There aren’t many football clubs in the UK that date back over 150 years, only around 17 in total I believe (someone will correct you- Ed). There are 8 in the top 4 leagues of English football – Notts County (1862), Nottingham Forest (1865), Sheffield Wednesday (1867), Stoke City (1863), Wrexham (1864), Reading (1871), Birmingham (1875) and Aston Villa (1874). In Scotland there are 4, Rangers (1872) Queen’s Park (1867), Kilmarnock (1869) and Stranraer (1870). Remarkably though, there are 2 in the Essex lower leagues, Saffron Walden and Harwich and Parkeston.
A recent news story about Harwich and Parkeston caught my eye. The club, plying their trade in the Essex Senior Football League, Premier Division has recently had to revise their badge, a beautiful portcullis and ship motif example of what badges used to be. For decades the club believed that they had been founded in 1877. Then in 2025 someone was researching the club’s foundation for what they believed was their upcoming anniversary. To their consternation in some old newspaper stories they realised that they had better get their skates on as the club was actually founded on the 25th October 1875, they were already 150 years old!
There are many great stories of the club’s birthplace, the Three Cups Hotel[1]. Unfortunately, closed since 1995 it been used in the past to celebrate the launch and relaunch of ships, for witch trials[2] and arranging capital punishment, the story of the desperadoes and “Queen Isabella and her son waited for their horses at The Three Cups after landing at Harwich on 24th September 1326, with Roger Mortimer, the Queens lover, to fight against her husband Edward II.” it was a veritable theatre of fever dreams.. and Harwich and Parkeston FC.
There are more great stories about the club; The Shrimpers’ historic FA Amateur Cup final at Wembley in 1953 against Oxford side Pegasus and that of a former president of The Football Association helping to found the club. On top of all that there is this amazing claim from club historian, Andy Schooler who believes that “the very first game between an English and European team played in England was played at Harwich & Parkeston when Belgian side Royal Antwerp came over in 1892 on the boat – and Harwich won 11-0!
You can read more and hear an interview with Andy here which is fascinating stuff
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8vem0r32po
So, I contacted Andy Schooler and I guess at this point you are wondering where this blog about fanzines is going…Well, I’d spoken to Andy during the Voice of the Fans exhibition because we believe he was the youngest ever fanzine editor. Aged just 13, a year younger than Pete Doherty when he started All Quiet on the Western Avenue, Andy founded Shrimpers Review and so here we are with another “Meet The Editor”
As you will see, Andy is very modest about his work, but it is a great little fanzine and at a very early age he managed to produce a sensible, decent fanzine without succumbing to the pitfalls of many teens in fanzines, relying on toilet humour.
It contains all the staples of a fanzine, in-jokes that no one understands, the news that transfer target Nigel Wallis has “failed to adapt at Stowmarket” whatever that means, and a quiz that even a hard-core fan might struggle with and includes sausages. (answers after the interview but fyi the answer to the sausages question will surprise you…)
Plus, just look at this lovely functional but compelling stats page telling the story of the 88-89 season so far. This has me salivating at the prospect of the return game against Watton and thinking that Hendon were lucky!
Its production has led to lifelong associations with the club, not just for Andy but for his assistant editor “My dad, who initially started coming to the matches with me as something of a chaperone, soon got roped in too and has now been club secretary for the best part of 30 years!”
It’s a lovely story of how a fanzine might not have persevered but how its inception lead to life shaping decisions and outcomes and it’s a truly beautiful thing. Here is Andy’s story;
Why did you start your fanzine?
Not really sure! I remember the fanzine culture of the time and reading some which related to League clubs. I was only 13 at the time and was starting to develop my writing and showing an interest in that side of things. My dad encouraged me and helped – I think we printed it on his work photocopier. In many ways it was a life-changing decision. It led to me becoming the club’s match reporter which, in turn, saw me become a professional journalist.
What’s the story behind the name?
Nothing exciting. The club’s nickname is the Shrimpers. Wish we’d put a bit more effort into it now!
What was the most important thing to the fanzine and its team at the time?
Don’t think there was one factor that was most important, although I think we were trying to provide some content (still hate that word) which wasn’t available elsewhere (ie the club programme, local newspaper).
What was your favourite article/campaign?
We only lasted two or three issues so this is hard! I remember some of the attempts at humour being rather lame and, looking back, are now funny for the wrong reasons!
What sort of criticism did you get/ what’s the oddest complaint you ever had?
Some of those who were the butt of the jokes would give some back but only in a banter type way. We weren’t massively critical of anything or anyone. It was (and still is) a local, small, community club. I suspect the club was a bit wary when he first told them what we were doing but, to be fair, they let us sell in the ground to the fans.
Still going? How have you persevered for so long? Or why did you stop?
No chance! I think we managed three issues. The reason for stopping really was that the club asked me to start writing match reports which went in the local newspaper. (example from the fanzine here with Nigel Wallis in the tick of the action!) This not only took up my time but also paid a little bit too which was good as a teenager!
What role do you see fanzines as having today?
Arguably they are more relevant than ever given the tight control a club has over its media messaging these days. It’s sad to see so many have stopped print versions – a sign of the times I guess. Everton are my ‘League’ team and I always used to buy a copy whenever I went to Goodison. I’ve missed not being able to do this in recent years.
Do you still have old copies in the loft somewhere? Go on, admit it!
I’d lost them all until recently. In the past few years, I’ve done a lot on the club’s history. We celebrated our 150th anniversary in 2025, while before that there was a ‘Memorabilia Day’. This threw up an old copy from somewhere and I’ve got it now.
How many times a week did you get asked “Is that the programme mate?”
I don’t remember this ever happening. We always printed on some strange coloured paper – the first issue was green, another pink – so I don’t think the two were ever likely to get mixed up!
Football Fanzine Culture 
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