Blackpool can be a restless place, even at its best, and nowhere is that more true than at the town’s famous football club. But the international match played there in 1932 came at a particularly restless time.
It took place on Monday 17 October, with the Illuminations in full swing, and saw England take on Ireland. Over the weekend just gone, twenty special trains and 2,000 motor coaches had arrived in the town and an estimated quarter of a million people had crowded onto the streets.
There was certainly plenty for them to see. The Lights had just been refurbished, and the tram-shelters in Talbot Square were now edged in red, blue and green neon. On the Promenade and along the piers huge lamps created a nightly fan of light. And elaborate new tableaux had been put up along the cliffs, from North Shore to Bispham.
There were attractions all over the town, in fact, not least at the Grand Theatre, where the great actor Seymour Hicks was starring in a comedy entitled ‘The Gay Adventure’. Another comedy was being performed at the Opera House, and movies could be seen at the Winter Gardens. Claudette Colbert was on at the Princess, and the talkie at the Palace starred Lionel Barrymore. Elsewhere in that complex, customers could see a variety show starring Florrie Forde. The Tower, meanwhile, had the Children’s Ballet and Bertini & the Tower Dance band, while at the Empress Ballroom, it was Larry Brennan and his Empress Dance Band.
Promenade purge
Those places were all full, as were the cafés, pubs and restaurants. And for everyone who had come for the band or the ballet, there were just as many who simply wanted to get in out of the rain. It was a stormy weekend, with gales reaching their height on Saturday evening.
People were forever walking in front of cars, and cars forever crashing into one another. A lorry hit a coach full of passengers outside North Station. And Victoria Hospital was having its busiest night for years. Staff on leave were asked to report for duty and convalescent wards were pressed into service as emergency wards.
Saturday had been a restless day for other reasons as well. There had been a purge of illegal rock-sellers on the Promenade. At the conference of the Amalgamated Society of Dyers, Bleachers, Finishers and Kindred Trades, the general secretary had resigned in disgust. And a man who stole a wallet was pushed off a tram and detained by a crowd until the police arrived. The saddest news, however, came from right outside the Winter Gardens, where the Vicar of Blackpool, Canon AWR Little, collapsed and died on Saturday afternoon.
The England and Ireland teams were both staying at the Imperial Hotel. But the visitors had endured a difficult crossing from Belfast. And at breakfast-time on Monday, they were besieged by travelling fans.
Decorated with shamrocks
The Ireland side would be captained by its goalkeeper, the Liverpool player Elisha Scott, who was already a star. England, meanwhile, had Dixie Dean, who played his club football for Everton, the reigning League Champions, and who wasn’t so much a star as a phenomenon. He had recently scored 60 league goals in a single season and set a record that stands to this day. For England, he had scored 18 times in only 15 games. And at Blackpool he would be winning his sixteenth international cap.
The weather that Monday afternoon was cloudy and cold with a strong wind whipping the waves into great white horses. Things cleared up around noon and for a while a pale sun could even be seen peeking through the clouds.
Many of the Ireland supporters walked to the ground, along the Promenade and down Lytham Road. They waved flags and banners decorated with shamrocks, had green tam o’shanters on their heads, and were accompanied by a brass band. And when the band fell silent, the visitors carried on singing the songs of home.
When they reached Bloomfield Road, they will have seen a stadium that had been re-developed in the last year or two, and that now looked pretty much as it would even fifty years later. It had the wooden South and West Stands, and the ‘Scratching Sheds’ along the east side. While at the north end of the ground, a huge terrace had been erected, which people were already calling the Spion Kop.
Boos and whistles
The supporters surrounded the Irish players as they ran onto the pitch. Someone gave Elisha Scott a doll dressed in a green cape, which he dutifully placed in the back of his goal. And when the referee came out, resplendent in a khaki blazer, he was greeted by the customary boos and whistles.
Ireland won the toss and England kicked off. The turf was lush and swift. The wind that had whipped the waves could now be felt swirling around the ground. And visibility was poor, with Bloomfield Road’s first floodlights still a quarter of a century away.
England, in their white jerseys, made a strong start, and though the Irish defended well for a while, the winning goal wasn’t long in coming. Elisha Scott scuffed a clearance on the half-hour, the ball fell to Barclay, another of England’s forwards, and he lashed it back into the unguarded goal.
It was announced afterwards that fully 23,000 people had attended the match and almost £1,800 had been taken at the gate. The Football Association made a profit worth almost £100,000 in today’s money, and this was hailed a great success. Despite his impressive goal-scoring record, however, Dixie Dean would never win another England cap. And Blackpool FC would finish the season bottom of the First Division.
Bloomfield Road would later host a match between England and Ireland’s amateur sides. Women’s internationals would follow. And England’s under-21 team played Northern Ireland there in November 2012. Up to now, however, the full England men’s team has never come back to the seaside.
