European Programmes by Adrian Monaghan

ARDS v RHEIMS, 1958 European Cup

This programme was an 8 page glossy publication printed in the large sized format, popular at that time.

The cover had a picture of the French League champions as well as all the match details encased in red spot colour. Page 2 had a half page welcome from Chairman Jimmy Apperson while an ad made up the rest of the page. The third page contained pen pics of the Ards team written by The Chronicle's Norman Boal. The team line ups surrounded by ads made up pages 4 and 5 while page 6 had thumb nail sketches of the French visitors by L`Equipe columnist Jean Cornu. Pages 7 and 8 consisted of ads.

For the record Ards lost the game 4 goals to 1 with Juste Fontaine notching all the visitor's goals. The Marrakech born Fontaine had just returned home from the 1958 World Cup finals as leading scorer with 13; this is still a record to this day. Hugh Lowry had the distinction of being the first Irish League player to score a goal in Europe when he found the net for the hosts.

This programme has become increasingly difficult to obtain and you can expect to pay anywhere from £15 to £25, depending on its condition. One vendor at the 2002 programme fair at Maysfield had it on sale at £45 - well overpriced!

ARDS v A.S. ROMA, 1969 European Cup Winners' Cup

Similar in size and content as the Rheims programme.

The front page contains no picture but all the match details set in black ink against a green background. Page 2 has a full sized ad while page 3 has a welcome from Chairman Harold Black as well as an article on Roma coach Helenio Herrera by Sunday Mirror writer Bill Clarke. The centre pages had the standard team panels surrounded by ads.

Page 6 had an article and picture of the Roma visitors penned by Malcolm Brodie; page 7 saw a half page article written by the recently deceased Bill Ireland while an ad made up the rest of the page. The back page contained a full sized ad.

Expect to part with £10 if you want to add this to your collection.

ARDS v STANDARD LIEGE, 1973 UEFA Cup

The format is similar to the two previous European editions only this time the cover does not contain any spot colour.

Page 2 has some general info on the Belgian visitors plus pen pictures of the team. These pen pics revealed that the touring party had no less than 10 full international players in their ranks. Page 3 saw Harold Black give his welcome plus the thoughts of manager Billy Humphries. Some ads completed the page.

4 and 5 were the standard team panels bordered by ads while page 6 contained the Ards pen pics. 7 and 8 contained ads.

This is the easiest obtained Ards European programme and can be purchased anywhere from £3 to £10; a realistic price would be £5. An interesting feature of this programme is the erroneous spelling of the competition. It reads E.U.F.A. Cup instead of U.E.F.A.

ARDS v PSV EINDHOVEN, 1974 European Cup Winners' Cup

The programme with no match details or date on the cover!

A fairly common occurrence for Ards programmes of that era, but totally unforgivable for a European edition. The low crowd appeal probably influenced the standard of this programme; remember we were trounced 10 goals to nil in the first leg!

It consists of 8 pages printed on plain foolscap paper and it is in the smaller sized format (almost A5). As I said earlier the cover is lacking in information while page 2 is full of small ads. Page 3 has a welcome to PSV from President Harry Cavan and a welcome from Chairman Billy McCully. 4 and 5 contain ads only as does page 6. The team panels are on page 7 as is manager Billy Humphries' musings on the first leg. A brief word of thanks from Grounds Committee convenor Mario Cafolla completes the text. Ads take up the final page.

Difficult enough programme to find. Unfortunately it ranks as the worst ever programme produced by an Irish League club for a European tie but still expect to put yourself back £10 or £12 if you want to add it to your collection.

ARDS v ROYAL ANTWERP / AJ AUXERRE, 1997 UEFA InterToto Cup

This 2 in 1 publication was Ards' largest sized programme for a Euro tie (16 pages in total on A5 sized glossy paper).

The cover consisted of the match details, page 2 ads, page 3 an editorial plus manager Roy Coyle's thoughts. Page 4 had a message from Chairman Hugh Owens while Mayor (and future club chairman) Ronnie Ferguson gave his words of welcome to the Belgian and French visitors. The club chaplain's words plus a small ad made up page 5.

Pages 6 and 7 had info on Antwerp, written but not credited to Roy Kitson. 8 and 9 had the team panels for both games. 10 and 11 saw the Roy Kitson penned Auxerre notes and page 12 contained more ads. Page 13 had an article titled Ards in Europe and pages 14 and 15 had the Ards pen pics plus some small photographs. The back page consisted of an article briefly detailing the history of the InterToto competition plus all that year's competing clubs.

Expect to pay £3 or £4 for this one but I expect the price to go up considerably over the next few years as only a small amount of these programmes were printed.