From Hull and back (occasionally): Nostalgia from a Hull City expat

Steve Taylor shares his experiences as a Hull City fan in exile

Each year that passes I read the season’s Tigers Eye and realise that for a large part of my and  the Tigers history I was missing. This is largely due to leaving the city of my birth at the age of three and never having returned to live, but also due to my being out of the country for most of  the time during the years from 1981 to 2011. However I never lost touch with the Tigers during  those years, whether via my father’s letters or going to games (mainly away) when I was in the  UK . 

In the 1960s we lived in Somerset and after my first live game experience aged 10 (a 3-1 loss  to Bristol City at Ashton Gate in 1963) my bedroom walls were soon festooned with green  newspaper cuttings and pictures courtesy of my uncle sending the Hull Daily Mail green sports  editions to my dad. Thereafter we went to away games in the area (not many) and I recall trips  to Oxford, Swindon and Portsmouth in those early years. Dad worked on the railways so we had cheap or free travel to these games and in1966 we went to Stamford Bridge for the cup  game where Waggy delighted us all with his wonderful brace – unfortunately we were at the  other end of the ground for his two goals and were in somewhat disbelief for a short while. 

In the late 60s and early 70s my dad and I went to many of the London games and got friendly  with a couple we were seeing regularly at the matches. They were Frankie Banks mum and dad  who lived in Southend, so for a few seasons Frankie would get us stand tickets at Fulham,  Charlton etc. Dad was not well around that time so as a teenager I went to games in and  around London on my own (no colours, remember those times?) and have two particularly fond  memories: Palace away January ’68, the referee blew as Chris Chilton ran offside, however the  ball ran through to the Palace goalkeeper and the ref waved play on but the keeper didn’t  notice so he rolled the ball out to Chillo who kicked it into the net I was standing behind – we  won 1-0; Standing alone amidst Millwall fans at the Den later that year, 2-0 down at half time  and a second half hat-trick from Ken Houghton meant my joy had to be kept quiet, I was  jumping up and down inside though – we won 3-2! 

I also remember watching City for the first time on tv (black and white) when we lost 4-0 to  Wolves in ’67 I think and being excitedly disappointed just being able to watch ‘my team’ on  the television ( we couldn’t get Anglia in Somerset surprisingly). When City had a mid-week  game I would often telephone the Tigers after full time from the phone box at the end of our  street to get the score, which I often got before I had to put the sixpence in! 

In those days I would spend the Easter holidays in Hull staying at my uncles and going to the  Easter games home and away with my cousin. I remember the three sided stadium at Sheffield  United in those days and a great 2-1 win at Wednesday when Frankie Banks scored the winner.  I was on Bunkers Hill when we lost to Stoke in the cup, remembering Gordon Banks clawing Terry Neill’s shot from behind the line… 

From the early 80’s living in Europe the only connection to the Tigers was from the BBC World  Service on a Saturday where the afternoons were spent listening for a mention, which usually  meant the half-time and full time score. European papers didn’t print scores from the lower  divisions. My dad died in 1984 so I would always think of him when I was occasionally at  games on my own. Later in ’84 I went with my wife and father in-law (they were keen Orient  supporters and he treated us to the match) to Brisbane Road where City were 4-1 down within  a few minutes of the second half starting. As HCSS members will know we won 5-4 and I was  little embarrassed – not for long though!

From the late 80’s and until covid struck I spent a lot of time in Asia, fortunately the internet  was up and running by the late 90s so following the Tigers became a lot easier. Whilst my  fellow City fans were celebrating the win at Wembley taking us to the Premier League I was in  an all-night internet cafe, two basements down, in downtown Shanghai listening to Burnsy  ramble on. I celebrated with a few pints of Tiger beer in an all night bar, trying to engage some  of the Chinese locals in my joy. 

My wife and I got tickets in the North Stand for our opening Premier League game against  Fulham which was wonderful, and a few weeks later when I was in Laos I was excitedly  surprised when the local Luang Prebang newspaper sports section had full colour pictures of  our win over Manchester City splashed across the back pages.  

Later that autumn whilst managing a cruise on the Yangtse River one of my guests, upon  hearing I was a City supporter, arranged for two hospitality tickets at Old Trafford for me and  my wife (his company had season tickets there) for the City game, so we had lunch there before the game where I wore my City shirt whilst holding the European Cup and the Premier  League Trophy. It was an entertaining game too against Ronaldo, Rooney, Berbatov etc with  United scraping the win as I’m sure we all remember. 

FA Cup visits to Wembley and the play-off with Wednesday were highlights of my life as a City supporter, despite the Final loss, seeing ‘Hull City’ emblazoned over the Wembley arch was  something I thought I would never see. Let’s hope we see it again before too long. The Cardiff City game at the KCOM (as it was then) where we were promoted after Leeds lost is also a  fond memory, even though we didn’t win! 

Thereafter it was a case of listening to all the matches on the internet wherever I happened to  be, including middle of the night wake-ups to hear the mid-week late kick-offs whilst in Tibet and other exotic locations. David Burns would dive me crazy waffling on instead of commentating…… or occasionally in big cities like Shanghai, Saigon or Cairo when we were in  the Premier League I could find a sports bar and watch. 

So now I’m retired we go to the MKM every season for the last home game and try to catch the  occasional London away match, watching the rest on the internet through one means or  another. I am really grateful for the books published over the last 10 years or so which have  enabled me to catch up on much that I’ve missed, particularly Richard Gardham’s ‘Decade’. 

Steve Taylor