Programmes

& fanzines

Pile them up in the spare bedroom

Season 1999-2000 (so far)

Mayfield United (11 Jul)

Cost: £1.00.

Pages: 16.

Good things: Printed on white glossy paper; nice piece on Wrexham and on all the club’s Irish links.

Bad things: Horrible advert for ‘Manchester United Executive Weekend’ on the back cover.

Bizarre things: Strange A4 flyer enclosed in programme advertising ‘Ashburton Bar Gardiners Hill: main Sponsor and Friend to Mayfield United for Many Years.’ (By the way, their phone number is 021-507835)

Great one-liner: ‘Football is all about enjoyment and I hope we have an exciting and entertaining game today.’

Verdict: Reasonable pre-season friendly material.

Isle of Man Football Festival (18-24 Jul)

Cost: £3.00.

Pages: 22 plus cover.

Good things: General glossyness and A4-ness.

Bad things: The price.

Bizarre things: Incredibly large and vivid photo of Flynn playing golf (nine iron out of bunker).

Great one-liner: ‘Kevin "Rooster" Russell may have had more clubs than Nicklaus, but he’s still a good journeyman.’ (David Lovett, p.11)

Verdict: Expensive.

Newport YMCA (30 Jul)

Cost: £1.00.

Pages: 20 plus cover.

Good things: Well meaning.

Bad things: General photocopy quality of inside pages. A ‘standard’ front cover that mentions neither opponents nor date of match.

Bizarre things: Newport YMCA play at Mendalgief Road. What a strange name.

Great one-liner: ‘We would like to extend a special thank you to Brian Flynn who made this fixture possible. His cooperation, perseverance and flexibility eventually paid off…Brian Flynn had direct involvement the whole time with arranging this fixture and this is why our thanks go to him personally.’ (Sic)

Verdict: OK apart from the odd bit of gobbledegook.

Ayr United (31 Jul)

Cost: £1.50.

Pages: 32 including cover.

Good things: Striking black front cover and an amazing head-to-head quiz between a fan (‘Eric McBride’) and a player (‘Glynn Hurst’).

Bad things: Stupid titles for regular items eg. ‘United Inquizition’, ‘Quiz Biz’, ‘Dazza’s Diary’.

Bizarre things: A strange ‘Kid in the Crowd’ competition. Did you know also that Ayr have a player called Steve Cooper?

Great one-liner: ‘Thank you to all the supporters who made the long journey north to support the team during the Highland tour.’ (Chairman William J.Barr).

Verdict: Not bad for a July friendly.

Lex XI (5 Aug)

Cost: 30p.

Pages: 4.

Good things: A hearty ‘Enjoy the match’ piece on Page 2.

Bad things: Quality of the photocopying.

Bizarre things: Large ad for European Sheeting Ltd - with a lovely Clipart image of a factory(?)

Great one-liner: ‘One person who will be hoping to put one over on his old side is Lex Coach Nick Hencher, who played for the Reds in the mid-Eighties and scored some spectacular goals in the process.’

Verdict: Sterling effort.

Blackpool (7 Aug)

Cost: £1.90

Pages: 40

Good things: Good professional feel to the lay-out; resistance to increasing the price to £2, as seems to have happened a lot elsewhere.

Bad things: I know that identifying with the club and having a ‘corporate image’ are good things to an extent, but does everything have to be orange? Lack of genuinely interesting footy news, which, given that it is the first game of the season, is poor. Also has an unpleasant smell, either of paper-treating chemicals or printers’ ink (go on, see for yourself!).

Bizarre things: The sheer number of adverts in the programme. It appears that the average Blackpool supporter’s day might consist of buying a car, driving it to a restaurant, having a post-dinner drink down the pub, followed by crashing on the way home and employing a firm of solicitors to seek compensation.

Great one-liner: ‘Nobody does chicken like KFC.’

Verdict: Unloveable.

FANZINES
Another View From The Tower, 17th Issue, Cost £1, 32 pages. A pleasant balance of contributions covering fans’ views, statistics and reports on
Blackpool matches, and a good slice of anti-Preston material (‘Nob End’ - and a lot of it quite witty). As you would expect, a general review of where last season went wrong, and looking forward to better this time around. Very readable and well-produced, enjoyable even for non-supporters.  Dean Domerecki

Do I Like Tangerine, Issue 9, 28 pages for a minimum donation of £1 (all proceeds to a local hospice). Much more of a newsletter style than AVFTT, with relatively few contributors and a narrower range of material as a result. Not really for the unaffiliated, but this is in no way a criticism as the money raised goes to a good cause, and it’s not a bad way to contribute.   Dean Domerecki

Preston (10 Aug)

Cost: £1.50

Pages: 34 plus a nice glossy cover.

Good things: Pretty detailed introduction to Wrexham; nice strong cover.

Bad things: None.

Bizarre things: Preston mascot Deepdale Duck’s column, where he talks about sitting on car roofs and denting them and having fun with children. Perhaps Mr Duck has spent too long in the company of North End defender Michael Jackson…

Great one-liner: ‘Who saw me sat on Ross’s car? You should have seen the dent when I got off.’ No, this was not Kevin Dearden; it was taken from the very frightening Deepdale Duck column.

Verdict: Fairly detailed programme, and quite a reasonable price.

Cardiff (20 Aug)

Cost: £2.00.

Pages: Lots.

Good things: A ‘100 years of Cardiff City FC’ feature - The Bluebirds’ Century. In this issue a piece about about Jack Evans, born in Bala.

Bad things: Nothing interesting to say about Wrexham - not much detail.

Bizarre things: Some 14-ish-year-old lad had an article all about his bedroom. Now, take a deep breath. It was called, 'Craig's Boardroom' - as in bedroom...BEDroom…aah, forget it. Anyway he wants a copy of the programme from the 1927 FA Cup Final. Great one-liner: Frank Burrows: ‘He (Flynn) has done an outstanding job in the development of Wrexham FC...This will play dividends to the club...all credit to Brian Flynn." See Mr.Flynn, somebody likes you!

Verdict: Quite good.

FANZINE
The Thin Blue Line, Issue 31 (‘Newly-Promoted’ Edition), Cost 50p for 32 pages (not numbered!) Good value, although each article is lengthy, reflecting a smallish number of contributors - but this does affect ‘readability’. Generally well-written articles, all featuring current topics affecting Cardiff, with a lot of ‘board room’ commentary. Because of this, it’s probably really only for the committed and knowledgeable Cardiff fan, or the information freak. Interesting article on the prospective away trips: the good thing is that Wrexham appears on the map of the country in the ‘US’ section as opposed to the ‘THEM’ part; however, of us, “We think they missed their big chance at promotion a couple of seasons back, and although you can never write off Brian Flynn, we reckon they’ve sold too many players of late, and wouldn’t be at all surprised if they were relegated”. Apart from this error of judgement, a well-produced effort.    Dean Domerecki

Wycombe (31 Aug)

Cost: £2.00.

Pages: 42 plus cover.

Good things: Colourful, varied, bright and breezy. High-profile publicity for the seven different buses that ferry fans to and from Adams Park on matchdays.

Bad things: Too many different fonts; not particularly well written.

Bizarre things: Wanderers player Dannie Bulman is sponsored by Strategic Shipping Company Limited.

Great one-liner: ‘Keep up the good work and let’s hear the Indian chants.’ (Lawrie Sanchez, p.3)

Verdict: Kind of average.

FANZINE
Wycombe Wanderers Independent Supporters Club Fanzine, Issue 24, Cost 80p for 36 pages (not numbered again, although you get a glossy cover). This is the May issue, as WWISC have failed to send the requested current one (so no points there). Well laid out, lots of information of immediate interest to all fans, including interviews with club staff, humorous items, article on forthcoming away trip, etc. A good read, but not for long - I got through it very quickly indeed, a bit unsatisfying really. Dean Domerecki

TNS (7 Sep)

Cost: £1.00

Pages: 48 (26 of adverts)

Good things: Colour cover, pen pix of home players

Bad things: Too many adverts

Bizarre things: Photo of TNS mascot ‘Spot the Dog’

Great one liner: “It is obviously a great pleasure to host a professional team in this competition and I hope everything meets up with your expectations.”

Verdict: Reasonable value for money