Here is a new article by Tony D who did one for us back in October. This time his thoughts regard tonights game, however in relation to a personal story connected to the 1963 game. I hope you enjoy it.
I don’t remember the 1963 League Cup Final victory against Villa (I was four at the time). But I do have a personal anecdote about one of the players who played that day.
For many years I lived in Hong Kong, where a group of us founded a team called Dynamo, still going strong in Hong Kong’s main amateur league (the Yau Yee League). In February 1988 we were on tour in Bangkok (needless to say, we were very professional – early nights, no alcohol, and certainly none of what you are thinking!).
Our second game was against the British Club of Bangkok. They fielded a team with a couple of ex-pros. One was a former QPR player whose name I forget. The other was an ageing left back (or so it seemed to me – he would have been 47 at the time) whom I was told had played for Villa. Talk about a red rag to a bull! I was playing in central midfield, but found every
opportunity to drift over to the right to put a shoulder or a foot in. To be
fair, I doubt if he even noticed.
At half time, we walked off the pitch together. “So, you played for Villa then, did you”, I asked, with what I thought was menace in my voice.
“Aye”, he said. “I started a Dunfermline, played for Villa and ended up at Birmingham.
Oh no! I had given a bit of a kicking to one of our own!
John Cameron “Cammie” Fraser (for it was he!) played on the losing side for Villa in that 1963 League Cup Final. Not long afterwards he quit due to a contractual dispute, and joined his wife’s hairdressing firm (it seems that Blues and hairdressers have a longer association that we first thought!). He then joined Blues in 1965 for the princely sum of £9.000.
He made 39 appearances for us between 1965 and 1966. All the best to Cammie, wherever you are, and I’m sorry I kicked you!
Let’s hope the three players in the current Blues team who have crossed the Great Divide will be fit and will fire us to a famous victory tonight on the way to lifting the Cup for the second time.
A trophy within living memory!
Think of that!
Tony D.
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