A Port Vale matchday programme dating back to the 1946-47 season has reportedly changed hands for £2,800 on eBay.
The programme was for the home match against Ipswich Town on march 29th 1947.
The programme sale, believed to be one of the most expensive involving a Port Vale programme, was reported by the Ipswich TWTD website.
Programmes from the pre and immediate post-war eras are the most collectable and are fiercely fought over by collectors whenever they come on the market.
The programme
Here are some pages from the programme
The match itself
We don’t have a team photo from 1946-47 but this was the Vale team for the 1945-46 season
The club had been moved to Division Three South the previous season (to some concern from club directors about a drop in revenue). The club had a new manager in Billy Frith but he was restricted financially as the club looked for a new stadium following the decision to leave the Old Rec. The Ipswich game was a rare high point for the Valiants as it ended in a 1-0 home win – it was followed by three straight defeats. Interestingly, the programme suggests that legendary defender Tom Cheadle would start upfront. This experiment was a success as Cheadle scored seven times in seven games. However, in this game, striker Morris Jones scored the winning goal in front of a crowd of 10,426. Jones was to finish the season’s top-scorer with 23 goals as Vale took tenth place in the table.
More Port Vale programmes…
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No wonder it fetched so much, it was Tommy Cheadle’s debut as a centre forward, Not on the quiet at a few away games like Nobby Steele did converting Basil Hayward from Centre Half to Centre Forward. But under the eagle eyes of the Swan Passage stand. A very long time ago, but the reason I remember it so well, also with replacing Billy Pointon whose mother lived across our road very personal to a young lad. Needless to say the player from Man C did not last a season, Basil Hayward made his debut and took over a as Centre Half, Tommy played as Left Back, Right Half as well as Centre Forward. No doubt a Tractor Boy bought it for some other reason.