SPORTING MEMORABILIA has a large following. I could almost offer an A-to-Z – autographs, boxing gloves, cricket bats, and on to wrestling, xtreme sports and z-z-zzzz, the closest to exercise I get!
When I reached ‘F’ I would have to highlight the oldest and most widely-collected category of all, football programmes.
In 2013 specialist sports auctioneer Graham Budd took a world record £30,000 for the earliest-known surviving FA Cup final programme, Old Etonians v Blackburn Rovers, played at Kennington Oval on March 25, 1882.
The previous record, which Budd set in 2012, was £20,000 for an official one penny match card from the 1909 FA Cup final between Manchester United and Bristol City.
The item illustrated is rare, too, and also comes from the days of gentleman amateur teams.
Plucked from its current appearance on eBay, it is a match programme for the 1901 Dewar Shield semi-final between Dunblane and Arbroath – but played at St Johnstone’s first-ever ‘stadium’, the Recreation Grounds on the Edinburgh Road.
It seems St Johnstone began issuing programmes in season 1903-04 (very early for Scotland), so this may be the earliest surviving Perth football programme, and possibly the earliest to feature Arbroath FC, who were founded in 1878.
Presented by Lord Provost Dewar of Perth, the Shield was played between the winners of the Aberdeenshire, Forfarshire, Perthshire and Stirlingshire Cups, the winners being declared champions of the four Northern counties.
The Dunblane-Arbroath match took place in March 1901, with Dunblane running out 4-3 victors and returning to the Recreation Grounds the following month to defeat Stenhousemuir in the final.
The programme is unpriced, and was perhaps freely issued to spectators by the sponsors. Over six pages it provides league tables, an introduction to the clubs, pen pictures of the four association presidents and the rules of the competition.
It also carries some wonderful adverts. They include the Neilson Cycle Co of Scott Street and the Victoria Hotel, Princes Street. The Burns Restaurant, advertised at 3 County Place, is still there today as the Burns Bar, and I appreciated their external bunting and flags on January 25!
The programme is exceptionally rare and among the earliest football programmes recorded in Scotland. With some light toning and internal ink marks, it was listed at £75 when viewed.
