Card of the Day - 2022-05-07

The clue here was the footballer`s surname, Yeoman, which means a farmer, but traditionally one who owned the land they farm, rather than renting or just working on it for someone else, and whose food was mostly used by the family themselves. This actually raised them in the class structure, and allowed them to vote in elections, but crucially it also gave them greater control of how and what they used for growing and fertilising, and they would often farm in a more basic, earth friendly manner, allowing animals and birds to assist with pollination and pest control; whereas farmers with large acreages were apt to try and raise the most crop out of the smallest area, using outside workers, and not having time to let nature do any of the work.

A yeoman was therefore seen as hardworking, and respectful of his ground. This is why the name, once forgotten, has come back and is often used for eco-friendly foods and food box ordering systems.

The “R” stood for Ray, and Ray Yeoman was born in Perth, rather coincidentally on the thirteenth of this month, in 1934.

He was actually Scottish, born in Perth, and his first team was Newburgh, moving from them to St. Johnstone in 1950 and moving south of the border three years later. He left them in 1959 for Middlesborough, and then went to Darlington in 1964, later managing their squad. He died in 2004. 

He does not seem to have appeared on many other cards, but we found two - Philip Neill Collectables “Soccer Stars of the 50s” (2001) 4/10 - and – J F Sporting Collectibles “Footballers 1950s” first series 35/48, which shows him at Middlesborough

Our card is from a large and interesting group, split into sets of twelve cards, a club squad on each. The News Chronicle was a newspaper, which had some association with the “Daily Dispatch” (aka “Dispatch”), and you can find some cards which have both newspapers on the front header.

Our cards were issued in the 1950s, and they are black and white halftone studies of sportsmen, medium sized and slightly variable in it with the cards being between 82-86 m/m x 58-61 m/m. They are un-numbered but first appear in our British Trade Index Part Two, issued in 1969, where they are alloted numbers, this card’s full code then becomes NFK-4.30.12. However in the new British Trade Index, our cards were renamed to “Footballers” and given the code NEW-310, this makes our card NEW-310.30. However the index does not tell the names of the footballers, as these have been moved to the Handbook, where we find our man is now NEW-310.30.12. 

By the way the other sportsmen sets cover cricket, motor cycling, and rugby, plus a twelve card set about Stirling Moss, which, like our card, was promotion for the paper, and declares that “The Story of Stirling Moss Begins on Monday, June 6th in the News Chronicle”. However this set is very important in race car-tophily, because one of the cards shows Stirling Moss at the Prescott Hill Climb, in a 500cc Cooper – and this was his first ever hill climbing event, in May 1948, though that branch of motor sport was in his blood from his mother, who used to compete in them before the Second World War. 

Most of the News Chronicle cards were issued in the 1950s but there is a strange exception, or two, as in the 1930s it had issued cards which were given the name of “Soccer Teams”, these were on art paper, and the only one known at the time of our original British Trade Indexes was “Fulham F.C. 1935-36”. This is much larger than cigarette cards, measuring 383 x 255 m/m, and it seems likely that it would be more possible for us to find any others that exist in the collections of ephemera and football collectors. So if you have any others do let us know. More curiously, this Fulham card does not appear in our more modern Trade Index update, but there is a similar item, also untitled, and given the set title “Football Teams”. The subject on this is Arsenal F.C. 1934-35. It measures 300 x 210 m/m, which is a bit smaller but to me there is this immediate aura of a possible connection, that ought to be chased.