Post by hendo on Apr 3, 2020 18:18:14 GMT
No matches so no programmes, but I will stick a series of '20 Yard Screamers' on the forum over the next few weeks anyway. Some old ones, some new ones. At least they are reminder that we have a club.
Okay, so here we go..
Programmes.
Usually if you were reading this article, then you would have a match-day programme in your possession.
Hopefully you would have shelled out some of your hard-earned to purchase it and thus help the Club’s finances, and who knows? It might have been worth a fortune in the years to come.
Okay, so that wouldn’t happen, but our programmes always double as excellent budgie cage flooring, and it is true to say that many more illustrious examples from the past are now fetching wallet-busting sums at auction.
Back in 1888, with the formation of the Football League, matchday programmes became the norm, although the offering for the FA Cup Final between Old Etonians and Blackburn Rovers claims to be the first of its kind.
Seven years ago, a copy from that 1882 game sold at auction for a world record price of £35,250. No doubt there’s a 160-year-old Blackburn fan wandering around Heaven boring the crap out of the angels, telling them that he was right to hang onto it and who’s the idiot now.
Unlike today’s glossy magazines which are packed with photos, stats, history, pen pics, match reports and multiple ads for insurance companies and roofers, the programmes from yesteryear looked more like cricket scorecards, made up of a single sheet of card, detailing little more than the teams and match date. Many had a stab at printing the players’ names in formation, usually with an extremely risky five upfront and only two at the back.
A programme of that type from the Sheffield United v Tottenham FA Cup final at the Crystal Palace on April 20, 1901 recently fetched £20,000. It was a notable game as Sheffield United were in the first division and Spurs were a non-league club. After drawing the match in London, Tottenham managed to win the replay 3-1 which, for some obscure reason, was played at Bolton, presumably as a dire warning to all teams not to draw any finals in the future.
With the weather and now coronavirus decimating the football calendar, postponements have become the norm and they can hit a club’s finances pretty hard.
A significant part of the loss can be the cost of the wasted programmes. If the date of re-arranged fixture is close to the original, then often the same version will be used with a flimsy supplement slipped in to update the club news and squad details.
If a new programme is printed the original one can have a value to collectors although it will depend on how many are in circulation and who are the teams involved.
One particularly rare single-sheet effort was auctioned in 2005 and sold for £320. The match was due to have been played in occupied Guernsey on June 8th, 1943 but became the only match ever to have been called off by the Nazi party.
A Continental XI consisting of slave workers brought into the Channel Islands from various parts of occupied Europe was due to have played the Guernsey side, Les Vauxbelets. The game never happened because the Vauxbelets team refused to kick off after spotting that the German referee was carrying a gun.
The Les Vauxbelets area in Guernsey is best known for its’ ornate stone chapel that was originally built in 1914 complete with elaborate conical turrets and soaring spire. The only problem with the construction was that the builders must have read the plans in centimetres rather than feet, so the finished chapel measured a diminutive 9 feet by 4.5 feet. After criticism that perhaps that was a little snug for the congregation, it was begrudgingly increased in size to a cavernous 9x6.
This seemed to serve for a while until the Bishop of Portsmouth popped over for a visit in 1923, and, after a particularly good lunch at the local monastery, was unable to squeeze through the door and immediately demanded its demolition. The third and final version now dominates the valley at a size of 16x9 which is large enough to praise the Lord and keep a motor mower.
The programme for the first match following the Munich air disaster between Manchester United and Sheffield Wednesday is another valuable item. The club showed respect to those involved in the catastrophe by leaving the team page blank.
Godalming has often left their team page blank but that’s because no one had the faintest idea who would be playing.
Okay, so here we go..
Programmes.
Usually if you were reading this article, then you would have a match-day programme in your possession.
Hopefully you would have shelled out some of your hard-earned to purchase it and thus help the Club’s finances, and who knows? It might have been worth a fortune in the years to come.
Okay, so that wouldn’t happen, but our programmes always double as excellent budgie cage flooring, and it is true to say that many more illustrious examples from the past are now fetching wallet-busting sums at auction.
Back in 1888, with the formation of the Football League, matchday programmes became the norm, although the offering for the FA Cup Final between Old Etonians and Blackburn Rovers claims to be the first of its kind.
Seven years ago, a copy from that 1882 game sold at auction for a world record price of £35,250. No doubt there’s a 160-year-old Blackburn fan wandering around Heaven boring the crap out of the angels, telling them that he was right to hang onto it and who’s the idiot now.
Unlike today’s glossy magazines which are packed with photos, stats, history, pen pics, match reports and multiple ads for insurance companies and roofers, the programmes from yesteryear looked more like cricket scorecards, made up of a single sheet of card, detailing little more than the teams and match date. Many had a stab at printing the players’ names in formation, usually with an extremely risky five upfront and only two at the back.
A programme of that type from the Sheffield United v Tottenham FA Cup final at the Crystal Palace on April 20, 1901 recently fetched £20,000. It was a notable game as Sheffield United were in the first division and Spurs were a non-league club. After drawing the match in London, Tottenham managed to win the replay 3-1 which, for some obscure reason, was played at Bolton, presumably as a dire warning to all teams not to draw any finals in the future.
With the weather and now coronavirus decimating the football calendar, postponements have become the norm and they can hit a club’s finances pretty hard.
A significant part of the loss can be the cost of the wasted programmes. If the date of re-arranged fixture is close to the original, then often the same version will be used with a flimsy supplement slipped in to update the club news and squad details.
If a new programme is printed the original one can have a value to collectors although it will depend on how many are in circulation and who are the teams involved.
One particularly rare single-sheet effort was auctioned in 2005 and sold for £320. The match was due to have been played in occupied Guernsey on June 8th, 1943 but became the only match ever to have been called off by the Nazi party.
A Continental XI consisting of slave workers brought into the Channel Islands from various parts of occupied Europe was due to have played the Guernsey side, Les Vauxbelets. The game never happened because the Vauxbelets team refused to kick off after spotting that the German referee was carrying a gun.
The Les Vauxbelets area in Guernsey is best known for its’ ornate stone chapel that was originally built in 1914 complete with elaborate conical turrets and soaring spire. The only problem with the construction was that the builders must have read the plans in centimetres rather than feet, so the finished chapel measured a diminutive 9 feet by 4.5 feet. After criticism that perhaps that was a little snug for the congregation, it was begrudgingly increased in size to a cavernous 9x6.
This seemed to serve for a while until the Bishop of Portsmouth popped over for a visit in 1923, and, after a particularly good lunch at the local monastery, was unable to squeeze through the door and immediately demanded its demolition. The third and final version now dominates the valley at a size of 16x9 which is large enough to praise the Lord and keep a motor mower.
The programme for the first match following the Munich air disaster between Manchester United and Sheffield Wednesday is another valuable item. The club showed respect to those involved in the catastrophe by leaving the team page blank.
Godalming has often left their team page blank but that’s because no one had the faintest idea who would be playing.