YBR! From the Vaults

Olly Wicken talks to Larry Brooks, who had a better reason than most to leave a game    One way to beat the traffic after a Watford game is to have a cardiac arrest and be rushed away in an ambulance with the blue lights flashing. It certainly worked for Larry Brooks at the home game against Chel...

Pete Bradshaw takes a look at past player profiles, starting with Tony Geidmintis   Bob Hope won an Oscar for singing Thanks for the Memory. I doubt that was why Tony Geidminitis identified him in 1977 as the person he would most like to meet, but certainly the full-back left me with many good m...

Did you know that a Watford player was awarded a knighthood? (If you’re thinking it can’t have been for football, you’re correct.) Olly Wicken explains.   Spencer Lister joined Watford FC in 1897/98 when we were still known as West Herts. He was 21 and played on the left wing. His first couple of...

Pete Bradshaw looks back to a time when fifty points was the target   At a little before 10pm on Monday 20 February 2023, the whistle blew on Watford’s narrow victory over West Bromwich Albion.  Fans celebrated the win and that we were back in the play-off places. For those under 25, a top-six pl...

Nick Catley presents his list of GT's greatest seasons at Watford   Every Taylor season has something good to look back on. In 2000/2001, that was the first 15 games, which earned us 39 points from 12 wins and three draws. Combined with our run-in two years earlier, by Bonfire Night our previous ...

Nick Catley presents his list of GT's greatest seasons at Watford   In some ways it was a toss-up between this and 2000/2001 for bottom spot. However, 1999/2000 was ultimately better due to a single day. We’ve visited Anfield 14 times in League matches, and only once come back with anything to sh...

Colin Payne goes to see Watford host table-toppers Portsmouth and hopefully answers the question   Grosvenor Vale, normally home to Wealdstone Football Club, is situated in the very model of 1930s suburbia. Surrounded by bay-windowed semi-detached homes, with a nearby parade of shops still displa...

Peter Morgan on the passing of the man who reported on Watford FC   At a certain point growing up, I realised that I would never become a professional footballer. Those who knew me would suggest this ‘Road to Damascus’ moment should have happened earlier! But perhaps I was a late developer as a m...

Mark Evans looks at Dave Bassett’s time at Vicarage Road, and the arrival of Glyn Hodges   Mention Dave Bassett to Watford fans of a certain age and it will almost certainly provoke a hostile reaction. Bassett was brought in from Wimbledon as Graham Taylor’s replacement in the summer of 1987, and...

David Harrison never leaves a game early – well not usually   Saturday 4 October 1980. The date needed checking but the events of that day remain painfully vivid. Fairly recently married, still childless and living in Oxhey, we’d received a kind dinner invitation. To be honest, I have no recollec...

Pete Remnant pays tribute to John Motson   There will be many comments made following the sad passing of legendary football commentator John Motson. One more won’t make any difference either way, but we wanted to write something as it seemed appropriate for a man whose career spanned decades of f...

Up in Hornet Heaven, we love a good nickname. Charles Harrison had one of the best. Olly Wicken explains.   A lot of players’ nicknames are uninspired. Heurelho Gomes was ‘Gomey’. Nigel Callaghan was ‘Cally’. Boring. Must do better. Sure, at the turn of the millennium, it was amusing to hear our ...