Wycombe & Books
The Christmas period has always been a time for a few Sports books to appear over the years - it’s pretty much the only type of present I buy my Dad!
It made me think about books on WWFC. I really enjoyed Close Quarters, I know there were some critics on here (a couple of typos and the MON/promoted to football league error) but it was great to delve into the story of our epic season and also just to read a proper book dedicated to Wycombe! Small Town Dreams was excellent too and again, just great to be reading a book about WW. I borrowed Pete Lansley’s Out of the Blue from my dad and there’s some brilliant stories that I dipped into recently (yes I know PL is still not considered favourably by some due to the Dave Carroll saga!) I also recall reading Sir Martin O’God’s book a while ago but there was, understandably, only one short chapter on WW.
Having been to countless anniversary dinners and heard so many stories from ex-players etc I was thinking it would be great if they were all in one place at some point and committed to paper, guess it would be a painstaking job to piece together a comprehensive written history complemented with stories, quotes etc Just thinking about all the anecdotes from MON, Westy, Creaser & co at those dinners not to mention the 80s ex-players dinner and some superb anecdotes from Gane, Kelman etc in 2019 plus the Brian Lee stories recorded recently and many many more over the years. Add to that all of Phil C’s brilliant feature interviews from RTB and there’s so many different stories in different places/mediums!
If someone could just quickly cobble something together though that would be marvellous, thanks.
Are there any other good Wycombe books out there I have missed? and if not, which books should be written? Blooms would presumably have a good story to tell, I guess everything becomes a bit niche. I guess there’s a fair few stories from players, managers, people behind the scenes etc that will remain untold but if there was ever an no-holds barred written official history it would be an absorbing read.
Also, thinking about stats (as I do!), I was recently flicking through the official history book by Steve Peart and Dave Finch to look up something from the mid-80s, sparked by seeing one of Philip Barker’s Lost Non-League Grounds Facebook Group (worth joining if you’re interested in old grounds we used to play at, there’s also quite a bit of WW stuff on there now thanks to Philip)
I know most things can be looked up online and obviously Paul Lewis’ COTN is one of my favourite websites for a delve into the records but I really love having an official stats book to thumb through. I’ve badgered poor Steve a couple of times on Twitter to see when an update/new book might be available and I think there was talk of aiming for the end of this season. The last official history stops at 95/96 so not really much to document in the seasons after that! (4 promotions including a Wembley play off win, 3 play-off defeats including a Final, 3 relegations, 2 dramatic relegation escapes, 1 FA Cup Semi, 1 League Cup Semi) Quite something when you write it down! Lots of other fans haven’t experienced quite as much drama as us. I believe it the updated/new history book will have every line-up from every game - I can envisage spending hours poring over a book like this as looking at stats and teams always revives great memories!
Anyway, I’m off to read a book.
Comments
@NoelAshford Not a book obviously, but have you come across the Wycombe Wanderers Archive website? Literally thousands of newspaper cuttings (mainly from the BFP), from the late 50s to the present day, courtesy of the late Steve Maguire, and put together, season by season, match by match, by Phil Ball. Doesn't concentrate on stories and anecdotes as such, but these would obviously feature from time to time in the newspaper cuttings. An absolutely tremendous effort.
https://thechairboys.wixsite.com/wwfcarchive
Thanks. I have had a look previously at the site but not for a while. Agreed, some absolute gems in there and brilliantly put together. I’m going to have a good look again tomorrow.
Word of warning. You can lose hours in there very easily. For those of us with dodgy memories it can bring back vivid memories.
For example, I can now remember using every swear word I knew (and I probably made up a few new ones as well) after
(bollox)
...following this link:
https://ae9ec797-5218-4c64-9688-c2958c176a62.filesusr.com/ugd/2d665b_e46d8f20d3114c96832cf8de67a07024.pdf
He was bad to a power of 10 compared to the likes we get these days
Phil Ball's site is superb, and is great for triggering the memory.
I spent a lot of today trawling through the 87/88 and 88/89 seasons. You seem to forget how open with the Press, Jim Kelman was. Literally naming transfer targets, and then bemoaning the reasons we missed out on them .
Have just spent some time on the site. Superb. You are right, you can lose hours. Just enjoyed reading about a Jason Seacole hat-trick v Worthing.
Jason Seacole, someone once said he was "born offside".
Forgot Mark Stallard's Mum was called Audrey. And that Alan Beeton impressed in a pre-season friendly at Chesham United.
Chesham debuted a kit that day in MFI colours.
The Wycombe Wanderers archive is a wonderful resource - I'd also point to the videos on Philip Ball's YouTube channel, especially the four part interview with Tony Horseman.
Does anyone know if there has ever been any discussion about setting up a heritage trust for WWFC? It's an increasingly common model for managing club archive/museum type-materials and is probably more sustainable in the long term than relying on individual volunteers (albeit very dedicated ones!) Sporting Heritage and/or the Great Save could probably advise.
It's also generally easier to get funding for things like oral history programmes if you apply as a trust rather than as an individual.