Programmes

& fanzines

Pile them up in the spare bedroom

Season 2000-2001 (so far)

Peterborough (2 Dec) by Daniel Jennings

Cost: £2.
Pages: 48 including covers.
Good things: Barry Fry's column; proper match reports; the amount of info on Wrexham; Division 2 review; the 'Game to Remember' section - even though it was Posh 3 Wrexham 0 in 1960!
Bad things: Kit sponsorship info takes up a full two pages; a lot of ads.
Bizarre things: A picture of Ian Stevens on the inside cover next to the caption: 'TODAY'S VISITORS - WREXHAM'.
Great one-liner: 'Police and security staff escorted (referee) Webster and the linesmen from the pitch, once Rovers skipper Andy Thompson was cautioned and sent off…Wrexham's only argument was between the two players and which of them should rightly claim the goal' (p.8, referring to the recent Wrexham-Bristol Rovers game).
Verdict: 8/10. Good.

FANZINE
The Peterborough Effect
This is one of my favourite fanzine titles. What exactly is the 'Peterborough Effect'? Not sure myself. Anyway, this publication - we're looking at Issue No.12, March 1990 - is pretty sarcastic, Maybe that's the 'Peterborough Effect'. 

Peter Davies

Notts County (23 Dec) by Dean Domerecki

Cost: £2
Pages: 40
Good things: As before, lots of community-related items – local sports amenities, local authority leisure events, sports grants, etc. – a lot of it relating to kids. Also 'Home Win, an adoption agency asking for prospective adoptors, although rather worryingly 'We don’t have silly rules about eligibility!' And – miraldo! – a Club IT Department!
Bad things: Jocky Scott’s column – a festival of footballing cliche. If you can’t say anything interesting, why bother? The Wrexham player profile could do with a bit more careful editing – Phil Hardy is still under pressure for his place from Brace, apparently, and they can’t spell Emad’s name, even though they have two goes at it. The ‘Stats & Facts’ page of garbage shows that we’ve scored seven league goals from outside the box (seven? Answers on a postcard…) and that County’s average time taken to score away from home is 110 minutes (think about it – that’s, er, five past five). And the club’s own season statistics page – it’s not good.
Bizarre things: The recently published book on Tommy Lawton is described as both a biography and a novel, and Danny Williams is the only player listed on the teamsheet in lower case letters (a sign?) The profile of Dearden informs us that he turned professional 'in 188', thus making him, at 1,812 years old, the oldest player in the football league (and he still gets criticism!)
Great one-liner: Jocky Scott: 'If we can rack up 3-0 leads … then that would go a long way towards seeing us move up the table.' The man’s a natural.
Verdict: Not up to last season’s standard. Sorry.

FANZINE
The Pie/No More Pie In The Sky
I had two interesting encounters outside the NCFC club shop. I met the one-time editor of The Pie; he said he'd just handed over the reigns to the 'younger generation'. Then I said hello to the editor of No More Pie In The Sky; he said his girlfriend had just had a baby and he'd lost interest in producing NMPITS. 

Peter Davies

Wigan (1 Jan) by Peter Davies

Cost: £2.
Pages: 50 plus covers.
Good things: Colourful, varied, nice smell. Also a laminated cover - stylish.
Bad things: Strange page-numbering system; ridiculously insane Division 2 stats round-up (p.19).
Bizarre things: The team line-ups (p.50) feature some names in bold and others not in bold.
Great one-liner: 'Emad Bouanane…A tall defender who likes to get forward.' (p.8) 
Verdict: Excellent.

FANZINE
www.cockneylatic.co.uk
This is the online version of the violently anti-rugby Wigan fanzine, Cockney Latic. The website is part of the rivals.net stable of unofficial club sites - and is pretty smart. There's a nice report on the New Year's Day encounter - 'a dull and lacklustre display' from the home side - and lots of transfer rumours. 

Peter Davies