Episode 50 - 50th episode non-spectactular

Download and listen to this episode here. 

This week we celebrate our 50th episode - well, 50th episode for some, not so much for others - with pizza and cake... and a commercial version of Zoom!

We do our usual clean ups checking out the activities of Mark Boric and George Cotsanis' the latter of whom has uploaded a Chinese language variant of the Joeys vs Argentina at the 1985 under 16 World Cup. Ian has purchased a copy of a 1976 (or 77?) copy of Sunderland AFC's match day program Roker Review, which covers matches against Australia. We also have news of a missing trophy which has been found - Brisbane's Ampol Cup, which having been found and we assume given a spruce up, will now end up at on display at the last club to win the trophy (back in 1991), the Mt Gravatt Hawks.  We also promise to look into the history of the Sandringham Soccer Club prior to 1948 to see if there are any connections from pre-war soccer in the Sandringham area to the present day entity.

In our middle segment we look at 100 Years Ago Today, where we begin in the Illawarra - with a rugby league fan complaining about the high cost and lack of value for money of attending rugby league matches compared to the soccer, as well as the general greed of local rugby league administrators. Ian for some reason tries to skip the article on the HMS Renown, but Paul pulls him up. There's a massive upset in the Gardiner Cup in New South Wales from a Rechabite league side; and in Melbourne, we not only visit the scores, but also an article reference to an all-digger side which sent Ian off on his Australian soccer history journey in the first place.

In the final segment Paul looks at 50 years ago today, using only the digital press available from official and relatively easy to access news sources - in this case Trove and Newspapers.com. In Trove, Paul finds among other things:

• That as expected, most of the Australian soccer content comes through from the Canberra Times, one of the few newspapers which Trove carries from after 1954.
• The Canberra Times' coverage is erratic - there are some reports of local league action, but also a melange of articles discussing items from other bureaus - including Western Australia's performances in the Merdeka Cup in Kuala Lumpur, and an item on Victoria's State League clubs being heavily in debt.
• The other, somewhat surprising find, was the inclusion of the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier from Port Moresby - though most of that week's soccer content is about the seemingly endemic violence against referees and other officials not just in soccer, but also in other sports.
• In newspapers.com, the only paper which comes up with Australian soccer content for the relevant week is the Sydney Morning Herald - strangely there is not material collated from the site's other Australian newspaper, The Age.
• While it could be more comprehensive, the Sydney Morning Herald's content is broad and is a useful resource for understanding Sydney soccer at the time - there are match reports, injury reports, and soccer politics.
• There are also local and interstate scores, and the TV program guide notes that there is what may be local soccer.
• References to soccer in unusual places; a rugby league article talking about Newtown Jets struggles with its junior zone because of migrants who prefer soccer; an article about spare paddocks in which the author is adamant that football always meant rugby league or union being played by children, never soccer.