The 90 minutes before the 90 minutes
Life is tough you know. Selling fanzines - every week, every match, everywhere. Home and away, home and away, home and away.Wales v England Rugby ‘B’International
They’re friendly but also confused, all those rugby fans. ‘Is that a programme?’ ‘What? A football fanzine? Wash your mouth out!’ There are lots of silly comments about balls and, more specifically, different shaped balls: ‘This is a different ball game, mate - RUGBY - the superior game!’ But sanity is restored. There are some Wrexham fans here, after all: author Peter Jones - selling the official programme on the Mold Road - that man Jacko who sings all those songs and also Paul Hughes, Vale of Clwyd Reds coordinator. It feels strange though: selling football magazines at a rugby match; it just doesn’t feel right. Nobody wants to read about soccer at a union game. Some punters hand over their quid 24 hours before they might usually have done, but most just scuttle along and say, ‘See you tomorrow, mate, I’ll get it tomorrow.’ I agree - it just doesn’t feel right.
Wycombe home
A new issue. Thirty-five days since the last one and after all the moans and groans it’s a pleasure to tell everyone, and show everyone, it’s red. Red. Red! That lovely colour we ALL like. No problems, no criticisms. Everyone likes red - because we play in red. No problem, no problem at all. Thank goodness. They’re dead friendly, those Wycombe fans. Everyone says hello: a guy from one of their fanzines, a guy from one of their web-sites, another bloke. Dead friendly. And, as serious relegation candidates, they can’t be happy. But they just keep chatting, in that horrible Thames Estuary twang they’ve got. Southern, they are - very southern. And ‘Chairboys’ - their nickname - what’s that all about? Can somebody tell us?
RAY SCORSE