That Euereka Moment...!!!!

[gurulion]

Had an absolutely major one yesterday.

As well as collecting Millwall, I have a pretty substantial Wellingborough Town collection: I ran the programme shop there in the late 60s early 70s. And in recent years acquired the collections of the only other two serious Doughboys collectors.

Until yesterday I believed my oldest Wellingborough programme was an away fixture at Sheffield United reserves. It was sold by a dealer to me some years back as dating from about 1913 or 14 but had no date. A major clue to its vintage was that there were exact details of trains running to the FA Cup Final in which the Blades were apparently playing. So I marked it down as a programme from season 1914/15 when United beat Chelsea 3-0 in the final.

Then yesterday I happened to be running my eye over some FA Cup general facts and figures and spotted that the Sheffield Utd v Chelsea final was played at Old Trafford. Hairs on back of neck standing up time: that did not tally with the details in my programme, which had the trains running to the Crystal Palace.

So checking again I found that United played Southampton at the Crystal Palace in 1902. Fantastic, I thought. This programme is 13 years older than I had believed. Then another thing hit me: season 1901/02 was Wellingborough's first season as a Southern League club. Their fixtures were against the first teams of Millwall, Tottenham, Southampton, Luton, etc - not Sheffield United Reserves. That would be Midland League.

So back down the Cup Finals again: 1898/99 Sheffield United v Derby. At the Crystal Palace. On the back of this programme card against Wellingborough it had fixtures for the day. Checking the League tables for the season, it tallied with every club listed being members of Division One. Also, England were playing Scotland. More research: date 8th April 1899. Check date of Cup Final...15th April 1899: perfect fit. One final check needed. Looked out Everton's fixtures for that season: 8th April 1899, Stoke City away. Fixture on programme: Stoke v Everton...

In 20 minutes research I had discovered that I was now the proud owner of the only known Wellingborough Town programme home or away from the 19th century....unless anyone else out there can tell me otherwise...!!!

One of those truly fabulous programme collecting moments.

[Wulfrunian]

congrats dude, oh to find a wolves one like that !!!
_________________
FPC Predictor Cup Winner 2013

"You only have one life, I gave mine to the Wolves" - Stan Cullis 1916 - 2001

[matt blue]

Had a huge amount of luck sat, city have just returned back from a tour of portugal, on reading a report there were 3 city fans and just a single member of the uk press...saw the reporter who was there and asked if anything was produced in portugal...

He said, nothing for the select game, but I had this original teamsheet/prog from the fatima game...do you want it....ive heard of nobody else having one of these...so am very happy

Can imagine a couple came back with the team but you never know !!

[Marco_Polo]

Nothing as dramatic as Guru's, but had a few moments comparable to spending a weekend with Anna Friel.
The first collection I bought, about 23 years ago, had my eyes on stalks with programmes going back to 1911, plus bound volumes of clubs from the 30s and lots of stuff that would have ebay cooking on gas today..and about the same time, I got a call from a bloke who worked for the defunct Maybank Press who said he some progs to get rid of.
Went round his house and had never seen so many boxes of mint programmes, obviously all from said establishment.. It took my missus five runs to cart them all back in an old Escort estate and my prize was further enhanced by finding out it contained certain postponed issues that said clubs had told the company to pulp.
Plus half a dozen sample issues of the 84-5 FA Cup final.. with a white cover.
My personal collection goes back to 31-2, but my most satisfying moments came when a single sheet issue for Exeter City Reserves v Romford from 1959-60 dropped through the letter box and discovering that an issue exsisted for a postponed Cambridge United v Romford game in 1966, which I won following a bidding war on ebay as no doubt a few U's fans had realised the same.
Another one of those 'don't let the wife know how much you paid for it moments'.