Reading Football Club was founded in 1871, making it one of the oldest in the country. Original members of the Southern League, they joined Division 3 of the Football League in 1920. Having been one of the 'smaller' teams over the years cigarette and trade card issues featuring Reading were a lot less common than for the traditional big clubs, though they were well served by early postcards.

I started following Reading as a young boy in the early seventies and like all kids I swapped gum cards and stickers, but none of them ever featured my team. I became interested in collecting cards around twenty years ago when I found a team postcard from the twenties at a local collectors fair. I was hooked and became an avid collector over the next few years. I discovered Reading players on some beautiful cigarette cards as can be seen here.

All the cards scanned here are from my own collection except for the Brigham set (card scans 2) They are amoung the rarest of all football cigarette cards and my thanks go to Keith Moulden for supplying the images.

Using full-screen (F11) will improve viewing.

Many thanks for visiting and please sign the guest book!  Chris Lee        

                                                                                             

Taddy Prominent Footballers

A huge set was issued by Taddy in 1907 which included 15 Reading players. The following year another issue included ten more 'Biscuitmen' and the final set appeared in 1913 but unfortunately Reading did not feature. The three sets add up to nearly 1400 cards and provide a fantastic snapshot of pre-Great War football. All of the Reading cards are included on this site. The earlier set features Herbert Smith, Reading's famous amateur captain and left-back, who played for England four times. He 'is a total abstainer who smokes moderately' and 'is idolised by the players of his club'

 

Brigham & Co.

Brigham was a local tobacconist with a shop on Broad Street, Reading. When the Southern League second division title was won in 1911 they issued a series of 16 cards with their Gold Flake cigarettes. Alan Foster was Reading's star player and when they beat mighty Aston Villa 1-0 in a 1912 cup-tie, his winner was described as 'one of the prettiest goals ever seen in the annuls of Elm Park'. Sadly he was killed in action during the Great War.  Centre-half Ted Hanney appeared at the 1912 Olympic Games as part of the Great Britain football team. As previously mentioned these cards are extremely scarce and unfortunately they are not mine!

 

Pinnace Cards

Pinnace Cards were issued by Godfrey Phillips in the early 1920's and featured just about every football and rugby player of the day. A small card was issued with a packet of ten cigarettes, large size versions were given away with boxes of fifty and premium 'cabinet' sized cards were available in exchange for 25 small cards. For 100 small cards you could obtain a large team photo of any of the league sides, but not suprisingly there are not too many about. Does anyone know if a Reading version exsists? If so I'd be delighted to hear about it! Shown here is Bert Eggo, who captained Reading to the Division Three South Championship in 1925/26 and the F.A. Cup semi-final in 1927.

 

 

Simod Cup Winners

All Royals fans will remember March 27th 1988 when, on their first visit to Wembley Stadium, second division Reading thrashed first division Luton 4-1 in the Simod Cup Final. A set of 16 cards was issued by Collectors Fair and featured here are goal scorers Stuart Beavon, Neil Smillie, Mick Tait and Michael Gilkes.

 

Panini Stickers

 

After Reading won the Second Division title in 1994 they appeared in Panini's sticker collection for 1994/95. They went on to finish second that season, but that year only the Champions were promoted automatically and we all know what happened in the play-offs...

 

Topps Cards

When Reading reached the Premier League in 2006 a bonus for collectors was the number of cards and stickers issued. Shown here are some of the cards from American firm Topps.

 

 

Postcards

In the early part of the 20th century postcards of all types were popular, football included. Reading F.C. appeared on many postcards and I have included a couple of dozen on this site. This card includes trainer Billy Beats, far left, who played in the F.A. Cup final in 1896 for Wolves. He can be seen in his playing days on a Taddy card (scans 2)