Sports fans waited to get copies of the Oxford Mail's 'Green 'Un'

Thousands of copies of the paper – officially known as ‘Sports Mail’ but nicknamed the ‘Green ‘Un’ because it was printed on green paper – were sold in towns and villages every week during the football season.

It gave national and local results, as well as reports on Headington United (later Oxford United), Oxford City, Banbury Spencer (later United) and other leading local teams.

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In the 1950s and 1960s, radio and television did not carry local scores and fans would not know the results until they opened the paper.

After a quick glance, those at the front of the queue could impart the good – or bad – news to those behind.

We were reminded of those far-off days by readers Angela and Tony Steele, of Marlborough Avenue, Kidlington.

Mr Steele writes: “Its production must have been a considerable weekly achievement, bearing in mind the time frame and the way in which the telephone must have played such an important part.

The front page of the ‘Green Mail’ on Saturday, October 10 1959

“I remember waiting anxiously on what we used to call the Co-op Corner in Kidlington (the High Street junction with Banbury Road) to get hold of a copy. Angela remembers her family getting its copy in Long Hanborough.”

He is right – it was a mammoth, professional effort by a team of journalists, printers, delivery drivers and newsagents.

The six inside pages of the paper were completed earlier in the week, but the front and back pages were hastily compiled as the matches were taking place. Reporters would be despatched to grounds around the county and to places further afield, where local teams were playing.

They would dictate their reports over the phone to typists in the Oxford Mail office, in New Inn Hall Street and later at Osney Mead, and printers would prepare the text and pictures for the paper.

Timing was crucial – many games didn’t finish until 4.40pm and the paper had to be ready for printing at 5.30pm and despatched immediately in a fleet of vans.

Covering the matches, before the era of mobile phones and computers, was a tough job.

As a young reporter in the 1960s, I followed Oxford City. Reporting home matches at the White House ground, off Abingdon Road, was no problem – I had a phone plugged into a socket on the press bench in the stand.

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But away grounds often didn’t have a phone available, and I had to use a nearby kiosk or if that was occupied or out of order, offer half a crown to a nearby resident to use his or her phone and reverse the charges.

If that happened, you often missed part of the second half and had to rely on other reporters or even supporters to update you on the score.

One Mail reporter covered matches at Wolvercote where the pitch was on one side of a level crossing and a public phone box was on the other.

He reckoned the crossing keeper deliberately closed the gates when he saw him coming!