How Sheffield Wednesday chairman thought Queen's Hillsborough visit was a practical joke

You can’t help but think she would have very much enjoyed a story coming to light here concerning a Royal visit to Sheffield in 1986.

In particular it’s about her official opening of Sheffield Wednesday’s then new covered Kop at Hillsborough.

It emerges there had been no moves from the top of the club to invite the Queen to perform that function. Evidently it was thought she would be too busy or maybe not particularly interested.

In short, too much of a long shot. However, the club secretary of the time - equivalent to the CEO of today - took it upon himself to try to arrange for Her Majesty to attend.

Chairman Bert McGee was on holiday in South Africa in the summer of ‘86 when Dick Chester, known for a dry wit, launched his surprise initiative.

Chester reveals in his new book, “Football - an Insider’s Job”, how McGee thought the venture was, to put it politely, a practical joke and an attempt to wind him up.

At the outset, Chester asked McGee’s secretary to message the chairman on holiday to inform him out of courtesy that an attempt was being made.

Chester relates that, before any reply was received, “I had official confirmation … that the opening of the Kop had been included in the royal schedule.”

Before anyone else knew about this happy outcome, McGee’s secretary at Hillsborough told Chester that she had had a reply from the chairman but that it was unrepeatable and he had better come in the office to see it for himself.

It read: “Just tell Dick Chester to stop trying to take the p*** out of me. I’m on holiday enjoying myself and I can well do without his sense of humour ruining it!”

Chester, who was not averse to a bit of fun, simply asked for a further message to be sent “confirming that approval had been received and the visit was now official.”

The reply to that is unrecorded! But history shows McGee proudly conducting the Queen’s visit, ironically missed by Chester as he had by then left the club.

But I imagine the Queen - much loved for taking her role very seriously but herself considerably less so - would have chuckled at that tale. And maybe also this sequel to it.

Chester records that Her Majesty’s representatives asked “where the red carpet could be laid.”

He pointed out that “this ground is situated in the blue and white half of the city, our neighbours are in the red half.”

Came the reply: “Very well. It will be nice for her to walk on a different coloured carpet.”

Chester was particularly sensitive to the city’s rivalries, having previously been secretary at Sheffield United. His move across town saw “some friendships cut stone dead.”

Despite this, his book - not only revealing but relevant today in exposing “murky” elements that persist - is painstakingly even-handed.

This column has selected the above story simply because of the unfortunate timing and its suitability to that.

A time, too, for putting tribal loyalties aside and paying respect to a remarkable and inspirational human being.

As football resumes this week, Dick Chester’s memoir also throws up the question of whether history will repeat itself.

The last time both the Blades and the Owls won promotion in the same season was in 1983-84, just after Chester’s switch from red to blue.

United escaped the third tier under Ian Porterfield and Wednesday leapt into the top flight under Howard Wilkinson.

Will we see a re-enactment of that in reverse? Both sides won in midweek and, looking across the board, I believe that the two teams have never been better equipped to see a season through to a double celebration.

As a postscript, this is a rich time for football books hereabouts. I’d also recommend the following;-

“Ain’t got a Barrel of Money” by Blade Jason Holyhead, on the Currie-Woodward glory years.

“What was football like in the 1990s?” by Richard Crooks, a Wednesday fan by chance.

“Back in the Big Time” by Owls watcher John Dyson, recalling the mid-1980s Wilkinson era.