Memory Lane Origin of the PAK

[McNasty]

Aw shucks, TSNB - you've made a happy man very old. Think medical science may need a forklift though. :cheers:

Medical science or the local branch of CAMRA ? ;)

 

[Rob Noxious]

Medical science or the local branch of CAMRA ? ;)

:) --- if I had a choice, it would be the latter!

 

[canveyshrimper]

:) --- if I had a choice, it would be the latter!

From memory it is. :dizzy:

 

[Rob Noxious]

From memory it is. :dizzy:

Ha - I was in The Ship again yesterday, H. Lucky that I timed it for when Old Bert the 'Shots fan wasn't!

 

[canveyshrimper]

Ha - I was in The Ship again yesterday, H. Lucky that I timed it for when Old Bert the 'Shots fan wasn't!

Fond memories of that pub and old Bert despite his football affiliations.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Aw shucks, TSNB - you've made a happy man very old. Think medical science may need a forklift though. :cheers:

Hey,that's a Ronnie Scott(RIP)line and I'm old enough to have seen him deliver it in person.:)

 

[McNasty]

Hey,that's a Ronnie Scott(RIP)line and I'm old enough to have seen him deliver it in person.:)

My favourite line is "you've made a hard man very old", usually to a female-type person.

 

[Rob Noxious]

Hey,that's a Ronnie Scott(RIP)line and I'm old enough to have seen him deliver it in person.:)

I 'borrowed' it from Van The Man --- from a live offering, 'A Night In San Francisco,' I think.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I 'borrowed' it from Van The Man --- from a live offering, 'A Night In San Francisco,' I think.

Yes,and he of course "borrowed" it in turn from Ronnie Scott.Ask RichieC. We used to go drinking in the bar upstairs quite a bit back in the day.No admission and they had the music from the main room downstairs piped in for free.

 

[shrimpfan]

And at the start of the 2nd half, a dozen or so of our original north bank from the late 60's walked round the touchline into their south bank and tore into their mob. The story that circulated was that after we had drawn at Roots Hall to them in the F.A.Cup 1st round in 1969, our lads had a rough time at the replay and took their revenge on this eventful day. I remember watching it as the guys in question wer'nt kitted out in butchers coats, boots, harringtons etc, but sported casual gear so not to make them stand out.

6 not 12 wrong story circulated no need for a reason.....

 

[E for B and Billy Best]

That Gillingham game in 1972 was a nightmare to get back to the train station, police concentrated on getting majority of fans to coaches , if you was on the train you had to go past the open end where all their fans were, we kept getting ambushed all the way back to the station it really was a case of win some lose some and getting split up, but we were the Southend north bank and we won more than we lost and when we all met up at the station we gave them an almighty running.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

That Gillingham game in 1972 was a nightmare to get back to the train station, police concentrated on getting majority of fans to coaches , if you was on the train you had to go past the open end where all their fans were, we kept getting ambushed all the way back to the station it really was a case of win some lose some and getting split up, but we were the Southend north bank and we won more than we lost and when we all met up at the station we gave them an almighty running.

A Fulham fan was killed in that alley leading to the station around about this time.

 

[GrumpyBlue]

Yes,and he of course "borrowed" it in turn from Ronnie Scott.Ask RichieC. We used to go drinking in the bar upstairs quite a bit back in the day.No admission and they had the music from the main room downstairs piped in for free.

Yes again can remember those days very well - its just the present that is dodgy

 

[Berrichonne shrimper]

A Fulham fan was killed in that alley leading to the station around about this time.

A fulham fan by the name of Foxy was also killed there in the late 90s

 

[shrimpfan]

out of you gezzers, who was in the pak then in the late
60 s then do tell??????????????????????

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

out of you gezzers, who was in the pak then in the late
60 s then do tell??????????????????????

Not me but I knew a few who were.;)

 

[westie]

Most of the contributions to this thread have been from the 70s. But first and foremost, the PAK was the name given to the North Bank choir, which evolved as a direct result of Southend playing Friday and Monday night home games. The name had nothing to do with Punch And Kick and there wasn't any elected leader. From memory, the original suggestion on one of the away trips in 1967 was "The Pack", but Wolves fans were known by that name. After some discussion, the C was dropped and the name PAK was adopted.

Although Southend drew good numbers @ more localised away games: Colchester, Watford, Gillingham etc. The numbers to such delightful venues as: Barrow, Carlisle, Workington, Hartlepool, Darlington etc. were limited to the contents of one beat-up 52-seater Supreme coach with no heating and Pete "Bonzo" Valentine's white van. I also remember making a couple of evening trips with Mick Staines in his mini-van.

From these coach trips Young Blues, the first supporters club football team was formed. We used to play @ Eastwoodbury Lane in Division 6 of the Sunday League. Our kit was a very old SUFC change strip of red, going on pink, kindly donated by the Club. Getting back from the long overnighters @ 5am and having to turn out for a 10.30am kick off could be tough.

The PAK first got its reputation as a force to be reckoned with in 1968 @ Lincoln. Having previoulsy suffered a coach bricking @ Sincil Bank the year before. Shrimpfan will remember that day ;).

Many of the original crew are still around @ Roots Hall and we bump into each other from time to time and reminisce ... as old people do!

 

[McNasty]

Most of the contributions to this thread have been from the 70s. But first and foremost, the PAK was the name given to the North Bank choir, which evolved as a direct result of Southend playing Friday and Monday night home games. The name had nothing to do with Punch And Kick and there wasn't any elected leader. From memory, the original suggestion on one of the away trips in 1967 was "The Pack", but Wolves fans were known by that name. After some discussion, the C was dropped and the name PAK was adopted.

Although Southend drew good numbers @ more localised away games: Colchester, Watford, Gillingham etc. The numbers to such delightful venues as: Barrow, Carlisle, Workington, Hartlepool, Darlington etc. were limited to the contents of one beat-up 52-seater Supreme coach with no heating and Pete "Bonzo" Valentine's white van. I also remember making a couple of evening trips with Mick Staines in his mini-van.

From these coach trips Young Blues, the first supporters club football team was formed. We used to play @ Eastwoodbury Lane in Division 6 of the Sunday League. Our kit was a very old SUFC change strip of red, going on pink, kindly donated by the Club. Getting back from the long overnighters @ 5am and having to turn out for a 10.30am kick off could be tough.

The PAK first got its reputation as a force to be reckoned with in 1968 @ Lincoln. Having previoulsy suffered a coach bricking @ Sincil Bank the year before. Shrimpfan will remember that day ;).

Many of the original crew are still around @ Roots Hall and we bump into each other from time to time and reminisce ... as old people do!

Thanks for your post. I spent a good 2 hours with shrimpfan and Blue Scorpion talking about the "good old days" ;) in the Royal Naval Club before yesterday's match.

It would be good if someone with a good memory could post some tales of the late 60s-early 70s, warts and all, to inform the younger members of the Zone about some of the violence, not that we condone it -- it happened and is part of the history of football, but it will show exactly what life was like supporting the mighty Shrimpers in days of yore.

 

[DoDTS]

Just to Please use Ken (and keep the memories going for Geoff and Richard)

The away trips in the fourth division were long trips and often entailed leaving late Friday night and not getting back till early Sunday morning and it was tehse away trips that bonded the PAK together, here's an example:

Saturday 4th November 1967
Workington 2-2 Southend United
Another weekend trip and I couldn't wait. Workington on the edge of the lake District I don't think they get any further. Usual 11.00 p.m. start, but took a ball with us this time for our breakfast time entertainment. Workington played at Borough Park on the other side of the Road was the Rugby League Ground. It was here that the 20 a side game started, using the Rugby Goal Posts, turned out to be quite a high scoring game as the goals were high.

We were all full of high spirits, one lad came up to and said "watch out for the Workington No. 9 today" "Why?" we said. He started to unbutton his shirt and underneath he had a bright red shirt with a number 9 on it "because" he said "he won't have a shirt on!", he had broken into the changing rooms and pinched a Workington shirt, sadly they must have two sets of kit because the centre forward was wearing a No. 9 shirt.

Another lad came up to us and said no need to pay here, the ground backs on to a river, but it's only a trickle, just paddle past the fence and you’re in. Unfortunately when he tried this several hours later the tide was in, and he got into the ground but with his trousers wet almost up to the waist. The police took one look at him and threw him out.

Before the game we were waiting for complimentary tickets from the players, the locals had never seen so many away fans and thought at first that we must have come from Carlisle University.

A good game drew 2-2 we gave it all, never heard the Workington fans, in one of the Sunday National papers it said "the noisy Southend fans soon had something to shout about". We took that as a real compliment. Mind you some of our members had over indulged on jars of cockles (and beer perhaps) in the Pubs before hand, that could have explained why we were so noisy.

The sixties were not initially a time of taking a lot of support away, we rarely saw away fans at Roots Hall especially for mid week games. Southend however took a coach to virtually every away game in 1967-68 and with weekend trips like this they were all virtually youngsters hence the re-action to our support.

Incidentally I don't ever remember Wolves being known as the pack I thought they were always the North bank.

DoDtS

 

[canveyshrimper]

Great post Pete and good memories, I did Workington once, I was on a family holiday in the Lake District and persuaded my Dad to drive up there for the match, apart from Hartlepool, Workington must be one of the coldest places I've ever watched football at.