Icymi (as the kids say) this is now officially an award-winning blog, well the research that goes into it is anyway. No big deal or changes, you just have to call me Sir now or something.

Thanks to everyone who has supported, read, replied and suggested topics so far and as Karen Carpenter said, ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’.

This award ties in nicely with a conversation I have had recently with the FSA about their Fanzine Of The Year award which I’ll come back to later after I highlight how tricky it has been for fanzines to get awards right.

Any special Dietary Requirements?

Almost all fanzines ran player of the year awards but I doubt if any had a greater and more inappropriate prize award than Rotherham’s ‘Moulin Rouge’ issue 7. I bet Matt and Mark are still kicking themselves to this day.

How about a ranking of the pies and Bovril available around the Scottish lower leagues? Step forward ‘The Blue Brazils Unofficial’ fanzine issue 1 from Cowdenbeath with what probably wasn’t fanzine cover of the year in 1991.

This fantastic list was written by a Yorkshireman which in and of itself, needs some explanation and so gets one, a very rudimentary one. Arbroath seem to have been harshly treated for the missing half a cup of bovril, the stereotypical tight-fisted attitude is a joy to behold.

In many ways this is a classic fanzine article, and one of my all time favourites. It has everything you need to know, loads of stuff you didn’t know you needed to know, a brilliant title and a complete disregard for any of the societal norms like ranking order. Plus, it is of course subjective.

The award goes to….

I like a good spoof so this fantastic club honours board from issue 6 of the great Grimsby fanzine ‘Sing When We’re Fishing’ is brilliant. If you look up the awards that Grimsby have actually won it’s not much better.

Back in Yorkshire, Sheffield United fanzine ‘The Red and White Wizaaard’ (sic) published this appeal in issue 4. It is concerning a rather lacklustre response to a competition which had a pretty generous prize even at 1996 prices. I would have thought the rules of a caption competition would be pretty obvious to anyone but there you go, they had to clarify this to the Sheffield public to try to improve on 4 (Four!) entries.

Even worse was the news in Luton fanzine ‘Mad as a Hatter’ issue 18 from 1993. They had set the bar slightly too high in a previous competition and so from few entries (I suspect 2) no one ‘Won” with the prize having to be awarded to the person with the least wrong answers. Looking at the varied list of clubs in the answers I’m not struggling to imagine this. Spare a thought for Andrew who missed out on some Luton Town leisure wear, perhaps he spelt Middlesbrough with an extra “o”. We’ll never know and the fanzine gave up on quizzes for the rather simpler (?!) format of a prediction league.

Next tonight, we have the 1993-1994 “award” for the programme of the season from issue 19 of ‘The Mad Axeman’, Lancaster City fanzine. What do you mean you’ve never heard of it?

Netherfield win with what can only be described as an underwhelming 49.5 though we don’t know out of what. Surely award winners need 80 or above? It also had the wildly annoying 21 pages…how is that possible, everything printed and programme/ fanzine like has to have an even number of pages surely, otherwise the cost/logistics make no sense..did they have a blank page in which case how did they win an award? DON’T GET ME STARTED ON WARRINGTON!

Finally, you can’t help feeling poor Ashton were harshly treated, it was FREE and weather affected lads, even if it was only 1 page in length.

Points mean prizes

Meadowbank Thistle fanzines tended to be run by the supporters’ club or offshoots of it. Everyone had to chip in when you consider that average attendance for the 88-89 season were 736 for example (I also read recently that sometimes attendances were a guess from someone in the press box)

So, it is my pleasure to present to you the complete Christmas raffle prize list from the December 1986 issue of The Thistle, the longest running of Meadowbank’s 5 main fanzines. There are many things in here that are wonderful, social history once again writ large.

I have so many questions

• Why do we need the winning ticket number?
• Is Ferrero Roche a predecessor to Ferrero Rocher?
• TWO post office T shirts?! No wonder they can’t deliver my letters on time!
• Was the snooker cue monogrammed?
• Was the Tupperware a set, what volume of liquid did it hold?
• What sort of sweets did Margaret Graham donate? This is important
• I suspect that David Birrell was a generous newsagent given his donation of FIVE prizes of confectionary (16.66666% of all the prizes)

I need to calm down a bit about some of this.. Which player was monogrammed on the snooker cue or was it the brewery logo, if so which one, this thing could be worth millions.

Plus…about Mr Birrel’s contributions…a 2lb box of Black Magic chocolates? My god, what sort of health warning would that carry nowadays. He also donated a Weekend…not a weekend away you idiot, but a box of Mackintosh’s Weekend, a box of confectionery so lurid you will never unsee this image.

Back to Basics

This leads us nicely back to the FSA fanzine of the year award. Awards might seem like a good, simple idea but they are never quite as straightforward as it might seem. A decision by committee is said to always lead to most people’s 2^nd favourite winning as compromises are made and as we have seen what might seem like a simple idea even with a great prize might not get the response that was expected.

With respect to the FSA, I’ve heard rumblings that people felt the judging criteria are a bit opaque for this award so when the FSA approached me to help promote the award, I was only too happy to help and get some answers from them about the judging criteria.

They kindly offered me this excellent explanation.

“Judging is always subjective, but we’re looking for the fanzines that stand out – whether that be through the quality of their writing or illustrations or eye-catching design; we want to celebrate the terrace culture and are cognisant of the different levels that clubs are at when comparing printed fanzines – we don’t expect a non-league fanbase to have the same resources as a Premier League one, for instance. We also look at consistency across the season and value for money among a range of other criteria.”

At the end of the day of course an award like this will be subjective, perhaps something that could be improved would be asking a few former/ current editors for their help in judging and that’s something I’ll ask the FSA to think about in the future.

At the end of the day it’s important as it is one of the few official recognitions fanzines get. It’s open to print only fanzines which I think is crucial and when I look at the list of previous winners (including the Square Ball, United We Stand, the City Gent, Popular Stand, the Gooner, My Only Desire and Dogma) they are all very high quality publications even if I’d consider one or two on this list to be well past the stage of being a true fanzine. It’s hard to question the quality or importance of the names appearing there though.

The FSA normally get 20-25 nominations per year, and these are filtered down to a short list of 6 within the FSA team before the board of the FSA decides on the winner. It is an OPEN COMPETITION; fanzines must submit printed versions for consideration, important details below with the image here expanding a little on that.

“Fanzines can nominate themselves by sending hard copies to us at: The Football Supporters’ Association, PO Box 1449, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, SR5 9UW

Please send no more than six copies in total; ideally these would be from multiple editions of the fanzine from 2025, and can be accompanied with pdf versions which can be emailed to awards@thefsa.org.uk “

Please note though, you only have until the end of October; shortlists will be announced in early November.

Print isn’t dead and awards matter. Thank you for your attention ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the rest of your evening and please, drink responsibly.