Not that I'm anywhere near as old as Jimmy Greaves but he was on the One Show the other week and was talking about his childhood and it stirred up the same memory for me. I just wondered whether others had similar experiences....

Does anyone else remember having huge football matches when they were kids? I mean the type that started with a few mates but got bigger and bigger, that went on all day long, with people joining and leaving, "pitches" with the stereotypical jumpers for goalposts that had to be adjusted as the number of players grew......

Happy, happy days.

No wonder there was no childhood obesity back then!

Yeah we had them Dave,we also had them where they got that big we had to move another approx 33 a side team to the next pitch,but your right we used to be home from school then rush play football before Tea then after thats after playing as much football as possible at school,then school holidays were full of why dont you,Tony heart and his gallery,then off for some football,skate board or bmx,also something else that made me laugh today was Jason Manfords column in the sun today where he was on about medicines tasting amazingly nice when you were young with strawberry,banana & even an orange flavoured one,which is correct but it was also very funny because he was taking the pee out of making doctors appointments

 I can remember all of the above and a lot more besides, going fishing leave home at 8 in the morning biking miles to the river, staying there all day and getting home at 5 ish for tea, then out again football, cricket, then girls came along and spoilt it all, will we ever learn

We used to play football in the street with jumpers for posts. The road was concrete with tar strips to seperate them - the pitch was 4 blocks long. No issues as most houses only had 1 car and that was in the garage - now houses seem to have 3 cars atleast as the families grow. Summer was spent in the watermeadow behind the house. We used to go fishing, play rounders or sit in trees - our parents knew where we were and that was good enough for them, they weren't worried at all.

Summer evenings were always good where we lived. The street would either have a big game of football, kids and dads, or a game of cricket. Brilliant. We had an old lady across the road who used to get upset when the ball went in her garden though. I'd call her a miserable old trout but I'm like that now!!

We were pretty lucky where we lived; there was loads to do - making dens in the woods, going to the beach, going to the park, taking the Grifter for a cruise (mudflap tucked in for the motorbike sound, of course)....

I seem to remember a fashion for collecting the little plastic clips that used to be on the wrapper of bread loaves and clipping them onto the brake or gear cables.

And hands up who stuck cardboard in their spokes to make it sound "like a motorbike" (the Grifter mudflaps eventually wore away!)

We did it with lollipop stick sticks or by running over drink cans and getting them stuck on the tyre against the frame for the same 50cc motorbike noise

 Jumpers for goals and that was the afternoon!! I had a raleigh and my neighbour had a bmx, I was always abit jealous as it was the BMX craze, but i loved my Raleigh 6 speed! lol

a mate of mine got a raleigh chopper one christmas,  that was something special at the time 

I had a raleigh super night burner,then a super night burner comp,then a raleigh team banana racer all i wish i had kept now,you couldnt beat kids who's parents bought them bikes they could grow into,one small mate had a raleigh bomber & another ones parents got him a peugeot mountain bike it was about a 28 inch frame which weighed a tonne then they bought him steel mud gaurds and massive battery operated lights which aided it to sink into the tarmac,it was like watching someone on a penny-farthing

leach76:

I had a raleigh super night burner,then a super night burner comp,then a raleigh team banana racer all i wish i had kept now,you couldnt beat kids who's parents bought them bikes they could grow into,one small mate had a raleigh bomber & another ones parents got him a peugeot mountain bike it was about a 28 inch frame which weighed a tonne then they bought him steel mud gaurds and massive battery operated lights which aided it to sink into the tarmac,it was like watching someone on a penny-farthing

leach76:

another ones parents got him a peugeot mountain bike it was about a 28 inch frame which weighed a tonne then they bought him steel mud gaurds and massive battery operated lights which aided it to sink into the tarmac,it was like watching someone on a penny-farthing

Try getting most of the school to do it in the summer on the school field - got banned in the end cos the little kids kept getting sent flying (note this is at primary, never happened at secondary, too many buildings and not enough room to play in!)

Tennis used to get more out of hand my way, nip up the road to the flat bit, and have six a 6 tennis over about 50m of tarmac... Used to ***** the residents off no end

C