Topical Times
Topical Times 13 Jan 1934
The Topical Times was produced by D.C. Thomson, and put out it’s first issue way back on 18th October 1919, continuing right through until 25th May 1940, with a total of 1,071 issues. Like so many of the magazines and comics of the time, it featured the things that were important to young boys of the time – adventure, science, jokes, gossip, and of course, lots of sport – especially football!
Over the history of the newspaper it released a plethora of different cards, booklets, supplements covering football, cricket, boxing and various other sports. As well as the “standard” regular cards, a number of these were put out in anything up to A4 size, which are generally not the most popular with collectors.
However, the upside to these larger images is the quality and detail, as a lot of them are professional quality and show a lot of detail that you would not normally see, plus the hand-coloured ones are an absolute treat.
Below is detail on some of the sets in existence, though with so many sets, and variants of sets, I suspect that reaching completion on these might be a long process!
FOOTBALL
Football Teams (Metal) – 1931. 6 “cards” in the set.
Everton team with original envelope as received in the Topical Times magazine
Arsenal FC
Arsenal FC (reverse)
Celtic FC
Celtic FC (reverse)
Everton FC
Everton FC (reverse)
Rangers FC
Rangers FC (reverse)
Sheffield Wednesday FC
Sheffield Wednesday FC (reverse)
West Bromwich Albion FC
West Bromwich Albion FC (reverse)
Footballers (Scottish) – (1937/38)
This set was issued in 2 series, with the first 24 released in 1937 and the second 24 released in 1938. A similar English set was issued at the same time, but as is often the case, the Scottish set was produced in smaller numbers and is thus much harder to find – and subsequently more expensive.
The cards are sized 125mm x 46mm and feature full length images of the players, with name and club to bottom left and publishers name to bottom right.
An album was also released to hold this set, named “Stars of To-Day”.
The First 24 can be viewed here
The Second 24 can be viewed here
Footballers – Large B&W (Left Caption – 1935)
Issued as a set of 28 cards in 1935, each sized 250mm x 95mm with plain backs.
Players featured include: Jack Barker (Derby), Jackie Bestall (Grimsby), Ralph Birkett (Middlesbrough), Walter Boyes (West Brom), Ted Catlin (Sheffield Weds), Ted Drake (Arsenal), Pats Gallacher (Sunderland), Tom Gardner (Aston Villa), Albert Geldard (Everton), Pat Glover (Grimsby), Robert Gurney (Sunderland), Gordon Hodgson (Liverpool), Harry Holdcroft (Preston), Jack Holliday (Brentford), Eric Keen (Derby), Alf Lythgoe (Huddersfield), Stan Matthews (Stoke), Jackie Milne (Arsenal), Jack Milsom (Bolton), Charlie Phillips (Wolves), Ted Sagar (Everton), Bob Salmond (Portsmouth), George Shaw (West Brom), Dick Spence (Chelsea), Ronnie Starling (Sheffield Weds), Frank Swift (Man City), Ray Westwood (Bolton), Ken Willingham (Huddersfield).
Footballers – Large Coloured (1936)
Issued as a set of just 16 cards in 1936, this set of cards is in my mind one of the finest issued by Topical Times. The photos are hand coloured using what might be considered overly bright colours, but they look absolutely stunning. Size wise they are 250mm x 95mm, so half A4, but a great addition to any collection.
Players featured includeL J. Atkinson (Bolton), R. Baxter (Middlesbrough), H. Betmead (Grimsby Town), L. Butt (Huddersfield), W.J. Crayston (Arsenal), W. Dale (Man City), J. Dodds (Sheffield Utd), A. Hastings (Sunderland), H. Hobbis (Charlton), C. Wilson-Jones (Birmingham), J. Mercer (Everton), J. Nicholas (Derby), C. Parker (Portsmouth), F. Soo (Stoke), B. Sproston (Leeds), V. Woodley (Chelsea)
The full set of cards can be seen here
Footballers – Triple Portraits – English (1937)
Issued as a set of 8 Cards in 1937, this set of cards is another which is sized 250mm x 180mm ie A4.
Commonly these cards were cut into 3 strips to separate the players apart, so complete sheets are fairly hard to find
Players featured include: Sheet 1: Benjamin Craig (Huddersfield), James Milne (Preston), Cyril Trigg (Birmingham), Sheet 2: Harry Cooper (Sheffield United), William Cobley (Aston Villa), George Strong (Portsmouth); Sheet 3: Charles Male (Arsenal), Jack Percival (Man City), Leonard Duns (Sunderland); Sheet 4: Idris Hopkins (Brentford), Tom Lawton (Everton), George Taylor (Bolton); Sheet 5: Arthur Tutin (Stoke), Adolf Hansen (Liverpool), James Hodgson (Grimsby); Sheet 6: Walter Winterbottom (Man Utd), David Cumming (Middlesbrough), George Robinson (Charlton); Sheet 7: William Morris (Wolves), George Mills (Chelsea), Robert Finan (Blackpool); Sheet 8: Jack Robinson (Sheffield Weds), Leslie Miller (Spurs), Jesse Carver (Newcastle).
The full set of cards can be seen here.
Footballers – Large B&W (Centre Caption – 1938)
Issued as a set of 14 Cards in 1938, this set of cards is another which is sized 250mm x 95mm ie half A4.
Players featured include: Samuel Armes (Leeds), Frank Baker (Stoke), Harold Barton (Sheffield Utd), Samuel Bartram (Charlton), James Beattie (Portsmouth), Stanley Cullis (Wolves), Joseph Foxall (West Ham), Robert Iverson (Aston Villa), Thomas Jones (Everton), Wilfred Mannion (Middlesbrough), John Mapson (Sunderland), Hubert Redwood (Man Utd), Thomas Smith (Preston), William Sneddon (Brentford).
The full set of cards can be seen here
Footballers – Large B&W (Left Caption – 1939)
Issued as a set of 16 cards in 1939, and yet another set of 250mm x 95mm cards.
Players featured include: George Antonio (Stoke), Stanley Bentham (Everton), Frank Boulton (Derby), William Cairns (Newcastle), Thomas Cheetham (Brentford), Frank Chivers (Blackburn), Frederick Haycock (Aston Villa), Arthur Housam (Sunderland), Donald Howe (Bolton), Fredrick Howe (Grimsby), George Laking (Middlesbrough), Joseph Payne (Chelsea), Thomas Rowe (Portsmouth), Devid Russell (Sheffield Weds), George Tadman (Charlton), Dennis Westcott (Wolves).
CRICKET
Cricketers in Action (1937)
Released in 1937, this fabulous set was Topical Times’ only Cricket related set. Featuring just 8 black and white plain backed cards of 235mm x 160mm, this really is one of the finest produced by Topical Times. The surface of the cards is matt, almost chalky, so they can easily scratch, so finding really good copies can be challenging.
Players featured include: Cyril Washbrook (Lancashire), Todd (Kent), Alan Melville (Sussex), McCorkell (Hampshire), Len Hutton (Yorkshire), Gimblett (Somerset), William Copson (Derbyshire) and Denis Compton (Middlesex)
Booklets, Supplements and Other
Sporting Teasers Asked and Answered
Released as a free supplement to the January 20, 1934 edition of the Topical Times newspaper.
A fun little booklet with questions on football, cricket, boxing and Billiards being answere by Dixie Dean, Geo. Duckworth, Jeff Barr and Riso Levi.
