The first home match of the season has for the last 20 years heralded the first issue of the TWTD fanzine of a new campaign. This year, however, will be different as we’ve decided to stop producing the paper-based zine.

Over the last year we’ve found it increasingly hard to find the time to put zines together with the final issue, number 99, coming out before Christmas.

The website and other commitments have taken up an increasingly large amount of time and in line with most similar paper-based fanzine, sales have dropped in recent years to around 1,000, about one-fifteenth of the website’s current daily unique users.

We had planned to put together a compilation ‘best of’ issue 100, but having looked through the material there is far too much we’d want to include for just a fanzine, so there may be a book at some point in the future. In the meantime, the TWTD fanzine will be stuck at number 99, plus the 1992 Summer Special which was unnumbered.

Many thanks to the many contributors, purchasers, readers and sellers over the years, both during our period as editors and under the previous stewardships of Paul Stephens, Steve Mellen and Gavin Barber and Phil Arnold. Subscribers with issues outstanding will be reimbursed in the next couple of weeks.

The end of the paper TWTD doesn’t mean we don’t still want contributions from site readers. If you want to express an opinion or write anything in general which you feel deserves greater attention than just a story comment or a Message Board post, then become a TWTD blogger.

Photo: Action Images

PavlovsCat added 11:37 - Aug 13 Noooo! I want me Raydon Ramblings! x
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Wallingford_Boy added 11:39 - Aug 13 Thanks Phil and the rest for all your work down the years, I was a contributor in the early days but just became an avid reader after that. Can fully understand your decision as more and more publications fold due to the interweb, but thats the way of the world. TWTD....
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AdmiralFunge added 11:42 - Aug 13 Bit sad, but completely understandable, really.... Thanks for all your hard work on the 'zine over the years Phil & Gav (and the various other dishevelled sellers I've seen outside the ground over the years); here's hoping that the website continues to go from strength to strength.... Cheers! Funge
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HampshireBlue added 11:49 - Aug 13 What a shame. Reading this site on your phone isn't the same as the paper zine.
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thebeat added 11:51 - Aug 13 Gutted, ive had so many laughs down the years reading the fanzine, but the website must take up a lot of your time so i understand why your packing it in.Thanks for all the hard work down the years producing a great zine.
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SouperJim added 11:53 - Aug 13 Bit sad to see it go but I understand the reasoning. Have you considered making it a quaterly thing?
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comrade_blue added 11:53 - Aug 13 Very sad and i am sure there are many Town fans who are not on the net - who will miss out = as TWTD joins Dribble!, 'A Load of Cobbolds', 'Townsfolk', 'Blue' - radical fanzines seem to have died, maybe a few one offs may turn up!! I might even get my old tyewriter out agin- Dribble! may come back- but under a new name - 'Roy walks his dogs (and manages a football team)' Maybe not!

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dubblue added 11:57 - Aug 13 Yea sorry to see the 'zine go. Being based in Dublin and only getting over 2 or 3 times each year the mag kept me informed and amused. Thanks to Phil & Gav.
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Help added 12:15 - Aug 13 It will be sorely missed in this house, as some contributors wit was way sharper then mine. A very enjoyable read over the years. Maybe raydon could become a blog. Or split personalities an irregular thing on the site.
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PhilTWTD added 12:20 - Aug 13 Many thanks for all the kind words. I suspect the dishevelled seller is my friend Mat, who was a seller from 1994 onwards. Further to the comments re Raydon, I'll have a word with them re a blog, although they have a site with their old pieces on in any case: http://www.raydonramblings.org.uk/
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BluJu added 12:20 - Aug 13 Shame. It was very absorbent. ;o)
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BlueBagel added 12:22 - Aug 13 Gutted, but understandable. Thanks for all the quality issues down the years. I will miss the poetry corner, split personalities and Raydon Ramblings.
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Bobbychase added 12:23 - Aug 13 Sad news but inevitable and you've done well to keep up your enthusiasm to this point. It's not an easy job. Good luck with the online-only version.
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jonnysuave added 12:38 - Aug 13 Its a shame a mag always seems to have so much more substance than the infinitesimal ramblings of the internet crowd. Thanks though for a great mag and site spin off which allows us all to get all Ipswichy and argue and get hot under the collar and laugh at/with the daily shenanigans around PR. Well done. We're all rather lucky to have this and the mag before it and don't necessarily realise it.

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HateDerekDavis added 12:41 - Aug 13 Big shame. Might you consider an annual end of season review issue?
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asajennings added 12:45 - Aug 13 You've done a fantastic job over the years and I look forward to the book!
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patrickswell added 13:00 - Aug 13 I contributed a few articles over the years and I still remember the feeling of pride I had when I saw my name listed among the contributors. It's understandable but very sad. Fanzines are a necessary counterpoint to the uncontroversial output of an official programme. It would be great if a new one sprang up, even if only as a limited edition.
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Back_The_Boss added 13:17 - Aug 13 Shame, I use to get one nearly every time it came out. It was just as good, if not better than the matchday programme. I will just have to look on here more often.
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Help added 13:41 - Aug 13 I agree with hatederekdavis. How about a christmas special like the BBC, or end of season review one-off. Oh yes, poetry corner, Neilsky.
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BOjK added 14:47 - Aug 13 I'll really miss it. It (and the other zines) have been part of my matchday ritual for as long as they have been produced. The best games were the ones we won and I had a zine to read on the train home. Thanks to all who worked on it over the years. I will forever have £1 unspent on a Saturday at Portman Road now ...
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canveyblue added 15:17 - Aug 13 Thanks for the enjoyment the zine has bought to my son and i,it was fantastic. keep up the good work with the website.
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onlybluesandhorses added 15:58 - Aug 13 We have an owner who will not show his face, a CEO who talks gobbledegook and a scary inexperienced manager. None of them have any connection with the Club. And now this.... It is just too much. The paper TWTD was worth it for the superb Dan Thomas covers alone and of course Raydon Ramblings and all the other features. It is a situation worthy of Raydon itself. The Tattingstone Reservoirists. Will we ever see their like again?

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maldonblue added 16:22 - Aug 13 A sad sign of 'advancement'. The matchday programme with its glossy pages and drivel content can only wish to be so enjoyed. Sorry to see the end TWTD.
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renshaw added 16:28 - Aug 13 oh well
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BlueFinn added 16:35 - Aug 13 How to improve this net site then? No, It's good in most things but sometimes I'd really wish people only used the table mode when discussing on the forum/board. I think nothing would be lost if there was only the "table mode-collapsed view" option because the others only encourage one line answers to topics and the worst of all many times half of the messages on topic make unnecessassary quote with even no intention clearly to quote anything. It makes the topics very long with not much to say in many single posts.And a mish mash to read if you even sometimes print them for your way home as do with the match reports.And that's a mark of quality in itself,printing a fanzine yourself (at work).

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