The voice of business in the Tees region | 91
The Business Buzz
With award-winning
writer Harry Pearson
When football fashion came to Teesside Airport
Set for take-off - but will our region’s
renamed airport attract the football
fashionistas this time around?
Tees Business columnist Harry Pearson reflects
on Teesside Airport memories of yesteryear
after Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen officially
marked the renaming of it recently.
T
he news that Teesside Airport is to
open for more international flights
again is very exciting for the region –
even more so if you recall what momentous
events occurred the last time it happened.
The International Terminal at Teesside
Airport was officially opened in November
1966 by Princess Margaretha of Sweden.
Quite why Stockholm’s answer to Princess
Anne was selected for the task is a bit of
a mystery – the only plausible explanation
being that she was married to an
Englishman, lived in Oxfordshire and didn’t
have any prior commitments.
The Swedish princess cut the ribbon
and told the assembled dignitaries: “The
River Tees has already been a means of
establishing ties between Britain and
Sweden for many years. I am confident this
airport will serve to strengthen those ties.”
As far as I can tell, no flights ever went
from Teesside to Sweden, so I’m not sure
how that worked out, but the fact of the
matter was that the princess’s role was
purely symbolic.
The first overseas passengers had
actually arrived at Teesside Airport the
previous summer. They had come from
what we then called ‘the continent’ and
they were about to be involved in one of the
biggest shocks in sporting history.
Not that anyone would have imagined
such a thing as they watched Italy’s 1966
World Cup squad strolling across the
Teesside tarmac in the July sunshine. They
were an improbably stylish and handsome
mob who looked like they’d come straight
off the set of La Dolce Vita.
Beneath their snappy suits, Sandro
Mazzola, Gianni Rivera, Giacinto Facchetti
and the rest wore – and this was enough to
set jaws dropping back then - mid-blue polo
shirts buttoned up at the neck. No ties! It
was a sartorial revolution.
After passing through passport control,
the superstars of Internazionale, Milan
and Juventus were shepherded onto a bus
and driven to a Durham agricultural college
where they were based.
The men who were to prove their
nemesis were already at the airport. The
North Korean squad were the first guests at
the newly opened St George Hotel. Since
they had spent the previous two years living
in a military barracks, it’s safe to assume
they were impressed with the luxury.
Unlike the Italians they hadn’t flown into
Teesside directly. They’d arrived at Heathrow
and then trundled northwards on British
Rail, singing their patriotic songs (“Carrying
the nation’s honour on our shoulders” ran
one) and signing autographs for ladies with
beehive hair-dos and bird-wing spectacles.
They’d disembarked at Dinsdale Station and
carried their own luggage.
The North Koreans trained next to the ICI
chemical plant at Billingham Synthonia. They
quickly became popular with the crowd at
Middlesbrough’s ground, Ayresome Park,
where they played all their group matches.
They wore red shirts, were tiny and the
Boro fans got behind them.
In the final group game, they faced the
glamorous Italians and – to the amazement
of the football world – beat them 1-0. The
goal scored by Pak Doo Ik was greeted with
such frenzied celebration in the Holgate End
it temporarily fused the lights.
The defeat sent the Italians back home.
They returned to Teesside Airport the
following day and boarded a charter flight to
Genoa. When they disembarked, an angry
mob pelted them with rotten tomatoes.
The North Koreans, meanwhile, went
back to the St George Hotel after their
victory and celebrated with a session of
heavy drinking. As the barman at the St
George later recalled, “They drank us dry
– by the end of the evening there was no
soda water left in the place.”
It’s unlikely anything quite so
extraordinary will occur this time, but you
never know.