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<An Evening with Bolton Wanderers Football Club>

On Monday 16 July, we held a unique event: a presentation and quiz centred around Bolton Wanderers, with the direct participation of the club itself. The quiz having been designed initially to act as a pre-launch event for our soon-to-be revamped webzine (see here for details on new content), we were delighted when Danny Reuben, Communications Manager at Bolton Wanderers FC, accepted our invitation to take part. In fact, Danny’s advertised attendance at our quiz proved a popular draw – so much so that we had to close registration after only five days (our apologies if you were unable to register in time). Although the  awful weather meant that some people arrived late, the whole evening proved to be both educational and entertaining.

Participants were also given the opportunity to put their own questions to the guest, to which Danny replied with great honesty and tact, before the answers and results of the quiz were read out. Top scorers, with an impressive tally of 30 out of a possible 33, were a team who called themselves ‘Hite’ – in fact the only team not to choose a Wanderers-themed name! Danny presented their prizes (a new ‘Football Culture’ t-shirt and a pair of tickets each to the following evening’s match between the Trotters and Santander), as well as consolation prizes to the runners up. We were also able to have a lucky draw, in which we gave away tickets to a new film, ‘The Libertine’ – this month’s feature at our teaching centre’s Film Club. Finally, Danny provided us with plenty of Wanderers souvenirs, so that no-one went away empted handed.

With a little wine and a few beers to help the convivial atmosphere of the evening, welcome and closing addresses from our Country Director, Ian Simm, and the genial participation of our guest, the evening went swimmingly – even if Danny found himself having to swim to his taxi in the ensuing downpour. We would like to thank Mr. Reuben for sparing his valuable time for us, and hope everyone who attended enjoyed themselves. We also hope that we will be able to offer more events of this kind in the future, so keep watching this space!

- Martin Goosey, General Editor of Football Culture

» Article from the Korea Times

Mr. Reuben works for one of English football’s oldest established clubs, with a history dating back to 1874. In 1888, Bolton Wanderers were one of twelve founder members of the inaugural Football League. Since then they have had a mixed history: triumphing in the FA Cup four times, the last occasion was in 1958, when club legend – and current President – Nat Lofthouse scored two to beat local rivals Manchester United. The club also won the Charity Shield that year, but subsequently yo-yoed about all four divisions for three decades, only to start something of a resurgence in the late 1990s. Bolton most recently won back their place in the top flight by triumphing 3-0 in the 2001 play-off final over Preston North End, and haven’t looked back since.

Under long-time manager Sam Allardyce (who left two games from the end of last season and has since joined up with Newcastle United), Bolton eventually became a fixture in the top half of the Barclays Premier League. Now managed by Liverpool legend Sammy Lee, the club qualified for this season’s UEFA Cup by finishing in 7th place, and were invited to Korea to participate in the third bi-annual Peace Cup.

Clearly the Trotters – as Bolton are affectionately known – have become a force to be reckoned with in the Premier League. In fact, as Danny was delighted to point out, a recent survey ranked the football club 23rd in the world. The Peace Cup was therefore a great opportunity for the team to pit its wits against others from vastly different backgrounds, but they acquitted themselves admirably. Not only did they finish top of their group (ahead of Chivas Guadalajara of Mexico, Seongnam Ilwha, and Real Racing Club de Santander of Spain), but they only narrowly lost the final, being on the wrong end of a 0-1 reverse to reigning French champions Olympique Lyonnais. It was obviously a great pleasure for us to have an official of such a significant club coming to assist us in our event.