That wasn’t what I was seeing, it was a row of players as I described, and I assumed an algorithm had thrown up those with Walsall connections, but Culpin blew that theory out of the water, so I’m not sure what it was.
Hawker was a good player, always seemed to have an injury lurking round the corner. I think he might have been a bit like Brazier, those who saw him as a youngster perhaps expected a better career for him than he managed.
Brazier was a young centre-back who found himself overtaken by Hazell and Berry and behind more experienced defenders like McAlle, Hughes and Gallagher, so he became a jack of all trades filling in as a midfielder or full back and maybe he lost his way a bit, until we sold Lee Sinnott and he went back to what he was best at.
Hawker was another who possibly was a victim of his versatility, never quite able to be first choice for a particular role for any length of time, but able to cover anywhere in the defence or midfield. I don’t think he played many games in 83-84, and none of the glamorous ones, but he never let us down when he did play.
If anyone is interested, between Neil Ravenscroft and myself, we have had prints of the BA poster repaired and are now available to print at A3 size.
As below, the lower image from the BA Heritage Centre, was a scanned copy from a book, so it had fold and staple marks. The top image, is the repaired copy.
If anyone is interested in getting an unframed print, please let me know, so we can look at the costs to cover the repair work done, printing and postage/delivery in an A3 ‘Do no bend’ envelope.
Kenny Mower, the next fella, I don’t think was a player but stood in for the photo if I recall correctly, Kevin Summerfield, David Preece, Richard O’Kelly, Gary Pendry in goal!, Craig Shakespeare, Brian Caswell, Colin Brazier and Alan Buckley.
I recall the second on the left was from the advertising agency/photographers, as the photo was taken in the close season, when some of the players were still away on holiday, so he stood in, as did Pendry as goalie.
I loved that kit. I think there was a blue trim on the shirts in addition to the blue shorts. The away strip was blue and very popular with our supporters. My memory is that it was more popular than the home strip due to our away performces in the Milk Cup. The photo was done before we had assembled the squad for that never to be forgotten season.
It may be heresy for me to say this but that Admiral kit is my all-time favourite.
The first one I ever bought. I love the design and the blue shorts, both of them lasted for years.
I thought I still had the shirt but haven’t been able to find it.
Update on the poster, with plenty of interest.
Cost is looking to be about £10.00 each, to include a Do Not Bend envelope and postage/delivery.
Hope that hasn’t put anyone off.
I’ll give it a bit longer to see if there is more interest before sending out the payment details, to then place an order with the printers.
Thanks for all of the interest so far.
