The Wolves match (5-3) this year on the 5 October was a real red-letter day for all Bees fans, not only did it witness an equal record number of goals scored by the Bees in a Premier League season, and for the fourth consecutive game they scored their first goal in under two minutes. It was also a memorable day for me as I celebrated, to the day, the 70th anniversary of the first Brentford match I saw.
That was back on the 5 October 1954, when the Bees entertained Chelsea, before an 11,500 crowd, in the first ever floodlit match at Griffin Park.
The Bees were one of the early clubs to install ‘lights’, a somewhat primitive affair consisting of lamps mounted along the roofs of the New Road and Braemar Road.
Financially the £5,345 gamble paid off for many midweek games were played before quality opposition and good attendances.
I lived at Ealing Common then and cycled to the match with my Dad – he was on his ‘BSA Winged Wheel’ bike (a tiny petrol engine attached to the rear wheel), whilst I pedalled furiously to keep up with him.
We, as did so many others, parked our bikes at the ground, in the narrow small garden to a house near the junction of New Road and Ealing Road, it was always a scramble finding your own bike after the match! The cost was 2d or 3d. (old pence, around 1p). Chelsea won the match 4-0 in front of 11,500.
It was to be some years before floodlit matches were permitted for League matches. Smitten with The Bees from this first match, I started a scrap book that season, and proudly stuck on the cover, the front page, cut out from the programme! The 1954/55 season was our first on the return to the Third Division South (having been relegated from the (old Second Divison), which started with a remarkable 6-4 defeat at Southampton.
It was also at The Dell, Southampton, that I travelled by train for the League match, 9th March 1959. We won 6-0, and at half-time a blanket was carried around the pitch for supporters to throw money into it for charity; on this occasion a note was added “To buy a new team”! An alternative to the famous Bees bucket collections! This match transpired to be the club’s biggest away win, and I was also present at Exeter City in April 1983, when we equalled this record (six clear goals) winning 7-1. Although very rarely taking a camera to matches, I actually got a shot of Francis Joseph slotting in the sixth goal. Twenty years earlier (in April 1963), I also saw the club’s record home win, by 9-0 versus Wrexham.
Perhaps now I am the only supporter to have seen all three record victories! (come on BU Members – can anyone match this – Tell BU!)
Dave’s donation to the BU archive. An original Ascoli poster
After promotion to the (old) Second Division – now the Championship, Brentford, took part in the Anglo/Italian Cup.
In November 1992, I flew with many other supporters in a chartered plane for the match versus Ascoli (it’s around 200km NE of Rome).
We won 3-1, and I took my camcorder and managed to get brief shots of all three Brentford goals.
The last has been officially recorded as being scored by Blissett, WRONG!
My camera proves otherwise, for a free kick from the left wing sailed over him rather than hitting his head and flew direct into the net.
Until recent years I travelled to most away games. Initially by coach, amongst a group of youngsters. I fancied one girl from the group, Beryl, who lived in Little Ealing. But she shunned my advances, and to add to my chagrin, she later married Brentford player and Manager John Docherty! I believe they moved to Wiltshire, where I moved to three years ago. I later met Fay, another Bees Supporter, although not via football (dancing lessons of all things!) She lived in the High Street, Brentford. Together, we only travelled to one away match (on my scooter) to Peterborough on 30 September 1961 where we lost 6-0. Four weeks earlier we were beaten 6-1 at Newport County. That season, the Welsh team finished bottom in the table and we were just one place higher – and were also relegated to the former Fourth Division
Generations of Bees and employees!
Brentford over the years, like blood, has coursed though our families. Fay’s Dad and several uncles were supporters, as were my Dad and Grandad. I secured a part-time job for our daughter Kara whilst she was still at school and she served in the tea hut in the lower corner of the old Brook Road Stand – as did Fay’s mother in the late 1930s. Kara met and married a Brentford steward and supporter, who’s Dad was also a Griffin Park regular up to the 1970s. Our eldest Grandson, Arran, became a fan prior to his years at University, after which I secured a Saturday job for him, on the New Road turnstiles.
70 years on
My countless experiences as a Brentford supporter could fill a book, but they did partially when I wrote and published, (Brentford) ‘50 Memorable Matches’ back in 2010. But following a football team also relates to social contact. I have known all my life fellow supporter Paul Darius (I was born next door to him), Peter Gilham I’ve known from my teens, I teamed up with Brentford historian Graham Haynes on several books – who tragically died on his way to Griffin Park in 2008, and last – but certainly not least – legendary ‘Bill’ [the fish] Billings with whom I travelled to away matches for many years….. to name just four.
Dave Twydell
Thank you from BU
Dave donated his Uncle Fred’s ARP rattle used in WW2 which Dave used in the ’50’s!
Dave was taken to his first Brentford match in 1954 by his father.
Originally a structural engineer – ‘I’ve always been interested in buildings” – he and his wife set up ‘Yore Publications’ in 1991 to publish football books and with over 35 publications to his name, as he says above,
Dave has also co-written histories of Brentford and Griffin Park (see below).
Dave researched, scripted edited, narrated and shot, a mini-documentary about the six grounds where Brentford FC played before moving to Griffin Park.The mini-documentary is called ‘Brentford FC.The six pre-Griffin Park Grounds’ and it is available on YouTube
Dave’s second mode of GP
In the 1980s Dave made a replica model of Griffin Park, the size of a single bed which he built in two halves in his dining room over a period of about 3 years.
It was delivered to the club before the Centenary in 1989 and for some time it remained in the Police Room at the ground but later disappeared. Despite a fresh search by Bees United a few years ago, it has never been found.
So Dave set to work to build another one and a Bees United donor contributed to the cost. This was exhibited at the Bees United, Gtech, celebration of the foundation of the club in November 2023.
Without any doubt Dave is from and created a family of Bees! “my dad was a supporter, I think his dad was as well, my wife was born in Brentford High Street and used to go to games. In pre-war days, her mother served tea at the Brook Road end of the ground and my daughter worked in a similar area in the early 1980s. One grand-son is a supporter and was a match day supervisor and the other was a turnstile operator in New Road. We are a true Brentford family.”
Dave’s Bees Books
100 Years of Griffin Park. The Official History of Brentford’s Grounds: Dave Twydell & Mark Chapman 2004
50 Memorable Matches (1946-2010): Dave Twydell 2010
Brentford 1989-1999 Ten Traumatic Years: Dave Twydell, Mark Chapman, John Hirdle 1999
Brentford FC The Complete History 1889-2008: Graham Haynes & Dave Twydell Graham Haynes & Dave Twydell 2008
Dave donated the matchball from BFC v Southampton 9th March 1935