The Football Echo R.I.P?

Also an interview with Martin Chivers who claims Saints is the first score he looks for.

I knew there was a reason I wanted to look out for it this weekend. B*gger.

Loved watching MC smack it with almost no backlift at all. Once he hit the post against Pompey practically from the halfway line at the Dell. Think it was Milkins in goal and he barely moved.

I knew there was a reason I wanted to look out for it this weekend. B*gger.

You should still be able to buy it tonight, if it hasn't sold out.

will be a very sad day when it goes.

My sports mad grandfather had to wait till he retired to get a ST at the Dell as he worked every Saturday on the football Echo.

Has Son of Bob heard anything?

It will be axed end of season or early as its a loss maker.

The daily echo website will soon be pay per view.

It will be axed end of season or early as its a loss maker.

 

The daily echo website will soon be pay per view.

Big mistakes by the echo there then, especially as the echo site is pretty poor and certainly not worth paying a fee to look at.

On the subject of Martin Chivers, i've seen and read several articles where he has said that Spurs is the club where his heart belongs, not Saints. Also remember seeing some quotes in the London papers from him where he was quite scathing of Saints in terms of setup and the clubs and fans treatment of him.

I suppose he might have changed his opinion over the last few years though.

In the late 70's - early 80's I used to work in the newsagent on Bevois Valley and had to stay open an extra hour during the footie season waiting for the 'the pink' to arrive. Lots of foootie chat with the regulars who would be waiting in the shop for it to turn up. Used to always sell out, but keeping one back to take home for my dad to check the pools coupon.

Will be a real shame for it to go.

There was and still is something hugely warm and satisfying about reading the Pink over and over again when we've won a match or put in a satisfying performance. I feel a glow when I see it on the shelf in the shop even now. Sometimes I would buy several in the old days to either keep or send to someone else who lived further away and couldn't get hold of one. There's nothing quite like it and I've had several mates visit at various times who supported other teams who said they wished their town or team had a paper as good and so swiftly delivered (in those days). I will certainly miss it greatly if it goes.

I dont see why he should not be a Saints Fan he was a Southampton lad and very underated on this forum very strong and skilful player probably one of best homegrown players of all time.

He rarely visits SMS or The Dell, he works at Tottenham in hospitality and always gave me the impression that he would prefer to be associated with Spurs.

I could be wrong of course!

Great memories.

My favourite recollection of the Football Echo is 1st May 1976!!!

I was driving back from Wembley with my brother and a friend. That was a great drive with people hanging off the bridges and all sorts. We stopped off at Fleet Services just as the van arrived to drop off the FE. The man never even made it inside to deliver his papers. Fans just just took/bought them right there in the car park. The man was practically devoured. They were gone in seconds.

The headline never to be forgotten. "It's Ours".

I really hope it doesn't go the way the way of the Dodo as well.

There's a stuffed Dodo in The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

I hope someone preserves old copies of The Echo for The Saints Museum - which surely must happen one day.

Duncan, don't burn all yours in a fit of frustration. We are coming out of the woods. In a few years when we are back in The Premiership our current years will be valuable history Even the last years of The Echo and Pink will read like gems (I am confident). It's still worth collecting and preserving them.

Funnily enough I have just bought a copy (Waitrose, Chandlers Ford) and it was a good read with quite a lot Saints news I was previously unaware off.

Also an interview with Martin Chivers who claims Saints is the first score he looks for. I always thought he was a naturalised Spur too.

...He rarely visits SMS or The Dell, he works at Tottenham in hospitality and always gave me the impression that he would prefer to be associated with Spurs.

I could be wrong of course!

My father taught Martin Chivers at Foundry Lane School, and they were always chatting about Saints when they bumped into each other in later years. I can understand that Martin would want to be associated with Spurs, since his career blossomed there, but it would is no surprise to understand why he follows Saints results, his time at Southampton being his very successful formative years. It is high time to re-appraise his career at Saints for the colossus he was imho. If we ever get our museum, his qualities and his contribution to the club should feature very highly. We rightly hear a lot about Terry Paine, John Sydenham and others, but the feats of Chivers, Day, Reeves, Roper etc are enshrined in past pages of The Echo. I would love to be able to re-read facsimiles one day.

Perhaps now is the time for representatives of the club to liase with the owners of the paper to ensure preservation of their archives. I am sure Marcus would be interested.

First read the Football Echo in about 1947 and we used to go down to the West Cowes Red Funnel terminal, then called Fountain Pier to wait for the Football Echo to arrive on the ferry. If I remember correctly, the right money was needed to get a copy before the man took them to the shop. Half an hour late if it was the slow boat from Royal Pier. Cold place to wait!

Until I left the Island, the F.E. was a wonderful source of info about local teams with match reports, team news and league tables as well as Saints comments. Another bit of the old days bites the dust, then.

Quite sad if this is true.

I still buy it,read it with my Sunday morning cuppa and keep it for my Dad stuck down the wrong end of the M27.

I remember buying different regional versions on the way home from away games.

Will be sadly missed,must be many old folk who still rely on it.

Great memories.

 

My favourite recollection of the Football Echo is 1st May 1976!!!

 

I was driving back from Wembley with my brother and a friend. That was a great drive with people hanging off the bridges and all sorts. We stopped off at Fleet Services just as the van arrived to drop off the FE. The man never even made it inside to deliver his papers. Fans just just took/bought them right there in the car park. The man was practically devoured. They were gone in seconds.

 

The headline never to be forgotten. "It's Ours".

I was there and remember that so well. Three of us climbed out of my mate's mini just at the right moment!! Somewhere along the way since, I lost my copy but recently got a reprint from Ebay.

I hear the Football Echo (it was never called the Pink'un in the old days) is in danger of being scrapped, possibly as early as Xmas.

 

Does anyone on here still buy it? I tried to get a copy yesterday but was unable to find a copy in my normal outlet and wondered if others had problems. The standard of the FE has dipped alarmingly in recent years and it's rumoured demise does not come as a shock.

But is there still a need for it, would fans welcome a newer better more informative local football paper or has it had its day?

I still get it... Got a collection of pretty much every copy going back to around 1992 in the loft!!!

I used to cycle to the Dibden Pulieu Newsagents (aka Sid's) at about 6.20pm each Saturday waiting for the Echo van to dump a bundle of FEs tied with string in an orange box outside. The small queue that had formed then proceeded to take a paper and put the money through the letterbox as the shop closed at about 5.30. Can you imagine that system working today?

I remember chivers falling out with lowe in hospitality when we mauled spurs 4-0 in the cup that night, he really went to town on lowe and the club in the papers after.

As someone who was made redundant from the local newspaper game three years ago this comes as absolutely no surprise. Local papers have been dying on their arse for the last decade, and the credit crunch has only made a dire situation even worse. It wouldn't surprise me if The Southern Daily Echo, in the next five years, becomes either twice/thrice-weekly, or a free paper doled out to people on the Number 17 bus in the afternoon.

For my sins I've lived in the Reading area for nearly 30 Years. Evening Post is the local paper here. Is now published twice weekly I believe. Always a daily evening paper until recently. I suspect you are right with regards to the future of the Echo.

I always buy it from Tesco Express in Calmore for Saints news and for the non league section. The Pink must be saved!!!

SAVE THE PINK!!!

I get mine every sunday morning and spend a happy couple of hours going through it.

Always remember waiting outside Calmore Post Office for the van to turn up carrying the Pink, will be a shame to see it fold.

1st May 1976 Perfect copy in the loft.....IT's OURS

Oh I look forward to reading the Pink on my break at work on a Sunday morning. I was in it once in the youth football section, a picture of me blatantly fouling someone. Brilliant. Would be a shame to see it go.

I used to buy the FE at the papershop by the Bitterne Brewery after getting the number 14 hope from the game as a nipper. It they hadn't arrived I used to wait until the van came. There was always people waiting and blokes sticking their heads out of the pub to see if it had arrived.

 

When I lived and worked overseas my mum used to buy it and post it out every week during the season, along with all the Saints clipping out of the DE.

I was probably one of those waiting in "Sperrings" like you!

It will be a sad end to an era if it goes. I buy it every week religiously, but i suppose not many others do.

I still have my copy from 1.5.76.

It will be a sad end to an era if it goes. I buy it every week religiously, but i suppose not many others do.

I still have my copy from 1.5.76.

I still buy when i can bet it.

I suspect you used to deliver it at some stage in your life.

I've pretty much stopped buying it since they stopped printing it on Saturday nights; used to take a stroll to the newsagents and then read it from front to back whilst the missus watched her usual Saturday night cr@p!

Plus I used to like seeing if my goal(s!!) got a mention in the local league write-up, but since I've hung up my week-end boots there's no point any more.

I've not read it yet this season but when I read it last season I did think the content had gone significantly downhill.

As someone who was made redundant from the local newspaper game three years ago this comes as absolutely no surprise.

 

Local papers have been dying its arse for the last decade, and the credit crunch has only made a dire situation even worse.

 

The sports papers of any local daily doesn't really make much money - a little bit of cover price revenue and to prop up the circulation numbers of the sister paper, there is no stand alone advertising.

 

Throw in the additional shifts for journos, printers, van drivers, the processing of returns, the tiny selling window (basically two hours Sat night, little bit Sunday am) the fact that one press breakdown Sat night can kill sales by more than half. It's an easy cut.

 

It sounds like the Saints Pink is a Sunday-only product now already, which has already killed its one and only point of difference.

 

At their best they are one of the better examples of a local daily delivering a service to its readers and its community as opposed to a shell of a "supplement" designed to shift some advertising space. But they are a pain and don't deliver much back.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if The Southern Daily Echo, in the next five years, becomes either twice/thrice-weekly, or a free paper doled out to people on the Number 17 bus in the afternoon.

Paperboy???

I've pretty much stopped buying it since they stopped printing it on Saturday nights; used to take a stroll to the newsagents and then read it from front to back whilst the missus watched her usual Saturday night cr@p!

Well the Saturday night cr@p on tv is still cr@p, so I hope you got yourself a dog to walk in place of the stroll to the newsagent (not in place of the missus!)

Yes I will miss some of those old local team pics from way back when. Some of the hair styles over the years were worth the cost of the paper by themselves.

This nostalgia for the old Sports Echo got me thinking about another old Echo related column (in the Southern Evening Echo that is).

Totally off topic, but does anyone remember "Uncle Tony's Playtime Club"? What an age of innocence when you'd have a column complete with a picture the bald, late middle-aged "Uncle Tony" imploring the children of Southampton and the surrounding area to write to him! I think you could get your birthday printed.

Looking back it seems like something you'd find in The League of Gentlemen/Psychoville...

Any other old Echo memories?

This nostalgia for the old Sports Echo got me thinking about another old Echo related column (in the Southern Evening Echo that is).

 

Totally off topic, but does anyone remember "Uncle Tony's Playtime Club"? What an age of innocence when you'd have a column complete with a picture the bald, late middle-aged "Uncle Tony" imploring the children of Southampton and the surrounding area to write to him! I think you could get your birthday printed.

 

Looking back it seems like something you'd find in The League of Gentlemen/Psychoville...

 

Any other old Echo memories?

I came third in the fancy-dress competion run by Unc. Tone in conjunction with Sothampton Carnival, sometime in the late 70s.

I was royally p!ssed-off because the winner & runner-up got to ride in this small open-top bus and I had to walk the whole bloody route! :mad:

Sorry I'm late for this little nostalgia fest, but I've been away playing some dire golf on a stag do for a recently made Ex-hampshire star.

One of our sources is wrong, Duncan... mine tells me sales of the Pink are up this season

Duncan's info was via me, from someone high up at the Echo and it is a very real possibility.

Of course, you could both be correct.

 

There is little original Saints content in it these days. I get it only for the local football. It would be a real shame if it went to the wall but all the Saints info is on line these days so its need is disappearing. Sad.

and Rich, you know the source too and its a shame he didn't make Friday night. But good to see you and yours.

Not according to the back of this weeks edition it is not.

Clearly states, bottom right hand corner - ...and printed at Newsquest (Southern) Ltd from its offices at Newspaper House, Test Lane, Redbridge, Southampton.

 

Doesnt mention the echo printing site on The Granby in Weymouth at all.

The Pink has been printed at Weymouth for 4 years, since when it has not been sold on Saturday apart from a couple of outlets.

There are still some available in Tesco's Lodge Rd if anyone wants to read the Martin Chivers interview.

My memories are of the scrum in Hatchers, Swaythling at 6.15 trying to get copies for us and the neighbours. A very scary bloke would collect them from the delivery van, get his copy first, then it was everyone for themselves. Sold out every week and the unlucky ones would be off to Portswood Rd in search of one.

In 73 Saints played at Chelsea with a 2.00 start (floodlight ban) and after losing 4-0 I left early and managed to get the train back before the van turned up. Some in the shop didn't know the score and when I told them how crap Saints had been, I had to produce the match prog to avoid a lynching.

As this was Lawrie Macs 2nd game I suspect the paper was full of letters (remember them?) from Nineteen demanding his sacking.

Funnily enough I have just bought a copy (Waitrose, Chandlers Ford) and it was a good read with quite a lot Saints news I was previously unaware off.

Also an interview with Martin Chivers who claims Saints is the first score he looks for. I always thought he was a naturalised Spur too.

Waitrose??? oooh, get her.....

Frankly the Pink is a disappointment and now available out here in the sticks only on Sunday, worse than useless. So, unsurprisingly I don't know anybody that's bothered and lots go unsold which didn't happen in the 'old days'. Monday's Echo was always more detailed, entertaining and accurate.

I came third in the fancy-dress competion run by Unc. Tone in conjunction with Sothampton Carnival, sometime in the late 70s.

I was royally p!ssed-off because the winner & runner-up got to ride in this small open-top bus and I had to walk the whole bloody route! :mad:

You might have got off lightly!! The Southampton Carnival - another classic memory (along with 'The Southampton Show'). Think I might need to start a nostalgia thread in another area...

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=17250

Done, for anyone interested in a bit of old time banter...

I work in a shop and we sell out of pink's most sundays, unless we've been thrashed.

Not been selling many in recent years then Rich...?! Still if it hangs on for a couple more weeks you'll be ordering twice as many!

Funnily enough I have just bought a copy (Waitrose, Chandlers Ford) and it was a good read with quite a lot Saints news I was previously unaware off.

Also an interview with Martin Chivers who claims Saints is the first score he looks for. I always thought he was a naturalised Spur too.

Except when he's interviewed by the Tottenham, Edmonton and Wood Green Journal...

Football Argus for me in South Wales (it was also pink) - I usually made about 4 journeys to my nan's and back between getting back from Somerton Park at about ten past 5 and the time they actually had the Football Argus delivered, I was so keen.

Despite the name, it also covered local and international rugby, but nevertheless that particular Saturday evening sports paper didn't make it long into the early 90s due to that recession and Newport County's demise. Even the daily paper is struggling now, though its not surprising given the (lack of) content. The (South Wales) Football Echo was the replacement - with its Cardiff bias, and I wasn't having any of that.