Programmes

& fanzines

Pile them up in the spare bedroom

Season 2000-2001 (so far)

Altrincham (5 Aug) by Peter Davies

Cost: £1.

Pages: 8.

Good things: Nice mix of fonts, nice use of red-and-white-stripe effect.

Bad things: Value-for-money. It wasn't.

Bizarre things: The Altrincham programme is called The Robins Review.

Great one-liner: "The trip to Dublin was a giant success in terms of player bonding" (Mark Ward, Altrincham Manager, Inside Front Cover)

Verdict: 12.5p a page.


Gareth Owen Testimonial Game v Manchester United XI (1 Aug) by Peter Davies

Cost: £2.

Pages: 32.

Good things: Excellent overall quality: photos, articles, general presentation. Also, Gareth picks his all-time Reds team - a very interesting exercise, with very interesting results.

Bad things: Darren Ferguson on the front cover sporting a red Vodafone shirt. Hey, Darren, who do you play for?

Bizarre things: No keepers named in the back-cover United line-up; Lee Roche is No.21 for Wrexham and No.10 for United.

Great one-liner: "Sorry you're only on the bench Joe, but you were never really dedicated enough!!!!!!" (Gareth puts Joey on the bench in his all-star Reds line-up).

Verdict: Very, very good.

TNS v FC Levadia Maardu (12 Jul at the Racecourse) by Ben Williams

Cost: £1.50 a bit on the steep side, but considering it was the Champions League…

Pages: 45 but over half of those were adverts for everything from caravan sites to conservatories!

Good things: Very interesting section on the history of the opponents, good profiles of TNS players, nice colour photos in the centre pages. Very colourful front page featuring a nice montage of TNS players in action.

Bad things: Too many adverts; it seems like every business in Mid Wales got in on the action!

Bizarre things: Lots of ex-Wrexham players on the books of TNS; TNS boss Andy Cale is also coach of England's youth teams!

Great one-liner: "There have been critics of our decision to change our name to that of sponsors Total Network Solutions but that criticism smacks too much of jealousy to even be discussed" (TNS general manager Graham Breeze in defiant mood)

Verdict: Some interesting sections, very colourful, but the amount of adverts meant it felt too much like the Yellow Pages and less like a football programme.

Bad things: The ever-present BBC logo.

Bizarre things: Front-cover photo of Ridler heading the ball away in a previous match against Cardiff. His eyes are totally shut.

Great one-liner: “I was fortunate to play at the Ian Rush (Soccer Tournament) on four occasions and I am proud that my goalscoring record still stands.” (M. Owen, back cover)

Verdict: Smart. A good advert for the WPC.