Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Happy Tay, Brian Richmond Interview Pele In Singapore Part 6


PEPE PASSED AWAY: 29 DECEMBER 2022. RIP DEAR SIR!

A 1960's Singapore Football Memory Trail:

Happy Tay was in Singapore some weeks ago after braving the 20-hour plus long haul from Vancouver  to visit Red Dot again. Also known as Vancouver's Elvis Presley, I managed to meet this very tall, talented, generous good-looker over a cup of tea at Ah Teng's Coffee House @ Raffles Hotel.  He has been unselfishly contributing many stories to the blog. 

Here's another informative and nostalgic letter from Happy for all ardent football fans and sports historians.  Again my thanks to him.

*Elvis - You'll Never Walk Alone -  A Soccer Song from the 1960's.

Dear Andy,

The first photo shows our Police Football Team from Police Training School (PTS), later known as Police Academy, that beat the Army Depot Police (ADP) in the Inter-Police Cup Final in 1968.

We were then the underdogs, as the ADP (British Army Depot Police) had several players representing the National Football Team.
Some of their Singapore National star footballers were, Mohd. Ali (full-back), Sahar Hussein (forward), Ow Siew Kong (forward). Ow was selected by the visiting British Football Team in later years, to represent their All-Stars Team touring Asia.

Then there's Hussein Hashim (mid-field), Idros Albar (goalkeeper), and a few others whose names I am not able to recall. The Army Depot Police back then employed footballers who have, or are, representing the National Football Team, to represent their team.
However, not to be outdone, the Police team back then, also had several national and youth footballers too. Our national team was a good mixture of youths and senior football stars like Wilfred Skinner (image left: goalkeeper / forward), Robin Chan (forward), Gurunathan (forward). 

Included in the same group was Brian Richmond (Youth Team Captain and National Team Reserves), Othman Bahrum (forward for Malays and Reserves), Yee Soh Peng (Chinese), Richard Chiam (Youth Team) and yours truly (Youth Team).

The final itself which was played at Police Training School was filled with excitement, and was indeed an epic final, with all the top footballers from the country involved. It ended with the Police Football team victorious with the score at three two.
 I vividly remembered that we footballers were accommodated at the Police Training School for two weeks before the finals and had daily training  in the morning and evening under the football coach from Bulgaria, who was also, the National Team coach. I cannot recall his name. 

We were all well fed, and taken care of under the direction of the then Commandant of the Police Training School, AC Ong Kim Boon, and his deputy, DSP Daljit Singh.  I was then an Instructor at the Police Training School and extremely fit with  my position as a fullback!

This second photo on the left was taken during an interview with Pele - Edson Arantes dos Nascimento - the greatest footballer in the world and a living legend (image: standing/centre). 

The interview was conducted by our team of reporters from Sports Parade from Radio and Television Singapore (RTS) then. 

Some of the personalities in the photo were Brian Richmond (image: standing with Pele), then anchor and commentator of the very popular programme, Sports Parade, aired on TV every Friday evening. There were Ow Siew Kong, another team member and Singapore National Team player and yours truly (image: sitting/tie) , who was then, also one of the sports reporter.

It was truly a memorable meeting with this great football legend, who was then visiting Singapore with the Santos Football Team from Brazil in early 1970's.

Well Andy, I hope that this short introduction has managed to recap the best of my "fading" memories.


Cheers,
Happy Tay.
Vancouver, BC, Canada.

NB: If you are familiar with these footballers and friends do write in to contribute.

*The song is popular with football clubs around the world, where it is performed by mass supporters on match day. This practice traditionally began at Liverpool Football Club in the early 1960's and later spread on...
Images from Happy Tay (Copyrights Reserved); Google.

Click connection to read Happy's articles:
http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.sg/search/label/Happy%20Tay%20Postings
Gerry and The Pacemakers Version

16 comments:

SUNNY WEE said...

Yeah. Surprised that Brian Richmond was in the team. Are u an ardent football fan? We used to go to Lorong 12 to watch our local soccer teams battling against the British Forces teams.It was free of charge and fun to watch during the 50's and 60's.

Sad, no photos or newspaper clips to showcase the events.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Yes, yes I remember. Back then it was very popular. I used to walk there some evenings to watch the action. But they were few and far between but the matches were free.

READ REACTIONS BELOW WHEN I ASKED, 'ARE YOU A FOOTBALLER TOO?"

JOHN CHER (WRITER, PERCUSSIONIST) said...

100 percent NO! haha.

ML said...

No, he is NOT a footballer. But he watches football games !

GT said...

No. Not a footballer.

EA said...

Very very interesting Nostalgic Good old days Thanks bro.

chakapchakap said...

"You'll Never Walk Alone" is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel. Hundreds of artistes have sung this number.

They include: ARETHA FRANKLIN, BARRY MANILOW, CILLA BLACK, BARBRA STRIESLAND, DIONNE WARWICK, DORIS DAY, ELVIS PRESLEY, FRANK SINATRA, FRANKIE VAUGHN, GENE VINCENT, GERRY N PACEMAKERS, JO STAFFORD, GORDON MACRAE, JOHNNY CASH, JOHNNY PRESTON, JUDY GARLAND and a hundred more.

Also covered by groups, instrumentals and vocals like THE SHADOWS, THE LETTERMEN, THE THREE TENORS.

1960's pop group, Gerry and The Pacemakers made it into a football anthem.


JKOH said...

Happy Tay - very influential person.

ML said...

We Love Music too - old ones !! Music is in our blood.

Tan Yong Cheong said...

HARRY CHEOK AND THE WILLY JOKERS POSTING

"Harry and I were classmates at ACS..Use tko tag along in his mom's Mayflower car to school from Queen St to Coleman St together with his brother Benny... I had known all the members of the Willy Jokers with George on lead..Philip on rhythm. Francis on bass now in Taiwan and La on drums...we had a wonderful time going to gigs and entering the contest.and enjoying our supper after the gigs..Would love to contact him as I had not seen him for the past 35 yrs.and his former band mate Francis will love to..Would you kindly give us his contact number or other means of doing so..we are all in our 60s going on 70 ..hoping that we can meet again. Sincerely hoping that through you we can have the opportunity to do so Thanking you in advance..."

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

The above letter is repeated on this page. So Yong Cheong, in case you didn't check the original posting, please send me your email address through the comment page asap so I can forward it to Harry Cheok. I will not publish your address.

HAPPY TAY (VANCOUVER) said...

See what your blog is turning out to be?? Kudos to you, my dear friend, n glad to have another friend "coming on board" the Andy Boat (sorry I mean, Blog ha-ha)! If you have friends from all over the world, then the world will be a very much better place to live in, right Andy??

JOHNNY YEO said...

Not footballer but footballer fan. Especially Liverpool football club fan!

RICKY CHNG said...

Hi Andy

This song is the theme song of Liverpool Football Club I heard many years ago. Check it out and enjoy the rendition by Gerry & The Pacemakers.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Hi everyone,

I don't know how many soccer fans there are among you but here's one about our teams in the 60's by Happy Tay and his meeting with Pele. Happy contributes regularly from Vancouver, Canada.

I have also added a SONG REQUEST post and BOOK SECTION on the right bar. I can play your song or recommend you books on pop artistes and music history I've read from my own collection. They are available at our libraries too.

Please feel free to write to me. I'm also on TWITTER AND FACEBOOK.

Cheers,

RICKIE CHNG (LEAD GUITAR: THE ESQUIRES) said...

Hi Andy

Thanks for the email.

Honestly, I am unfamiliar with the personality of this football team of yesteryear. It is way older than the one I know off. The one from the Quah Kim Song era with names like Lee Bee Seng, Edmund Wee, Eric Paine, Mohammed Nor, Dollah Kassim, Arshad Khamis, Rajagopal, Samad Alipichay, Hasli Ibrahim, Lim Teng Sai, Robert Sim, just to name a few are the one whom brought glory to Singapore, the famous stars of the Malaysia Cup days under Uncle Choo Seng Quee.

I remember watching those Malaysia Cup games during the weekend at the former Kallang Stadium and the so called Lion Roar.

These were the good old days of Singapore Soccer but it is nothing like it today.

Cheers.