Our first clue card was a great one in so many ways, you have the goalkeeper, who is the only one in the match legally allowed to use his hands in play. He is also wearing thick gloves, which is the best way not to leave fingerprints behind you. Finally, he is being manhandled by a policeman, representing the law, who hope to find fingerprints at the scene of the crime and then attempt to match them with those already found at other sites. And this is the key, because if those fingerprints are not already in the system they have to wait for the perpetrator to commit another crime and be just as careless to leave them again, though by that time they have almost certainly learned how not to do this, or they will have taken to wearing gloves.
This set is one of several similar by Faulkner that take a saying or sporting term and add a humorous slant to it. Of course the football one is especially sought after, but they also did cricket, golf, and a set called "Sporting Terms" which was based around horse racing.
Two series of "Football Terms" were issued, and you can tell them apart from the lettering used for the captions. Our first ever reference book (RB.1) devoted to Faulkner issues, describes the pair as :
1900. 12. FOOTBALL TERMS (titled series). Size 2 3/8" x 1 1/2". Unnumbered. Fronts lithographed in full colours. "Football Terms" above subject, no border. Subject title below with "Grenadier Cigarettes", "W. & F. Faulkner Ltd., London, S.E." Backs plain. Printed by A. Hildesheimer & Co."
Both the sets carry this same description, and below each is a list of the titles in the set. After that it reveals that "The `Term` on the first series is printed in capital letters only : on the second series it is in capital and small letters.
In our original World Tobacco Issues Index there are brief biographical details. But because it rained all afternoon and I had no internet I spent it in starting a new blog "F for Faulkner", which is the start of the company`s story, in which those details will be expanded.
The actual description of this set in the original World Tobacco Issues Index is
FOOTBALL TERMS. Unnd. See Ha.153
1. First Series (12) captions in capital letters
2. Second Series (12) captions in capital letters and small letters.
This is only slightly changed in our updated version, adding the size (59-62 x 37-39 m/m), and altering the handbook code to H.153.
And the handbooks just list the cards in the sets.