ON THIS DAY

With a 3-0 victory over Luton Town in a League 2 match at the Globe Arena Morecambe became the first winners of a new bit of footballing silverware - the Eric Morecambe Trophy. Comedian Eric Morecambe was born Eric Bartholomew in 1926 and later took the surname of Morecambe after the town he was born in and grew up in. Having moved to the Luton area he became a genuine fan of Luton Town and for a number of years was a director of the Hatters. After his death the Queen unveiled a statue of him in Morecambe in 1999 which was sadly vandalised in 2014. Repaired, it was restored to its sea-front position on December 11th 2014 which was just two days before Luton visited Morecambe for a League fixture. To mark that occasion a miniature version of the statue was fashioned for the Eric Morecambe Trophy to be awarded to the winners of the future Morecambe v Luton encounters. Morecambe were the first victors with that 3-0 victory.

With Christmas fast approaching the half time entertainment at the Premier League match between Aston Villa and Arsenal included Santa parachuting down onto the Villa Park pitch. But the festive mood being enjoyed by the 40,000 Sunday evening crowd turned to tragedy when a gust of wind caused the RAF parachutist, Nigel Rogoff, to clip the edge of the Trinity Road stand and he then fell some 80 feet onto the side of the pitch. His badly broken legs were treated by two surgeons who had been spectators at the match and he went on to receive 177 pints of blood in a 3-month spell in hospital but sadly his injuries resulted in a leg being amputated. In February 2016 Nigel was part of a team of four rowers who became the first amputees to row the Atlantic - all 3000 miles of it!

The Intercontinental Cup – played for by the winners of the European and South American Cup competitions to decide the unofficial world champs – never seemed a great priority for English clubs. Manchester United were beaten in the 1968 competition but Liverpool declined to take part after winning the European Cup in 1977 and 1978. But after beating Real Madrid in the 1981 European Cup final Liverpool played Brazil’s Flamengo for the Intercontinental Cup at the National Stadium in Tokyo on December 13th 1981. A 62,000 crowd witnessed a poor performance by Liverpool with the South American champions recording a convincing 3-0 victory. In 2019 the same two clubs met in the final of an expanded and official World Club Cup competition, the Merseysiders winning that one 1-0.

Two high-scoring matches in the old First Division on this day in 1930 – Huddersfield 10 Blackpool 1 and Sheffield Wednesday 9 Birmingham 1.