Going to Headingley was always the highlight of the week, especially when we were coming across from the east of the city.
In the early years I used to travel on the back of my dad’s scooter, which always made it a bit different.
I’d sit on the wall behind the posts and Dad would stand up on the terraces behind me.
As I got older, and started to grow up, I always used to try and get into the South Stand for the second half.
It wasn’t just that you didn’t have to pay by then but was because my mate was always in there with his twin sister and she was absolutely gorgeous.
Dad still stood where he always did but by then I always used to wander off- usually in search of Susan Lavis.
It was a bit like a rite of passage.
My mum used to go when she was a kid and her great memory was the smell of cigars filling the air during the traditional Boxing Day morning fixture.
All these working-class people who had got their cherished cigar for Christmas and met to smoke it together at the game which gave that match, quite literally, a unique atmosphere.
Andy Cave
Originally published in 'Headingley Rugby Voices' Recollections of supporters, compiled by Phil Caplan.
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Memory added on October 22, 2012
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