The Great Save currently has three writers who are all working at a high level with the preservation of their own club’s heritage, and using it to engage current and future generations of supporters and the wider community.
Roger Titford is the Heritage Officer at Supporters Trust At Reading (STAR) and is currently assisting with a small exhibition at Reading Museum, celebrating the centenary of the club’s first Football League promotion and visit to the FA Cup semi-finals in 1926/27. He has recently published an article in Sport in History, entitled ‘The Southern League 1898-1909: missed chances to play on the national stage’ and is giving a paper at the International Football Conference (June 2026) on how football results have been portrayed in print / text down the years. His next Reading-related book is due out before Christmas 2026.
Geoff Wicken chairs The Watford Treasury, a not-for-profit supporter group initiative, which publishes books and magazines and funds the ‘Watford Gold’ heritage website. He volunteers at the Museum of Watford, specialising in the football collection, and with the Watford FC Community Trust, organising sessions for its ‘Golden Memories’ dementia support programme. He has written two books, including ‘100 Years at Vicarage Road, 1922-2022’ published by Watford FC, and is working on his third.
John Bunyard‘s original 2019-20 exhibition ‘Maidstone: United In Football’ was a lightning-rod for national interest in preserving football memorabilia. A piggyback talk on Kent’s contribution to the development of various world sports, including football, spawned an online compendium embracing the county’s broader sporting and cultural attainments. This has now expanded into a major book project: an ‘encyclopaedia’ of Kent that includes a section celebrating antiquarianism – the systematic gathering and ordering of heritage for public benefit. He has meanwhile maintained interest in local football memorabilia with a long-running Maidstone United exhibition in the town centre, which gained significant multi-media coverage during the Stones’ unprecedented 2023/24 run of seven successive FA Cup victories.
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