Our first card should have given you the clue word of Derby, and most people connect that not with football but with horse racing. Some of you probably thought that "Derby" meant The Derby at Epsom, but our intention was the actual Derby Racecourse, which was actually in Derby, like our Saturday Soccer Star, and was in use from 1848 until the outbreak of the Second World War. And this was not the only Derby Racecourse, for there had been racecourses in the town before that, the earliest from at least 1639.
The course at Derby does strangely feature on Sandorides "Racecourses" as card 48/50 - where it tells us that the course is one mile from Derby Town.
This set first appears, very briefly, in the London Cigarette Card News, Vol.3, No.25, dated October 1935, under “Notes on Current Series”, by C.L. Porter. However as it the same set, bar the branding, it counts.
OGDEN, Football Caricatures. 50 small cards. This branch of the Imperial has specialised in sporting subjects, and the many collectors interested will welcome this addition to the gallery. The production (in colour) is good, rather reminiscent of one or two Players and Wills issues, with modern improvements. The players are Rugby League and Association (Football League) players, no Rugby Union men being included. Also issued by Hignett.
This set was next recorded, in a similar way, in our original 1950 issued Reference Book, RB.15, to Ogden`s Ltd as:
83. 50 FOOTBALL CARICATURES. Fronts printed by letterpress in colour, caricatures signed “MAC”. Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issue, 1935. Similar series issued by Hignett.
it is a bit odd that there is no reference here to the fact that it is Rugby League as well as Association Football. And I wonder how many Rugby League collectors even know this set exists. However if you are an Association Football collector, you will be wondering about the signature on the front because, yes, this is the same “MAC” who drew the footballers from another set, “Footballers, Caricatures by MAC” issued in September 1927 by John Player But there is no reference, save the signature, which could be missed, that they were also involved with this set.
Our original World Tobacco Issues Index lists this slightly more succinctly, as
Our World Tobacco Issues Indexes list this set as "FOOTBALL CARICATURES. Sm. Nd. (50). See Ha.571-8" And that handbook reference is the only mention that the set was also issued by Hignett.
Now despite not having a month of issue for the Ogden`s set, we do have one for the Hignett version; it was released in September 1935. And strangely the handbook reference is missing in our updated version, so unless you looked first at the Hignett, where the header says “All similar to Ogden`s Series”, you would never know of the connection.