Programmes

& fanzines

Pile them up in the spare bedroom

Season 1999-2000 (so far)

Millwall (12 Nov)

Cost: £2

Pages: 48

Good things: Back to normal after last season’s ‘Wembley’ edition. An impressive montage of previous years’ programme covers on front and back. A noticeable historical aspect to many of the articles, almost like a ‘pre-millennium’ feel to the programme. Better-than-average review of the visiting team. Further news on the Millwall Ladies’ team.

Bad things: Another meaningless Carling Opta head-to-head analysis - strange how these always seem to be ‘home wins’. A gratuitous aerial photo of Bloomfield Road - as if anybody needed reminding of how it looks. Terrible smell to programme - what are these printers using?

Bizarre things: An advert for Courage Best cask bitter, noting: “Voted ‘Consistently good pint’ by consumers”. Source of information? Courage Research! Same old brewers, always cheating.

Great one-liner: From the ‘Meet the Manager’ section, quoting Brian Flynn on fans’ criticism of him: “They pay their money and if they want to have a go at me that’s ok, as long as they continue to support the team and get behind them, that’s all that matters”. Very true.

Verdict: Still good.

FANZINES
Tales From Senegal Fields, £1
Produced in A5 format and consisting of 32 pages, Tales is not a bad effort and consists of the usual match reports, letters pages, interviews, ex-player articles and reviews. In fact it contains very similar content to RP - only not as much of it. Issue 13 contained a page of predictions featuring the main contributors’ opinions as to how the honours would be spread around the league come May. Also featured is an amusing article in a series on ex-players entitled: ‘They were cack’. Paul Lindsay

The Lion Roars, £1
This long-established fanzine, now up to its 112th edition, appears monthly in large A4 format with a glossy wrap-around cover.
While there is not much of particular interest to Wrexham fans, there is plenty of reading material including interviews with current personnel at The Den, match reports, plenty of letters, and an irreverent diary.
Paul Lindsay

Conwy (16 Nov)

Cost: We can’t remember - and it doesn’t say on the programme itself.

Pages: 20 plus cover.

Good things: A nice little quiz, homely pen pix of the Wrexham squad, a piece in Welsh, and a full-colour back page advert for The Cottage Loaf: “The Village Pub in the Heart of Llandudno - Now Serving Food Daily”.

Bad things: Loads and loads of adverts; lots of different fonts.

Bizarre things: A blank inside front cover and a blank inside back cover; two articles which are accompanied by a bit of scribbled handwriting; AND did you know Conwy are known as “The Musselmen”.

Great one-liner: “I am sure that Brian Flynn will be telling his players that nothing can be taken for granted in this competition.” (Conwy FC Chairman Joe Davis - not the snooker player)

Verdict: Typical WPC material.

Oldham (27 Nov)

Cost: £1.80

Pages: 48

Good things: Clear squad listings on the back cover, uncluttered by unnecessary detail. A good explanation of the ten- yard rule, to be used in the AWS. Not much else, though.

Bad things: Too much blue. Disastrous lack of cohesion - looks like the programme has been compiled by about 20 different contributors with no reference to one another - ghastly clash of styles, colours and content.

Bizarre things: Very appropriate cover photo of two players challenging for the ball, neither of whom seems to know where the hell it is. Carling Opta Head-to-Head shows Oldham striker Steve Whitehall making one tackle in 326 minutes on the pitch - that’s right, one.

Great one-liner: “Sleep. The natural performance enhancer” - says an advert for club sponsor Slumberland. Perhaps it should be pointed out, to a few players perhaps, that this means before and after, not during.

Verdict: Nasty.

FANZINES
Beyond The Boundary, £1.
Another zine in the traditional A5 format which weighs in at 32 pages, Issue 61 which came out in August contains a large editorial ‘The Latics Report’. Also featured as you might expect are numerous reviews of last season and previews of this one. A couple of general ‘state of the game’ football articles make this a reasonable read. BTB also includes a letters section, interviews with former Oldham personnel, and ‘Latics landmarks’, which reviews famous past matches featuring the club. The magazine pokes plenty of fun at the boys from Old Trafford - which is fair enough really - and is generally a reasonable read although there is not that much of specific interest to Wrexham fans. You could do a lot worse for a quid when we visited Boundary Park on the 27th November. Paul Lindsay

Now here’s something different - an up-to-date fanzine actually available to buy at an away game. At £1 for 32 pages of news and views Beyond The Boundary is not the best value, but with the current issue being number 63 there are obviously enough willing punters to keep it going. This issue contained an interview with Andy Ritchie,
but other than that wasn’t really of any interest to the general reader, and with the number of contributors limited to six or seven, the narrow scope of the material perhaps isn’t surprising. However, it’s difficult to pass criticism from afar on a fanzine that has always been available every time I’ve been to Oldham, and that has kept the interest of the fans for so long - so, on balance, ‘an acquired taste’ is about as far as I’m prepared to go. Dean Domerecki

Mouldy Old Dough, £1.
This is the other Oldham fanzine - and now A5 size rather than A4. There are no page numbers so I can’t tell you how chunky it is - but it’s an average size, with an official sponsor, a few ads, and includes a selection of scanned photos. The Family Spiers - Carl and Agnes - seem to be the main people behind the publication, but sadly no Britney. Peter Davies