 | About Raich Carter's Soccer Star
< Click on the magazine cover to search for Soccer Star magazines.
Raich Carter's Soccer Star "The National Soccer Weekly "
Britains oldest Football Weekly Magazine is Raich Carter's Soccer Star.
Ran from 20 September 1952 until 19 June 1970: 936 weekly issues in total.
Published by Echo Publications 150 Cheapside, London EC2 Every Saturday price 6d
Printed Wood, Rozelaar and Wilkes Ltd, Chase House,North Acton, London NW10
Editor Raich Carter
Associate Editor Eric Linden
"Raich Carter's Soccer Star" started on the 20th September 1952 but this was more a newspaper with single spot colour rather than a magazine. They experimented with hand tinting the black and white photographs on the front cover at the same time as Charles Buchan's Football Monthly, but they never appeared inside, sticking to the newspaper look. By the late 1960's they managed to include colour photographs on the front and back cover.
The "Sporting Mirror- Soccer Edition" had been running since after the second world war in a similar format but had stopped by 1952 and was not eclusively about football.
From the begining of the 1958/59 season every match played in England and Scotland was recorded with full team sheets,half time scores and full time scores and attendances.This is the first time these statistical details were consistantly kept making it a boon for football historians. Horatio Stratton Carter better known as Raich Carter was born on 21st December 1913, in Hendon, Sunderland, Tyne & wear. Raich Carter was a legend at Sunderland Football Club. He was an obvious winner from the start being awarded four England caps at schoolboy level in the 1926-28 period. By the age of 24 he had won all of the then top honours available in the English game, International caps, Inter-League, League Championship and FA Cup winner's medals. He married a few days before the FA Cup Final, and when the Queen presented him with the Cup she was reported to have said "That will make a fine wedding present".He shone at cricket, too and was awarded his county cap by Durham county cricket club in 1932 when he made three appearances for Derbyshire. Raich was a legend of the game either side of the 2nd World War, with Sunderland, England, Derby County and as player manager of Hull City.
David Hamilton the famous radio DJ and broadcaster contacted Soccerbilia to purchase some Soccer Star magazines. He is now Fulham's match day master of ceromonies and ardent fan but he had a secret career as a football journalist at Soccer Star.He has very kindly written up his story for the Soccerbilia website.
"As a boy growing up in the Fifties, there were two football magazines I had to have, both edited by former footballers - Charles Buchan`s Football Monthly and Raich Carter`s Soccer Star. Soccer Star was delivered every Thursday and printed 52 weeks of the year, even when football closed down for three months in the summer and there really was a close season.
It was in the summer of 1954, with all the wisdom of a 15 year old schoolboy, reasoning that the magazine might be short of material, I submitted an article which, to my surprise and delight, Soccer Star published. Under the title Personalities Wanted was the by-line `David Pilditch, who submitted this article, is one of our old and regular readers`. (David Pilditch was my real name until when I became a broadcaster I changed it to my mother`s maiden name, Hamilton). I certainly wasn`t old but I was definitely regular. Armed with this success I then wrote to the Editor asking if he would be interested in my writing a weekly column. I was thrilled when he said `Yes` and offered me the sum of two guineas, more pocket money than a schoolboy could have imagined. From the start of the 1954-55 season I travelled from my home in South West London to grounds all over the Capital, watching matches on a Saturday, tapping out the articles on my father`s Empire Aristocrat typewriter on Sunday and reading them in print the following Thursday. I never thought to ask for a press pass but paid to go through the turnstiles and watch, as most boys did, from behind the goal. Fulham were my local club and I have supported them throught my life. For the past two decades I have been their Matchday M.C.
But I have a confession to make. As a teenager my football hero was Sam Bartram, the flamboyant Charlton goalkeeper, who was more a showman than a mere player. It was a labour of love when I penned a two page spread about Sam to celebrate his 42nd birthday in January, 1956 (the last birthday of his playing career).
I wrote regularly for Soccer Star from 1954 until 1956. Having left school at 17, I made an appointment to meet Robert Bolle, who was by now the Editor, to see if there might be a job for me on the staff. When I arrived at the offices at Cheapside, in the shadow of St. Paul`s Cathedral, I was amazed at how untidy they were with articles and photographs strewn all over the desks and even the floor. From this chaos emerged my favourite weekly magazine. Bolle, when he saw me, was taken aback. "Surely you`re not the man who`s been writing for me for the last two years", he said. "From the way you wrote, we thought you were about forty." I assured him I was and that I wrote with exaggerated authority to make myself sound mature. Sadly, my visit did not have the desired effect. Not only did I not get the staff job but it wasn`t long before they stopped using my stuff. Maybe they were embarrassed anyone would find out that one of their contributors was a schoolboy, but it was a tough lesson early in life. Instead I got a job as a post boy at A.T.V., one of the emerging commercial television companies. My work for Soccer Star, plus an article I wrote for TV Times, brought me to the attention of the Head of the Script Department who took me on as a script-writer, paving the way to a career in broadcasting, so I have a great deal to be grateful to Soccer Star for.
Soccer Star ran until 1970 when it was incorporated into World Soccer, but its sister magazine, Speedway Star, is still published weekly, comes out on Thursday, and this year (2011) celebrates its 60th anniversary. How wonderful that Soccerbilia has such a collection of this magazine that was a bible to us fans in the days when the man on the terraces was earning as much as those on the pitch, when there was no football on television and we needed our Thursday `fix` of news of our soccer heroes. It`s great thumbing through the old editions and re-living my teenage years.
Re-reading the edition of August 7, l954 (the one in which I wrote my first article) I came across this ad in the Swaps column... TERENCE WOGAN, 18 Elm Park, Ennis Road, Limerick, Eire has boxing and wrestling magazines, world sports, football monthlies, sport magazine, SOCCER STARS for any First or Second Division programmes, three programmes per boxing and wrestling world sport, football monthly, two per sport and SOCCER STARS. Terence Wogan... It couldn`t be, could it?"
David Hamilton.
In the summer of 1955 the Raich Carter logo was dropped and it ran as "Soccer Star" until 19th June 1970.
From 1955 (ish)
Printed by Ludgate Circus Building, London EC4
Editor Jack Rollin
It managed to remain independent for 18 years competing with Charles Buchan's Football Monthly and probably only started to struggle when Jimmy Hill's Football weekly started in 1967.
Soccer Star launched "World Soccer" in October 1960 and the two ran side by side until 19th June 1970 when "Soccer Star" was incorporated into "World Soccer" and became part of the IPC group.
The "Soccer Star" format was by season with each season being a numbered volume-with 52 weekly issues.
Click on the magazine cover above to search for Soccer Star magazines. |
|
