00:00I've come over to Quinston to meet Norman, our esteemed local historian, who's doing a new project about the Sports Argus. Tell us why, Norm?
00:11Well, the Sports Argus was Birmingham's, well, the whole of the West Midlands, really, premier sports newspaper on a Saturday night for over a hundred years.
00:21And it was an essential Bible of sport. And because of changes in technology and the like, it closed down.
00:29And it's still fondly remembered by everybody. Well, certainly loads of people, obviously.
00:34And it's coming up to the 20th anniversary of the last edition. And you say that to people that remember it.
00:39And I can't believe it's been 20 years since it's closed. People have got such fantastic fond memories of it that we thought it was worth doing a book.
00:46So the book's going to come out end of April, beginning of May, to commemorate 20 years since the very last edition.
00:55And the last edition actually said on the front cover of it, Nailbiter.
00:59And it's going to be a Nailbiter to get this book finished in time for then as well.
01:02But the Nailbiter there was the cup final, which had gone into extra time.
01:06Right.
01:06And there's your front page from the very last edition.
01:10It was a really beloved newspaper, wasn't it, in the area?
01:12Yeah. Thousands of kids used to line up. That was their task for a Saturday night.
01:18They'd dare send going to the house if they hadn't got the Argus.
01:21So the dads used to send them down to collect them.
01:23And there'd be dozens, hundreds maybe, if it was a big match, of people queuing up outside the newsagents waiting for it to come in.
01:32And if you didn't know the scores beforehand, you could always tell whether the Albion, the Blues or the Villal had won by the size of the queue.
01:37Because if they'd won it, it was a big match. It was a huge queue.
01:41If all three of them had lost, it was disastrous for the Argus because nobody wanted to buy it that day.
01:46Argus was particularly good on non-league sports and amateur sports as well.
01:51And the lesser known sports such as tennis and the likes.
01:55And the non-league football scene.
01:58So who have you been interviewing for the book?
02:01So lots of ordinary fans, shall we call them really, ordinary readers who've got memories of, as I say, of queuing up, of going to the big matches, of the specials.
02:13Because the Argus did special navy blue ones when the Albion won the Cup, for instance, in 1931 when they played the Blues.
02:21And there was a Clariton Blue edition in 1957 when Aston Villa won the Cup.
02:25And lots of people have got them.
02:27But it's not just that.
02:28There's lots of specials as well.
02:30There's a cracking one here, the Milk Cup semi-finals.
02:33And this was Walsall versus Liverpool, Villa versus Everton, for instance.
02:39So things like this is Mark Arisa, but also on the frontcourt of that one.
02:44And some of the non-league stuff, the Argus, you would say, was particularly good at.
02:48So this is the VAR smashers when Hal Zoe and Wembley back in the mid-1980s.
02:53Well, we'll certainly come and see you again when it comes out.
02:55Thank you so much for your time, Norm.
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