The Chronicler’s Chronicle – Part 2

Part 2 : To Villa Park


A letter to Aston Villa in January, 2007 (describing myself and requesting access to the club’s archives for the purposes of further research for the ‘book’) elicited a reply from Lee Preece, the club’s Football Operations/Projects Manager. A meeting was arranged.

My visit to see Lee was extraordinarily short considering the journey I had taken from London. We sat talking for less than half-an-hour and then came the question to me: “Would you like to see the archives?” Of course, ‘no’ was scarcely going to be my answer, and so I was scooted off to look at the mother of all archives.

It was in a mess! In fact, so much was it in a mess that, in truth, I was scarcely able to evaluate anything of what it contained in the short time available. And, within a few minutes, the conversation somehow turned round to whether I might be in a position to sort it all out!

All within the space of an hour, the matter had proceeded from my request to access the archives to the honour of taking on this organisational task while being able to draw income (at least to cover my commuting costs) while researching in my own time.

I subsequently sent in a written proposal (which was soon accepted) and I commenced this activity in April/May 2007 while I was still based in London. I commuted to the club on a weekly basis.

All this had quickly taken place in a little over 6 months since Randy Lerner had taken over, and it was quite clear that there was some urgency in wanting to know what the archives contained. There was no existing catalogue that could be relied upon.

Did I have qualifications to do the job? Well, I had been an amateur genealogist for over 30 years and such work had (before the days of the Internet) caused me to get to know the archival and some of the conservation systems in places of research around the country, including the National Archives at Kew, the British Library and the Birmingham Central Library.

On top of that, I had spent 40 years in systems analysis and developing computer software applications. I was expert in how to set up a database, which I had proposed for the archives’ catalogue. I had also been a project manager in my own business lasting twenty years and – possibly above all – as a Villa man equipped with those skills and a being stickler for detail, I was able to fully understand what was in the archives and make appropriate recommendations.

Without any forethought, it happily turned out that I had precisely the skills required to engineer a good result.

When I turned up to begin my assignment on site (in May), Lee Preece introduced me to Keith Morris, who was to act as my helper for this project and to do the logging of objects on display around the stadium. Keith and I were both from ‘the black and white days’ (as Keith liked to call it!) – both men of the old terraces and who had witnessed the baggy shorts of yore.

Keith and I disagreed on a major issue – the merits of Norman Lockhart (!) – but apart from that we became happy working buddies for what turned out to be nearly three years. Keith was (and is) a great Villa ambassador and a valuable colleague, and what was more intriguing was the fact that his birthday is April 16th, mine is April 18th, and the birth date (the first match) at Villa Park was April 17th.

The project went on until the following December, and, as had been my experience during research at the British Library, much of the experience had been magical – particularly the research element into the club’s old minutes and other old papers.

Though I had produced detailed reports of what had been found in the archives, created links with the Birmingham Central Library (including a pathway to completing the availability of the Villa News and Record on DVD) and had created a database catalogue, there was still much work to be done when I had to call a halt to what had become a troublesome commute from London.

The Villa management were very pleased with what had been achieved and (importantly) were very impressed with the manner by which I (and Keith) had gone about the task. Interestingly, I scored a particular hit in my graphical descriptions of the work that had been done and what remained to be done.

So, the natural question popped up … should it be continued by me, and (if so) on what basis?

Next: Part 3 : The Interregnum
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The Chronicler's Chronicle - Part 1

Part 1: From Despair to Hope


Having moved rapidly into the autumn of my life, being literally bankrupted as a result of my own stupidity, the closure of my business accompanied by the deaths of close family members, my own heart failure and the return to my career being blocked off with no money, what do you think I would feel? Yes … absolute panic!

All these events had occurred over a three or four year period to 2002, and, with my much younger wife’s health also declining, we quickly dropped into the penury zone, which meant reliance on the state and the benefits system. Also, and not least I hasten to say, with reliance on my spiritual beliefs.

Towards the end of 2004 and after recently attaining 60 years of age, a brief interlude of financial clarity emerged – a return to my I.T. profession. But, 9 months later, that came to an abrupt closure with redundancy. No other avenue emerged despite trying to find further work, so by December 2005 such redundancy money I had received had dwindled and reliance on the state soon returned. I was nearly 62. What were the options available? Not much!

They say that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, and the fact that I had been a Villa supporter for over 50 years, and being a great student and admirer of the club’s history, it suddenly came to me that here I was, living quite close to the British Library’s old newspapers department at Colindale, North London, that perhaps I could research the ancient history of the club and also publish that history.

I set about doing just that, and from the beginning of 2006 and for another 15 months, that is what I did. Three or four days a week I undertook what I called ‘my great adventure’ at Colindale and spent the rest of my time documenting the findings.

It was 15 months of magic, pouring through those ancient newspapers and journals – many of them nearly falling apart – and others already microfilmed. When sitting at the microfilm reader in a somewhat darkened room with the main light coming from the bulb in the reader, it was often as though I was looking into a crystal ball. And the magic of the writer’s description of Archie or Andy Hunter (or whoever else amongst that fraternity it might have been) was gripping and elevating.

Astonishingly, in the summer of that same year the news came that Randy Lerner had bought Aston Villa. And, soon after, it was beginning to be clear that part of his concern was for the heritage of the club. Would my contribution to the record of the club’s heritage be of use, I wondered … ?

Next:   Part 2 : To Villa Park
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Villa and the Cup

An old chestnut of mine is the issue of Villa and the FA Cup, a trophy in which Villa reached the semi-final stage three times in the late 1950s (during my mid-teens) and actually won the Cup once in that time. That win was back in 1957 - 54 years ago - and it means that Villa now have only reached two FA Cup finals in EIGHTY-SEVEN years, compared to eight finals in the preceding THIRTY-SEVEN years.

Villa were once known as a great cup team, and though Villa started winning the Football League Cup instead, even that series of successes seems to have dried up. It is now fifteen years since Villa's last win - and Small Heath have just won it for only their second-ever trophy success.

Maintaining an average of 5th or 6th in the Premier League is all very well, but the club now lacks that romance that was once present. At one time you would be thinking, "Oh, another season and perhaps another great cup run" ... but not now.

The matches at Villa Park are now mostly humdrum events with a long stream of disappointing performances against the likes of Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal. When Villa have succeeded against top teams it's usually been because of a tremendous defensive effort and team spirit - fine qualities, but little sign of quality attacking football.

I hate to say it, but Villa is rapidly becoming ordinary; even in the old Third Division days there was more excitement. What a sad thing to say coming up to five years since the current owner took over the club and nearly 30 years since winning the European Cup; the club's pretensions to greatness seem to have disappeared. Villa had the great opportunity to kick ahead after the European Cup win but instead fell behind, and (apart from rare glimpses) have never since really looked like catching up.

The team that Villa put out on Wednesday night really summed up the current situation. It was a declaration of fear. A great club goes out on the pitch with hope, and if defeat with honour is the result, then so be it.

Can I have my old club back please?
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