We started our trip through the paintbox of cartophily with this card, on which we, coincidentally, have the first two colours of the rainbow - red, because this is Liverpool Football Club, known as "The Reds" - and yellow, used as the rather lurid backdrop behind our footballer.
Lets start with those reds, though, because at first Liverpool played in a curious combination of a shirt split in half, blue and cream, and the sleeve to each side was in the opposing colour. However the tale of how Liverpool F.C. came about is equally odd. You see, at one time, in 1886, Liverpool`s football team, and the only one, was Everton, and they played at a ground called Anfield. However, in 1892, the owner of that ground got a bit, shall I say, greedy, and raised the rent - by £150 a year. So Everton left, and found a new home at Goodison Park. The ground`s owner then had a ground and no team, and probably regretted this, in hindsight, so he started his own team. He hoped to call it Everton, but was unable to buy that name, or to stop the Everton team using it. So he started his own team, called Liverpool, and, for whatever reason, dressed them identically to Everton as well, or at least until 1896, when they changed to wearing red shirts, which they wore with little change until 1955, when a club crest was added to one side of their chest. Though they were not called "The Reds" until Bill Shankly said so, in 1965, and he made them wear red shorts too!
Our footballer today is Alan Jack Arnell, who was born on the 25th of November 1933, in Chichester. On this card he is shown in the Liverpool strip, but he started out with Worthing, and joined Liverpool in December 1953, though the text here tells us that he only started playing for them in 1954. Perhaps the reason for this is that when he joined Liverpool he was still an amateur - he only turned professional in 1954, maybe even just prior to his first Liverpool game.
The really intriguing thing about this card is that it says he was "capped twice as a schoolboy player", yet I cannot find any other reference to that. It also tells us that his "favourite sportsman is Denis Compton" and that "his ambition is to win a cup-winners medal". It does not look like this ever happened, sadly, for during the 1950s Liverpool never made the F.A. Cup final. They were beaten 2-0 by Arsenal in the 1949-50 season, and then did not appear again until 1964-65 when they beat Leeds United 2-1.
He stayed at Liverpool until 1961, and then moved to fourth division Tranmere Rovers. After that he played for Halifax Town and Runcorn. And he died, aged seventy-nine, on 5 May 2013.
The oddest, and perhaps the saddest thing about our man is that he only seems to have ever appeared on one other set, and it was another of A. & B. C. Gum`s - the follow up to this, their 1959-60 "Footballers".
Our card is from the earliest set in the A & B.C. Grouping, issued in 1958. However you would never know this if you looked at our original British Trade Index part II, because here is that listing in full :
If you didn`t find it, dare I say, join the "club" - its well buried, right down in position eight. As to why, I have no idea. That`s not the only problem with this list though, because the cards we show one of as our Card of the Day here are listed as section 8.B, but they were actually the first version to be issued. We know this because that inscription to the front was printed in the top border, and it was to be cut off and sent away to get your album - so the shorter cards listed here as section 8.A.a are only shorter because they have had the top cut off, which only leaves them with three borders, the bottom and the sides. Then, later on, the set was re-issued, in the smaller size, but with four equally sized borders, and without the printing with the album offer. Luckily they also had blue and red backs, so we know these are set 8.A.b above.
In our British Trade Index part III they remain in place eight. But that listing will need to wait until tomorrow to be worked on
8. Portrait with crest. (92). Issued 1958-59 in two batches 1/46 and 47/92
As this is the earliest set of A. & B.C. Footballers, and will therefore be the home page for sets one to nine, what follows is (going to be) a really simple checklist, in the order of issue. This will be based on this illustration of the backs, which also appeared in our British Trade Index part II in 1969
However the numbering of this picture is definitely not as the cards were issued. Also, oddly there were nine sets in the listing, but only eight pictures. This suggests that maybe this illustration was drawn up earlier, before that was issued, and that it possibly first appeared in one of our magazines. If so I will find it when I start the working through and gleaning of those. However it is still a useful tool, and will be more so if used in conjunction with the full listing above, and the simple checklist below, plus the fact that the sets we have featured so far can be accessed simply by clicking the "back" links below :
- Set A - issued 1958-59 - back 8 above - biography to left, cartoon in square box to right
- Set B - issued 1959-60 - back 6 above - biography to left, coin rub "Football Quiz" to right
- Set C - issued 1960-61 - back 2 above - player name at top in black strip, brief biography, coin-rub quiz over bottom three-quarters of card
- Set D - issued in 1962-63 - back 1 above - player name in red box at top, "Bazooka The Chew of Champions in red strip at bottom. cartoon of player in between
- Set E - issued in 1963-64 - back 3 above - player name and biography in slim box left, "Make-A-Photo" on right hand side with mock photo corners -
- Set F - issued 1964-65 - back 4 above - player name and biography at top, "Quiz" below with a curved frame , heavily shadowed to right hand side and bottom.
- Set G - issued 1966-67 - back 7 above - two pictures to front and two biographies to reverse
- Set H - issued 1967 - back 5 above - player name in black strip to top, followed by biography and a black strip offering "full colour pin-ups"
The set which is included in the book but is not on this list is AAB-355 : ABF-10-9, "Footballers" (1968-69), and you can see that as our Card of the Day for the 2nd of September 2023