Card of the Day - 2022-02-26

Anon Famous Footballers
Anonymous / Godfrey Phillips [tobacco : O/S : ] “Famous Footballers” (1936) 14/50 - ZB06-280 : ZB5-3

This card shows Clifford Sydney Bastin, and he had a quite amazing career which is well covered by other cards -

R. & J. Hill “Popular Footballers” Season 1934-5, Series A (H554-760.1 - 1935) 4/30 tells us that Clifford Bastin was “Nick-named the “boy wonder” and “at 19 had won every honour the game could offer. His native town, Exeter, actually presented him with his portrait in oils in honour of his prowess”.

In Godfrey Phillips International Caps (P521-454 – 1936) 14/50 he was called “The versatile miracle of modern football”, adding that he “Began earning his living as an electrician, and at the age of 15 was introduced to the Exeter League team as an amateur. Transferred to Arsenal in the summer of 1929” - though Gallaher Sporting Personalities (G075-680 - 1936) 39/48 contradicts the start of that a bit by saying he “..played in a schoolboy international versus Wales at the age of fourteen”. 

He remains Arsenal's third-highest goal-scorer of all time, and also played for England.

But why he was here for our card of the day was a reason that was not mentioned on any of these cards, but makes his career even more stunning, for he was growing increasingly deaf, so deaf that he was excused War Service on those grounds and became an ARP Warden instead. You can read all about this at Exeter Memories

This set is unusual, because, as an anonymous issue, it is filed away at the back of our World Tobacco Issues Indexes under the Z numbers. However the listing states 

FAMOUS FOOTBALLERS. Sm. 67 x 37. Nd. (50). See RB.13/66.A. Issue by Godfrey Phillips. 

They are also listed under the main text of the Godfrey Phillips issues in each book, but with the Z number only. 

There is another curiosity about this set too, for it is one of three that use more or less the same pictures but with different set titles. And you can read all about that elsewhere, for one of those was our Card of the Day for February 4th 2023