Barrow (In Fairness) is probably not the most famous place in Great Britain, but it was the birthplace of a Legend. Emlyn “Crazy Horse” Hughes born 1947, got a 10 year start on me and God only knows what they fed him on, but he had more energy than any other player I can remember.
Pre the “three shredded wheat” era I can only assume Quakers Porridge Oats did the trick in those days. When Shanks first saw “Yosser” play he immediately sounded out the possibility of a move to Liverpool. The “Mighty Emlyn” had that effect on anyone who saw him play.
His appetite for hard graft left most of his fellow pro’s agog. I was told that at Melwood, most players thought he was a nutter. When Shanks used to take part in the 5-a-sides, Emlyn was his first choice for “HIS SIDE”. No way did our Bill want to chase Emlyn all day. On a day when Shanks didn’t get first pick (for a change) they ended up on opposite sides. After 4 minutes Shanks sent Emlyn off to the “Sweat Box” to tire him out. But Emlyn returned even more fired up. Shanks was on the losing side that day, that in itself was a rarity. Hughes was the original “Duracel Bunny”
My fondest memory of Crazy Horse was from the 1972/73 season. It was a time when Stevie Wonder was singing Superstition, The O’Jays were singing Love Train, T Rex were singing 20th Century Boy (recently used on a tv ad). But the record that was breaking all the records was Dawn featuring Tony Orlando “Oh tie a Scarlet Ribbon round the old oak tree”
(Perhaps there is something we can do regarding Scarlet ribbons to remember a TRUE RED)
News of the era was Northern Ireland voting to stay a part of the Union. “Tricky Dicky” him of White House fame, was contemplating complete withdrawl from Vietnam (perhaps history did him an injustice).
In March 1973 I was a 15 year old attending (not learning at) Hillfoot Hey High School. On Saturday 3rd March 11am, HHH played Speke Comp. But the big game that day was at Woodison. Tickets had been sorted by my arl fella as a reward for the previous week's brace of goals scored against St Kevins (Kirkby).
We parked the car in the same spec as we did for home games and walked across the park. I always got butterflies before Derby games and today was no different, but today they felt more like albatross wings flapping in my stomach.
As usual when 55,000 scousers get together in one place, the atmosphere was acidic. The chants from the Park End were met with equal vociferous chants from The Gladys boys (note the inclusion of lady-boys in that name). Also usual in Derby games at that time the nerves kicked in anytime they got the ball even if it was well within their own half.
The teams :
Woodentops:
Lawson, Wright, Styles, Hurst, Kenyon, Darracott, Jones, Kendall, Harper, Lyons and Connolly.
Tricky Reds:
Clemence, Lawler, Lindsay, Smith, Lloyd, THE MIGHTY EMLYN, Keegan, Hall, Boersma, Heighway and Callaghan.
Sad to admit but, to be perfectly honest apart from the nervous tension, I can remember absolutely nothing about the game apart from TWO absolute screamers from Crazy Horse and the fact that Emlyn that day covered every blade of grass on the pitch in our 2-0 win. He even made Keegan look lazy and that took some doing.
Walking back across the park everyone was saying what a fella this Hughes was, surely it was only a matter of time before he was made England Captain. Emlyn continued to trample
Every INCH of Every Pitch throughout his illustrious career and for what would be considered today a pittance. That year he was rewarded with a League Winners medal and a Uefa Cup Winners medal but I will always remember ...
He played for Pride
He played with Heart
He played for US !!
Come all without, come all within, you’ve not seen nothing like the Mighty EmlynRIP Crazy Horse, never has a man given so much and taken so little. Goodnight Mate.
© Wooltonian 2004