Green 'Un To Go

[UnitedBlade]

Paul Walker ‏@Walkerpw

31m​

Hearing The Green Un is to be no more. I always buy it, it's part of my Saturday night ritual. Will be sad to see it go.

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Once an essential read but I haven't bought one for ages.

I assume these days it's full of pig propaganda.

Still sad to see it go. Daily versions of the Stir next to go ?

 

[Guesty]

Ah that's a shame for all it's a bit rubbish. One of the last surviving green/pink 'uns about I think.

Hands up how many people still have a Blades Glory/Owls Down copy lying about? I know my Dad does.

 

[UnitedBlade]

 

[raul]

The last time a Sheffield team played in the Premiership, the main headline on the opening day of that season featured the one who wasn't.

Haven't even glanced at one since. Enjoy the Job Centre.

 

[alcoblade]

It's had its' day, but it's still really sad.

I'll never forget Saturday nights in the pub with a bunch of lads all sat quietly reading the Green Un, before disecting how wank we'd been that day.



UTB

 

[Ted Danson]

Good riddance although it would be nice if they kept it going until the end of this season coming up and then we could have a similar headline as the last ever headline on the green un

 

[Grecian2000]

It's had its' day, but it's still really sad.

I'll never forget Saturday nights in the pub with a bunch of lads all sat quietly reading the Green Un, before disecting how wank we'd been that day.



UTB

Exactly my thoughts.

Used to be essential reading, now I haven't bought it (or even picked it up for a cheeky free scan in the newsie) for years.

If you didn't know the scores, for any reason, you could always tell how each team had gone on by the clientelle queing for it to arrive at 6ish.

 

[Longtime Blade]

It's had its' day, but it's still really sad.

I'll never forget Saturday nights in the pub with a bunch of lads all sat quietly reading the Green Un, before disecting how wank we'd been that day.



UTB

I can recall a time when you could go into any dance hall in Sheffield and see men holding their partners in such a way that they were able to read the Green'Un over their shoulder as they circled the dance floor.

 

[sitwell]

Theres mine

 

[Kentblade]

Ah that's a shame for all it's a bit rubbish. One of the last surviving green/pink 'uns about I think.

Hands up how many people still have a Blades Glory/Owls Down copy lying about? I know my Dad does.

99% certain I have it" in my life as a Blade box" in my daughters loft these days.I am not surprised it is going as last season was the first time that I did not renew my subscription since 1978.Before then I used to buy it every week in Sheffield.
In my opinion it has not totally declined but with the instant technology it is history when it is received , even if bought in Sheffield as Blades have either been to the game or listened on Radio Sheffield or on Blades Player if outside the catchment area.
My box contains many programes and articles from the Green Un and Star/Telegraph going back as far as 1946.
We still have won nowt!
Would not change my support however.
UTB

 

[metalblade]

Them were the days standing in a queue at the paper shop Saturday nights and even if you were on holiday at Skeggy you could still hunt one down, technology has finally killed it.

 

[Highbury_Blade]

I used to love reading the mini sunday league reports in the back. Still got a couple in which i got mentioned.

 

[Selly]

The last time a Sheffield team played in the Premiership, the main headline on the opening day of that season featured the one who wasn't.

Haven't even glanced at one since. Enjoy the Job Centre.

In fairness we did play at lunchtime that day so most people would have known the result already.

But i take your point.

In a world where Foxy or Linz can update the s24su twitter feed and i know we have scored or conceded, even before the live score app on my phone had alerted me, a paper that is produced by 6:30 as fast as that is, just ain't fast enough...

 

[shorehamview]

The Green 'Un was past it's time several years ago. I last bought a copy when Wendy were relegated the other year purely as a present for my piggy father-in-law. As Selly says, what's the need for it when this forum and it's Twitter feed can update you within seconds, and certainly faster than the club's official Twitter and Facebook feeds?

 

[Deadbat]

I echo many in that it has had it's day and recently for the price it was; it was not very good at all and replicated much of what you could read on the net (often less in depth too) instantly. It is a sign of the times that printed newspapers such as this just don't have a need. If they do a decent version online it could still be ok and serviceable but the Star online is quite poor and I rarely read it. They are only as good as their reporters and sadly the United correspondent rarely gets exclusives/new stories and his match reports are not of the best quality. Sadly even our rivals correspondent Paul Thompson is vastly superior (although mentions support every week).

However it is still a really sad day even though it was inevitable. I remember getting a special edition 100th anniversary one a few years ago and thought it would do well to carry on much longer but it has gone on for another 5 or 6 years after this.

It makes me think of my Dad and many of my Uncles and generally a good memory of growing up. In the 80's and early 90's it was a god send and often was the first way of finding out how you had played (if away) and seeing the tables etc.

My main happy memories associated with it include :

-Daft as it sounds growing up it was one of the first things I actually read as a child - more interesting than 'normal books'. Also remember cutting out reports and gluing them to a scrapbook for a few seasons

-Queuing at the local shop waiting for the van (usually Dad would send me out ' Go and get t' Green Un' -also having one saved every week in case they sold out - always first or near front of queue so not sure why we had our name written on one!

-Getting it and going home but then having my Dad take it straight off me to devour from cover to cover - I had to wait my turn; not sure why we did not buy two!

-United winning and Wednesday losing (I too still have the copy from the above famous headline)

- The headlines (some crackers such as Christmas Eves etc)

- GT / Redgates leagues results and min reports and sometimes team photos - always great if you scored the week before - I remember getting a headline when they spelt my name wrong once!!!

- 25 years ago (having your Dad go on about the great old players/teams etc - when I bought one last year it scarily was right up to Bassett's early days which I can remember clearly!)

- Letters page; my Dad often mocking the Wednesday fans as letters went back and forth between both sets of fans saying who was bigger/better....tedious but still wound my Dad up!


I probably only got it maybe a couple of times a season now rather than every week without fail back in the day ; usually if passing local shop or coming back from somewhere (away match etc) and wanted something to read over my tea etc but will be odd if ever I am in a shop on a Saturday night or going past newsstands in town and not seeing it being sold anymore. A real Sheffield institution that was always going to go but still sad all the same. Sure Pete McKee who often did cartoons in it could do something to mark it's passing?

 

[super_pig]

last one will be a Wednesday special no doubt

 

[Selly]

last one will be a Wednesday special no doubt

So the same as the previous 1135 editions then????

 

[Kev Gee]

I agree its sad to see it go.

I didnt see much of this bias that is in the star for instance.

When i used to play for my school side i always bought it after i scored the previous week

 

[JohnDenver]

Hands up how many people still have a Blades Glory/Owls Down copy lying about?

*hand up*

As a kid I used to go up to the newsagent in Dore with my dad to buy it every Saturday night. The bloody thing was often late and the paper shop had to stay open so a few queueing footy fans could get their fix. I'd buy the Green and some sweets, then go home to read it while munching sweets and glancing up at MacGyver on TV.

When I left for Uni, my dad used to pop it in the post every week without fail, bless him.

I'm suddenly feeling nostalgic...

 

[KenMcnaughtsNuts]

To be fair, it's not really gone downhill. It's always been fairly rubbish. Going back to my teenage years i never read any of it, just bought it for the results/tables/fixtures plus a quick read of the blades page and use the tv guide to find summat to watch on the tellybox. They could have probably sold just as many copies if it only had 8 pages.

I never really read the match reports cos what's the point? If you've been you know what happened, if you haven't been you don't really care that much except the result. Plus the reports in the Green Un were always written as the match went along, lots of waffle about balloons and the weather with the important last few minutes just tacked on to the end... 85 minutes Deane scored. Or whatever it used to say.

Internet has killed it, why wait to buy it when you can go on the net and see all that? Tis a sad day though. Saturday nights were made for updating the Shoot ladders with the Green Un, then pulling your pud over the copy of Razzle you hid inside it.

 

[Linz]

As with the Star, the cost went up as the quality/pages went down.

I'd imagine the Star will be next.

If I want to see the news from three days ago, I'll find the same threads on Sheffield Forum that the Star "journalist" has used as their "sources" and if I want to see photographs of people looking disgruntled/outraged over stupid shit, this is my go-to: http://apiln.blogspot.co.uk/

 

[Silent Blade]

I had lost interest in the Green Un about 4 or 5 years ago. When I was at boarding school near Newbury between 1973 and 1979, I always looked forward to Tuesdays because it was the morning when I received the Green Un through the post from my dad (who also would write in his thoughts of the match) and some of my mates (none of them were Blades fans) would read the paper after I had read it.

The Green Un postbag were full of doom and gloom merchants! Two particular regular contributors that comes immediately to my mind are Fred Shemeld (lived in Southampton and I wonder if he does really go to every match as he seems to say!) and Peter Godfrey

I have not been to the Green Un/Star/Morning Telegraph archives in the Central Library for a few years but I always enjoyed reading reports and photos of the past matches and I probably will carry on going there

 

[FleaPitBlade]

Read it religiously as a kid, like many - sent to the shops to pick it up by my dad. I used to stand out the front of the shop kicking a ball about with Gary Cahill and a few other lads, who were also on Green'Un duty, whilst we waited for it to arrive.

Always flipped it over to scope out the results and league tables as I walked home.

The delivery of news has changed and there is no longer a place for the Green'un. Newspapers generally (at least in print) will be a thing of the past before long.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Ahh, nostalgia!

Queue outside the newsagents to get a copy. Plenty of Blades if we'd won, a few less if we'd lost. Queue a mile long if they won, empty if they'd lost (fickle as ever). Standing with my neighbour who always went to the home matches, but still bought a copy and flicked to the report first and always mumbled something about 'Pritchett, bleedin' foreigner' and then ambled home with me arguing about how Currie wasn't fit to lace Hagan's boots!

At the time it was THE source of information, with The Star, but my neighbour and a few others of that era wouldn't read The Star after the infamous 'Save Our Owls' campaign, which just confirmed what they always suspected. They never seemed to get that the Green 'Un and Star were the same company and same reporters!

The end was inevitable, but still a bit sad.

 

[Sharrowblade]

Hands up how many people still have a Blades Glory/Owls Down copy lying about? I know my Dad does.

There's mine, along with the 1971 Promotion Winning edition.

 

[bladesadviser]

When I moved away in 1994 I had it on subscription for about 10 years and it was always good to read the match reports and also the local non league scene. I only stopped it when I realised that when I got it on the Tuesday morning it was very old news compared with the match report I had read online on Saturday evening

A product of its time but not required any longer as you can find any result from any league if you look hard enough on the web

 

[Wapping Blade]

Same experiences as many on here and my mum used to send it to me at University from 83-86 where many non-Sheffielders could not believe that it also covered angling and bowls. RS did a vox pop this morning and everyone was very nostaglic and sad but they never asked "but do you still buy it?", I suspect the answer would have been "no" in most cases.

 

[Mad Mick]

Haven't lived in Sheffield for nye on 30 years, but somethings are part of our heritage. Like the Green Un and Relish. Haven't seen one for many years, but sad to see it go.

 

[diplomat]

It is sad to see it go but technology dictates. I remember the GT News as it was on Bradway used to stay open for the Saturday delivery and there was always a queue for it. I used to suck it all in. Also played junior Sunday at the time and eagerly used to read the brief reports of our games (usually sent in by the opposing manager as ours felt contributing was gloating on a rare win) even tho I was in net and never got a mention I used to get a buzz seeing my mates names in print in the same paper as Deane and Agana.

I also used to get copies sent to me in the US where I lived for a bit, cutting short my visa to come home to the play off final v palace thinking we were all conquering heroes from what I'd read. Only to find abject apathy on my coach down as in reality we'd got steadily worse through the season and everyone expected us to lose! And that was the first one! I do slightly regret swopping fannying around in California for a fortnight for 'seeing the blades win at wembley - as I'll probably never get another chance'

 

[LardSardine]

It is sad to see it go but technology dictates. I remember the GT News as it was on Bradway used to stay open for the Saturday delivery and there was always a queue for it. I used to suck it all in. Also played junior Sunday at the time and eagerly used to read the brief reports of our games (usually sent in by the opposing manager as ours felt contributing was gloating on a rare win) even tho I was in net and never got a mention I used to get a buzz seeing my mates names in print in the same paper as Deane and Agana.

I also used to get copies sent to me in the US where I lived for a bit, cutting short my visa to come home to the play off final v palace thinking we were all conquering heroes from what I'd read. Only to find abject apathy on my coach down as in reality we'd got steadily worse through the season and everyone expected us to lose! And that was the first one! I do slightly regret swopping fannying around in California for a fortnight for 'seeing the blades win at wembley - as I'll probably never get another chance'

I used to live just around the corner from that GT News and can remember running round to pick up a green 'un and battling with my dad over who got to read it first. Memeries...