Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman died yesterday. You will find an excellent obituary here:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/0,,2138240,00.html

This article by Peter Bradshaw is also worth reading.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/bergman/story/0,,2138253,00.html

After receiving one of his numerous awards he told a journalist: “I hope I never get so old I get religious”. Well, you did get old, but you never sold out.

West Ham Squad

I have created a new section of the website on the 2007 West Ham United Squad

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2007WHsquad.htm

West Ham v Southend

I took my seven year-old grandson to see West Ham on Saturday. When they announced the name of Anton Ferdinand in West Ham’s team against Southend, a section of the crowd booed. Alex, who proudly wears Ferdinand’s number on the back of his West Ham shirt, looked up at me with a puzzled expression on his face.

I know that Ferdinand’s behaviour last season left a lot to be desired. However, this attitude towards him seems very strange. As a teacher and parent of 35 years, I have always found that praising good behaviour is always more effective than criticising bad behaviour. I noticed at the end of the game, Ferdinand was the only player who came over to the West Ham crowd to sign autographs. Maybe it was his way of saying sorry. I would suggest we accept his apologies and get behind him for what could be an important season in the career of Anton Ferdinand.

You can see photographs of this incident here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/07WHferdinand.htm

I was very impressed with Ljungberg who linked effectively with the overlapping Lucas Neill. Bellamy's quickness off the mark regularly caused problems for Southend. He made runs all day and complained bitterly about not being found by his team-mates. Etherington and McCartney both received serious bollockings. Noble worked hard as always and Zamora led the line well. I thought Etherington was fairly poor but I don't expect him to play very much this season.

You can see the goals here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/07WHbellamy.htm

Football Cigarette Cards

In 1871 the American company of Allen and Ginter began inserting pieces of card to protect the cigarettes from being damaged. It was not long before tobacco companies had the idea of printing advertisements on these cards, or "stiffeners" as they were called in the trade. In about 1876 companies began producing a series of cards that the smoker could collect. It was believed that this would encourage the smoker to continue using that particular brand.

The first British company to issue cigarette cards was W.D. & H.O. Wills. The first card appeared in 1887 and were at first used to advertise its products. Ogdens, a company based in Liverpool, introduced the first series of cigarette cards in 1894.

As Gordon Howsden points out in his book, Collecting Cigarette and Trade Cards: "At a time when the average family could not afford books, and with the technique of reproducing photographs in newspapers still some years away, these cards could inform and amuse, and bring a little bit of colour into what were all too often very drab lives."

Arnold Bennett once remarked that "some boys will grow up with cigarette cards as their sole education". Another writer, Clifford Hough, pointed out that cigarette cards were dubbed "The Working Man's Encyclopedia" because "they brought pictures of famous faces and fascinating places to the attention" of the masses. Hough adds that on "the reverse side the captions contained many interesting facts and pieces of information that often sunk into a boy's mind to a greater extent than any dull textbook from schooldays."

Subjects were chosen to appeal to their male customers. In 1896 the first set with a sporting theme appeared. This was a series of 50 cricketers. The tobacco companies discovered that these sporting cards were a great way to obtain brand loyalty. Later that year the first football set appeared. Footballers & Club Colours was published by Marcus & Company, a small firm in Manchester.

I have produced pages showing the early cigarette cards that featured Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, West Ham United and Preston North End players.

I would be very interested if anyone has any cigarette cards of players that are not featured on my pages.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Fcigarette.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/MANUcig.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/BLACKBURNcig.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FcigaretteWH.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRESTONcig.htm

Smedley Butler

On Monday night Radio 4 broadcast a programme about Smedley Butler. You can listen to the programme here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document.shtml

You can also read about him here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAbutlerSD.htm

His book "War is a Racket" can be read online here:

http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

Teaching Materials on the Early History of Football

I have started producing teaching materials to go with my Football Encyclopaedia:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ENCfootball.htm

The first lesson is for primary school children. It includes questions on several early photographs of football players. I have tried them out on my 7 year old grandson. I would be grateful if anyone could try them out on their children. I will then use the feedback to improve the materials.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/1Fkits.htm

I have included an answer page here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/1FkitsA.htm

History GCSE

Andy Walker's excellent website contains a large collection of revision resources for students studying GCSE history. This includes information on using historical sources, top revision tips and exam practice. At the moment the website specializes on the subject of medicine and features activities on Roman Public Health, Medieval Public Health, Renaissance Medicine, Louis Pasteur, Edward Jenner, Surgery, Women in Medicine and Florence Nightingale.

http://www.historygcse.org/