Card of the Day - 2022-04-09

Clue Number One was our Saturday Soccer Star. The footballer shown is Bernard Patrick Larkin, born on January 11 1936, and always known as 'Bunny', in fact the text on the card actually says "Nobody ever calls Larkin anything but "Bunny".  Anyway he is shown here during his time at Norwich, though he played for several teams, Birmingham City, Doncaster Rovers, and Lincoln City, Norwich City, and Watford. 

Not many cards exist of him but we have found him in Paramint Cards “Classic Football Stars” second set of ten cards where he is number one, in his Birmingham City strip. The text tells us he joined Birmingham City as a youth player in 1952, and was sold to Norwich in 1960 for £10,000. I don’t know who issued Paramint Cards, but if you do please let us know. 

Chix Confectionery issued these cards with bubble gum, but did not add their own name as the manufacturer, they only credited "Buchan Publications", which has led to the set being referred to as "Famous Footballers (Buchan)" in many dealers catalogues.  This meant they were technically anonymous cards so they were given the reference code of ZB9-17 in our British Trade Index part two, published in 1969, though it was recorded there that they were by Chix.

If you look at the backs of some of their other sets they claim to be “The Best Bubble Gum”, I do not know how that was calculated! 

Another gleaning from the back is that actually Chix was very loosely in London, for the cards say Slough, and a bit of digging puts the factory in Farnham Road.

These cards are a bit larger than normal and it turns out there is more than one version of this set, and I do like that because sometimes, three years on, it is getting rather hard to find a Saturday Soccer Star set that we have not used already. These first appear in our British Trade Index part II (RB.27) published in 1969, where they are listed as : 

FAMOUS FOOTBALLERS. Md. long 96-99 x 51. Nd. 
1. Chix No.1 Series. Album issued.
(a) "Set of 48". Nos 1/24 only issued. (24)
(b) "Numbers 1 to 24" (24)
(c) "Numbers 25 to 48" (24)
(d) "Numbers 1 to 48" (48)
2. Chix No.2 Series (48). Album issued.
3. Chix No.3 Series (48). Album issued.

I have to admit I am not entirely sure which set ours is, so please help if you can...

In British Trade Index part IV, (RB.34) issued in 1997, there has been a discovery, in the 1-48 series, that being that the address line comes in two formats. This is added in as 

(a) London W.10
(b) Slough, England

 This is all tidied up in the updated British Trade Index, though I find it more confusing because surely (b) and (c) are the same set? Anyway the listing reads : 

FAMOUS FOOTBALLERS. 96-99 x 51. Nd. Albums issued. Text variations listed at HC-76.
1. Chix No.1 Series. 1953-54. 
(a) "Set of 48". Nos 1/24 only issued. 
(b) "Set of 24" 
(c) "Numbers 1 to 24" 
(d) "Numbers 25/48" 
(e) "Numbers 1/48 with last line of back address (a) London W.10 (b) Slough, England (1955-56)
2. Chix No.2 Series (48). 1956-57
3. Chix No.3 Series (48). 1958-59