Invacar

The first Match of the Day 2 of the day of the series recently ran a feature on, things that you don’t see at the match these days. One of the items that caught my eye was cars parked at the pitch-side, which used to be a feature but has died out over the years.

One club that highlights the changing face of football has been Chelsea and its ground Stamford Bridge. The 80s saw Chelsea ply its trade in the top two divisions with a ramshackle ground. Before the days of Chelsea Village and their Russian oligarch, the Shed and the disused greyhounds’ track that surrounded the pitch highlighted a club in decline and a throwback to a different era. With its relatively new incongruous 3 tiered stand, standing out alongside its terraced counterparts. The ground of the 80s was typical of many a top-flight ground of the time - it had potential, a euphemism that estate agents tend to overuse.

What set the Bridge aside from the rest of the topflight was the sandy track that separated supporters from the pitch. Another distinct aspect was that it doubled up as a car park, with the attendant cars giving their owners an advantage of a pitch-side seat to the action. One car was prominent on the touchline at the Bridge and other grounds around the country was the Thundersley Invcar.

Wigan Athletic’s old ground Springfield Park had something of Stamford Bridge about, but on a much smaller scale. The Latics fanzine Mudhutsmedia had a feature glowingly recalling the old Springfield Park and the Covington End where the cars would be parked on the half-circle behind the goal. They reminisced about their non-league days and players such as Billy Sutherland, a Scottish left-back and his habit of bringing the Invacars into play. His wayward shots would bring hoots of laughter and derision when on the many occasions that his shots would cannon off the pitch-side Invacars

One supporter remembers these wayward shots fondly: “It was better than a goal. I can honestly remember one day one of the cars shaking for what seemed like an eternity.”

Even at the tightly packed ground that is Goodison Park I’m sure I can remember seeing footage of an Everton game in the 70s with one being tucked away in the corner of the ground between the Bullens Road and Park End stands.

The name itself was something from a far-flung era – Invacar is a contraction of invalid and car that in these PC times would have been dismissed at the outset.

In March 2003, it became illegal to drive an Invacar on British roads, though they probably died out not so much to do with road safely more to do with the fact that the name of them.

The veteran vehicle could not stand up to modern day safety standards. During the 1960's and 70's the Invacar with its modern fibreglass shell, ice blue colouring and belt drive were produced in the tens of thousands. There were still around 200 Invacars in Britain prior to the 2003 recall and scrapping program.

So in an era of corporate facilites being the alternative to being sat on the terraces spare a though to the Invacar and their alternative views of the game.