Twenty-five years in the 'Wild, Wild East'

Fittingly, when we call branch secretary Keith Udale at his home in Glossop, on a cold day in early February, the first thing he mentions is snow. “The garage roof is getting white,” he grimaces.

 

Living in the Peak District means weather conditions directly impact daily life in a more profound way than they do in, say, Manchester city centre. And when the white stuff moves in, M16 can feel a long, long way away from home.

 

“Sometimes the buses haven’t made it,” Keith says, with a rueful chuckle. “Last winter, we were coming back from Old Trafford and the lad who drove us was the only person to get through! There were trucks, cars, buses all stopped and abandoned on the road. People just had to wait for the gritters to come out – it takes four hours to get home sometimes. But that’s what you do to support United!”

Thankfully, the High Peak Reds – who marked their 25th anniversary as an official supporters’ club at the recent Fulham home game – are a tough bunch. Keith alone has been following the Reds for more than 65 years, and his fellow members are equally battle-hardened.

 

“The stalwarts are probably Margaret and John Booth,” says Udale, reeling off the names who make the group what it is. 

 

“Margaret is in her eighties now, I think, and she still goes every game, home and away, when she can get tickets obviously. Dave Rhodes, from Whaley Bridge, is a lifelong Red and was the instigator of getting the branch formed. Another one, Godfrey Plant, was a real High Peak person. He didn’t see the need to leave Whaley Bridge, except to go to United!”

Reds have a long history in this part of the world, but in 1999 some fans decided to band together to make travelling to M16 easier. And with so many Reds dotted around Glossop, Marple, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Buxton, Whaley Bridge, New Mills and more, multiple buses were required. Nowadays, one departs Buxton and another from Marple. 

 

Even on a good day, the journey to Old Trafford will take an hour and a half from Buxton, with all the pick-ups included. On a snow day? It’s anyone’s guess. 

 

But the challenges of the journey is seemingly no obstacle to United’s ability to recruit fans in the area. At the Fulham match, the branch were welcomed pitchside to mark their special anniversary, but they were largely represented by youngsters, rather than the ‘stalwarts’ Udale mentions.

“Younger fans? There are tonnes,” marvels Keith. “For the presentation, we’ve got all the juniors coming, rather than a load of old cronies like myself. We thought we’d give the kids a chance to see Old Trafford right by the side of the pitch, because they’re up in North Stand [Sir Alex Ferguson Stand] tier two normally. There’ll be eight or nine juniors there and obviously a couple of parents there to supervise them. That’ll be great.”

 

As we talk over the 25 years since the branch registered with the club, there are many great tales of special times – an all-dayer to a pre-season friendly against Chesterfield in 2002, beer-addled cruises down the Bosphorus before Fenerbahce away in 2004 – and stories of skidding down narrow, icy roads in the Peak District seem to melt away.

 

You can always have fun following your football team, even in the toughest conditions and after the most miserable results – you just need like-minded souls and a few laughs around you. 

 

Clearly, our High Peak branch are not short of those two precious commodities.