number37

I don't get out much.

I started typing this in the NUFC kits thread, then maybe thought it could be football trivia and so it's here instead. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon something I found to be quite interesting as an aficionado of both heraldry and club badges. We’ve all been there, late at night, face down deep in a Wikipedia wormhole, one thing leads to another and before you know it you’re downloading megabytes of illicitly-sourced images that are difficult to explain in the cold light of day. As a single man with fibre optic broadband, my story is no different, so here is what I found after downloading issue 229 of The Heraldry Society’s publication – The Coat of Arms. Please don’t judge me. In the 1970s, the FA and Football League were concerned by the legalities of clubs (and other related businesses) selling merchandise that had club crests on them because clubs often used badges that were either based on city/town/region coats of arms or in fact were the coats of arms themselves and so they weren’t owned by the clubs but rather the city council, etc. The Football League got in touch with the College of Arms (the fine folk who administer coats of arms) for some advice and if a solution could be found regarding ownership. The FA and College weren’t too keen on granting coats of arms to the clubs themselves for the logical but rather cold reason that coats of arms are meant to be prestigious, you don’t grant them to just anyone, and the nature of football means a Division One club (at that time) could easily suffer misfortune and then spiral down the leagues or even out of business, and that isn’t all too prestigious. So the solution was for the College to grant the Football League 92 badges (a lesser version of a coat of arms), one for each member club, and then the Football League itself would hand those out to the clubs. The very important distinction here is that it would be the Football League, not the clubs, who would legally own the badges. The Football League got in touch with the clubs and it was the intention that the process would begin with the Division One teams, then Division Two and so on, with each club responding with an idea of what they would like. If the club had nothing in mind then the College would come up with something – again, this is a key, important legal element. Only 25 clubs responded and so the plan to prioritise by division was abandoned and clubs were dealt with as they responded. Rodney Dennys himself was tasked with designing the badges, he was the man who was Herald at the College, which is a very senior and historical position and I think it reflects how seriously this was taken. As a result of only 25 clubs across the four divisions replying to the request, there is quite a wide range of teams. If you’ve even read this far (and thank you for doing so), you’re probably asking why you should still pretend to care, well, Newcastle United were one of the 25. (Spoiler!) I mentioned earlier that if a club had no real preference or existing idea as to what their badge should be then it would be up to Mr Dennys to get creative, although still subject to Football League and club final approval. Of course, although quite surprisingly, Newcastle United did not have a preference and so the badge created by Rodney Dennys at the College of Arms to be granted to the Football League for Newcastle United was entirely an original creation of Rodney Dennys himself. By going back a wee bit further to the legal element, this badge remained and actually remains the legal property of the Football League and not the club, even if the club drew the badge itself and simply passed it to the College to be given the once-over (which it didn’t), it still belongs to the Football League. So what? I hear none of you say. Well, way back in the dark days of the Ashley era, some wonderful people created the Magpie Shirt, which contained a magpie image on one side of the chest and the castle shield from the city’s coat of arms on the other but later editions (the one I have as I sadly missed out on the original) only feature the shield in the centre because our fine club got involved and prevented the use of the magpie – citing trademark and other legal issues. This is what I found quite interesting. While I don’t (or can’t because I’m not a legal expert) dispute where the club is/was coming from, I thought it was interesting that the use of the magpie in such a way was never really an idea of the club but even if it was then the ownership is with the Football League, not Newcastle United. Maybe it was just another example in a long line of examples of our previous owner being a bit of a dick? Who knows and perhaps we shall never know. As a special bonus, a thank you for reading, here are the 25 badges that were granted between 1975 and 1979 to the clubs that cared. Some are still kind of in use to this very day, some never saw the light of day but no other clubs ever signed up. Sadly, this process officially ended in 1993, despite appearing to be on hold, when Rodney Dennys passed away, the Football League had paid for all 92 clubs to have a badge but the rest of the money was returned on Dennys’ passing. See how many of these you can guess, some are straightforward but there are some obscure ones to mix it up.

Why can't we just be happy? Be absolutely delighted that England have won the European Championships at a sold out Wembley by defeating Germany, winners of 8 (eight) of the 11 championships before this one. The constant comparison with the men's game, even if at times good natured and well meaning, isn't helpful, needed or worthwhile, in my opinion. So a 150+ year old, multi billion pound industry with the best sports science, slick marketing, saturated broadcasting and with no real barriers is better than a game barely legal for 50 years and professional for 20. Aye, well done, lads. How many championships has that won? Things are fairly shit at the moment, generally, but we have this genuine beacon of glory to be celebrated, something for the nation to be proud of - if only for a short while. If we're wanting comparisons: so far there have been no reported arrests, no signs of racism (directed either towards opposition players or our own), no vandalism, hooliganism or anti social behaviour to write home about. This is something to be proud of. Victory or defeat, I'm not going to be whincing at what I would be reading about in the morning - no trashed cities abroad or closer to home. Nothing toxic. Families of both nations actually able to watch a game of football together because this is what it is. Football. A sport. Not men's football or women's football. Football. So many youngsters are going to be inspired by what they've seen over the last couple of weeks and that's amazing. Good feelings are few and far between right now and we need to embrace it! If Euro 2022 wasn't your thing then that's absolutely fine, if you're not going to be watching the upcoming WSL season then again that's absolutely, perfectly fine. You're not a misogynist if you thought the commentary tonight was, to be polite, grating, because I thought it definitely was nor are you alone with being initially confused if a headline appears about a key Arsenal player breaking their leg in five places and they're referring to the women's team. It's cool (obviously not the broken leg element). Who knows what the hell I'm on about. I'm genuinely still a wee bit excited that we've won the Euros. I've watched more of the women's side this month than I ever have in my life and I shall be watching more. The whole set up is a credit to the country and for a sadly all too brief moment, I don't feel as awkward to be English and that's down to them.

I know there are logistical reasons as to why it's not at Wembley this year but I wouldn't mind the Charity Shield being held at a different ground each year.

Thanks so much for this! Working well for me now. Probably the most wholesome thing I've used incognito mode for.

In my opinion, colours are as integral to the badge as the design itself - it all adds to the symbolism. If we changed the black stripes in the shield to red, that would be alright because it's still the same, of course? Similar to flags. Take this flag of The Netherlands, for example: Sure, the colours have been changed a wee bit but it's absolutely still the Dutch national flag, I just thought this colour arrangement would work best on different shirts. I just think that changing colours can change meanings. Our badge is coloured the way it is for a reason (with the notable exception of the erroneous blue background to the St. George's cross, which was a genuine error (should be white, of course) but is now part of the fabric, as it were). If we utilised the 80s NUFC circle badge then you can have that in any and every colour you like because it's just text.

I know I'm a broken record but stick a proper club badge on that and it would look fairly nice. (even if it was the 1980s NUFC circle badge in yellow then they can just have all my money.)

Maybe they're going to wear their regular home strip exclusively at home and this version of it away but if there's an actual clash with a team who also wear blue then they'd have a change/third kit for that. I remember when they were first formed they had a pledge that their kits would last for a couple of seasons so this is probably a cynical workaround.

Yeah, it's a bit of a mystery as to where the money is coming from but for all we know he could be making a killing on the after dinner speaker circuit.

I'm sat here in the office (absolutely, definitely working) whereas he's slicing apples or whatever in Lisbon. I know where I'd rather be right now.

Over the years I've become quite a bit of a travel wanker and very blasé or nonchalant about rocking up to whatever destination like it's nothing. I thought covid might have recalibrated things somewhat but not quite yet. Anyway, I genuinely enjoyed his brief Parisian excursion (admittedly it's the only video of his I've fully seen) and him referring to a crime scene near the Eiffel Tower in terms of health and safety was priceless. I'm certainly no fan of him loitering around the stadium or training ground but I do enjoy or did enjoy watching him experience elements of travel abroad for the first time because it reminds me of me being overseas on my own for the first time. I enjoy his naivety (whether real, genuine or otherwise) because I wish I could experience things in such simple ways again. I'd have loved to have filmed my trip to Riga when we played Ventspils, or perhaps not as I doubt I could handle the cringe if I saw it again. (I still have my doubts over that hotel orange juice). As license payers, we've already subsidised the holidays of barrel scraping oxygen thieves such as Gregg fucking Wallace and Joanna Lumley in the name of inane light entertainment. Even if Adam P is a character, I do think there's an element of sincerity and I genuinely would watch a series of him if he went on a jaunt to the 'stans or Eastern Europe or wherever - not even football related. I understand that people don't like him, no one is forced to watch and I'm not watching everything he puts out there but I think he could carve out a decent niche for himself. There's an awkwardness to him that I'm not ashamed to admit I may have had from time to time.

Evolution not revolution.

What happens in Saalfelden am Steinernen Meer stays in Saalfelden am Steinernen Meer.

On my wild and crazy trip to Baarle-Nassau/Baarle-Hertog a few years ago, I had lunch in a cafe called Brownies and Downies.

Totally agree with this. Add ons seem to be in vogue recently too, not sure why we're needing to care whether the club are due an extra £5million if the player wins the Champions League four times in a row. I don't know how indifferent a 13 year old me would have reacted to the news that we had signed Alan Shearer for £15million.... plus add ons.

They must have been on some strong gear when they came up with that. Oh, wait...

That's definitely one for the football pet hates thread but it really does grind my gears whenever "post-war" records or achievements are mentioned. To casually just write off 60 or 70 years of organised league and cup football like it doesn't matter. Plus, it's always the war, as if there's only ever been one. Sequels are rarely as good.

They're playing like a team of asthmatics against a team of asthmatics

John Arne Riise enjoying retirement there.

... by stealing a team-mate's bike (who doesn't look happy).

I'd love it if the club had a proper museum with the trophies, shirts, memorabilia and all that jazz - absolutely everything about the history of the club. Photographs and biographies from all the way back to the Stanley/East End/West End days. I want to know what happened to the original Northumberland Senior Cup, what's the story of the Tynemouth Infirmary Cup (it looks mint, as do all Victorian-era trophies). No single factoid is insignificant. Colin Veitch, Jimmy Lawrence, players of that calibre need showcasing. We clearly have the financial resources and the club certainly had a relationship with Paul Joannou (perhaps still do) so we need to get something done because the nature of the club is changing and will change considerably over the coming years and decades (in a good way) and we absolutely can't let elements of our history be lost.

Where we're going, we don't need roads.

Just casually signing England internationals like we haven't got enough already.

Sadio Mané getting a montage on Sky Sports News as if he's just died. He's not dead, he's just had the audacity to leave the English league, which is the same to Sky.

Hmm, when you're playing the ten Ba blues it's never positive. Hope you're alright.