Card of the Day - 2021-11-04

Starting in 1966 but on a very limited basis, BBC started showing programmes in colour. Then, on July 1st 1967, a Saturday afternoon, they trialled one programme, coverage of the 81st Wimbledon Tennis tournament, including a men`s singles heat. This was the first colour service in Europe.

In 1969 BBC one started to show more of their programmes in colour, and it also began on the commercial station ITV. Slowly, colour took over from black and white until the mid 1970s when colour became network wide. 

We chose Billie Jean King because she had the most profitable event that year, winning the Women's Singles, Women's Doubles (with Rosie Casals) and Mixed Doubles (with Owen Davidson). 

There is another reason for picking this set though, and that is the fact that it was issued with Robinsons Barley Water - and you may not know that this drink was actually introduced at the Wimbledon tournament in the 1930s, but only given to the players, in their dressing rooms, and then, a few years later to the umpires.

Eventually the company sponsored the competition as well, but then in 2022 it was announced that they would no longer do so. However, they did not leave sports promotion, for shortly after that announcement came another, that they would be sponsoring "The Hundred", in cricket. And another interesting fact is that 2023 would have marked the two hundredth anniversary of the invention of the drink, as "Robinsons Patent Barley and Barley Groats", in 1823. 

Some people say that this may not have happened if it were still within the Robinsons family,  but the truth is that they sold it, long ago, starting in 1862, when they merged with Keen and Sons, the mustard makers. They simply added "Keen" before Robinson and Company, but were bought out by rival mustard maker Colmans of Norwich in 1903. Technically, therefore, it was under the Colmans name that the association with Wimbledon began, however in 1938 they merged, with Reckitt and Sons, being once more bought out in 1984, by Cadbury, but mainly because at that time it was Cadbury Schweppes, hence the drink link. They did not have the Robinson brand for long, though, before they sold it off to Britvic. And in 2024 Britvic was sold to Carlsberg 

Now we are told that these may not have been truly cartophilic, because they were sold as a set. This came in a green, thickish plastic packet with half the set contained in a wallet style holder on each side of the central spine. Oddly, these days they seem to be more likely to be sold as individual cards than a complete set, hoping to appeal to collectors of one particular sport. Because of this, the wallets may well end up being the hardest thing to acquire, for they are generally discarded after all the cards have been split up and sold.