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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 08:21 11 Sep 2015
No, I didn't!
But it's a fascinating fact, nevertheless (if true). Don't publicise this one, for heaven's sake, or it will provide dangerous ammunition for visiting clubs.
I'm staggered that so many people are still interested in this subject - after all, we're talking about the events of almost exactly 50 years ago. So many of those who shared the Golden Years with us are no longer here, alas. I can only imagine that a response like this in just 24 hours indicates that the tradition is being handed on, with fathers instructing sons: "Watch out for that Ron Phillip's - he's not to be trusted".
Here's something for everyone to consider: I am fanatically pedantic about the usage of apostrophes and spend far too much of my time pointing out errors in this connection. If I were walking down a street and I saw a shop with a notice outside saying "Apple's - Pairs' - Tomato'e's" (as one does) I would march into the shop; buy a grapefruit; and, while paying for it, point out to the shopkeeper that a catastrophe was taking place on the pavement. Followed by a hasty exit to avoid the grapefruit being thrown at me.
Anyway, thanks to all these Rangers fans for their kind remarks. I do realise that I don't deserve them. It's just that I am linked to your memories of those wonderful Golden Years. |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 18:19 10 Sep 2015
Looks as if I'm doomed to be known henceforth as Ron Phillip's.
Oh, well, I suppose it's a fair punishment. |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 14:20 10 Sep 2015
On the other hand, a Devil's Advocate would quote: Earls Court, Barons Court, Kingsway, Queensway, etc., all of which possessed apostrophes in the past but, as the years passed by, a simpler form was adopted.
Why not run a poll to find out what Rangers supporters think? Although I suppose the present Board would not really be interested in making changes. |
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Reply | Ron Phillips (Ex-QPR Secretary)
at 11:17 10 Sep 2015
Well, to be fair, it was our printers who removed the apostrophe because the word "QUEEN'S" could not be inserted clearly on our Little Men chequered covers.
I merely went along with it, not knowing that 50 years later, the matter would be raised in the Supreme Court and would be the subject of emotional debate in PMQ.
I sympathise with everyone's agony but you realise you have a problem now? The club has been "QUEENS" Park Ranger for all those decades. If you try to change it back to "QUEEN'S", an avalanche of more recently born supporters will raise merry hell fighting the change.
My motto when at Rangers was: "You can please all of the people some of the time; you can please some of the people all of the time; but you can't please all of the people all of the time" (with thanks to Abraham Lincoln).
Great to see the club is preparing for its next journey towards the summit of the Football League!
Ron Phillips |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 18:53 12 May 2014
Useless to ask me to explain the sales or purchases of Rangers players. If (on the rare occasions I was sitting in on a meeting to discuss team building) II dared to comment... there would be a stunned silence until I changed the subject. But I totally agree about Goddard and Allen - and the 8th letter of the alphabet. |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 18:43 12 May 2014
Thanks, Juzzie. I'm glad that someone appreciated the pressure we were under. But it wasn't just loss of the points that was threatened - it was ground closure. |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 18:36 12 May 2014
Gosh, you're right. I haven't thought about the plastic pitch for decades. It was my job to defend it but it was a hard job when everyone in the soccer world detested it. The pitch should have been taken up long before we eventually removed it. However, Alan Hardaker, the Football League Secretary, made the mistake of ordering Jim Gregory to get rid of it. That pair were always at war with each other. As soon as Jim Gregory got the order... the pitch stayed. |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 18:26 12 May 2014
I can only agree with every word you say. Sheila was one of the best Secretaries the Football League ever possessed - far more knowledgeable in soccer affairs than I could ever hope to be. Nothing was too much trouble for her - she was one of the hardest workers I ever met - and totally loyal to Rangers. The only reason I was finally able to escape from the club was because I knew I was leaving it in her good hands. I had no idea she had been sacked until I read this. A huge mistake on the part of the club, I'm afraid, which bodes ill for the future.. |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 11:31 6 May 2014
Well, honestly, Nick, over the 23 years I worked at Rangers, our gates must have totalled trillions of spectators. You can scarcely expect me to remember you!
And yet I do. Many thanks for the photos you gave to the club. What on earth happened to The Nick Kidd Portfolio?
Just as well you didn't tell the Manager that story about Stan. There would have been consequences...
Yes, I still write plays - although lately I've been concentrating on screenplays. One film in post-production to date and another coming up.. |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 11:19 6 May 2014
O.K., answer coming up: I never found out.
If you recall, the playing cards used to be sent by just one person. As the months and years went by, other Rangers fans decided to join the party and more playing cards arrived by every post from people all over the globe. I think I commented in the programme that I now had enough to form a full pack.
Round about that time, I also used to publish very clever letters in the programme from someone signing himself (herself?) as The Pope. I never found out who that was either.
Could the Phantom Playing Card Sender and The Pope be one and the same? Could The Pope be Tony Incenzo? We shall never know now. |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 13:04 4 May 2014
It wasn't just me, of course, but season tickets were the club's life blood, so they had to be plugged. You'll probably recall that, every single time we issued the Season Ticket forms at one of the closing games of the season, the team proceeded to lose the match in question (well, perhaps not every time). We were all left apoplectic - but that's football. |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 09:32 4 May 2014
Yes, you've got me. I didn't have enough to do, running the club, editing the programme and acting as QPR's accountant, so I used to whizz round the ground during matches, selling raffle tickets for non-existent motors. Anyway, I didn't go to prison for that - it was for murdering Alan Hardaker, the Football League Secretarys, who did so much to make my job harder during those years. (In explanation: Alan Hardaker and Jim Gregory were at war with each other... and I was in the middle). |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 08:59 4 May 2014
My proudest achievement as programme editor was to persuade Bill Tidy, the nation's greatest, funniest cartoonist, to join our contributors. He was just starting his cartoon career at the time and I wasn't sure what fee to offer him. He happily accepted £5 per full page cartoon - I should have paid him £50! |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 08:53 4 May 2014
It sounds like Daphne but I haven't the faintest recollection of this. Are you sure it was me you saw? I would never have dared interfere with any coaching/kit manager matters. And I would have praised Tommy to the skies. One of the nicest managers I ever worked with at Rangers. Just one problem; neither of us could understand a single word the other one spoke! |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 08:49 4 May 2014
All these compliments about the programme! (I admit I was fishing for them). Jim Gregory, in fact, was one of the shyest persons I met in my life - you did well to have that chat with him. Yes, he was a so-and-so but, having said that, he was one of Rangers' biggest fans during all the 23 years I was at the club. People always believed he was going to sell the club but it was never true. Only serious bad health during his last year at QPR forced him to let go of the reins. (Read my memoirs for full details) |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 08:44 4 May 2014
Ouch, it wasn't my brother. He is, and always has been, an incredibly hard working bank manager. How many more people are going around, claiming to be relatives of mine? |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 08:42 4 May 2014
Why didn't you or your Mum write to me to tell me this story at the time? It would have made a lovely item in the programme. Give her my compliments and my love. They don't make them like her any more - alas. |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 08:37 4 May 2014
It's rather splendid being given a chance at last to answer some of the criticisms during those 23 years at Rangers. Standing behind me when I made that announcement were a couple of very senior policemen; Jim Gregory, our famous Chairman; and a frantic secretary who had just received an even more frantic call from the F.A. Those good people had concocted a message for me to read out to supporters. What would you have done in such circumstances? |
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Reply | Ron Phillips
at 11:48 1 May 2014
Ron Phillips speaking (Yes, the ex-QPR Secretary and Programme Editor - I don't get a lot of time playing at mid-field for Bury nowadays).
Sorry to eavesdrop on the correspondence about me but I'm delighted to see there was nothing too derogatory!
My brother, Peter, who still goes to Rangers occasionally, directed me to this site. I thought it was about time I cleared up the Mystery Of The Missing Apostrophe, or it will continue into the 22nd Century.
Oldtimers will recall that, when I started the new, improved QPR programme in 1966, I designed a highly original cover for it, consisting of a chequer board, with the famous 'Little Men' on white squares of the board, alternating with the letters of Queen's Park Rangers.
Our printers were very helpful but phoned me one day to ask for a decision about the apostrophe. The letters of the alphabet looked O.K. on the white squares but an apostrophe by itself on a white square looked silly. And, if they tried to put a letter and the apostrophe on a white square together, they would look squashed.
Famous for my snap decisions, I said "Then drop the apostrophe. No-one will notice"...
The new cover came out and everyone liked it (and, as I keep reminding people, we won the award for 'Best Programme In The Football League' two years running).
The printers apparently liked it too because, one day, I noticed they had dropped the apostrophe from the Queen's Park Rangers title inside the programme.
This looked O.K., so I decided to leave it as it was - otherwise we would have had to live with two different formats of QPR's name in the same programme.
In addition, we were in the good company of Regents Park, Barons Court,
Lloyds Bank, etc., who all possessed apostrophes originally.
23 years went by and (as far as I can recall) no-one ever said a word about the missing apostrophe. I left QPR and, within a few months, the sky fell in upon me. Every Rangers fan on the planet seemed to be bewailing the loss.
Anyway, there it is. My defence rests.
You can change it back, of course, but I assure you that you will then receive hundreds of complaints about why you have decided to include an apostrophe in the club's name.
You really can't win, you know.
Anyway, best wishes to Rangers fans who may be reading this. It looks as if it will be a terrific season next time.
Ron Phillips |
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