Memories of Oxfordshire football fans queuing for the 'Green 'Un'

It was officially the Sports Mail, the sports edition of the Oxford Mail, but was known by its popular title because it was always printed on green paper, not white.

It gave national and local football 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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Mr Steele, who lives near Woodstock, wrote to Memory Lane a year ago to remind us of the queues which gathered outside newsagents’ shops on Saturday night waiting for the paper to arrive.

Now he has written again after spotting an item in the Changing Faces of Kidlington, one of the popular series of books featuring Oxfordshire towns and villages from Robert Boyd Publications.

The book, compiled by Julie Kennedy, includes a picture of Frank Morris, who “on Saturday nights, stood at the corner of High Street, Kidlington, selling the green Oxford Mail which had all the football results in.”

The caption also revealed that he lived in The Moors, Kidlington, and was the first man to deliver the Oxford Mail in the village.

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On the following page, there is a picture of a Mr Morris, possibly the same man, at work building Blenheim Road infants’ school.

He is said to have been a shepherd in his early years.

The Sports Mail - or ‘Green ‘Un’ - was eagerly awaited by sports fans.

In the 1950s and early 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 waiting behind for their copy.

Mr Steele recalls: “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 our copy of the Green ‘Un.

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“My wife Angela remembers her family getting their copy in Long Hanborough.”

It was a mammoth, professional effort by a team of journalists, printers, delivery drivers and newsagents to get the paper to readers.

The six inside pages were completed earlier in the week, but the front and back pages were hastily compiled as the matches were taking place.

Reporters would dictate their reports over the phone to typists in the Oxford Mail offices - in New Inn Hall Street and later Osney Mead - and printers would prepare the text and the 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, was a tough job, with reporters often having to rely on telephone kiosks in nearly streets being vacant and in working order to get their reports to the office in time. The Oxford Mail building in Osney Mead became the paper’s new home in 1972. Last year the paper moved to a new office.

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This story was written by Andy Ffrench, he joined the team more than 20 years ago and now covers community news across Oxfordshire.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Andy.ffrench@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @OxMailAndyF