Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
A Step Back in Time
Written by TimS on Wednesday, 21st Aug 2013 22:09

TimS reviews Susan Gardiner's new book Ipswich Town - A History.

These days, it is extremely difficult to write any sort of sports book. It was around five years ago when there seemed to be a trend that every footballer needed to put his name to some sort of autobiography that sometimes consisted of only a few carefully worded sentences and many Hello-like photographs of your favourite player at home, doing those tasks which make him seem like you and I.

Around 2009, I remember trying to review, what was essentially, a picture book about Fernando Torres, when he was a Liverpool player, and the darling of the red half of Merseyside. Every page seemed to have an emotional picture of Torres in Liverpool red screaming in front of the Kop, or mooching around Merseyside expressing his love for Liverpool and everything that Liverpool Football Club stood for. How have times changed after four years. Can they give away that book on Merseyside in 2013?!

You also have the chance to buy much more earnest sport history books which try to suggest that football was something more than which player would be signed by the end of the transfer window, which player had fallen out with which manager, a slightly patronising chronology about football and whether the 'enfranchisement’ of football is the only opportunity for the working class to have a voice.

Then, there are those that want to tell the history of football and a football club, like this particular book from Susan Gardiner. These books have an extremely difficult job to achieve, and sometimes do not really manage to succeed.

Always written with good intentions, these books can become the victims of the passage of time. One day’s great game becomes the next day’s distant memory. That season’s player of the year becomes nothing more than next season’s TV pundit. One cup match defines a decade and a person’s life. Players sell their medals to pay off debts during the following years. Then there is a dangerously large number of fans who believe that football really began in 1992, and that anything beforehand is nothing more than clichéd nostalgia filmed exclusively in black and white.

For Ipswich fans, the two biggest events in the club’s history happened before 1992, and if you come from a family that has supported Ipswich for many decades, you are schooled about what happened on 6th May 1978 and 20th May 1981.

When I feel down or depressed, I have been known to watch my DVD copy of the 1978 FA Cup final. Those two cup events have dominated any sort of discussion about Town’s history, and as I am someone who is interested in history, I dearly wish that I had been standing by the bulging plate glass windows of Debenhams, when Town brought the FA Cup back to Suffolk. You could argue what else can be said about those cup triumphs. Although a number of pages of this book are devoted to those memorable matches, this book is not just about those campaigns.

It is very tempting to start to read, and potentially only read, about those seasons which you can remember from your seat at Portman Road. I was the victim to that temptation. I started at the back of the book and read about the 1990s and the noughties, remembering players that came and went during Town’s never-ending attempts to reach the Premiership during the late nineties.

Memories of Green King and Punch sports clothing came flooding back. I also read about the John Lyall years remembering the endless Saturdays when my uncle came back from the football in a foul and miserable mood thinking that everything about Ipswich Town Football Club was going to the dogs. I worked backwards through the chapters, reading about the Robson years, and yet again wondering why I could not have been born in 1970 rather than 1980 and that I could have been there at those games.

The book succeeds in wending a rollercoaster way through one season of relative success after a season of failure. The book also succeeds to a large extent in putting the success of Town in a wider context of what was happening in the town of Ipswich at that time.

I have often thought that there has occasionally been the feeling that down the years, Ipswich town has been separate from Ipswich Town Football Club in geographical space as well as attitude. This book tries to provide that link especially in the early chapters about the club’s formation, and the bitter battles between the club’s founding fathers about whether Town should be a professional outfit or not be polluted by the excess of professionalism and remain a strictly amateur outfit. These early chapters told me lots that I did not know.

Nothing that could contribute to any promotion push that may occur this season, but some comforting stories that Ipswich Town Football Club has been an outfit that has been cared for by many generations. It is not just a money-making machine struggling in the quagmire of the Championship. There are a number of pictures in the book and one picture dates from 11th April 1992 looking out towards Churchmans. That image really brought home to me that everything to do with now Ipswich Town Football Club has dramatically changed during the last 21 years.

This book will make you feel a bit old. Reading about what seems to be only yesterday in a book that is about the history of Ipswich Town Football Club, makes you appreciate that you have some memories that stretch back far longer than yesterday. (Writing the word Churchmans probably needs to qualified as the South Stand to Town fans aged 20 or younger).

Regardless of any self pity about your age or your long emotional relationship with the club, this book is a worthwhile read and a nice diversion from life as the autumnal nights begin to draw in.

You can read more about Ipswich Town – A History, which is published by Amberley Publishing, here and can buy a copy here.




Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.

IamSpartacus added 09:16 - Aug 28
A good positive write up.... I'll have to get this now- was already pondering,

I do hanker for the days where the leagues were more open, and not the closed shop where the top teams, by virtue of ensuring they get lots more money than the others, will always be the top teams.
0

Superfrans added 10:13 - Aug 29
Just wanted to support the positive notes above. I have picked up this book in the past week and, within a couple of days, have pretty much finished it. It is true to say that it is mostly based on desk research (rather than extensive first hand interviews) and it covers a lot of the historical ground already documented in The Men Who Made The Town (which is the definitive guide to our history). But Susan weaves a really interesting journey through this history, in parallel with history of Suffolk, Ipswich and football in general - and does it in a particularly accessible way. I'm sure some will find holes in it (and highlight topics which are covered in less detail than they would like) but I genuinely enjoyed it, learned a fair bit and was reminded of a lot of facets of our history which I had forgotten. Thoroughly recommended.
0

solemio added 16:26 - Sep 13
There are those who would argue cogently that being champions of England in 1962 was Ipswich Town's greatest achievement.
0
You need to login in order to post your comments

Blogs 295 bloggers

About Us Contact Us Terms & Conditions Privacy Cookies Advertising
© TWTD 1995-2024