Clive Tysoe

Why Blue?

It started in the mid-60s when as a 5-year-old lad, my father took me off to Maine Road to watch City. In those days, my father was an occasional fan and trips to watch City were not a regular occurrence as he had a young family to take care of. I was born in Ashton-U-Lyne in 1960 and I lived in Woodley near Stockport until I left to set up a bachelor pad in Romiley in 1985! In my younger days, my hero was Colin Bell and I even had my mother sew a makeshift number 8 on the back of my City shirt (does anyone remember the old City shirts in sky blue with the white round neck and the club’s badge in the middle of the chest?).

When I was 9, I was already a confirmed City fan and I remember watching Neil Young blast the shot into the net which sank Leicester City at Wembley in the Cup Final. My other favourites at that time were Glyn Pardoe, Alan Oakes and Tony Coleman. After the Cup Final win, City ventured into Europe and I can vaguely remember waiting up for the results from some strange foreign place to find out if City had won. The Cup Winners’ Cup success sealed my fate as a life-long Blue and as I grew up, my visits to the Academy became a big part of my life. In Stockport where I went to school, there were plenty of City fans but the trouble-causers were always the lads who followed the other lot and it was sometimes better for one’s health to be quiet when arguments started, especially for a lad like me who at the time was only a shrimp! I recall one lad who was a Chelsea fan who became a Rag when they started to improve and I remember thinking that he was really shallow to change his allegiance… a thought which occurs to me now when I hear cockneys talking of their undying love of the Rags! The lads who followed City at school were usually the more intelligent, quiet ones, funnily enough!

As a teenager, I was a diehard Blue who made it my business to be there on the Kippax terrace for every home game. Some of my favourite games are the 4-3 win over Wolves in the 70s when the game twisted and turned so many times. The 4-0 win over Boro in the League Cup semi-final 2nd leg was also a classic. I was there at Wembley when Dennis Tueart scored one of the most spectacular goals I’ve ever seen to help us to win the League Cup in 1976.

On the down side, I will not forget the disallowed header by Kevin Reeves vs. Liverpool at the Academy which would have given us a 1-0 lead. Instead Liverpool scored near the end (I think it was Kennedy who got their goal!) and beat us. It seemed that we were trounced every time we played Liverpool in those days (and things haven’t really changed much since then!).

I was a Kippax regular right up till I left Manchester in September 1989 when I left England to seek my fortune overseas. I became qualified as a surveyor and disillusioned with a number of things (work and women to name but two!). I left to take up a three-year contract in the Bahamas where I was to work with the design team on the construction of a 300 room hotel for Club Med. My contract was extended to 5 years and during that time I kept in touch with all things Blue through writing letters and through English newspapers. Another City fan who was working for the Government got together to watch a few City games whenever City were on the live match and I recall watching us beat Spurs 2-1 while I was over there! I met the wife in the Bahamas and we came to her native St Lucia to live in August 1994. The highlight of my time here was the 2-3 win over Blackburn which I watched on Live TV and I also saw City surrender to Newcastle 3-1 at St. James’ Park.

Being a City fan is like being in a tempestuous love affair. You are never quite sure which City will turn up for the next game. To say City are inconsistent is like saying The Yorkshire Ripper is not a nice man! I am as staunch a fan as I was when I lived in England and now I have two sons to raise in the faith!

The future for City looks more promising now that we have a proper manager at the helm and I’m confident that we’ll be back where we belong very soon! Since we moved to St Lucia, my wife and I have been managing her family’s hotel and I look forward to welcoming plenty of Blues down here in the years to come.

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #298 on