After a couple of e-mails enquiring as to whether anyone fancied the trip, it soon became clear that there would be at least six of us which was my minimum for making it worthwhile. By the turn of the year, the plans for the weekend came nicely into place and a dozen or so of us headed to Yorkshire.

After the short hop across the Atlantic, I met up with Miami-White, Robert Alderman and fellow Boston-White Eivind Ueland in Leeds on Thursday Feb 20th. A pleasant evening was spent in the ‘North Bar’ and the ‘Horse & Trumpet’ where even jetlag and the Liverpool vs Auxerre match failed to put us to sleep.

A good nights sleep followed on the Thursday and the following morning saw us prepare for a long Friday. We met up with Connecticut-White Laura Briggs (kudo’s to Laura for making the trip solo, hugely impressive) and set off for Elland Road. First port of call was ‘The Peacock’ pub opposite the South Stand. Amazingly after well over 300 matches at ER, that was my first visit to the place. Inside we met up with branch diehards LA-White Andy Smith, Dallas-White Chris Ludbrook and California-White Graham Walker. Graham had also brought his own crew along with him, mostly from the Marching On Together forum at lufcweb.com. The Tetley’s tasted fantastic. Our 90-minute session was halted prematurely as the clock edged towards half past one and we made our way to the West Stand for our pre-arranged Elland Rd Stadium Tour. Andy Smith summed this up nicely stating “the highlight of this day was a stadium tour which is something I cannot believe I have been remiss enough not to have done in 30 years”. The tour started with big John McClelland showing us around the directors area and inside the trophy rooms. John also amused us with tales of his time in football and the state of the game today – he was a fabulous guide. Brendan Ormsby took over and took us up to the Press Box and TV gantry and was also a great host. After a trek pitchside to the dug outs (walking down the tunnel is an amazing feeling) we made out way to the dressing rooms. The tour finished at 3 and straight after we nipped over to the club shop to do our best to help Leeds’ financial situation. After the obligatory photo shoot at Billy’s statue we strolled over to The Commerical Inn in Holbeck for some ale.

Miami-White Robert Alderman, CA-White Andy Smith, CA-White Graham Walker, Boston-White Mike Bellwood, Boston-White Eivind Ueland at the Bremner statue at the corner of Lowfields and Elland Rd.

The Commerical is Lorimer’s pub and our group, to which we’d added Connecticut-White Neil Whittaker, was delighted to see the great man there. Our sole UK –based member and fellow Boston-White Simon Speight joined us too as the bevvy started to free up our vocal chords. We met up with Eric Carlile and picked up our tickets for the following days game. Over the years I have become very fond of Eric. Whilst he is all business on a matchday, get him down the pub and tales of Leeds in their heyday are fresh in his mind and he has a twinkle in his eye when talking about the fairer sex which totally belies his 74 years. We had a tremendous 2 hour session and were delighted to put a few bob in Lash’s pocket.

A taxi convoy to ‘The Sheesh Mahal’, arguably the finest curry house in Leeds, on Kirsktall Road saw us dig into some much need tuck. Post nosh we made our way to ‘The Duck & Drake’ in town where we finished off the evening in fine style.

After a few short hours sleep Saturday morning arrived and that surge of adrenalin which is only there on a match day was present. Most of us made our own way to the match. Laura, Robert, Neil and Eivind sampled the Captain’s Lounge bar at ER whilst I met up with some local mates at the ‘Scarborough Taps’ – my favourite pre-match locale ideally situated 30 seconds from the R2 buses which go straight to the ground.

The match. It was crap. But then when did the performance on the pitch hinder the enjoyment of Leeds fans? 8 years in the 1980’s trained us well and we were certainly not going to let a bunch of barcodes cast a shadow on our weekend.

Straight back into town after the game and a quick change into the penguin suit before hitting the bar of the Marriott hotel on Boar Ln. Cabs were ordered and by 7:30pm we were all at the Conference & Exhibition Centre on Lowfields Road for the 100 Greatest Leeds Players Awards Dinner.

Champagne reception at Greatest Players dinner. CT-White Neil Whittaker, CA-White Graham Walker, CT-White Laura Briggs, Boston-White Mike Bellwood, Miami-White Robert Alderman, Boston-White Eivind Ueland

As soon as you walked into the centre you knew you were in for a special night. Huge thanks have to go to Andrea Waring in the Leeds Commercial Dept who found us space after it looked like we would miss out on the event. What was making the weekend so doubly enjoyable for me was that our entire crew was getting along so well, we definitely had a great vibe going. Adam Smith and Graham’s mate Kevin joined us for the dinner and after the champagne reception were soon ready to take our seats.

Inside the banqueting center there must have been 60-odd tables each seating 10. The evening started with Bryn Law making introductions and the start of a video countdown of the top 100 Leeds players. During the first segment, Andy Ritchie and Imre Varadi spoke about their time at Leeds and we saw numerous messages from former players on video. After a break to serve food, the countdown continued as we witnessed footage from each of the players on the 2 large screens. There were notable absentee’s from the evening as we started the top 20, Ferdinand and Bowyer, Chief (in hospital after his injury vs Newcastle), Viduka, Batty and Strachan were all absent. Strach’s video message spoke volumes about his feelings for the club. Mick Jones said a few words when collecting an award on behalf of Paul Madeley, who was sadly ill in hospital.

Our man Smudger was most definitely the star of this section of the proceedings. The familiar “Alan Smith, Alan Smith….” chant reverberated around the room as he took the podium.

California-White Graham Walker with Smudger

Reaney, Lorimer and Hunter all spoke. Kewell at #8 was absent but nobody was really surprised by that. We were all delighted that Nigel Martyn was present at #6. Big Jack followed at #5, Jack said a few words about the wee man before it was the turn of the Gentle Giant.

California-White Andy Smith with Big Jack

For a player such as John Charles to command such respect is nothing short of remarkable, few of us ever saw him play but his legend grows. One of the highlights of the night was when he took the mic for a rendition of ‘Sixteen Tons’, magic stuff. The man is an absolute star. Sniffer was at #3 with words of wisdom a plenty.

Mike Bellwood with Sniffer

#2 was Eddie who spoke about Billy. Then what followed was a montage of Bremner footage which left barely a dry eye in the house. The room rose as one as Vicki Bremner accepted the award on behalf of the man who for the sake of Leeds United would break himself in two.

Eddie Gray accepts his award from Bryn Law

After the dinner the players made themselves readily available for autographs and pictures. I felt quite sorry for Smithy who was definitely the most “in demand”. Personally, I’ve never been one for meeting idols but I was determined to make the exception tonight. The ten of us at our table thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to speak briefly with Leeds legends and give thanks for what they had done for our club. In this respect I thought Big Nige performed well above the call of duty. A more gracious person you could not wish to meet and he stayed until the very end of the night to make sure everyone who wanted to spend some time with him had done so. Clarke and Hunter were in fine form too as was Eddie, in fact I’m sure that everyone in attendance thoroughly enjoyed themselves, players and fans alike. The current squad players that chose not to attend missed out on a very special evening. There seems to be an amazing bond between the Revie boys, I doubt there has ever been or will ever be a closer bunch of players in the game.

All the players gather at the end of the photo call

After the evening started to come to a close at about 1:30 we made our way back into town and into the Marriott bar. Plenty more booze, anecdotes and banter with the Geordies that were in there. The latter almost got nasty when Freddy Shepherd’s son and his posse (also staying at the Marriott) took umbrage to our particular sense of humour but calmer heads prevailed and the beer didn’t talk quite as loudly as it might have done. As the clock struck 6am, we realized it was well past bedtime and retired to dreams of “Clarke 1-0”, “it’s a scoreline of dreams from a team that was 0-3 down” and “his eyes they shone like diamonds”.