Santa is a Stokie!

Santa is a Stokie! 
 
Yes, I can say that with as much confidence as I can say that “Abdoulaye Faye does not sleep, he waits” – because it’s a fact.  And we have photographic evidence from pitch-side.  “How did you get that?” I hear you ask. Well to cut a long story short, it was the Stoketshirts.co.uk Christmas “works do” last Saturday. It wasn’t planned that way, but as some of the more astute of you may have noticed from the matchday programmes, (sorry I mean “magazines”), our humble enterprise has been sponsoring Abdy Faye’s away kit this season – it’s our way of putting something back into the club that is the inspiration for our shirts and other merchandise. Part of that arrangement means that Rob and I can pick a match to attend and enjoy some hospitality in the Waddington Suite as well as a behind the scenes tour of the Brit – hence the exclusive snap of Santa waving from his executive box (reindeer and sleigh parked on the John Smith’s roof, just out of shot).

Apparently Stoke won the World Cup once?!

So it was that we arrived at the untraditionally early hour of 9.15am last Saturday and were shown the sites by Potters legend Terry (TC) Conroy from one or two of the more “privileged” parts of the stadium – the sky boxes, media suite and the hallowed walls of the Home dressing room to name a few. The tour is highly recommended and well worth booking on if you get chance – ours was a record group of 55 people – tribute to Terry Conroy’s unique slant on the day-to-day life of the Brit and the helpfulness of all the club staff as we went round interrupting their matchday routine.

There was even a visitor from foreign shores – a German chap (and Johan Boskamp lookalike) called Kristian who’d flown from New York. This prompted TC to ask if anyone else had travelled far. “Heron Cross!” came the shout from Rob. “Yes the name of Stoke City is really spreading out there”, quipped TC.

No clues on tactics here.

...or here.

Early present for Abdy.

The icing on the cake was about 30 minutes before kick-off when we went pitch-side to meet and greet the big man (No! Abdy – Not Santa!) as he finished warming up. He presented us with a signed shirt and in a cheeky return of favour, we handed him a “Abdoulaye Faye – Magnifique!” shirt. “For Me?!” he exclaimed in that characteristic voice before hurrying off to get shirted and booted.

     

Ian Dyer with Hudson & Marsh reciting poems about them

Ian Dyer attended the Artbay preview on Friday 20/11 along with Alan Hudson & Jackie Marsh. The Boothen End Bard recited various poems from his one to ten cd and two other new odes about Hudson & Marsh.
There are links to videos showing the performances below along with the words on our stoketshirts blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJpSrfwlYCI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UEK78ApHY8

http://www.stoketshirts.co.uk/wordpress/?p=158

Enjoy!

Apologies for missing the first couple of words on the video!

The cult of Collins and Whitehead (CollHead?) continue to haunt the users of various Stoke messageboards such as The Oatcake, as much as John & Edward continue to be the bane of the x factor.
So – Are Collins and Whitehead our version of JEDWARD?
And is Tony Pulis the Potteries Simon Cowell?

He keeps them in (TP with CollHead and Cowell with Jedward), despite the many protests that are posted on the messageboards.

I asked the question back when we signed Dean Whitehead in the close season “would he become the new Steve Foley?”
I guess that he is!

From what the players were saying at the time, they love to have someone like him in the side as he gets a lot of “ugly work” done, e.g. closing down space, covers the midfield area well, etc. this is supposed to allow the more “creative” players time to deliver. Denis Smith said many positive things about whitehead when he was signed.

Who is right?

Public – it’s time to decide!!
Will [s]Jedward[/s] Collhead be evicted or stay on to the final!
(or do I watch too much reality TV :o)

What do you think?

The link to the video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnR1MKZtHdg
It shows Sir Stan playing in his final game and being carried aloft from the pitch at the end of the game by his fellow players. Ian’s words are played over the video and it adds a depth and appreciation to the archive footage. The wizard of the dribble can only be about one man, the closing line (which I won’t spoil for you) is a fitting tribute to the first global super star of football.. 

Dyer has released a charity CD, called One to Ten,

One to Ten available at Stoketshirts.co.uk

 containing 10 tracks all relating to Stoke City, it includes the classic “Fortress” which captures the feeling of Stoke’s return to the English Premier League for the first time in 23 years perfectly. £2 from every CD sold is donated to the Donna Louise Children’s Hospice Trust. 

We have also produced a T shirt of “The Fortress” that features the Brit with fortress turrets.

Fortress T shirt - two sided

There is an option available to have the words of the poem printed on the back of the garment.

The full track listing is below:-

1                     One to Ten

2                     A Beautiful Friendship

3                     In The Blood

4                     Weapon

5                     Fortress

6                     One Single Man

7                     Wizard of the Dribble

8                     Futbo

9                     No Nouse

10                 Officially Labelled

His passion and belief shine through and are fantastically articulated. From the first line of One to Ten “How Do you feel now Stokie?” the grit grabs you and makes you want more. Dyer’s delivery is a familiar potteries tone, his dialect comes straight from the potbank especially in futba where the words like jaynes are used to describe trousers made from denim.

Treat yourself to something a little different, the short and sweet poems are mini masterpieces, from a man who bleeds red and white striped blood. You won’t be short of a little inspiration after you have listened to this.

Stoketshirts.co.uk  backs “Wear it Pink” Day.

Proud Potters can help research the cure for Breast Cancer.

In conjunction with Breast Cancer Research, Stoketshirts.co.uk, the Premier Stoke T Shirt company, will be helping anyone who wants to take part in “Wear It Pink Day” on Friday October 30^th and do their bit for Breast Cancer Research, by donating £2 from each Pink T shirt sold to charity.

Between now and next Wednesday, visitors to their online store will be able to choose any design and, provided it’s printed on a Pink Mens or Ladies T- shirt, Stoketshirts.co.uk will then donate £2 from the sale of each shirt to Breast Cancer Research who are researching the cure for the illness.

The T-shirts can then be worn by anyone taking part in Wear it Pink day at their workplace or school on Friday 30^th October. If people haven’t already organised an event, they can register at www.wearitpink.co.uk and find out more about what’s involved. 

 “We wanted to help people participate in Wear it Pink Day and also show their pride in being Supporters of the finest Football Club in the World” says Simon Hancock of Stoketshirts.co.uk. “In a way, we hope that our offer allows people to “double up” their donation to the charity”, he continues. “For each shirt sold, Breast Cancer Research will hopefully receive both our donation and the donation when our customers participate at their workplace or school”.

I attended the Stoke City Legends Night at The Red House pub in Longton last night and had a great night. The night was organised as a fundraiser for Jackie Marsh and his chosen charity the Heart Foundation and was quickly sold out when tickets were advertised on the Oatcake messageboard. The Legends in attendance were Denis Smith, Alan Hudson, Jackie Marsh and Mickey Thomas.

The Redhouse

The Red House has been taken over by Ben and Mike Dyer and they have spent serious time, effort and money converting it into a Stoke City Theme Pub with the lounge displaying a fantastic collection of football memorabilia.

The beer garden has also been given a Stoke City makeover by artist Jane Cooper who has painted a fantastic mural of Stoke legends including Denis Smith, Sir Stanley Matthews, the two Tony’s (Waddington and Pulis), Mickey Thomas and the League Cup Winning Squad. The detail in the paintings is breath taking and Jane is a truly Fantastic artist. There is also a genuine Boothen End Turnstile from the Victoria ground on display. The Red House is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area just to see the mural and turnstile. It’s as close as the City has got to being a Stoke City museum with the memorabilia on display.

1972 League Cup mural

 Jayne Cooper – Artist of the Mural

The night started at 7 with the screens in the pub showing the 72 Cup final, as guests arrived. At 8pm the audience and legends moved to the beer garden to officially unveil the mural. Denis, Jackie and Mickey all signed their pictures, and willingly posed for photos with various guests.

The banter between the ex players was started early on. When Radio Stoke’s Nigel Johnson was introducing the format of the night he re-collected the interview he did with Jackie two days after his triple heart bypass. He said it was one of the most difficult jobs he had done as Marshie had to wear an oxygen mask and it was hard to make out what he was saying. Denis piped up with a comment that “That makes a change, he used to pretend he couldn’t hear me when I was telling him get back to cover!”  and that set the wisecracks flowing throughout the night.

The night was then split into an interview/ Q&A format with Denis being first up,  interviewed by Nigel Johnson. Nigel didn’t really have to ask much of Den as he spoke candidly about his time with Stoke, from joining the club as a young player, through his career,  to his eventual departure into management at York City. One of the stories that made everyone smile was when he was asked about the two Tony’s and how their styles differed. Denis said that they are both very different managers, Waddo would very rarely venture onto the training ground, leaving Frank Mountford to do all the coaching, while Tony Pulis is very much a tracksuit manager and players know what is expected of them, with a tight rein kept on discipline. One of Waddington’s ex Manchester United players, who shall remain nameless, was quoted as saying “I don’t like it here Den, there are no rules to break!”  Denis then shouted “that’s right in’t it Huddy!”

Next up was a break to socialise with the legends who were very accommodating by answering lots of requests to sign photos, etc.

Then Ian Dyer – the Stoke City poet took to the stage. His poetry was delivered with his usual passion and desire. Ian had written new poems for each of the Legends in attendance and every one of them got up and thanked Ian personally. It was lapped up by the audience and the room stood as one at the end of his set to give the Boothen End Bard a standing ovation.

Mickey Thomas was next up interviewed by Ben Dyer. Mickey had the room in stitches when he answered Ben’s first question of “when were you first picked up?” with a reply of “when I was 11,……. shoplifting in Colwyn Bay!!” That set the tone for the interview which nearly got serious when he said “Guess which the best team I ever played for was? We were unbeaten for 18 months away from home.” Ben was intrigued as he pondered, thinking was it Manchester United, Brighton, Chelsea, Stoke City, Derby County, Leeds United, Everton, etc. “1993-94 –  Walton Prison FC” came Mickey’s response and laughter filled the room once again.

Mickey Thomas and Ben

 The charity auction then took place with some excellent pieces available. Signed books donated by David Lee and Stephen Foster fetched tidy sums with Jackie Marsh getting more stick from Denis and Huddy about his ability to read after buying “you could’ner make it up.” We (stoketshirts.co.uk) donated a Longthrow mug signed by Rory Delap, which raised £50 and a replica No. 5 1972 shirt which Denis signed, this raised £130. A limited edition print “Oatcakes and Chayse before the match” by Sid Kirkham, donated by The Artbay, fetched in a staggering £250. Other items included a signed Stoke City shirt from Tony Pulis’s first stint at the club and an Abdoulaye Faye canvas.

The signed Longthrow Mug

Alan Hudson and Jackie Marsh closed the night with a Q&A session that involved much banter, particularly about pubs and alcohol!

Did I mention Denis and his Stoketshirt?

The event was a cracking night for Stokies, at a great venue raising over £1300 for a good cause.

 Let’s get more of them on soon!

Welcome to our second newsletter/ product update. We have an amazing Fourteen new designs (although three have these have already been released – Austria Tour x 2 and Fortress). We also have the launch of the Potter 63 artwork and t shirt range featuring fantastic airbrush paintings of Liam and Beats. The Abdoulaye L’Esprit Mug has been our fastest selling yet so don’t miss out. We also have a Fantasy Football League Competition (with a Stoke City Twist) that is free to enter and prizes can be won, news of our website updates and “what else” we have been up to. It’s still great T shirt weather so why not treat yourself to one of these great designs?

Thanks for your support,

Rob & Simon

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. N.B. The quality of these images is deteriorated when reduced to fit this media. Please click the image to see the higher quality version. All Things Stoke & Beautiful Britplan Our great stadium as seen in “plan” view. A simple, clean design that looks fantastic on all colours. Wear this with pride. I Love SCFC A simple but effective design that gives your personal display of affection to the one (club) you Love. Bearings +52 59 18.00 N -2 10 32.00 W May not mean much at first glance but put it into GPS SatNav and it will guide you to the best place on Earth, The Britannia Stadium. These are wrapped around our Brit Plan to make a striking design. Roman  A nod to our history and how our year of formation may have been displayed at the time. MDCCCLXIII is of course the Roman Numerals for 1863. Caution – I am the Potter’s Twelfth Man If the health and safety police had their way then every fan would not be allowed into the Brit. unless wearing this notice and ear defenders. Caution High Noise Levels – I AM THE POTTERS TWELFTH MAN. Abdoulaye – Evolution An Abdy lifewear classic. Disproving Darwin, 150 years after he came up with it! – There is no Theory of Evolution. Only a list of creatures that Abdoulaye Faye has allowed to live. Definitely City Wear this and you might live forever.  A supersonic nod to Noel & Liam despite their manc. roots. This is a classic design further improved by including two of the most important words in the English language.    F*ck The Media As that famous son of Ireland, Father Jack (from Father Ted) says “Feck the Media”. Okay he probably didn’t say “the media”, or our shirt doesn’t mean Feck. We are Stoke and no matter what anyone says we work hard, play hard and get results. F*ck ’em. Stokies Here A design for Stokies that reside in all corners of the world. We have had requests for shirts from Australia, USA, Chile, Norway, Sweden an even Fegg Hayes. As the Song goes, Stokies Here, Stokies There Stokies Every F*ckin where. Wherever you are the Kiln image will remind of where your heart is. Liam Lawrence by Potter 63 As Liam signs a 4 year extension to his contract we have tweaked Potter 63’s wonderful painting of Lenny celebrating notching our first Premier League goal. Keep the dog away this season Liam. James Beattie by Potter 63 James Beattie was TP’s best signing at the turn of 2009. His goals had fans talking of him being an England player again, although I doubt if Fabio even knows where the Brit. is. Potter 63’s great piece of art has captured Beats in that pose we all love to see him in, celebrating a goal for the Mighty Potters. We have give it the Stoketshirts treatment and added his name and squad number. Austria Tour Shirts – Where Potters Dare Inspired by messrs Burton and Eastwood’s 1968 classic, this alternative Pre-Season 2009 shirt shows the locations of the Potters all-important warm-up matches and their opponents. Any Stokies planning an assault on the quiet mountainous nation of Austria will find the map invaluable and the “tour dates” will act as a timely reminder of where you’re supposed to be should you over indulge on “bier und schnitzel” Austria Tour Shirts – The Hills are Alive The Sound of Austria 2009!  Remember Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music? For Julie read Liam. Well this year the Alps will be ringing to the Sound of Stokies! Yes, it’s pre-season time again! July is here and once again Tony and the lads are off to the land of the Schnitzel for another gruelling week of ‘aard work in the mountains. Fortress – Ian Dyer The Boothen End Bard “The Britannia is packed to the rafters…”- the first line of Ian Dyer’s stirring tribute to the fantastic matchday atmosphere of the Brit – “Fortress”.  Inspired by the imagery of Ian’s Poem we created our own take on “Fortress Britannia”. A hybrid Stadium entrance/castle wall to represent the fortress mentality that will no doubt welcome opposition teams and fans for many a season and embellished with the phrase “This is our Fortress – where no one shirks or hides”.   Stoke City F.C.       Getting Ready for 2009-2010 The pre season speculation continues to rumble on. Talk of new signings with names such as Scholes, Crouch, Cisse and O’ Neil linked with the club. Who’s going? Our Irish aces shirt has been de-listed and taken back to the drawing board now that Stephen Kelly has gone to Fulham.  Meanwhile Stokies head of in search of the sun with a Stoketshirts T shirt in their case. Thought like “where’s that internet cafe when you need it?” “Is that text from my mate a windup or can we really get him in a Stoke shirt?” Is “Davesviews” just a front for all internet cafe owners to make a few quid?” Isn’t summer great.  I am sure Sir Peter and Triffic Tone won’t let us down and will get the right players who possess the “right DNA.” In Tony we trust. Our heroes & legends newsletter had a couple of hitches with the majority of you only getting the text version. Please bear with us while we try to master these wonderful software programmes that it ooh so easy to communicate (If only) this year. Current Bestsellers: Our bestselling ten t-shirts from the past month 1: Abdoulaye Faye L’esprit White 2:  SC/FC Let There Be Stoke 3: Longthrow 4: Bearpit Claw Logo 5:  Ab Faye Does Not Sleep 6: Who R Yer 7: Abdoulaye Magnifique 8: Ow At? 9: Abdoulaye Faye L’esprit Colour 10: Abdoulaye My Lord Thanks For Everything! Thanks for your continued support. As I said in our last newsletter, when we get a positive review or see someone wearing one of our shirts it makes it all worthwhile. A personal highlight for me last month was when I was in Spain for a family holiday and my daughter asked me if that was one of our shirts that someone was wearing. It was and it was someone I didn’t know wearing a Longthrow shirt – what a buzz!  We have also got some great supporters on the messageboards that  keep giving us fantastic ideas for new designs. If you’ve got any suggestions for designs that you’d like to see us do, or if you think we could improve on something we’re doing, or even if you just have a question about what we do please don’t hesitate to contact us on info@stoketshirts.co.uk   Mugs Our Abdoulaye Faye Mug is now available and selling fast. Don’t forget that it is a limited edition of 100 with No. 25 reserved for the man himself. To get yours follow this link AD Faye 25 Mug     Our Next mug is in the pipeline and all will be revealed in the next newsletter Potter 63 – Art Prints Potter63’s great airbrush artwork is now available in our webstore. These will make a great centre piece on any wall. We have 3 options of prints to choose from. There is also a wide selection of sizes. These are described and listed below 1. A High Quality Box Framed Canvas Print (where the canvas is stretched over the frame) 2. A Canvas Only Print that is also high quality and that you can frame. 3. A Gloss Photo Paper print, again high quality, and can be framed by yourself. The sizes of the prints are 8 x 12 inch 12 x 16 inch 16 x 20 inch 20 x 30 inch   James Beattie Airbrush   Liam Lawrence Airbrush     What Else? We had a great piece in the business section local newspaper that featured our shirts. For any of you that may have missed it then it can be seen online here – Sentinel Stoketshirts Article    We have also been busy supporting the Donna Louise Children’s Hospice in a couple of areas helping fundraise for a very worthy cause. We helped Rory Delap by “branding” his charity bike ride “Longthrow does the Longride” , designing a logo for it and having his cycling shirt printed after raising over £2500 getting sponsors to have their logos printed onto it. See pics of the shirt here “Longthrow does The Longride” and here Longthrow Rory Pics We have also been auctioning the prestige Nos. of the Tony Says Mugs and amazingly No. 100 went for £26. We have raised over £70 for the Donna Louise by doing this thanks to your generosity.       Don’t Forget Your Holiday T Shirts It’s Holiday season and it’s always great to see a fellow Stokie strolling along the prom wearing a Stoke T Shirt, whether it be Cyprus, Salou, Rio or Rhyl. Be Loyal, Be Proud, Be Seen wearing a Stoke T Shirt.  Don’t forget to take your photo wearing it and send it in to us to add to our “show us your shirts” page. Make your holiday complete and buy oneof our fantastic designs! Have a good one!   Stoketshirts.co.uk Fantasy Football League It’s hardly Skinner and Baddiel but you could win prizes in our very own Stoketshirts.co.uk Fantasy Football League. We have formed a league on the http://fantasy.premierleague.com website. It is in the form of a head tohead league, where teams play each other on a weekly basis with 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw.. It’s completely FREE TO ENTER and I have added a couple of Stokie Rules to keep it interesting. They are that you must have  the maximum no. of Stoke players in your selection (Three) at all times, with at least two selected to start each game (unless injured).  To register then set a team up on the above website then use the Stoketshirts.co.uk league code to join your team into the league 215223-73012. If you have any problems with registering for this then please email me on info@stoketshirts.co.uk and I will get back to you when I can. The Prizes will be a t shirt and hoodie of your choice to the winner with a t shirt to the runner up. Good Luck.  Website Updates We continue to develop our website to include a little cultural diversity. Still based around all things Stoke and beautiful we have updated our Poetry page which features the work of the Bard of the Boothen End, Ian Dyer. Ian has released his first Stoke City Poetry CD. It is called One to Ten, featuring 10 of his poems. It is available from our site. All profits will be going to the Donna Louise Children’s Hospice, We also have a page dedicated to Art that relates to Stoke City and features Potter 63’s fantastic work which we now have on sale soon both as prints and on T shirts. We also have a blog page which can be found here – Stoketshirts.co.ukBlog.                                    Show us your shirts is a page on our site dedicated to you wearing your stoketshirts, so take a pic of yourself wearing your shirt, send it to us at shirts@stoketshirts.co.uk and we will get them posted. You might spot a couple of your heroes if you check out the page now – Show us your shirts  Our mailing address is: Stoketshirts.co.uk, P.O. Box 1863, Stoke – on – Trent, Staffordshire,      ST4 9GZCopyright © 2009 stoketshirts.co.uk All rights reserved.