Don’t know if anyone can help with the following questions.
When were floodlights installed at Fellows Park?
Before floodlights were installed presumably there were no midweek matches, but what happened with 3pm kick offs in the depths of winter. Because it must have got dark before full time?
In December of 1957 we played Falkirk to celebrate the installation of our new floodlights. Why Falkirk, I have no idea.
Before that, I presume games kicked off at 1400 hours in winter. Or perhaps 1300. Also that midweek games in the winter would kick off at 1400 hours.
Spot on…I have the programme from the Falkirk game. It was one of my first matches .Befor that midweek games were at 2pm or 2.30pm. Not sure why it was Falkirk …were they Scottish Cup winners ? Anyway @Fellows1926 will no doubt tell us.
@Worsul @JumboTrudgeon @Saddler1977 Before floodlights Thursday afternoon games took place as well as Tuesdays if there was a fixture pile up. Think the KO times varied depending on the time of year. First floodlit game was v. Falkirk in a friendly, but there were a few more friendlies that season of an evening and even when they were introduced to actual league games they progressed from the last 30 mins or HT etc. It wasn’t a case of starting a specific game with the lights on from the start of a game. When I have more info I will add it on this thread.
Thank you @Fellows1926
This info about different kick off times in the past is interesting in the context of the discussion around SKY moving games from the ‘traditional’ 3pm kick off slot
I remember reading, in Geof Almans book I think, that midweek games were sometimes played on Thursdays as this was early closing day in Walsall and would therefore attract people who worked in retail etc.
In what way are they related?
I wasn’t around in the 50s, but I’d imagine the world was a very different place then. Nothing you could compare to nowadays.
Of course it was different in the 50s, but there have been lots of complaints about kick off times being moved from 3pm, because that is the ‘traditional’ kick off time.
This thread shows there were historic eras where games didn’t necessarily kick off at 3pm.
I’m not saying people are wrong for wanting 3pm kick offs. I just think it’s interesting that the 3pm hasn’t 100% always been the default kick off time. I had always assumed games had kicked off at 3pm before I read this thread.
Well they have really. If you have to go back 60-70 years to find examples of when it was different, and only because it was the only way to get games played. From what my Grandad said to me, we used to play on Christmas Day, but most fans now think of Boxing Day as a football tradition.
Mansfield trialled an early kick off against us a few seasons back to try and save electric from the floodlights. It failed miserably from what I read and they have never done it again as far as I am aware.
Thanks for posting those pictures. The thing I remember most from that night is that the kit the players wore was “satin” like in the lights!!! I don’t recall much about the game however around that time we had a Scottish forward named Tommy Brownlee who had ginger hair. That also shone in the floodlights 
Look at the crowd for a friendly, people would pay to watch 2 players lacing their boots up in those days. I can remember going to watch Walsall play Moscow dynamo when I was a kid, Lev Yashin was in goal for them, that was a good crowd.
There was though we did lose 5-0 I think.
There were a couple of friendlies around that time against European opposition. We scored 8 in a couple of them and beat Slovan Bratislava (I think!) 3-1 on a very rainy night.
We would not be looking for extra games these days.
I take it Rochdale were used because “Vizard” was a professional floodlight tester. 
Referee from Bloxwich.
Yes local ref Arthur Rowbottom was used for all four floodlit friendlies that season.
