Arsenal goalkeeper Jack Kelsey peers into the fog, searching for the elusive ball. The fog was so thick the game was eventually stopped
This photo from 1954 of Arsenal goalkeeper Jack Kelsey looking into the fog for an elusive ball is often mistaken for a viral story from 1937. In that story a game was played during such a foggy day that a goal keeper stayed on the pitch for 15 minutes until after the game was called.
The story that this photo is often misattributed to comes from a game played on Christmas Day in 1937 when Chelsea played Stamford Ridge. Due to a dense fog the game had to be called after 61 minutes. Unfortunately no one told Stamford Bridge’s goalkeeper. He later explained:
I paced up and down my goal-line, happy in the knowledge that Chelsea were being pinned in their own half. ‘The boys must be giving the Pensioners the hammer,’ I thought smugly, as I stamped my feet for warmth… After a long time a figure loomed out of the curtain of fog in front of me. It was a policeman, and he gaped at me incredulously. ‘What on earth are you doing here?’ he gasped. ‘The game was stopped a quarter of an hour ago. The field’s completely empty’. And when I groped my way to the dressing-room, the rest of the Charlton team, already out of the bath and in their civvies, were convulsed with laughter.
