11th May 1997.
The above date is one that will forever be embroidered into the history of Derby County.Today marks 20 years since the Rams played their last-ever league game at the Baseball Ground.
Over the course of this season, Derby supporters have been sending in their most iconic and unique memories of the club’s historic old home to our official matchday programme, The Ram, and today, dcfc.co.uk revisits them.
Below are another six memories of our three-part Baseball Ground remembered series…
JONATHAN SANDS
My father’s business partner happened to be a guy going by the name of Sam Longson, who of course is Derby County’s former chairman. When Sam sold his haulage business, he set up a finance company called North Derbyshire Finance Company, which was based in his home town of Chapel-en-le-Frith. He hired my dad, Peter, who took up a Managing Director role within the company, and gave him a share of the company for his troubles. Although my father was a Leeds supporter, I grew up in Buxton and it was Sam who made my dad get me, as a Derbyshire lad, to support my county teamOccasionally, as a young boy of six or seven-years-old, Sam would take me to the Baseball Ground to sit in the Directors Box. I was in the box when we won promotion to the old First Division as Dave Mackay lifted the Second Division trophy at the end of the 1968/69 season and then again when Bruce Rioch scored in our 1-0 win against West Ham United, if my memory serves me correctly, as we pipped Ipswich Town and Liverpool to be the champions of England once again in 1975. One Christmas, Sam sent me the above picture of him standing by his Rolls Royce (an image my father probably took as he was a keen photographer!) outside the Baseball Ground. This last year, 2016, I finally realised a childhood ambition to have my own Silver Cloud and took this shot in the same position (roughly) that was similar to the one of Sam!
KEVIN WOOD
My first experience of a night match under those Baseball Ground floodlights was on Friday 9th May 1986 and is a memory that still sticks with me to this very day.Derby were at home to Rotherham in the penultimate game of the 1985/86 season and needed just two points to seal their return to Division Two.It was a tense game, with 21,000 packed inside the old Baseball Ground making it an amazing atmosphere. George Williams went off injured and on came a young Phil Gee. With 77 minutes on the clock, he latched on to a pass from Ross MacLaren and fired Derby into the lead. Rotherham then equalised but the drama wasn't over. Trevor Christie stepped up from 12 yards to slot home the winning penalty and Derby hung on to win 2-1 and with it, earned the points they needed to get over the line and get promoted.I have one other memory that sticks out – an FA cup tie with Sheffield Wednesday. It was a 3-3 draw with another electric atmosphere on Monday 8th March 1993, but that night against Rotherham is one I will never forget.
DEN ADAMS
The date is Sunday April 28th 1996. The game is Derby County against Crystal Palace. It was my first full season as Season Ticket Holder with my son, who was eight-years-old and we both sat in the Osmaston Road stand full of hope and nerves for the result that would promote us.The match followed on from a 1-1 draw with Barry Fry’s Birmingham, which we had hoped would seal the success but it was not to be that day. We sat in our seats chatting to those around us and listened to the awesome sound of the fans singing their support.At 1-1 and the game on a knife edge, neither of us had any finger nails left and then up popped Robin van der Laan to convert a brilliant header and perform what has to be one of the coolest celebrations in football history, minutes passed like hours until the final whistle blew and that was us up... My favourite moment of this time doesn’t even boil down to a player, but was in fact Rammie, our club mascot, who sprinted like an Olympian towards us as we leaped up and down cheering, crying and singing as he threw off his costume head and slid on his knees in the wet mud for what seemed like 15 feet, arms out wide, head back screaming in sheer joy. So, Dean, as he was then, you are my favourite memory, let’s hope there’s more to come very soon.
GAVIN JINKS
I have many great memories of the old Baseball Ground. I had a Season Ticket with my dad from 1970 onwards. I was just nine-years-old so I was fortunate to have been there for the glory years of the two championship-winning campaigns. Although I attended the amazing European nights against Benfica and Real Madrid, I will always recall a much later match – the victory over Crystal Palace in 1996 which sealed promotion to the Premier League under Jim Smith. I attended the game with my eldest brother, Andy, as well as my son nine-year-old son Tom. Tom insisted on painting his face for the game and wanted to go down to pitchside at the final whistle. Goals from Dean Sturridge and Robin van der Laan did the trick for the Rams with Dean Saunders’ opener; a finish of pure class. I also remember a photo being taken at the moment of the final whistle as Darryl Powell, Steve McClaren and Jim Smith rose from the bench with looks of pure joy! Driving home to Sinfin, we had banners and scarves hanging out of the car window and we blasted the horn all the way up our street in celebration. It was the perfect antidote to the disappointment of the Play-Off Final defeat against Leicester in 1994. My dad had died in the October before the Palace victory and the Leicester match was the last game he attended. Great games are at least partly about the people you share them with.
ANDREW SCOFFHAM
Having been a Season Ticket Holder for over 30 years, the Baseball Ground gave me some great memories. The funniest and most memorable of which actually came from a game that actually never took place towards the end of its time.We drove from Nuneaton every home game, something that we still continue to do, but on this occasion the game had been postponed due to fog and we did not find out until we arrived at the ground.There were five of us and the Baseball Ground was completely deserted. We managed to get near the pitch and walk down to the door where the players came out.We all cheekily walked in to see what was happening and I put my ear up to the manager’s door. At the time, Arthur Cox was the man in charge and his door suddenly opened and we were met by a booming voice, which said ‘can I help you’! We replied and told him that we had travelled from Nuneaton.He then did no more but to show us around the stadium, he truly was a fantastic bloke and over all my years supporting the club, this stands out above everything else. You can’t buy moments and memories like that.
MARTIN DEMPSTER
My favourite memory of the old Baseball Ground was the final game ever played there when I got on the pitch and played alongside Roger Davies and David Nish and other fortunate Derby fans in a charity game. The late Gordon Guthrie warmed us up pre-match and I was exhausted just after that initial work out! However, the best (official) game I ever saw had to be our memorable clash against Real Madrid in October 1975. I was in attendance with my dad, a Birmingham fan, but I was an obsessed Rams supporter and he used to take me when his work allowed him too. What a night. We were in the Normanton End and I particularly remember the great atmosphere from start to finish. The whole team were superb, Archie, Charlie (including that fantastic first strike), Roy Mac & Toddy with a couple of ‘iffy’ Franny Lee pens too, but what a memory. I’d never heard us sing ‘when the Rams go marching in’ before and it was like an edition of ‘top of the pops’ when I sang along to the lyrics without a clue what the words were!
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