Just now, perhaps because I'm nearer the end than the beginning (right now, the end, I'm afraid, feels very near) and reflecting on the commencement of my 40th FA Cup campaign as a Toon fan, I get to looking back.

One of my major reflections as I drove to the beloved North on Saturday ready for the Villa game, was the BBS and how much it has come to mean to most of us. Ever since Screacher (I think it was) etched the first BBS message on a sheet of papyrus countless millenia ago (It said "Aam ganna cut me hedge - aa canna get oot the cave this mornin" an action which led to plagues of locusts and a series of catastrophes too lengthy to relate here) the BBS has played a significant part in my life and I guess many of yours too.

The Ray Davies song which is the thread title here came to mind. Thankyou for the Days. Those BBS days and people that loom large in my mind, in no particular order, and very likely omitting some gems are as follows :-

- Tranmere (H) FA Cup - The first major meeting of the BBS clan. It was during the dark days of the TSM season, when the extended cup run and the BBS meets were the sole chinks of light as TSM laid waste to the Messiah's work. Bar Oz was the place - I can't recall all the attendees but they included Rik, Screach, Steph, and Gibbo, a nicer bunch of folk it would be hard to find. It was the day before the Angel of the North was put up, an event I witnessed on the way home the next day. The BBS is full of Angels of the North.

- Blackburn(H) - First meeting with the illustrious Softie, then still known as Soft Southerner, a man whose name is written in letters of light in the annals of BBS history. I had invited him to see his first United match at SJP and with a great sense of occasion we chose to meet beside the Milburn statue, had a grand day, 1-1 draw, and I think it was then that Softie fell in love with Geordieland and more or less decided to renounce his Soft Southern past and become a Geordie. If indeed that is the case then I can only apologise Softie, and I hope that the seasons to come will make up for what has gone so far - but don't bank on it. :-)

- Barnsley(H) - FA Cup quarter final. I think this was the occasion. I was supping a pint in The Strawberry after the match (as one does) and was tapped on the back - "Are you Jonno?". I turned to see the vision of loveliness that is Susie Brown Ale, nearly dropped my pint and if I hadn't been Jonno I think I'd have lied and said I was just to keep the conversation going! Suffice to say that another great friendship was born. Susie is living proof that beauty is more than skin deep.

- Everton (H) - FA Cup. This is really a very fond memory. Buff had written a splendid piece about attending his first match in 1949 as a tender 9-y-o. Cracking yarn. I carefully noted the date and resolved to invite him down for his 50th anniversay which coincided (within a few days) to the FA Cup round. As luck would have it we got a home tie. Softie & I had bought several tickets at both ends of the ground to supply BBS friends, and when we advertised them on the board no-one came forward, to our alarm, prompting a superb post from Softie where he envisaged he and me sat at opposite ends of the Stadium amidst rows and rows of empty seats. "Lie doon if you love the Toon" said Softie. :-) As it happens the tickets were gradually taken up but Buff was still humming and hahing and not sure whether he fancied coming. I was about to release his ticket when I had this magical phone call from Buff, Mrs Buff had apparently told him to get himself doon there and so the Buff 50th anniversary happened. Being the FA cup, and the BBS being full of glory hunters and part timers, there was a huge gathering in Bar Oz, including Bobby, Gav, Min, Stevo as well as the (un)usual suspects mentioned earlier. Buff had a great day. I was only sorry he hadn't been able to accept earlier, as it would have been nice to invite The Chronicle along for such an auspicious occasion. At the game Buff was in 7th heaven, sat beside Susie Brown Ale which resulted in prolonged hugs after every goal and we did get 4 of them. A magical day.

- Dr Bill - I can't put a date to the meeting with Dr Bill but it is a treasured memory. Bill said he was "honoured" to meet Softie and myself in The Strawberry. That reminded me of the day Wor Jackie and Cardinal Hume were given the freedom of the City. Each was the other's hero and both were apparently in awe of each other's company at the ceremony. Yes, we were very honoured too Bill.

- Sheff Utd at Old Trafford. A momentous day. The first semi in 24 years and I turned up at The Bridge in Sale (superb recommendation from our man in Manchester with the hedgetrimmer and bullet proof vest 'neath his Toon shirt, Screacher) proudly clutching my programme and ticket from the 1974 game (Burnley at Hillsborough) presuming myself to be one of the few people still alive who saw the day. :-) An excellent BBS turnout. I met the redoubtable Gav for the first time and also the wonderful duo of Val and Fifties Fan, flown in from Hong Kong. Wonderful day, fantastic result, brilliant opposition fans (especially compared to the miserable barstewards from Tottenham a year later).

- West Ham (A) - Floods. For those of you who don't know her Dougal is probably the nicest person in The Universe and suffers far too much for her love of the Toon. Like most of us, she deserves better than the lads have tended to deliver over the years. Dougal seemed extremely reluctant to join the BBS company at matches, preferring, for reasons which are unlikely to become clearer, to watch Villa at weekends. (There's no accounting for taste.) I finally became the first BBSer to meet her when she invited me down for the weekend in London and we saw the West Ham game together. I took Dougal the gift of one of those miniature SJP's with the remark that if Mohammed won't go to the mountain... etc. It must have had the desired effect as Dougal now rarely seems to miss a game home or away! That was a great day because I also met the much travelled Ciara as well, watching her first Toon match and starting off (as I'm sure many of us have) with a defeat - 2-0. Following that weekend, I had the pleasure of taking Ciara on a guided tour of The Toon, The Stadium, and some nice bits of Northumberland. I had always assumed that Ciara must be an exiled Geordie or descended from same but not so. As American as Apple Pie and "Sarker", Ciara is a star and told me that the day she arrived in Toon she felt she had come home (or yhem as I pointed out). I look forward to the day when Ciara comes to live in the UK and we can all share the crate of malt which Lanky Red has generously promised to provide to mark the occasion. :-)

- Spurs semi final at Old Trafford - another great day and great result. Five of us were sat together, Softie, Dr Bill, Susie Brown Ale, Dougal and myself. My abiding memory is of the Toon hanging on at 1-0 and poor Dougal in such a state she sat head in hands completely unable to watch the closing minutes. We scored, 2-0! we're in the final, the crowd erupts, the OT stands are shaking, we hug each other, and leap up and down and, incredibly, Dougal remained entirely oblivious to the fact. As we came out the ground she still believed we had won 1-0 and had suffered agonies in the dying seconds while we rejoiced knowing we were in the final.

Aye, it's been a lot of fun, I don't think I've ever had so many friends, or friends of such quality. Anyone else with any BBS memories you'd like to share?

Thankyou for the Days.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2001

Answers

Excellent posting Jonno, fair near brought a tear to my eye. Speaking for myself, I have yet to meet in person any of the BBS'ers, but I do feel like I know you all, you have become my friends from a far, and keep me in touch with my roots. For that I will be ever grateful, and perhaps next time I am "across the pond" we can meet, drink, and be merry, thereby giving me a yarn or two to tell down the road.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2001

Excellent Jonno and ditto Pete, I'm looking forward to meeting you all. I'll hopefully make it home in the summer and I hope we'll be able to get together and have a few drinks.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2001

Every word meant something there, Jonno, thank YOU. Too many priceless memories and too countless to remember here but i'll chip in a few. Not really FA Cup or match-related or as lyrical but quality memories all the same:

- The Wellington, The Strand. Sheff Utd semi-final. Met up with Tynedale and Lady Tynedale. Felt like i'd known them for years [as it always does]. Several pints of [dodgy] Caffrey's later and a winning goal to put us through to the final found us at O'Neill's in Covent Garden where i promptly spent the rest of the evening head under the table reviewing said pints of Caffrey's. Dodgy, they were. Honest. Don't think i ever thanked you for putting me in that taxi TM.

- The Cherry Tree, Selhurst Park. Missed the post-match beers for the 1999 game [the Bobster game] but the Jan 2000 game saw a massive motley collection of Screacher, the Tynedales, Gav, Sting, Dougal, Bobby, Bake, Mungo, the Geordie Jew and SVEN THE VIKING or Bjarni from Iceland/Finland [where did he go? Gav scared him off good n'proper] amongst others. A messy affair with the usual outcome - another London defeat. I remember the journey back to Central London hours later - standing on the platform with Bake overturning a bench and threatening to overturn one of those huge green dustbins and singing "White Riot" by The Clash. Trying to coax Dan into 'doing' his Mark Lawrenson impression, Sting and a box of matches [don't ask], and the post-match Thai [with extra gluten].

- Evergreens for the BBS Curry Night Watching the Past-Masters tournament at the Telewest Arena on Sky and Micky Quinn doing what he does best - scoring against the Makems. The joy on his face said it all, though Sting, did you and Susie really have to show us what you can do with an empty bottle of champagne? ;))

- Trafalgar Square, night before/after the Cup Final. "Shirts off, if you love the Toon", Dougal not being able to get down from the monument, The Great Disappearing Rik. Not forgetting the night after the Cup Final and the procession of BBS lookalikes at Evergreens - Les Battersby, Janet-Street Porter, Warren Barton and Clive Sinclair.

- Chelsea [h] at some nightclub, the other side of the Swing Bridge, Newcastle, Sep 2000. Gav reminisces: "I clearly remember at one point you standing talking to a VERY wankered Shirty and you had two pints in hand and kept pouring them down your front....every time I pointed this out to you, you'd tell me that it was Shirty who'd done it :)))) Most amusing :)) Not forgetting the false teeth, Felicity and gymkana and Gav's cousin who was gonna show Sting a good time

- Bobby's BBS Stag Day Football Challenge, Regent's Park, 2000 Bobby?

- Blackburn [a] FA Cup Jan 2000 A whirlwind drive up from London for a midweek game with Sting and Gav. "Sting, what'saal that smoke bellowing out of the exhaust, man?" Shearer's Robin Hood celebration and a berth in the quarter final.

Spurs [a] FA Cup Dec 1999 Meeting in the pub beforehand and Softie thrusting a couple of festive stotties into my hand and bellowing: "STOTTIE POWER" in my ear. I truly believed it would work but never once thought someone else would actually believe it as much as i did!

Thankyou one and all.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Wonderful thread. Wonderful memories. Tears in my eyes - thank you everybody!

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Wonderful thread, Jonno! Tons of great memories! Great little community we've got here. :-)

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Too many to mention:

The Superstitions thread :-)

The Robbie F****r saga.

The draw for the semi final after the Everton game - Arsenal, Man Utd and Spurs in the bag, Toon ball is number one: deafening chorus of "We are Number One, say we are Number One!" in the Strawberry. Pedro makes the draw and pulls us out against Spurs and the place exploded with the air two parts beer to two parts tab smoke. I swear there were feet sticking up amongst the sea of pint-clutching arms.

Recognizing Dunc in the crowd at Wembley looking for his ticket after we had our pub declared a Chelsea bar. A picture of relief.

A goal at Wembley.

The e-mails that led everyone back to the bbs after the great Communicata shut down of 1997 and the wonderful efforts of Dunx, Rik, Kegsy, ITK and probably others I have somehow forgotten to find us a new home when we were finally discarded altogether.

A home from home at Evergreens where we showed that nothing stops us having a party even if the "winners" all had "faces like slapped arses".

The mounted policeman who foolishly informed the Geordie throng that he couldn't hear what we wee saying (Oi! Pinnurchio!) :-)

Knowing you can travel to any ground in the country and find a friendly face at the bar.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Gawd, forgot about the mounted police at Wembley. Especially the one trying so hard not too laugh while the Geordies shouted all kinds of good-natured abuse. And us singing our way down Wembley way. Can you hear Chelsea sing? Nooo nooo.

Susie defiantly shouting 'who the f*** are ManUtd' as we plowed through the home crowd on our way back to the Post Office in time for kick off at the 1999 final.

Many, many pre/post match bevvies at the STrawbeery.

Min leading the singing online during matches.

Sting and I hopping around like kids on Christmas morning getting player autographs and photos at RFK stadium

Walking the 4000 hills of Blackburn, Lancashire to get to Screacher's car. Lynda and I noting Shearer's cheeky goal celebrations as we watched the highlights at our Manchester hotel a bit later. And the bruises gotten during our goal celebration, worn as a badge of honour for weeks afterwards.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Coming out of the 2000 Cup Final and walking down the steps....

"How, Geordie..."

"Aye, yee wi' the Black and White short on....aaahm taaalking to ye..."

"Yer mam wants to knaa what time yer'll be back for yer tea...."

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

er....

that'll be 99 Cup final of course....

;))

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001