One of the great joys of collection fanzines is 1st issues, after thirty or so issues fanzines are much more slick and have developed a style that some stick slavishly to for the rest of their time, others grow and contract over the years, some start slow unsure of themselves before bursting into a brief period of pomp and glory then failing as the editor goes off to university/gets a job/starts a family but first issues are almost always unique in some way. Someone is trying ideas out, unsure of their commitment or what the audience wants and The Green Piece (all in black and white and called Greenpiece inside) falls into that category. To be fair they do pretty well with the reproduction of a photo on the front cover but by the back cover, page 16, they’ve run out of steam and really need to use stock with better opacity. Issue one covers Dec/Jan 1989/90 and was a bargain 50p.

The editorial as such doesn’t really offer much except that they are learning and a plea for content and so fresh are they that they don’t even think to add a disclaimer. The bit about the fanzine explosion that has so far failed to ignite at Home Park is interesting, Plymouth had twelve fanzines over the years with Rub of The Greens perhaps being the best known/longest lived. I say twelve but we have Pasty News and Pasta News on the list as fanzines from exile groups..maybe someone got to Pasty first and maybe someone made a spelling mistake..please get in touch if you know. Guzzler, Central Heating, Hoof, Evergreens and Forever Green are amongst the others about whom precious little is known.

The advert for travel to “The World’s Greatest Sporting Event” mentions a Concorde VIP Charter to travel to Italia 90..I can’t think many regular fanzine readers went for that but you never know.

There is no editor named or address provided anywhere in the zine and yet they have received letters in issue 1, some of these are horrified at the prospect of more seats but Mike is glad to be able to sit down. Not sure what the fuss about change strips was, they were only made official in the 1920s so perhaps this news had only just reached Plymouth or perhaps the editor had been busy and just wanted something to provoke people.

The Snippets page is a hot mess, videos, inflatables, a call up to the Welsh squad and a call for a town hall meeting followed by some quotes about hooliganism. Dennis Howell was a former football league linesman and the first minister for sport, or more properly “Minister for Sport and Civil Society of the United Kingdom” despite making some uncivil comments about Millwall fans.

Talking of uncivil the fanzine makes it’s feelings on Exeter fans known with some “jokes” and another randomly placed letter sent to a mysterious address from Barry calling for Owen Pickard to be given a chance in the first team. You’ll be glad to know Owen made 16 appearances for Argyle is now the manager Barnstaple Town

Owen then appears in a feature on haircuts with some very unfair comments about him and Lee Cransfield whose haircuts were to be honest very dull by 80s New Romantic standards in particular.

This is all wrapped up with an unlikely claim that Arsenal fans have saved video tapes of Nicky Marker tackling Ossie Ardiles when he was playing for Plymouth against Blackburn?! Wow. I’d completely forgotten Ossie played for Rovers (5 appearances in 1988) and even more incredibly apparently Marker was with Rovers during their premiership winning season. Though he made no appearances he was a £500,000 signing by Kenny Dalglish as cover for Hendry/Berg and even David Batty..

Ground caricatures appear in the full spread travel section, we’ve enough of these brilliant depictions to write a blog now, watch out in the coming weeks. Unfortunately this isn’t the REAL St James’ Park in Exeter but look at those prices. Who remembers Paul Moulden? Well apparently he was in the Guinness Book of Records for scoring 340 goals in a single season for Bolton Lads Club under-15s and when he retired from full time football he opened a fish and chip shop whilst playing for Accrington Stanley.

You aren’t getting stuff like this from FourFourTwo and more’s the pity. This is a rag tag effort to draw a line in the sand and get fanzine fever rolling at Home Park. It’s a bit haphazard but there is no shame in that, created by volunteers, produced and sold for next to nothing. I admire anyone who stuck their head above the parapet like this and for a first issue it’s not all bad, even if they did appear to have really scratched around for some of the content. As I said it has mysteriously appeared and doesn’t share an address for you to send any contributions BUT it has already done a poll of Argyle fans. It doesn’t mention how many but in any case, it provides some expected (the programme is crap) some interesting (84% want more seats) and some very confusing (the terracing isn’t steep enough) results..enjoy.