I believe that 1912/13 was the
first season that Burnley produced a regular programme. This issue, costing 1d, for the
match against Bury, was sixteen pages of editorial, adverts, team sheet, fixtures and
results for both the first team and reserves, half time board, portrait of a Burnley
player, half a page on the visitors and the league tables from Division 1, Division 2 and
the Central League: not a lot has changed in 80 years and the quality, I suggest, was
considerably higher than some home programmes of the not so distant past.
The programme was the first one after beating Blackburn Rovers in the
Quarter Final of the English Cup and the opening sentences of ‘Football Notes and
Notions by Turfite' go as follows:
"By virtue of our brilliant victory over Blackburn Rovers on Saturday
last, we have the privilege of appearing in the Semi Final of the English Cup Competition
for the first time in the history of the club. Saturday was in every respect a great day.
Never before has such a crowd of our supporters accompanied the team to an opponent’s
ground, and never before have we had the pleasure of sharing such a huge gate - £3,000 -
and again, never was a victory received with such unbounded enthusiasm. When the final
whistle blew it was a signal for a demonstration which it is almost impossible to
describe, and it is sufficient to say that it will live long in the minds of those who
witnessed it."
The advert on the inside front cover from ‘Chas A Clegg – Sports
Good Manufacturers' makes reference to Burnley’s home record from the previous
season: 'Played 19, Lost 0, Goals For 50, Against 14'. Their telephone number: Burnley
444. Other adverts to appear include: 'Mahon's Sanitary Laundry', 'Crankshaw's High Class
Commercial Hotel and Restaurant', Cash and Co. Hats - eight out of twelve hats and caps on
this ground have been supplied by Cash & Co', ‘Alfred Cheshire - for your
football overcoat' and 'B V Cycle Co. Ltd. - £3 17s 6d complete with all accessories and
six year guarantee’.
The Portrait Gallery showed R Riley - reserve outside left. Described as,
"rather lacking in confidence and decision as yet but should make a really good
player."
The Division 2 table shows Burnley six points adrift of Preston at the top
- a position they maintained to gain promotion, and interestingly the club was coming
under fire form the fans for being more interested in the Cup than in promotion.
This match was the 99th consecutive appearance for W Watson of the famous
'Halley, Boyle, Watson' half-back line, which with Bert Freeman
and Jerry Dawson formed the nucleus of the great Burnley teams of the next eight years.
The programme also numbers the players from 1 to 22 staring with Dawson in the Burnley
goal and ending with McDonald in the Bury goal.
The main advert on the whole back page was from 'Massey's Burnley Brewery
Ltd.' and some 56 years later they were still advertising on the back page and had been,
as far as I can tell from my collection, throughout. The first season they don't appear is
1969/70 when the programme carried no adverts at all.
Does anyone have an earlier Burnley home programme?
Iain MacIntyre
February 1994
(As far as I'm aware, the earliest known Burnley first team home programme
is 7th September 1912 v Glossop, but a there was reserve team issue in 1909/10 v
Manchester City Reserves. The oldest away I've seen comes from 1898/99 (1st October) at
Sheffield United.
Dave Parker)
