Derby County Memories

Every summer hundreds of thousands of tourists visit the Channel Islands, an archipelago in the English Channel off the French coast of Normandy. The Rams have had their own excursions there to play in friendly matches, visiting Guernsey in 1969 and 1970, and Jersey in 2001. After Kevin Hector’s brace in a 2-0 win at home to Cardiff City on 1 February 1969, Derby did not play another league game until 1 March due to poor weather across the country. To keep fit, the Rams…

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The Rams have visited Ireland and Northern Ireland eight times since 1950, winning six, drawing two and scoring 31 goals in the process. A few days after the conclusion of the 1949/50 season, a 4-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers at the Baseball Ground, Stuart McMillan’s Derby departed for a close-season tour of Ireland. The first game was at Dalymount Park in Dublin against Bohemians on Wednesday 10 May. The cover of the 8-page programme issued for the friendly shows that…

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Jack Parry played for Derby Boys and signed for the Rams in July 1948, a time when Raich Carter and Billy Steel were at the club. A one-club man, Parry remained at the Baseball Ground for 20 years and set a club record 482 League appearances in the 1965/66 season (517 appearances in total) until Kevin Hector overtook it. Parry is also the Rams ninth highest goalscorer in all competitions with 110 goals, and his 105 goals makes him Derby…

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In December 1976 the Sex Pistols were about to begin a 19-date UK tour to promote their first single Anarchy in the UK. The tour was to become one of the most famous in rock ‘n’ roll history as before it even began, the band had already gained notoriety due to their profanity on a live TV interview with Bill Grundy on Thames Television’s Today programme. The ensuing national newspaper headlines and public outcry led most venues to cancel or…

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Most recent postponements of football fixtures have been due to players or coaching staff isolating due to testing positive for Covid-19, including the Rams’ game at Cardiff City on 18 December. The 1980s saw a total of 25 postponements that involved Derby County. The first of these was in 1980/81, a Division 2 away game at Bolton Wanderers on 17 January 1981, with the original programme reissued for the rearranged game on 24 January (30p, 24 pages). Inside the FA…

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David looks back at the Ram newspaper matchday programme introduced by Derby County in August 1971. What was undoubtedly a brave and risky experiment turned out to be a huge success and the format continued virtually un-interrupted for 13 seasons despite reservations from certain quarters, particularly programme dealers and collectors. Almost everything at Derby County had changed out of all recognition in the first four years of Brian Clough’s reign at the Baseball Ground but there was one exception and…

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Planning is underway on a new Derby County book, provisionally titled ‘A Definitive History of Derby County Football Programmes’. The aim is to include a cover image of all Derby County home and away league, cup and European programmes from the 1945/46 season to date, along with many friendly and testimonial issues. There will also be some additional chapters that will cover areas such as pirate programmes and the 1950s floodlight games. If you have any suggestions or ideas for…

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I will be having a stall at the Derby Football Memorabilia & Programme Fair on Sunday 6 September 2021 from 10:30am. All Ram newspapers from 1971/72 – 1976/77 will be for sale as well as all away programmes since the start of the first lockdown in March 2020. Hope to see you there.

The Derby County v Derby County Legends match in March 2016, for Shaun Barker’s testimonial, was the latest of many home games involving the Rams to pay tribute to a loyal player, or to one whose career was ended by injury. One of the first examples of this type of fixture was Derby’s home league match against Everton on 9 December 1905 where Steve Bloomer and Ben Warren split the gate money between them, amounting to around £100 each. Bloomer…

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Derby County’s FA Cup story of the 2010s ranged from the lows of defeat to non-league opposition to the highs of beating Premier League sides. And it was all played out against a backdrop of big changes that saw the Rams move from mid-table anonymity to become regular challengers for a return to the Premier League – only to suffer consistent heartbreak. The decade began with Nigel Clough a year into his job having taken over in January 2009 following…

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