Ron Reynolds: The Life of a 1950's Journeyman Footballer - Tapa dura

REVIEWS'As a life story from a different era it has its own intrinsic attractions and dramas, personal and professional. It is also entertaining in historical terms as a lucid account of football in the Fifties ... The book is written with wit and humanity as well as archival objectivity. Not so much a rose-tinted exercise in nostalgia as a sepia-tinted narrative of a time when the2-3-5 formation was the order of the day.'BOOK OF THE WEEK, THE INDEPENDENT Sports Pages 'What set him [Reynolds] apart from most of his contemporaries was that he painstakingly kept his own archive of his career - match reports, notebooks, programmes, photographs, even payslips ...This remarkeable collection was discovered by his son, David, who, with the prolific Dave Bowler, hasput this book together. Their account of Reynolds is rich in period detail.'THE TIMES 'The book offers a fascinating insight into the life of a professional footballer half a century ago, providing a very valid and topical comparison between Ron Reynolds and a modern contemporary such as David Seaman, David James or Fabien Barthez.'FOOTBALL MATTERS 'A great 184-pages read ... Beyond the obvious interest to supporters of the clubs for which he played, Ron's story gives you a really detailed window on what life was like for a footballer 50 years ago. Modern players take note'ALDERSHOT COURIER 'A book that gives a valuable insight into what a soccer player's life used to be.'BLACKPOOL GAZETTE PRESSFeature in the Spurs vs Southampton match programme (20th September)Featured in the Aldershot football programmeFull page feature and review in the Southampton Saints match programmeFeature in GOOD TIMES magazine, they will also be giving away copies as competition prizes.Review in the SAINTS MAG (the official publication for Southampton Saints Football Club) RADIOInterview with author Dave Bowler on TALKSPORT radio.The book was featured on BBC Radio Solent's Saturday programme SPORTSTIME (9 and 16 August) and throughout the week on the BREAKFAST SHOW to celebrate the start of the Premiership. They have given away copies of the book as competition prizes. David Reynolds was interviewed on Radio Saints (official Southampton Saints FC radio). EVENTSThe specialist bookshop Sports Pages in London will be doing a window display of archive material from the book over September.The archive will then be moving to the Haslemere Museum where it will be on display from October. NEW MEDIATo be reviewed on NEWREVIEWS.CO.UKThe book is featured on the front page ofSPORTS-UK.CO.UKReview and competition on FOOTBALL MATTERS Nationwide.co.uk

Ron Reynolds was the Spurs goalkeeper for most of the 1950s. (He also played for Southampton and Aldershot in a career spanning twenty years and 291 League games.) He died on his 71st birthday (2nd June 1999), and upon clearing out his house his family discovered a meticulously kept archive of Reynolds professional career - cupboards, shoeboxes and carrier bags full of notebooks, programmes, ticket stubs, press cuttings, photographs, souvenirs from foreign tours and Reynolds' own match reports of all his games. Taken as a whole, the collection offers a fascinating insight into the life of a professional footballer half a century ago. Dave Bowler (who conducted lengthy interviews with Reynolds for other book projects before he died) augments the visual material with a written account of Reynolds' life, featuring interviews with many of his contemporaries and also a few with whom he worked and who are still in the game today (Bobby Robson, Don Howe, Malcolm Allison). And Reynolds himself was quite a character - fastidious and outspoken he was a formidable PFA representative and was behind many of the perceived 'insurrections' of his more famous soul mate Danny Blanchflower, with whom he shared a passion for the glory of the game.