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After years of watching her mother delivering a Christmas message to the millions, Princess Anne chose a typically idiosyncratic method of getting in on the act, opting to give an interview to Rugby World’s Christmas issue in December 1986.   A fan of many...

It might not be the kind of big screen TV sets that we’re used to these days, but if you were lucky enough to have one of those tiny boxes in the corner of your living room at Christmas 1956, you were somebody. Actually, you were somebody who was going to have to put...

Autosport made precious few concessions to Christmas in its December 24 edition in 1970, featuring a particularly unfestive chap on the front cover who might well have been The Stig’s grandfather.   Ye Olde Yuletide Road Test was similarly eccentric, John Bolster...

Plenty of readers might be settling down to Christmas with Bacardi Rum (other brands are available), but in December 1977, Horse & Hound chose Red Rum instead as Ivor Herbert looked “back over the Christmases the triple Grand National winner has known”.   Red...

Dating agencies aren’t just for people you know, as this advert from Horse & Hound in December 1987 underlines.   Ok, it’s a little less romantic than “22, tall, all own teeth, GSOH, seeks millionaire for possible liaison”, but after all, the National Stud...

Given the world has gone digital, including games and toys, it’s hard to believe that there was once a time when companies could afford to take out a full page ad for a model railway train in TV Times, one of the biggest selling magazines in the country. And it wasn’t...

Nowadays we are used to football clubs being willing to put their badge on pretty much any type of product if there’s a profit to be turned, but it was a little less prevalent back in January 1996 when Wilkinson Sword, the ‘official razor supplier to the FA Carling...

How can a golfer ensure that they are looking their best out on the links, especially when the weather turns autumnal and the woollen ensemble needs to come out of the closet?   It’s a timeless question that, let’s be honest, has you tossing and turning with...

May 1997 and rugby union is into the professional era which, in turn, means that advertisers and sponsor are beginning to descend upon the game in their droves.   Among the more obvious advertising synergies of the time was the wholly understandable teaming up of...

It’s possible that you might have heard that Jaguar have changed their logo this week. Such is the nature of the car business in the 21st century that such updates are a part of marketing life as companies go in search of new customers.   Back in December 1953,...

One of the great opportunities that the monthly magazine has is the scope to talk to people who aren’t necessarily in the limelight but who play a vital role in bringing a sport to the public.   December 1977 saw Rugby World’ David Norrie talking to top...

There are certain staging posts that the big names have to tick off if they are going to truly believe that they’ve made it. Back in January 1981, one such reference point was appearing on The Muppet Show, thereby capturing the Sunday night TV audience.   When...

Back in 1994, for the third time in six seasons, the Formula 1 World Championship was decided in controversial circumstances after a collision between the two title contenders in the final race.   This time it was Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher who had the...

It says much for the ease with which the United States had won the Ryder Cup on such a regular basis that the December 1983 edition of Golf Monthly was in raptures simply because the European team had lost by just two points in the most recent match, but as history...

August 2011 and Pep Guardiola was the leader of Barcelona, the team with Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets, Villa, Pedro, Abidal et al, a side regarded already as one of the greatest of all time.   With Guardiola having decided to do no one-on-one interviews,...

Few sporting events make for more spectacular action photography than the Grand National at Aintree and Horse & Hound made full use of that in it its 6 April 1963 issue as the field looked to negotiate the giant Becher’s Brook on the first circuit.   The...

The ever increasing value of horseflesh preoccupied Horse & Hound in its 10 August 1979 issue following the syndication of the Derby winner Troy to stand at Lord Porchester’s Highclere Stud.   If completed, it “would value him at £7,200,000 or, taking an...

FourFourTwo often shows footballers no mercy and that was true of the 1996 issue when they gave over a feature to detailing some of the most horrendous misses in footballing history.   From Gordon Smith blowing Brighton’s chance to win the FA Cup for the first...

June 2009 and Golf Monthly was asking golf’s ‘hottest prospect’, one Rory McIlroy, how to ensure that we could all approach the putting surface with confidence.   Going through five practice drills, the first was to hit a series of putts with one leg in the air....

Iconic is a word that gets bandied about all too easily these days, but if you want to find a truly iconic British racing combo, look no further than the front cover of Autosport on 17 July 1975.   The special issue ahead of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone,...