THE ABERDEEN FC Heritage Trust has released a book about the club's Qualifying Cup history, and the Aberdeen-Mad editor has taken a look at the Trust's first-ever publication.
Aberdeen Football Club in the Qualifying Cup, edited by Chris Gavin, charts the story of AFC's two campaigns in the Qualifying Cup soon after the club was formed in 1903, as seen through the eyes of the Edwardian Press Corps.
If the A5 size and saddle-stitch binding gives the impression of a pamphlet, don't be fooled - this book is packed with 74 pages full of fascinating, well-researched facts about the early days of our great club focusing on the Qualifying Cup, collated from three publications: Aberdeen Free Press, Aberdeen Evening Gazette and the Bon Accord magazine.
As well as this, it offers an eye-opening insight into sports journalism at the turn of the century, and the overwhelming (and rather patronising, I suppose) view from this end of the time-tunnel is of quaintness and simplicity, but getting down to the facts of the matter - with a fair smattering of opinionated diatribe thrown in!
The book doesn't restrict itself to simply recanting the match reports of the era - several letters to newspapers relating to the matches have been found and included, including some to-and-fros, comments and complaints that puts this reviewer in mind of a certain messageboard available only a click away from this page - yes, moaning about the players, club, performance, organisation and prices is not the preserve of the internet generation, it is just published more immediately now...
And for those who think the 'Football Special' trains were born in the '70s, think again - as the Dons ran a "special train" to the Qualifying Cup final when the Wasps (not Dons yet, remember...) faced Renton on 1904 in Dundee - or "Juteopolis", as we discover the Aberdeen Evening Gazette called it in its pre-match editorial.
While there are eye-opening revelations that demonstrate how, in some ways, little has changed in association football in the last hundred-or-so years (there seems to be no end of after-match protesting from clubs to the authorities, for a start...), there are many obvious and in some cases amusing reminders that this was a different world in terms of communications. For example, the pitch inspection for the 1904 final was conducted the evening before the game, with the decision of the Dickensian-sounding "Mr Spalding of the SFA" was wired to the Gazette office and put on display in the office window "immediately on receipt". Presumably then people would snap it with their iPhones and upload it to the nearest internet forum.
Interesting snippets like that are interspersed with the match reports in a mainly chronological fashion, and included are occasional boxouts and cuttings not necessarily Qualifying Cup-related from editor Chris Gavin where he throws a light on the backdrop to the Dons' cup campaigns and opens a window upon Edwardian life.
Overall, this is a carefully collated archive, with a haphazard mix of fonts and styles, plus authentic peculiarities of spelling and grammar, which combine to emphasise the scrapbook nature of this charming tome. If you have even a passing interest in the history of our club, this is a must-buy.
Craig Stewart
The official launch of this fascinating book will take place this Thursday, August 5th in Pittodrie's Richard Donald Suite at 6:30pm, and it is now available online and in Aberdeen's Waterstone's Union Bridge.
The launch event will include a forum hosted by John Mellis of Northsound Radio and Dons' Legend John Hewitt.
Admission is £3 and tickets are available from the Pittodrie ticket office or Waterstone's, Union Bridge, Aberdeen.
The Aberdeen FC Heritage Trust is an independent charitable organisation working closely with Aberdeen Football Club in order to care for and expand upon the historical record and memorabilia of Aberdeen FC and its supporters and the community it serves.
For more information on the Trust, see www.afcheritage.org
