The Boys Pen
Those of us of a certain age may have memories of a little section of the ground, which was tucked away in the far right corner of the Kop, known as the Pen. Entry was about a bob (5 pence) when I first started going which was considerably cheaper than the four bob (20 pence) entrance into the Kop.
I had first been to Anfield in 1961 when Dad took me to Liverpool v Bristol Rovers and we sat in the old Kemlyn Road wooden stand. My inaugral trip into the Pen was one cold December day in 1965 when a couple of us rode the 81 from Speke to Utting Avenue. For Southenders like myself, this was a trip into unknown territory. For me the boundary between North and South was London Road and we just never ventured into the unknown North.
At Christmas time every school kid took an envelope home for the Blind Kids. You would mark on the back a cross on the envelope for each penny that went into the envelope and then took it back to school. On entering the Pen, I noticed two things:
Why were loads of smaller kids standing by the copper?
Why were two kids going round searching other kids?
I’ll answer the second one first because after explanation, you will know the answer to the first question.
The kids in question were ‘encouraging’ other kids to place pennies into the blind envelope. “Was this a charitable gesture?” I thought until they came to me. I was bricking it, I had to say because me and my mate were no match for these Northenders. I said I had no money and then was pinned against the fence and ‘searched’. Luckily for me, the searching techniques were less than rigorous and I escaped with my bus fare home. Lesson number one was hide your dosh!
The Boys Pen always sang! Two minutes after the Kop! The ninety minutes there was punctuated by escaping kids going over the fence into the Kop. Some made it and some did not. I can see the copper now pulling the kids down from the top of the fence and being ‘escorted’ out by the ear. Different times eh? Instant punishment and you wouldn’t grass to your Dad about that. I was thinking at the time why bother ‘escaping’ until you noticed that some of the kids were always eying up the other kids rather than watching the match.
My God, you learnt how to watch the match with blinkers on because you did not want eye contact. The Copper either was watching the match or pulling kids down from the fence. The robbing going on was always out of eye contact from the copper. The final whistle went and you were glad to get out in one piece with your bus fare home. On reading the chapter on the boys pen in Alan Edge’s great book ‘Faith Of Our Fathers’ many years later I have to say that my experience was not as intimidating, but Liverpool was a hard city in the late fifties and going into the Pen with new winkle pickers was just asking for trouble! Oh by the way, we beat Arsenal 4-2 and we were top of the table.
I started going regular to the Pen after that and Dad would drive us there and take us home because he was a regular in the Annie Road (at least the bus fare was not needed). It only got better because I was more aware of what was going on around me but to be truthful, I hated the place. But at least I got to see the Reds. Sometimes, I would use birthday money to get into the Kop but that was a treat.
My final game in the Pen was against Celtic in the semis of the Cup Winners Cup in 1966. Anybody who remembers that night will perhaps agree with me that it was one of the noisiest atmospheres Anfield ever witnessed and I was in the Pen nearly two hours before kick off. What a mistake! Attempted GBH between the local nutters and kids like myself! I said to myself after the game that the days in the Pen were finished. Season 1966/67 I went in the Kop, Annie Road, Paddock, anywhere but the Pen!
At least the Pen gave young kids like myself an opportunity to go with your mates to the game from say 11 onwards. I learnt a lot about life, survival and ‘pecking order’. Would you wish it on your own kids or grandkids today? I don’t think so!
More memories of the Pen can be found on the RAWK main site: The Boys Pen