Where have you seen him before?

Imagine the scene... back in 2003, when I took over the custodianship of the official Cray Wanderers website from Jerry Dowlen, I was looking for a mascot image to include on the site header. I eventually found one (the faded version in the picture, left), courtesy of the public domain, and I decided to name him 'Jamie Kempster'. Now, Jamie Kempster was a midfielder who was playing for the Wands at the time and his name popped into my head first. Thereafter, my little football image was unofficially known by that Cray player's name.

If you were among the very many visitors to the old official club website between 2003 and 2012, you would have no doubt seen 'JK' adorning the site header. I also used his image on the front cover of a short book I wrote in 2006 called 'Forever Amber: The Story of the Cray Wanderers FC Website So Far' (now out of print). He has been around our club in one form or another for over twenty years.

Fast-forward those 20+ years and you now get to October 2025. Yesterday, in fact, the 5th of the month. While I was searching among my old Cray Wanderers related article files on my million and one USB sticks, up popped my old friend. He was looking a bit worn and tired out, so I decided to give him a makeover and make him more modern-looking (the sharper version in the picture, above left). So now we have 'Jamie Kempster version 2', or 'The Cray Wanderer' to be more precise (or vice-versa, if you like).

'The Cray Wanderer' image as updated is now unique. It is not in the public domain, it doesn't (or shouldn't!) appear on any other website or in any published material, nor is it to be found in any online stock image websites. Unless, of course, it gets stolen by internet bandits, also known as tea leaves. Unfortunately, there are plenty of those about, as quite a few things that I have created for online purposes over the years have been pinched even though I hold the copyrights and intellectual property rights to them. Unscrupulous buggers don't descriminate; they just take what isn't theirs.

You may see 'The Cray Wanderer' popping up occasionally on this blog site so please keep an eye out for him. You saw him here first!

Trevor Mulligan