![C504-410.1 : C82-32.1 : C/7 [tobacco : UK] W.A. & A.C. Churchman "Association Footballers" A series (September 1938) 14/50](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-04/23%20football.jpg?itok=aip8LV4M)
This was followed a year later by the second series. The colour is called “violet tinted brown”.
The clue here was the football team of the featured Saturday Soccer Star, Robert Joseph Finan, called simply R. Finan on the card, and that was Blackpool Football Club, where he had been playing since 1933. It says he was brought out as a young player by Yoker Athletic, but I don’t know them.
Blackpool has long been the out of town location of the World Famous Tower Ballroom, which was until recently the site of Strictly Come Dancing, and it is a ballroom in its own right.
Mind you our footballer also seems to have a dance like spring in his step…
Did you know that card 21 of this set can be found with the footballer, B. Jones, actually Bryn Jones, playing for Wolverhampton or for Arsenal. Now you will not be able to tell this from the front of the card, for that is identical in both cases, and he still remains in the Wolverhampton strip. However the reverse of the card is very different, starting with the wording below his name that changes to “Formerly Wolverhampton Wanderers, now Arsenal). The text is also very different. You can read more about Bryn Jones at the Arsenal website where you will discover that his move only took place in August 1938, just a month before the cards were released.
How is that for a quick reprint...!