Guest Post by David Griffith
I still sometimes hear the now faded joke that “only a blind man would want to watch West Ham” but hopefully the new Billic era will consign such feeble comments to the dustbin of history. In this, the first of three blogs, I will try to give some idea of what’s it like to be a blind West Ham supporter and why a blind supporter would fork out cash to buy a season ticket for games he will never see.
I have not always been blind. Although I was registered blind in 1986 I retained some sight until about the year 2000. Nowadays I can just about make out the glare of floodlights on evening games but nothing else.
However this delay in my losing vision meant I had a sighted childhood supporting West Ham in the classic years. I became interested in 1964 as an 8 year old when we won the FA Cup but I have memories of jumping over the settee with joy when our Black and white TV set showed Alan Sealey scoring our second in the 1965 European Cup Winners triumph. For me, this victory eclipsed even our World Cup 1966 success. Bobby Moore shared my view. He rated 1965 over 1966 because as he said it was like your school team, East End lads growing up together, taking on the might of European football and winning through.
The first time I saw West Ham in the flesh at the Boleyn was on the 18th November 1968 when my brother took me to see a team famously including several world class players such as Moore, Peters and Hurst. Sissons and Boyce were also in their pomp. West Ham outclassed and pulverised Leicester City 4-0. Bizarrely, a team with such talents often under achieved but they certainly did not fail me that day. The performance was stunning, beautiful and was culminated by a goal of amazing team work and quality by Martin Peters. The match was covered by ITV’s Big Match with Brian Moore doing the commentary and he was equally excited by Peters’ goal. There was never going to be any doubt that it would eventually win the Big Match Goal of the Season competition. In my blind eye I can still see the goal.
Ferguson throws the ball out to John Charles on the left who lobs the ball forward to Johnny Sisson who, as always, is rocketing at speed down the left wing. Sisson does not like most ordinary mortals control and hold onto the ball but instead, anticipating the ball falling over his shoulder, hooks an instant defence splitting pass forward to the edge of the Leicester penalty area. As the ball falls towards the 18 yard line Martin Peters, ghosting in as always, this time arrives like a Ghost Train and hammers a volley into the roof of the net past a bemused Peter Shilton. Shilton clearly does not know what has hit them and can only marvel at the football being played. Now somebody may well find some footage and tell me that my memory of this goal is completely incorrect but this is what is in my mind’s blind eye.
Sadly such heights were not to be too familiar at the Boleyn, but after this match I was hooked for life. Not only was the experience watching the game wonderful but the atmosphere and buzz of going up Green Street gave me a tingle of excitement I retain to this day. My career as a sighted supporter continued down the years through an appreciation of the skills of Brooking, Devonshire, Psycho Cross, Pop Robson, Cottee and McAvennie. I was at Wembley in 1975 for the FA Cup and 1981 for the League Cup Final but sadly missed the Brooking 1980 Final. I still remember the delirium of excitement when Cross destroyed Spurs at White Hart Lane where we ran out 4-0 winners.
So why is a blind supporter talking about all the games he has actually physically seen? The answer is that I think the memories of past games provide a canvas against which I can reconstruct an image of the game even today. Whether it is Peter’s masterpiece goal, Robson’s famous turn and swivel and lash of the ball into the roof of the net, Greaves and Hurst’s demolition of Manchester City at Maine Road, and many other moments of glory this all means that when people get excited today I have memories to draw on which gives some idea of what they are talking about. Football commentaries on Five Live, talkSport and previously Capital Gold made football accessible again to me.
Although now blind, I found a funny thing happened. I was becoming more and not less interested in West Ham and football in general. Surprisingly I found circumstances in which I was more knowledgeable than people watching the game. I was sometimes reading the game more accurately than the sighted people around me. The factors which allow knowledgeable blind supporters have to be discussed next time however.
In my second blog I will describe how I found myself, after a gap of 20 years, becoming a West Ham Season ticket holder again. I will also describe some of the support the club offers its blind supporters.