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Book celebrates Chasetown's platinum anniversary

Book celebrates Chasetown's platinum anniversary

The club was formed as Chase Terrace Old Scholars Youth Club in 1954.

Northern Premier League West Division side Chasetown reached their 70th anniversary in September.

 

Over the past two years, club statistician and historian Paul Mullins has researched over 3,000 results in the club's history and worked closely alongside Honorary Club President Mick Joiner to add stories and anecdotes about some of the many players that have played for the Staffordshire club over the seven decades.

 

Mullins, who has been watching the club for 40 years, said: "Club founder Brian Baker first approached me before the club's golden anniversary to moot the idea of a book on the history of the club, which became a 32-page photo book of the club.

 

"Then, in 2022, I had discussed my plans to commemorate the platinum anniversary and was told that after Baker's death, his family had given some of his Chasetown FC belongings to the club, which contained scrapbooks of the very first few seasons and four seasons of results from the 1980s.

 

"Alongside my own records, I challenged myself to finding the res of the club's results, of which I'm only around 60 short from every result since 1954.

 

"Once I presented these results to Mick Joiner, he then gave me insights into a lot of the players that were mentioned - including a player who were wore glasses when he played, a player who suggested the idea to raise money that eventually became a £1,000 weekly draw and a player who 'got away' and eventually went on to play for England.

 

“Having being involved with the club for so long, it gave me great access to people like Mr Joiner, Charlie Blakemore, former players and, through former Premier League referee Alan Wiley, he contacted Cardiff City to help realise my dream of getting in touch with Aaron Ramsey - who had scored his first ever goal for the Bluebirds at the Scholars Ground in 2008.”

 

 

The book contains details of the birth of the Scholars Ground, the renovations to a 3G pitch, the famous FA Cup runs and is available as a 500-page colour paperback from Amazon.

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