Football Memorabilia
The history of football memorabilia such as books is not a glorious one. This could be because the sport simply doesn’t lend itself to fiction; or perhaps because nobody who’s any good at writing fiction has ever written much about football.
Souvenirs like books with a football theme first began to appear shortly after the First World War. These were aimed mainly at young boys and were often set in glowering public schools. As far as adult literature is concerned, only Arnold Bennett and J.B. Priestly of established novelists dipped into the football world for material. In his novel The Card Bennett observed that football had superseded all other forms of recreation in the potteries region, particularly for the fanatical supporters of Knype (Stoke City) and Bursley (Port Vale). Leonard Gribble’s The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939), a crime novel in a famous footballing setting, was made into a film that is still occasionally televised on dark Tuesday afternoons. After the Second World War football stories increasingly formulaic tales of star strikers and young hopefuls – were churned out by many of the new children’s comics, with some holding grate value in football memorabilia circles. Some were instrumental in giving the creative minds behind many football programmes the artistic touch to their covers.
In his 1968 novel A Kestrel For A Knave, later filmed as Kes, Barry Hines created a brilliant and enduring cameo of a school games lesson, which sees an overly competitive games teacher taking on the role of Bobby Charlton in an under-14s kick-about. There was more football in Hines’s earlier novel The Blinder, with its central character a precocious young striker, roustabout and Angry Young Man. The authenticity of the football scenes can be partly attributed to Hines’s youthful appearance in the Burnley ‘A’ team.
In the late 1980s authors such as Julian Barnes and Martin Amis started dropping the old football passage into their work. Amis’s rendering of fans’ speech can be deemed either ‘stylized’ or ‘clumsy’, depending on your mood, but it still led away from the sex-and-soap stories that predominated in the early 1970s and 1980s – Jimmy Greaves being the co-writer of such series with the Jackie Groves novels of 1979 – 81.
Fiction based on hooliganism began to proliferate in the 1990s, with the most famous of this genre arguably John King’s trilogy The Football Factory, Headhunters and England Away. Films like these maybe not in the mainstream as far as collectables or memorabilia are concerned, however, these are popular films amongst the majority of fans up and down the country and in time I’m sure several will hold some value. The Football Factory, which became a cult novel and film, is graced with a first line that Thomas Hardy couldn’t have come up with in a hundred years: ‘Coventry are @uck all.’
Other footballing literary works include J.L. Carr’s How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup, a parody of tabloid journalese and modern management, and Jim Crumley’s The Goalie, a novel based on the real-life figure of the author’s grandfather, Bob Crumley, keeper for Dundee United and, subsequently, foot soldier in the Great War. Alongside these is Brian Glanville’s enduring Goalkeepers are Different, the story of a young gloveman making his way in the professional game.
Of football non-fiction, Arthur Hopcraft’s The Football Man (1969) stands out, Hopcraft was among the first football writers to make statements such as ‘Football in Britain is not just a sport people take to, like cricket or tennis…it is inherent in the people.’ Simon Inglis’s comprehensive works on British football grounds are the best series of reference books ever produced about the game, and just for this they are a souvenir one must obtain if one has an interest in football.
Phil Soar and Martin Tyler’s The Story of Football (1978) brings some of the richness of Greek tragedy to every historic turn and crucial match it describes. Hunter Davies’s account of a season at Tottenham, The Glory Game (1972), stands out as a rare example of real insight, allied to real feeling, allied to football. Published in 1992, Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby was a self-deprecatingly honest portrait of a fan ruled by his obsession. It was a surprise best-seller and many imitations followed. Of the mostly anodyne football autobiographies that litter the market, Len Shackleton’s The Clown Prince of Soccer, Eamon Dunphy’s Only a Game and Tony Cascarino’s Full Time are among a select few that give a genuine flavour of the professional game and lives being led within it. These types of well documented literature give a perspective inside arena point of view to the game from people who have actually lived it and do hold considerable football memorabilia quality.
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V5104-Laser Lens KES-410ACA with Tray Frame for Sony PS3
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KEM-400AAA/KES-400A Laser Lens and Deck for Sony Playstation3 PS3 $48.99 Compatible Model Please kindly check the additional picture or features below: Model: CECHA01, type: Fat Model, Hard Drive: 60GB, Laser Lens Model: KES-400A KEM-400AAA, PS3 Release Date: 8/2006-8/2007 Model: CECHB01, type: Fat Model, Hard Drive: 20GB, Laser Lens Model: KES-400A KES-400AAA, PS3 Release Date: 8/2006-8/2007 Model: CECHC01, type: Fat Model, Hard Drive: 60GB, Laser Lens Model: KES-400A… |
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Playstation 3 Laser Lens KES-450A- 10021906 $15.95 Replace a worn or broken laser with this KES-450A laser lens complete with mechanism. Reads all CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray discs. May fix the following problems: Disc read error, console does not read certain games, loading takes longer than usual, screen flicker, disappearing scenes, discs play as if damaged or dirty when clean. This item takes between 7-21 days to ship/ar… |
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KEM-400AAA $41.95 When this product is bought from Endless Electronics it is a New Original Sony OEM part, KEM 400 AAA. This part will fix your PS3 if it is not reading games. Installation required, Installation is slightly technical, some experience recommended…. |
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KES-400AAA Laser Lens Replacement Repair Part for PS3 $33.00 1 x KES-400AAA Laser Lens for SONY PS3…. |
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Blu-Ray Drive KEM-400AAA KES-400AAA KES-400A Laser Lens Replacement for Sony Playstation3 PS3 CECHB01 CECHA01 CECHE01 CECHG01 $63.99 Features: 1.Complete Sony Playstation Bluray Drive without the Drive Control Card 2.It will work for the 20gb CECHB01 , 60gb CECHA01 , 80gb CECHE01 , 40gb CECHG01 3.The picture does not show the bluray control card (the board with micro chips) since this bluray drive is sold without that card 4.It doesn’t make any sense to include the card in our sale because it is not gonna work on your PS3 any… |
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KEM-400AAA KES-400A Laser Lens with Deck For Sony Playstation 3 PS3 $50.99 100% Brand New and Never Used. It is used to repair replace your Wrong, Damaged, Faulty, Broken Laser Lens. You will receive product appearing exactly as how the picture shows. Includes laser, hub/motor, worm motor, laser gear, and frame. Easy Install. Each laser is tested and in fully working condition. Model: KEM-400AAA |
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KEM-400AAA Laser Lens Replacement For Sony Playstation3 PS3 $52.99 New KES-400A/KES-400AAA laser lens module, compatible with SONY PS3 console. Reads all CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs. If you are experiencing the following problems with your PS3: Disc read errors, does NOT read certain games, slow disc loading time than before, scenes skipping, discs seems damaged or dirty on the screen. This should fix it. |
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Sony PS3 Playstation 3 Laser Lens Replacement KEM-400A KES-400A KEM-400AAA KES-400AAA $42.99 Fit the following PS3 models:Check the back of your PS3 console for the correct model# and match model# with the table below: PS3 Model # CECHB01 CECHG01 CECHA01 CECHE01 Hard Drive Size 20 40 60 80 KES-400A & KES-400AAA YES YES YES YES Package Includes: 1 x PS3 Laser Lens KES-400ANote: CECHE01MG with the MG uses the dual lens KES-410A instead. |
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Sony Playstation3 PS3 KEM-400A Laser Len Replacement $44.99 New KES-400A/KES-400AAA laser lens module, compatible with SONY PS3 console. Reads all CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs. If you are experiencing the following problems with your PS3: Disc read errors, does NOT read certain games, slow disc loading time than before, scenes skipping, discs seems damaged or dirty on the screen. This should fix it. |