Peter Downsbrough, the Halifax goalkeeper, makes a
flying save in the Third Division match at Brighton in February
1963. Halifax won 1-0. Photograph: PA/PA Archive
The current big freeze has far to go before it equals the
paralysis that disrupted the season of 1963. When Middlesbrough
beat Blackburn 3-1 in a replay at Ayresome Park on 11 March, this
brought to an end the most chaotic third round in the then 91-year
history of the FA Cup. The round had begun on 5
January and lasted 66 days through frost, snow, ice, power cuts,
thaw, rain and mud. The third round was spread over 22 different
playing days and there were 261 postponements. Sixteen of the 32
ties were called off 10 or more times.
Topping the list was Birmingham v Bury, which stretched through
14 postponements plus one abandonment and a replay, while Lincoln v
Coventry was postponed 15 times. The record was set in Scotland,
where the Stranraer v Airdrie cup tie was postponed 33 times, while
in Yorkshire Barnsley played only two matches between 22 December
and 12 March. It was Britain's coldest winter since 1740 and also
caused mass postponements in both rugby codes and the loss of 61
days of National Hunt racing.
The FA Cup third round of 1963 gave birth to the Pools Panel
which, on four successive Saturdays under different chairmen – Lord
Brabazon, Sir Alan Herbert, Group Captain Douglas Bader, and Sir
Gerald Nabarro (the Tory MP) – gave results for the postponed
games, of which there were more than 30 on 26 January. On the
resident panel were the former England internationals Ted Drake,
Tom Finney and Tommy Lawton; from Scotland, George Young; and the
Fifa referee Arthur Ellis. Lord Brabazon, on the opening day of the
panel, was of the opinion that "forecasting is a farce" and there
was a shortage of draws from the panel in relation to a normal
programme.
The disruptions caused, inevitably, many distortions, but one of
the unlikeliest was Fulham's. George Cohen, later to be England's
winning World Cup right-back, recalls: "When the freeze struck we
were in danger of relegation. Luckily we were able to go and train
at the ground of Leatherhead FC, near to where I lived at
Chessington. When the thaw arrived, we went 13 weeks without defeat
and moved to safety."
It was rather the reverse for Brighton, where a local builder on
the club board managed to unfreeze the pitch with his tarmac-laying
equipment. However, this destroyed the pitch, and Brighton were
still relegated.
The FA agreed that, in emergency, clubs might play third- and
fourth-round Cup ties on neutral grounds where available. Yet Billy
Lane, the manager of non-Lleague Gravesend, refused to shift the
home tie with lofty Sunderland, and the Kent team held them to a
draw, narrowly losing the replay. The Scottish FA, meanwhile,
vainly discussed the possibility of summer football.
Coventry City, led by the imaginative Jimmy Hill, went to play
friendly matches in Ireland, including against Manchester United in
Dublin, a 2-2 draw in front of a 20,000 crowd. Halifax turned their
pitch at The Shay into a public ice rink and charged admission.
Chelsea, with Tommy Docherty as manager, flew to Malta.
If there was disruption on the field, there was confusion
elsewhere. The League management committee proposed to extend
future seasons to the end of May, and devised a relegation system
that defied mathematical analysis but was ultimately abandoned. The
government, pressed by the Wolfenden Committee on Sport to create a
Sports Development Council with an annual budget of £5m, ignored
the proposal and instead appointed as minister of sport Lord
Hailsham (Quintin Hogg), who spent most of his time shooting or
fishing. His assistant was Sir Patrick Renison, who may have
performed splendid service as governor of British Honduras, British
Guiana and Kenya, but knew next to nothing of sport, admitting:
"I'll be starting from scratch." Nothing new there.
I remember well the opening paragraph of a match I reported at
Charlton during the worst of the crisis, a goalless draw at home to
Bury. I wrote in the Telegraph: "Take one frying pan (or
football pitch), melt a quantity of ice, stir in enough earth, sand
and peat to form a liquid paste. Add 22 players, flavour with a
referee, simmer for 90 minutes until players are uniformly brown
and unrecognisable. Serve chilled to half‑frozen spectators who,
after weeks of neglect, have such an appetite for the game that
they are unlikely to summon the Maître d' (manager)."
By the time the league was back to normal in March, it was clear
that the race for the title rested between Spurs, Leicester and
Everton. After Everton lost 2-1 away to Sheffield United on 30
March, it looked good for Spurs, even though Everton had two games
in hand. Leicester stood between the two rivals, but success in
reaching the FA Cup final limited their League focus. An epic clash
between Everton and Spurs on 20 April opened the way for the title
to return to Goodison after a lapse of 24 years. A crowd of 67,650
saw Everton win by the only goal from mercurial Alex Young. Though
they dropped a home point to Arsenal, Everton finished with four
victories, away to West Ham and West Brom, home to Bolton and
Fulham. Their triumph owed much to big-name signings: Tony Kay at
left-half from Sheffield Wednesday, Alex Scott from Rangers on the
right wing, and Gordon West in goal from Blackpool.
The FA Cup final was delayed until 25 May, three weeks later
than the 1962 final. Manchester United, having only narrowly
escaped relegation, defeated Leicester. Throughout the season
United's rhythm had been predominantly absent, whereas Leicester at
one stage were in line for the Double. They had no stars to match
Matt Busby's glittering array, but under the shrewd guidance of
their manager, Matt Gillies, were a sound unit. However, at
Wembley, their midfield trio of Cross, McLintock and Gibson were so
busy attempting to stem the flow of United's attack that Leicester
seldom provided any thrust up front.
Even that was not the end. The League Cup final, then played
over two legs, and featuring Birmingham and Aston Villa, was not
completed until the Monday after the FA Cup final – two days before
the Derby.
David Miller has been covering sport in Britain's national
newspapers for more than 50 years