Spot the Ball by Tim Daly

Spot the Ball competitions (and variations of it) were a feature of most newspapers until the National Lottery kicked off in 1994. Each week an unspectacular match photograph was printed on the coupon with the ball cunningly removed beforehand. Armed with a black biro, contestants had to guess the position of the ball with several tiny ‘x’ marks which required a great deal of forethought. Competition photographs also had their backgrounds painted a dismal grey to make it easier to see the multiple ‘x’s on each coupon. This inadvertently suggested football was only played in a thick blanket of smog. Some competitions provided background details to aid contestants such as the weather and the condition of the pitch but this was a red herring because the position of the ball was secretly determined each week by a panel of experts.

Spot the Ball is printed on light grey recycled paper resembling newsprint and contains enlarged coupon photographs from the competition. Featuring appearances from Bobby Moore, George Best, John Toshack, The Doog, Mike Pejic, Barney Rubble (in his Newcastle days) and many, many more.

32pp saddle stitch. Handwriting, four colour laser on 80gsm recycled paper. 285x200mm

Edition of 50

£10 plus p&p