Down Memory Lane's Memory Lane
Back in 2014 Pete Goringe, the celebrated statistician for many years with Cray Wanderers, published a book. But it wasn't just any old book. At the time, it was a veritable bible of facts and figures relating to our football club since its inception in circa 1860.
I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of that book from Pete and I still have it. From time to time, I refer to it when I am researching information from the club's past, or I just need to remind myself when a particular game was played. It has become crazy useful to me over the years and I certainly wouldn't want to be without it.
I didn't have any idea how many pages the book has because Pete didn't number them. But, today, I counted them. There are 128 A5 inner double-sided pages of total Cray Wanderers playing statistics. And that's a lot of collated information. The book has started to fall apart because the two staples holding it all together have rusted over time and one has fallen out; the other staple is loose and will probably go the way of the first staple. Then all the pages will fall out. At that time, I will probably get out my paper cutter or my office-size guillotine and my binding machine and rejoin it together to ensure that the book lasts for at least another 11 years.
On the inner cover, where Pete has written his Foreword, I notice that I got a mention for being a help somewhere along the line. I do tend to pop up all over the place in these club publications, don't I?! But, to continue...
Between them, in 2010, Pete and equally celebrated club historian Jerry Dowlen produced a smart-looking shiny covered publication called 'Forever Amber'. I would like to think that they named it after the official Cray Wanderers website which, at that time, I was overseeing and I had called it 'Forever Amber' — but I think it was more coincidence than anything. That book contained loads and loads of photos and, of course, a version of the club's history inside. Unfortunately, as was later to be confirmed, some of the information was incorrect. But that didn't matter at the time. It looked like a lavish production and a non-Cray Wanderers football associate of mine who grabbed a copy said he'd willingly have paid double the asking price for it. Yes, it was that good.
Strangely, though, Pete's later handbook-size publication sort of pushed the glossier A4 publication aside as it had real meat inside it. Pete had done a colossal amount of work and research on the content and it shows. Results going back to 1889-90 and league tables going back to 1894-95, it is a veritable goldmine of information that I am glad to have in my possession.
I doubt if there's any copies of 'A Complete Statistical Record of 125 Years of Competitive Football (1889-2014)' still available but, if any Wands supporter bequeaths you a copy of it in their will, please grab it with both hands when the time comes because it is an absolute treasure trove for a Cray Wanderers supporter to own.
Since Pete's book was introduced to the world, he has gone on to not only update the information but also to fill in a few of the earlier gaps, in his fast-selling 'Wandering No More!' publication that flew off the shelves in 2024. If you are lucky, you might still be able to grab a copy in the club shop, the next time you are at Flamingo Park. Once they are gone they are gone and I don't think that the club has any plans to order another print run.
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