|
Written by Steve Nicholson
As things often do, Rub of the Greens began over a pint or three. As the ale went down, the appeal of an Argyle fanzine seemed to grow and grow – kind of like beer goggles I suppose. The instigators were the Scowcroft brothers Tony (RIP) and Nigel, who both lived in London at the time and were members of PASALB (Plymouth Argyle Supporters Association London Branch).
By 1990, football fanzines had already taken off around the country, as a follow on to music fanzines from the punk era. Argyle already had a couple, but this was soon to be added to. Tony had held various positions within PASALB and knew there would be a number of individuals who would be willing to write articles for the new publication.
The biggest debate was about what to call the fanzine. It was decided that the word “green” must feature in the title and the first choice was The Green Piece. However, they were beaten to it by someone else – a short lived ‘zine lasting only three issues, was already out called The Green Piece. The other Argyle ‘zine already in publication was Central Heating, another short-lived title.
And so, in March 1990, Rub of the Greens first hit the streets. The first issue featured a picture of Nelson Mandela on the cover with him saying “Hey Winnie, have Argyle won yet?” I assume that Argyle must have been going through a barren run similar to the start of this season. It was the one and only issue priced at 40p as the next one, and for the next 14 years, it was 50p. The only reason for the 10p hike was because of the problem with giving change when people bought it using £1.
The writers up until the summer of 1992 were almost exclusively members of PASALB, the London based Argyle supporters’ association. The contributors read like a ‘Who’s Who’ of movers and shakers at PASALB – Jon Coker, Chris Dean, Rupert Metcalf, John Williams, Martin Jones, Fred Fielding, Steve Magner, Susan Riggs and some strange Janner calling himself the Honey Monster. In 1992, however, things began to change as Tony Scowcroft moved to Bristol.
At this time the Bristol based supporters’ association – PASTA - was getting off the ground, and Tony began to receive contributions from some of the members, notably Steve Nicholson and Dave Pay. Many of the PASALB contributors continued as well, such as Chris Dean, Martin Jones, Fred Fielding, Rupert Metcalf and John Williams. By the summer of 1996 there were more Bristol based writers with Roger Hutchinson, Judith (Lane) Scowcroft, Nigel Grant, Mark Colling, David Chubb, Howard Simpson and Mark Howell replacing all bar Martin Jones from PASALB.
In April 1996 ROTG had three editors as Tony Scowcroft showed Steve Nicholson and Dave Pay the ropes and by September, Tony was too ill to continue his editing duties and so passed the baton to Steve and Dave to edit jointly. Tony eventually died in August 1997 (RIP). The November 1997 issue contained a tribute and a couple of the ‘old guard’ wrote something.
December 1998 saw the first appearance of David Keogh as a writer, followed by his father Tony in August 1999. They became stalwarts up to the present day, barely missing an issue since they started writing. April 2000 saw the first appearance of Larry ‘I Hate Watford’ Putt.
The next major change occurred in August 2000 – when Dave Pay became editor of the online ROTG fanzine, leaving Steve Nicholson to run the hard copy independently. Nothing changed in the layout, but there were some new writers – Kev Herring, Neil ‘Jellyroll’ Jenkins, Alan Minnithorpe and John Lloyd as well as members of Steve’s family, father Joe and kids Sarah and Joe. February 2004 saw the inclusion of Blake Hall as a writer for the first time, fresh from his sojourn at ‘Hoof!’.
Since the first issue in March 1990, Rub of the Greens had been printed with a plain green cover – except for issue 48 ‘Rub of the
That all changed with the first colour cover in April 2004. The colour cover was to try to soften the blow of the price rise to £1 in August. ROTG had been 40p for the first issue and 50p from May 1990 to August 2004 – 14 years and over seventy issues. It was still a difficult decision to take, even though if it had risen in price with inflation it would have been nearer £4. There have been a few special issues – the Relegation Special of 1995 at 20p, the Wembley Play Off special of 1996 at 20p, the Spa Wars special of 1999 which was free, the Promotion Special of 2002 at 25p, the Championship special of 2002 at 25p and the Alpine Special of 2003 at one euro.
A few new writers drifted in from contributors to the website, such as Tony Whelan, Mark Sibley, Derek Greenhalgh and Mike Hughes. Also, for two issues (80 and 81) ROTG was renamed ‘The Cesspit Of Bile’ after a contributor to P@SOTI has thrown that insult at the ROTG website (the ROTG fanzine and website are now two separate entities, with ROTG having its own complementary presence on the internet). There were also welcome contributions from a couple of the original writers, Nigel Springthorpe and Chris Dean.
At the end of the 2005/06 season I had ‘lost my mojo’ and seriously considered closing down ROTG. What saved the fanzine at that time was the plan to make it almost entirely subscription only. I advertised in a number of relevant places and received enough subscriptions to warrant keeping going as it would cover itself financially. The zine also had a new all colour glossy cover for the first time.
As it turned out, there was still a small margin of profit which was put to good use. In all of the years I edited ROTG, all of the profits were donated to The Argyle Trust, which helped to secure and develop young talent at the club. It was a great honour to see the likes of Paul Connolly and Luke McCormick play first team football, as RotG had contributed to their progress. Once the Trust closed, the profits were given to the Argyle ladies team, although by then the profits were much smaller.
In November 2008, I edited my final fanzine. It was the 100th ROTG since the start, and at the time it seemed that it would die a peaceful death. But riding over the hill on his white stallion came Blake Hall to save the day. He began with an Arsenal cup tie review in January 2009 and, including the season preview in the summer of the same year, has now produced several splendid new issues. It is good to see one of the regular articles in there – the Team of the 00s. This series first started with the Team of the 90s in issue 46, and we subsequently also covered the best teams of the 80s, 70s and 60s.
With the change of editor came a change of direction and, with it, more pages and more contributors, adding the talents Andy Chapman, Tom Hammett, Matt Easterbrook to the throng of regular contributors. Regular features were added, such as “Argyle At The Movies” – a back page colour original film poster, doctored with an Argyle twist – and the exaggerated club history of various clubs “Nightmare At..”.
Over the years ROTG has been entertaining, offering an irreverent view on the club and football in general, as well as being a campaigning vehicle, having been involved with such issues as the McCauley Out campaign, NYD@LOFC, and One Step Beyond on the Barbican.
Rub of the Greens continues to grow – here’s to the next twenty years! |