorted personnel and which met weekly to invent results (but not scores) to keep their revenue flowing. Nor did they anticipate 48 clubs going into the fifth round draw, instead of the intended 16.

Finally, few Leicester fans dared hope that this would be the first step on yet another run to an FA Cup Final. When Leicester did eventually appear in that season’s FA Cup Final against a Manchester United side containing Bobby Charlton and Denis law, this didn’t take place until 25 May, the latest ever date for a Cup Final, due to all of the postponements during the harshest winter in the 20th century.

In retrospect however, we can now see just how significant that result at Blundell Park was, fifty years ago this week.

[indierich06]

I thought it was 'The Ice Kings' they were known as?

[Out Foxed]

Shame we didn't do the double. I know everyone says they'd go back in time and kill hitler. I'd try and change history so we won the league and cup.

[indierich06]

Shame we didn't do the double. I know everyone says they'd go back in time and kill hitler. I'd try and change history so we won the league and cup.

It could've completely changed the club's history. Who knows what might have happened if we'd done the double? We could be a top four Premier League club by now... A boy can dream!

[RonnieTodger]

Shame we didn't do the double. I know everyone says they'd go back in time and kill hitler. I'd try and change history so we won the league and cup.

It's so annoying when there's an FA Cup draw and we come out..."The 4-time runners up, that is a record".

[melrose]

Shame we didn't do the double. I know everyone says they'd go back in time and kill hitler. I'd try and change history so we won the league and cup.

Sod Killing Hitler! He had nothing against us.... I'd go for Peter Taylor, Dennis Wise or that ref Mike Reed!