The MARTIN CHIVERS thread

[Archibald&Crooks]

http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/forums/imagehosting/364645a4cc108d45b.png
Martin Chivers came through Southampton's youth system and signed as a professional footballer in September 1962, at the age of 17. He played an integral role in the club's promotion to the top flight in 1967, starring up front alongside the great Welsh striker Ron Davies.
After scoring 97 league goals in only five seasons, Tottenham Hotspur manager Bill Nicholson signed Chivers for a club record fee of £125,000, with 24-year-old Frank Saul moving from White Hart Lane to the Hampshire coast.

http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/forums/imagehosting/364645a4ce6c8f82c.jpgHe scored on his Spurs debut against Sheffield Wednesday in January 1968 but the initial stages of his White Hart Lane career were relatively unsuccessful with Spurs legends Jimmy Greaves and Alan Gilzean still considered to be the preferred attacking partnership. Chivers remained a fixture of the England Under-23 squad and eventually became the most important goalscorer at Tottenham, following the sale of Greaves to West Ham United in 1970.
Chivers was often seen as a lethargic and lazy player but his pace and natural strength established 'Big Chiv' as a star of the Spurs side and England throughout the early 1970s. During this period of his career, he helped Spurs to League Cup triumphs in 1971 and 1973 and UEFA Cup success in 1972, as well as a runners up medal in the same European competition in 1974. He famously scored both goals in the first League Cup victory against Aston Villa in February 1971 and a thirty-yard wonder goal against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the club's memorable UEFA Cup campaign.

Chivers was also a regular goalscorer in the First Division, tallying 92 league goals between 1969 and 1974.
In his eight and a half year Spurs career, Chivers scored a total of 174 goals in 367 first-team appearances and remains the leading Tottenham goalscorer in European competition to this day. He was capped 24 times for the England, scoring 13 goals.
http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/forums/imagehosting/364645a4ce6c8c567.jpg
First Division: 278 matches, 118 goals
FA Cup: 24 matches, 11 goals
League Cup: 33 matches, 23 goals
Europe: 32 matches, 22 goals
TOTAL: 367 matches, 174 goals

Martin is Spurs third highest ever goalscorer and it was he who scored the first goal I ever saw scored by a Spurs player. More than once this season I have heard older supporters compare "big Chiv" to Dimitar Berbatov and although I saw him play, It was during his last season at the club and i'm too young to be able to say if this assessment is accurate or not. One thing is for sure, it's a huge compliment to Berby if true!

Martin still works at Spurs as a matchday host at White Hart Lane.

[Chuba]

Great article A&C starting to really love all this memory lane stuff, unfortunately i didn't get to see Big Chiv play or if i did i can't remember it as i was proberly being crushed against the wall in the park lane after he/we scored yet another blinding goal.

Stevie Perryman next???

[TheChosenOne]

No mention of the "long-throw-ins"

Cheeeeee - Verrrrrrs !

[DC_Boy]

I saw Chiv's debut and very good he looked too, but he was injured early on and that hampered his progress. I was at Wolves for that wonder goal, happy days :-)

I don't think Berby's much like Chiv, he's more like Gilly & Teddy.

Chiv at this peak was a classic English No. 9, strong, pacy great in the air, who worked really well with Gilly and Peters.

I was at Leeds when we truned over their great side, mainly because of a miracle display by Jennings and ruthless finishing by Chiv in a 2-1 win that was completely against the run of play.

Yep, many a great memory of the big man :-)

[stevenqoz]

Two of Chivs more memorable goals for me were against Stoke and Chelsea. The Stoke one was at WHL and came from a quick throw in to him down in the left corner of the Paxton Road End. He looped the ball instantly into the far corner. A great goal not on TV scored against Gordon Banks!
The second Chiv goal was away to Chelsea in 1970 in the rain. A fantastic 2-0 result for us in a match I remember as being one of the noisiest crowds I have ever heard. Mullery or Pierce got the other one.
Chiv had good and bad times with us but when the crowd were with him he was idolised in a similar way to young Hudd today. On his day he was almost untouchable as a centre forward but many wondered if he ever had the killer / badness in him to be great.

[SpurSince1961]

I saw Martin a lot at the Lane. To be honest he drove me nuts. He could have scored so many more goals with the team he was playing with. He missed so many chances. Sometimes his skill was so bad it was laughable. I used to scream at him that he was a bloody useless jar of marmalade (his surname). He always seemed to be shy and not sure why he was playing in front of such a large crowd. And often ran around very upright with his chest stuck out. However he always seemed to try and he did score a lot of goals, some wonderful ones right out of the blue. He also won things with Spurs and seemed like a jolly nice chap. Anyone know what he does now?

[TheChosenOne]

I saw Martin a lot at the Lane. To be honest he drove me nuts. He could have scored so many more goals with the team he was playing with. He missed so many chances. Sometimes his skill was so bad it was laughable. I used to scream at him that he was a bloody useless jar of marmalade (his surname). He always seemed to be shy and not sure why he was playing in front of such a large crowd. And often ran around very upright with his chest stuck out. However he always seemed to try and he did score a lot of goals, some wonderful ones right out of the blue. He also won things with Spurs and seemed like a jolly nice chap. Anyone know what he does now?

Had a Pub in Brookmans Park near Potters Bar for many years, also presses the flesh at the Billy Nick suite on matchdays. Will try and find out more.

[TheChosenOne]

Right - Here is a link to MEHSTG.. where are they now ?

http://www.mehstg.com/whereare.htm#C

I'm not sure if if can be posted, but if it can - then credit where its due.

[sundancer]

Chivers suffered quite a bad injury after he went to Spurs and it took a while for him to get over it, but for a couple of seasons he was awesome no one could touch and if it was not for his two goals in the final against Villa we could have been beaten by a 3rd division team. Some of his best games came in Europe were the opposing teams could not handle his strength, he was a man mountain.

[DC_Boy]

HI SQ :-) I vividly remember the Chelsea match in the pouring rain - the biggest lge crowd I've ever been in - (61,000 +) I was at the end with loads of spurs fan when Mullery's volley thwacked into the net - great atmos as you say - but I didn't remember Chiv scoring that day - and checked on TopSpurs and it has Pearce down for the other goal - so maybe the old memory banks may have misfired there :-)

Are you still sure people were talking about playing 'in the hole' in the late 70s/early 80s :-)

[mawspurs]

I went to a Spurs old boys Vs Wealdstone old boys match a couple of years ago and managed to meet Martin and shake hands with him. He is a giant of a man in all respects, (and boy could he pack away the after match sandwiches).

I got talking to a guy in the bar who had played aginst him a year or two earlier and he said that even at his current age it was like running into a brick wall going up against Chivers.

A gentleman and a legend.

[Geez]

Big Chiv was my favourite player! :grin:

Saw him loadsa times and he scored the first goal I saw at WHL too (and he scored two)

http://footballfocus.xsmnet.com/gallery/teams/tottenham/tottenham_martin_chivers_1968.JPG


Firstly the Sporting Heroes website is a good source and has lots of stuff about Spurs players
http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/searchresults.asp?ButtonLeap=29&countryLinkDescription=%20Photos%20of%20Tottenham% 20H.%20footballers.
(and there's three pages about Chivers!)

And the FA site gives info about his England career
http://www.thefa.com/England/SeniorTeam/Archive/?pf=p&i=2495&searchname=Chivers&ap=p

Finally two BBC interviews with Chiv just after Bill's death may be of interest
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/realmedia/sport/2310_chivers.ram
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/3757030.stm#

[stevenqoz]

DC - sorry about that. I hope you haven't lost faith in me:) Funny I was at both the LC finals in the early seventies but don't actually remember him scoring although he obviously did. My old man worked for LWT then and got me the champagne cork from the Spurs dressing room for the Villa game.

[JustinSane]

My avatar pretty much says it all.

[TheChosenOne]

DC - sorry about that. I hope you haven't lost faith in me:) Funny I was at both the LC finals in the early seventies but don't actually remember him scoring although he obviously did. My old man worked for LWT then and got me the champagne cork from the Spurs dressing room for the Villa game.


I was at the 73 vs Norwich. Crikey, that wasn't gripping !

[The_Blue_Rooster]

Big Chiv was one of my favourires during the 70's. It was his second goal against Villa in the LCF that stands out in my mind. A great control turn and shot all in one movement. For a big bloke he had a great touch. TBH I liken him to Alan Shearer, he had the ability to score from anywhere in front of goal. IMO a very underrated legend. He had to take over from Greaves and that's not something anyone would want to do.

[DC_Boy]

:-) SQ -

Yep I was both the 70s lge cup finals - indeed I've been to all our Lge Cup finals

in the Villa one, as noted above, Chiv was key to us winning our first trophy for 4 years and setting us on a 3 trophies in 3 years sequence

[davewalker75]

I have played golf on corporate days twice with Martin Chivers and he is one of the nicest blokes you could ever hope to meet. He will sit and talk to you all night about Spurs and his love for the club is fantastic. When you talk to him he is totally open about how he was often critisised at the time as a player, and in a way this makes him even more of a true lillywhite. (I mean that in a totally positive way!) and I should all things being equal meet him again this summer. Two words - Top Man.

[chinaman]

Chivers suffered a horrible injury and it was feared that he might have problem walking, let alone playing again. His studs caught in muddy ground and he almost had all of his right knee ligament torn. It took about 18 months for him to start playing again.

[Geez]

Martin Chivers will be the next inductee to the Club’s Hall of Fame, at a special celebration dinner to be held at La Royale on Tottenham High Road close to White Hart Lane on Thursday, April 19, 2007.

Many of Martin’s team-mates from the Spurs sides from 1968 to1976 will be present at this celebration of Martin’s career with the Club during which time we won the Football League Cup twice in 1971 and 1973 and the UEFA Cup in 1972.

[Archibald&Crooks]

Further to Geez's post, this from the official site:

MARTIN CHIVERS HALL OF FAME

We are delighted to announce that Martin Chivers will be the next inductee to the Club’s Hall of Fame, at a special celebration dinner to be held at La Royale on Tottenham High Road close to White Hart Lane on Thursday, April 19, 2007.

Many of Martin’s team-mates from the Spurs sides from 1968 to 1976 will be present at this celebration of Martin’s career with the Club during which time we won the Football League Cup twice in 1971 and 1973 and the UEFA Cup in 1972.

You can now be there too by reserving your table for 10 priced at £1,750.00 including VAT or individually at £175.00 including VAT.

The package includes:

- Four Course Dinner with Wine
- A Commemorative Programme
- Spurs Legends and Celebrity Appearances

For further details please contact 020 8365 5006

[JKSpurs]

Right - Here is a link to MEHSTG.. where are they now ?

http://www.mehstg.com/whereare.htm#C

I'm not sure if if can be posted, but if it can - then credit where its due.



What a great site, really intresting... Makes you think though how lucky players are today, even the very average ones make bundles of money enough to set them up for life...

Upsetting to see what some of the older players have to do to make a living after leaving spurs. A couple of players have ended up as Market traders A few have ended up as postmen or publicans... and not forgetting those who I feel most sorry for... those who have ended up at WestSpam.

[cranester]

Big chiv was an awsome centre forward, big , strong ,had deceptive pace and scared defnders to death, he was my first ever spurs hero and his goals and powerhouse performances will stay in my heart and mind forever. Note to spurs since 1961,this is a site dedicated to chivs induction to the thfc hall of fame, if you found him such a bad player thats your opinion,but dont put it on a site in praise and honour of the man, you might call yourself spurs since 1961 but wonder just how many times youve actually been.

[pierreb]

The best game I ever saw him play was against Leeds at home some time in the early 70s on an icy pitch - I mean icy, when he just danced on ice for 90 minutes and destroyed them. Anyone else remember that? It was so un Chivers like.

[DC_Boy]

The best game I ever saw him play was against Leeds at home some time in the early 70s on an icy pitch - I mean icy, when he just danced on ice for 90 minutes and destroyed them. Anyone else remember that? It was so un Chivers like.

yep PB - I was there, him and Jennings both put in 10 out of 10 performances as we beat the mighty (as they were then :-) Leeds 2-1 - I remember the stacks of hay/straw round the side of the ground for some reason

I think it was in 71 - I also think it helped AFC win the double as I remember my dad, an Arsenal fan, being well pleased about us winning