During the night, some 1,000 fans patiently queued for tickets. By morning, when tickets went on sale, the queue had swelled to 16,000, stretching for two miles. The crowd became unruly; it pushed over a couple of brick walls, trampled gardens, uprooted hedges. This frenzied performance by normally well-behaved Englishmen was directed to a single-minded purpose: getting tickets for the Chelsea-Arsenal soccer game, the semifinal climax of the Football Association Cup matches. By noon, 50,000 tickets had been sold, and scalpers were offering them for resale at eight times the 2 shillings sixpence...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
