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The MARTIN CHIVERS thread

Archibald&Crooks

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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.

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[/al]He 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.
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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

SC founder member gone bad, i love u all
Sep 21, 2003
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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???
 

DC_Boy

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May 20, 2005
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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

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Apr 10, 2006
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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

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Jan 13, 2005
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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

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Dec 13, 2005
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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.
 

sundancer

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Apr 4, 2006
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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

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May 20, 2005
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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

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Jun 29, 2003
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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

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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)

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/foot...cription= Photos of Tottenham H. footballers.
(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

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Apr 10, 2006
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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.
 

TheChosenOne

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Dec 13, 2005
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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

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Nov 28, 2006
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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

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May 20, 2005
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:) 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

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Feb 5, 2007
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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

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Jul 19, 2003
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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

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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.
 
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