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Bournemouth ‘s Football Echo

Before the era of Sky Television most football fans found out how their teams had performed by buying the local Saturday evening football newspaper. Southampton had the Southampton Football Echo, Portsmouth the Football Mail and Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic, as the club was then called, had the Bournemouth Football Echo. Each would include detailed match reports and photographs of that afternoon’s match. These dedicated football papers were printed on either pink or blue paper to differentiate them from the day’s other local publication. The colour would be determined by whether the club’s home kit was red or blue.It is believed the Bournemouth Football Echo dates back to at least 1901.

By half past six on the Saturday evenings, newsagents such as Loaders in East Street, Blandford would be selling copies of the ‘Football Pink’ to a queue of potential purchasers. This was quite remarkable bearing in mind the referee of the Cherries match would have blown the final whistle at exactly 4.42pm  that afternoon. It would have taken at least 30 minutes to bring copies from the Bournemouth printers to the North Dorset town. Some of the buyers would even have attended the match.

The newspaper’s production in such double-quick time was only possible due to a finely tuned system and timetable. The reporter at the game would be highly experienced and have covered many hundreds of previous games. Prior to kick-off, the newspaper would have been ready to print but just missing the afternoon match. At half time, the reporter would telephone through his first half despatch to the sports desk. A type setter would set this up ready for printing before the second half report was filed as soon as the match finished. The reporter would be well-versed in the much used phrases that were over used in match reports of the time.

Sadly with the growth in both television and radio sports reporting, rising costs and staggered kick off times, the demand for the football pinks declined. Today they are no more. Recently there was an unsuccessful attempt to revive the Portsmouth Football Mail.
 
(Illustrations: ‘Boscombe’s’ Eire International goalkeeper Tommy Godwin in the 1950s & an old programme adverting the Bournemouth Football Echo.)



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