High-Class Pages Contain Much For Wolves Fans

A two-page feature on Kenny Hibbitt highlights the typically strong Wolves content in the latest issue of the retro magazine Backpass.

The question-and-answer piece was compiled by Andy Gray (no, not that one!) and appears under the heading ’24 Carat Wanderer’ in the quality 64-page publication.

Graham Taylor, a firm supporter since launch day some six years ago, now has his own column as a nod to a more contemporary feel near the centre pages.

Elsewhere, there is a mention in a feature about a momentous Cardiff City day of Tony Evans – a Wolves striker of the mid-1980s and later the club’s Football in the Community Officer – and also for Geoff Palmer, whose strength in the tackle is recalled by the Middlesbrough and Southampton veteran David Armstrong.

As if it wasn’t known already, there is a reminder from a fan about what a gentleman Bert Williams is. The keeper is praised on the letters page for his courtesy in replying with a personalised response to a star-struck autograph hunter.

On an even more historical note, Backpass assistant editor Hyder Jawad, formerly of the Birmingham Post, celebrates the fact that this is the 125th anniversary of the Football League in a two-page piece that talks about Wolves’ first ever goal in the competition – one handed to them on a plate at Dudley Road by Aston Villa full-back Gersham Cox.

Norman Giller, author of the wonderful Billy Wright biography of around a decade ago, writes about the Hungarian’s sensational slaughter of England in 1953 and refers to THAT quote from Billy about the fire engine going to the wrong fire!

Yet further Wolves references include a mention of Mark Lazarus in a write-up of QPR’s 1967 League Cup final win over Albion and a page feature, with new picture, of the reunion golf weekend organised for England’s World Cup winners by Ron Flowers in Stafford earlier this summer.

Backpass has previously featured at length a long list of Wolves favourites, including Dave Wagstaffe, Jim McCalliog, John Richards, Bobby Gould, Steve Bull, Willie Carr, Ernie Hunt, Derek Dougan, Billy Rafferty, Alun Evans, Mike O’Grady,  and Wolverhampton-born World Cup final referee Jack Taylor.

Many of the back issues are still available. For details of how to purchase – other than on the high street at your local WH Smith and McColl store – please click on the icon bearing Richards’ photo on the right.

This is issue 30 of Backpass, which now prints six times a year rather than being a quarterly as previously.

The magazine’s sister publication Backspin is approaching its fourth edition – one which is due to highlight Staffordshire’s extraordinary impact on Minor Counties Championship cricket in the early 1990s.