Reply With Quoteit takes all sortsOriginally Posted by Jordi Culé
They’ve got a penchant for the cable tiesKinky.
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What date was the last ‘pink’ football echo in South Wales?
Does anyone know? In my head it’s the mid 90s.
it takes all sortsThey’ve got a penchant for the cable ties
I agree it was an interesting post and the bit about JBG Thomas especially so because of the fact that he was the reporter for the City’s Cup Winners Cup game in Larnaca in late September 1970 - Peter Jackson clearly didn’t go to the match, neither did the Western Mail’s City reporter, Clive Phillips, yet that paper saw fit to send the “doyen” of rugby reporters to Cyprus for a game in early autumn! Maybe I’m adding two and two and making five, but JBG’s report did refer to 80 degree temperatures!
Mario Basini was another of the rugby mafia if I remember
John Billott ?
Or was he English based ?
Western Mail's circulation is now barely 10k. A quarter of the Dail Mail, Sun in Wales.
It's not worth mentioning anymore more as an influential Welsh paper.
I hate to say this but the swansea based south wales evening post was always better than the echo or western mail
These days both cardiff publications are as thin as tissue paper
We all know what you are saying........
When my Dad was at The Echo, he used to take me into the players lounge after the match - I'd have a Coke and sit and watch the football results on Grandstand, on a TV on top of a tall wooden stand in the corner, as the cars filed out of the car park opposite NP.
It used to amaze me then, and still does, that on the way home he'd drive past Thomson House in town, and get a copy of the Football Echo straight off the presses - the paper was always warm, and the ink never quite dry, but that is quite an achievement, especially in those days, to get a paper out with all of the match details in it, so soon after the final whistle.
I can remember that, at my insistence, my Dad had to drive the mile or so to the nearest newsagent that was open on a Saturday night to get my copy of the Football Echo - sometimes he'd have to wait a while because it was late in arriving, but my recollection, which may be incorrect given the passing of time, is that I was able to be reading about that day's game at around 6.15, about an hour and a half after it finished.When my Dad was at The Echo, he used to take me into the players lounge after the match - I'd have a Coke and sit and watch the football results on Grandstand, on a TV on top of a tall wooden stand in the corner, as the cars filed out of the car park opposite NP.
It used to amaze me then, and still does, that on the way home he'd drive past Thomson House in town, and get a copy of the Football Echo straight off the presses - the paper was always warm, and the ink never quite dry, but that is quite an achievement, especially in those days, to get a paper out with all of the match details in it, so soon after the final whistle.
It seemed like about 15 minutes after the final whistle, but it obviously wasn't!
If my Dad picked one up off the presses from Thomson House, then it could have been ready by 5:30/5:45 or so. Impressive if you consider that the reports would have been dictated over the phone and more than that, manually type set and laid out using hot metal
(I can also remember - and this isn't Football Echo related in anyway! - the club's catering ladies laying out loads of pyrex cups and saucers on top of each other, on a big table in the players lounge, under the Grandstand. Like it was yesterday.)
Yes, that's why I said I wasn't quite sure that 6.15 was right - I did have a feeling that it might have been a bit early than that, but decided it was impractical given all that was involved, but maybe they were able to do it quicker.It seemed like about 15 minutes after the final whistle, but it obviously wasn't!
If my Dad picked one up off the presses from Thomson House, then it could have been ready by 5:30/5:45 or so. Impressive if you consider that the reports would have been dictated over the phone and more than that, manually type set and laid out using hot metal
(I can also remember - and this isn't Football Echo related in anyway! - the club's catering ladies laying out loads of pyrex cups and saucers on top of each other, on a big table in the players lounge, under the Grandstand. Like it was yesterday.)
Although I can't ever remember staying in Ninian Park long after the game finished, I can certainly remember those pyrex cups and saucers - we had some at home, very trendy they were for about three months
Yes, that's why I said I wasn't quite sure that 6.15 was right - I did have a feeling that it might have been a bit early than that, but decided it was impractical given all that was involved, but maybe they were able to do it quicker.
Although I can't ever remember staying in Ninian Park long after the game finished, I can certainly remember those pyrex cups and saucers - we had some at home, very trendy they were for about three months
Thanks BD and TOBW.
I had two mates who worked in Circulation at the time at the Echo. They were very busy although no complaints as tight targets attracted better pay rates. Both have since passed on...Flu and C19. Both rated Circulation as a happy ship. Your Dad must have been a top man as both of my mates were tidy whingers.
SF... John Billot was a very tidy chap and as Mario Bassini...both were feature writers and I cannot recall them being involved with sports.
The papers Cartoonist Gren....now sadly RIP was a huge City fan.
The comments about the ink on the Pink brings a wry smile...hot off the press and a huge circulation. Must read for City fans at the time under Jimmy Scoular and beyond.
I liked working at Thomson House. All the Sports Journo’s would engage in chat about the City except JBG and his trip,to Cyprus was probably down to nepotism. Lol.
Well there you go, I used to deliver papers to Gren when I took a years unpaid leave in 94/95 to write a book (it never got published!) and spoke to him once or twice, but was a bit sniffy with him because I thought of him as someone who had no interest in football!
Did you know Clive Phillips who wrote on City for the Western Mail? He was the other journalist whose work I used extensively in the book and there was someone else called Rex Reynolds who filled in when he was ill - I would like to send him a book as well if I could, but he had been replaced by Karl Woodward by the mid seventies so I assumed he’s no longer with us.
Fascinating stuff Pengs!
When my Dad left the Echo, Gren drew a big cartoon of him sitting behind a desk, (complete with massive flares and huge moustache) and got all his colleagues to sign it. It is framed and has hung on the kitchen wall of my parents house for years now (it is all faded now though :-( ). I'm sure that some of the employees mentioned in this thread are on there - I'll look if I'm ever allowed to go and see my Mum again!
I also remember my Dad taking me onto the floor of the print room at Thomson House and one of the chaps doing the hot metal page layout gave me a little metal print block with my name on it. I was so thrilled (except they spelled my name wrong...)
PS And the last point on this, which you might be able to help with - on the Gren cartoon mentioned above, Gren wrote 'Gone To Grimmers', on the sole of one of the shoes on my Dad's caricature. My Mum seems to think that this was a local watering hole for people who worked at The Western Mail and Echo. Any ideas?
I wasn’t about re Clive P or Rex R.
Gren was notoriously sniffy with a lot of people. He was ok with me for whatever reason. His office was 30 or so paces away from the library and he always worked with his door open.
We sometimes were able to let him have file pics of whatever subject matter he was drawing. He loved the valleys and if I recall a lot of his characters had a city scarf on (although published in black and white....I saw the colour version lol)
Karl W and Peter J were like chalk and cheese with Peter talking more about the footy. Karl liked his boxing above all.
I was 16 when I started there and my claim to fame was having my pic with three other fans on the back page of the Echo catching a train to Leeds for the 4-1 FA cup defeat (Derek Showers for us)!
Long time ago now. Halcien days!
Not sure where Grimmers was. We did have a journo Darts team that played weekly in the pub St Mary’s Street side ...corner of Caroline Street. Forget the name.....getting old now lol.
Perhaps being so young at the time ...I never got into the drinking circle! Played darts though for them and table tennis!
Grimwades?
Now I live in Tynewydd, which is just north of Treorchy, I can appreciate those old Gren cartoons so much more because he had the valleys down to a tee. I’d forgotten about Karl Woodward and his love of boxing, but you’re right - I seem to remember him being interviewed on the telly about Welsh boxing back in the seventies and eighties.
Maybe....let me look, and then I'll ask my Mum.
Apparently it was.....
Grimwades was my father's account and he regularly used 'Gone to Grimmers' as his well worn excuse when he wanted to disappear. Seems like a rubbish excuse if even Gren knew about it for the cartoon!
In the 70's we used to call into a club in Crwys Rd - The 21 Club I think - for some afternoon drinking etc., when the licensing laws were still post WW1 ! There was a miserable old bastard sat at the bar every time I went and I think it was JBG.We all know what you are saying........
I used to get in the 21 club in the early eighties when a few of us from Companies House were on a Friday piss up and had the afternoon off - I was surprised it never had more people in there. Having misjudged Gren, I’m probably wrong again, but I’d never have thought JBG was a 21 club type.
I seem to recall that there was at one time an early Football Echo, which was sold with the results incomplete. A lot bought it though not for the Football League results but for the write ups on the previous week’s local league games, so not having the final scores didn’t matter. In fact a lot of local league players were in their pubs/clubs after their afternoon fixture watching the scores come in on the teleprinter anyway so finding out if your name was in there for last week’s goal(s) was more important than East Fife 4 Forfar5.
You’re right, there’d be the half times scores in the late news on the back page.
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