The Grimsby Town FC floodlights at Blundell Park have seen some remarkable history and soon they will be confined to the scrap heap. Standing at 128 feet high, the lights were acquired from Wolverhampton Wanderers, Molineux in 1958 and were installed in 1960, the electricity originally coming from a generator in the nearby groundsman's hut. Now they rely on the National Grid. The set cost £9,000, provided by the supporters' club. Presently, they provide sufficient illumination for the EFL Division 2.
The first official switch on was on the 13th September 1960 for a Reserve match against Sunderland. The first 1st team floodlit match was a week later against Newport County.
The lights have a history and on September 30th 1953 they lit up Molineux for a Wolves friendly against South Africa won by the Wolves 3-1. With the advent of television coverage in black and white of course, Wolves were able to promote matches against foreign opponents from 1953, ultimately leading to the formation of the European Cup competition in 1954-55. Hibernian from Scotland reached the first year's semi-final and Chelsea, the existing English Champions were denied permission by the FA and Alan Hardaker to get involved with the competition, stating that it was not in the best interests of the club.
Manchester United did compete in 1956-7.
Teams playing under these new lights included Celtic, Racing Club, First Vienna, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Spartak Moscow. On December 13th 1954 the very famous Budapest club, Honved, including several Hungarian players famed for inflicting the 1953 6-3 rout of England at Wembley, came to play an evening fixture at Molineux. This seemed to herald the demise of English international football and the rise of the rest of the World! (1966 excepted). Thankfully English teams did get involved with the European competitions.
The Manager of Wolves that night was Stan Cullis, who instructed his groundstaff to flood the pitch the night before the match to help prevent the very skilled Hungarians from playing their slick passing game. Wolves won 3-2!
The Grimsby lights are being replaced during the close season by more modern and efficient illuminators!
Did you know that Grimsby Town and Hull City were given permission to play matches on Christmas due to the "demands of the fishing trade"!
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