Tribute to Steve Waller
This is my recollection of one of the most eventful away trips I have ever had following Southend United with Steve Waller.
Date was the 25th April 1981 and Southend United were playing away at Torquay United which was just under a 500 miles round trip. I was the driver of a minibus that we had hired for our weekend away.
Set of early on Saturday morning with a short trip to Shoebury to pick up the Cambridge Hotel mob, and then back through Southend to pick up Steve Waller a couple of my brothers and some others.
The trip down the A303 was uneventful until opening time when we stopped at a pub to get the first pint of the day. Now bear in mind I was the driver (sober) so did not actually go into the pub, but could not help notice that they were coming back from the pub via the side entrance with loads of stuff, there were three framed oil paintings and a collection of pub brass including a ruddy great brass hunting horn that Steve had acquired and was blasting it as loudly as he could out of the van window. Unfortunately one of my brothers was trapped and locked in the pub as the landlady had seen them passing the stuff out of the toilet window and wanted it all back. So Steve reluctantly gave up his prised horn but not before giving the Landlady one last loud blast, before she released my brother out of the pub to get back to the minibus.
Further down the A303 we were pulled over by the old bill, who made everyone get out and they searched the van only to find the three framed oil paintings, ”Oh dear what’s all this then?” asked the copper, Steve pipes up “We bought them for our mums at a boot sale” so the coppers got onto the radio asking if anyone have reported to stolen framed oil paintings. Luckily no one had so they reluctantly let us on our way.
Just outside Torquay we pulled into a large petrol station to fill up the minibus with diesel, and while I filled the tank the others thought they would have some fun. There was a massive string sack hanging up full of beach balls, well they did not stay in the sack long. I turned round as I paid for the diesel to see hundreds of beach balls being kicked in all directions all over the forecourt, even other motorists joined in the fun.
After making a swift exit from the petrol station we were again pulled over by the old bill, not sure if it was anything to do with the beach balls but they wanted to know where we were going, so we told them we were going to the match and they said they would escort us direct to Torquay’s ground and we were to follow them. Now we did not want to do that as there was still plenty of drinking time before kickoff, so once we got into Torquay, we were behind the old bill at a set of traffic lights, the old bill went straight on, so we decided to turn right and we lost them and went our separate ways.
Driving though Torquay we came across some locals who thought it would be fun to start lobbing stuff at our minibus, big mistake, everyone piled out and gave a good account of themselves, the van jack ended up going though some car windscreen, then a load of them turned up and we all got back into the minibus and started to drive off. Unfortunately I did not realise one of my brothers was still outside running along the side of the minibus being chased by the large angry mob, he dived head first though the open driver’s door window, head butting me the driver straight in the nose. With blood spurting out he was hanging on to the door shouting go go go, which I did, and decided to quickly park up in a car park and stuff tissue up my nose to stem the flow before going straight into a pub for our final pre game drink.
On to the game, there were only 1,767 in the ground, but it seemed like the whole of the Southend had turned out, bearing in mind we were top of Div 4 and this was our last away game of the season which we would end up going up as Champions piping Lincoln by just two points. The game ended up with Southend winning 0 : 3 with Tony Hadley, Dave Cusack, and Gary Nelson all scoring.
After the game it was straight back into a pub along the Torquay seafront to celebrate another good away win, we had a great sing song and everyone was in good spirits.
Later that night, we started to all walk still singing and cheering back to the minibus, this had attracted the old bill who following us all along the road. Suddenly a glass smashed in the middle of the road right in front of a old bill dog van. This as it turned out was a mistake as we were then surrounded by coppers and a couple of dog units, they lead us back to our minibus, but as they did they kept letting one of the dogs snap at our legs. One of the Cambridge Hotel mob took exception to this and kicked out at the dog after it grabbed his backside with its teeth, so the old bill thought they would take him back to the local cop shop.
Now we are all good mates and stick together so we found out which old bill station they had taken him to and decided to go there and wait for him to be released. On arriving a couple of the lads went in to check what was happening, it was a long wait outside, eventually a couple more went in but not to appear again. Everyone was dying for a leak and Steve climbed out of the minibus and started to relieve himself up against the old bill station wall. Steve was in full flow just as a couple of coppers walked past and over the stream that was now running down the pavement, not best pleased they decided to take him into the station as well. There were now more inside than in the minibus, eventually the old bill let everyone out with the exception of the guy that kicked out at the dog, who they said they would release after midnight, So we agreed to wait and we popped up the road to get something to eat from a bergervan. Midnight comes and the old bill finally let him out and we are all back together to restart the long journey home.
Setting off we joined the M5 travelling north, it had started to snow and was coming down hard, we joined the M4 travelling east and pulled into the services for a leak and food break. Steve, who had been asleep in the back of the minibus, got out and fell over hurting his ankle but managed to hobble into the loo and get something to eat. Luckily there was a nurse there and she checked his ankle out for him (actually I think he was more interested in the nurse) she said it looks like you have just sprained your ankle.
The snow was now settling and coming down very heavily, so we decided to get on our way along the M4. Another big mistake, there was only one lane that everyone was travelling along, but unfortunately as we started to go up a very long hill everything ground to a halt, with 40’ lorries unable to get up the hill. The snow by this time was around 3ft deep with drifts of 6ft, so we were going nowhere. Now I would not recommend being stuck in a minibus for seven hours with eleven other blokes that have all been out for a drink, the smell was unbelievable.
By 8.30am on the Sunday morning still stuck in the snow, the first snow plough came up behind us in the lane to our right, it had been moving all the snow in that carriageway into our line, luckily they stopped and moved to blade to throw the snow onto the central reservation, so we were able with difficulty to get out behind the snow plough and follow it up the motorway until we arrived at Reading services.
The services were packed and there were loads of other stranded Southend fans there, as the motorway was still blocked, car, vans, and lorries were all other the place. The services although it had been open all night had a power cut and as it turned out so did the whole of Devon and Cornwall, they only had a couple of primus stoves to make hot drinks for a couple of thousand people. The snow ploughs were working to clear the motorway and eventually cars that could, started to leave the services, we became the Southend rescue service as we all (apart from Steve who was lying in the back of the minibus) helped push cars out of the very deep snow including a couple of Southend cars. This cleared the exit of the services so we could get out of the parking area.
Now we needed to fill up with diesel as we had run the engine all night to keep warm and we were running low, but as there was a power cut, none of the petrol pumps were working. So we decided to take a chance and try further up the motorway. We were only travelling about 10 miles an hour and the snow was still deep and turned off the motorway into a small village that had lights on so we knew it had power, we found a small local petrol station but it was closed (Sunday) but luckily the owner lived there and opened up to fill us up and we continued on our way home.
Driving back through central London and along the embankment in the early afternoon it was a beautiful sunny day with not any snow to be seen, what a difference a couple of miles/hours makes. We all arrived back in Southend and everyone dropped off including Steve still hobbling along on his ankle.
The next time I saw Steve was the day of his wedding at St Mary’s church, after his wedding ceremony he came across to Roots Hall suited and booted and stood at the top of the South Bank with his new wife in her full white wedding dress, he was holding a pair of crutches, with one in each hand waving at everyone in the North Bank, with his now confirmed broken ankle in a full white plaster.
Steve got a massive North Bank cheer, before waddling off with his new other half to the car park where he got nicked by the old bill for having a verbal disagreement with some away fans.
RIP Steve
