
Our Cray Wanderers football history books
Photo: Phil Babbs at his familiar post selling programmes and books (including Cray 150 books) at the Cray Wanderers home match versus Ebbsfleet United on 27th November 2021. At this game there were two new Cray 150 books on sale: Exciting Discoveries and Shirts that Stand the Strain. Each of these new books offers more stories from the fascinating history of London's oldest football club Cray Wanderers.
Cray Wanderers FC is featured in many of our books. WANDERING THROUGH THE CRAYS (2015) is a social history of St Mary Cray and the Crays seen from the perspective of London’s oldest football club the Cray Wanderers. THE BEST OF CRAY CHATTER VOLUME ONE (2016) and VOLUME TWO (2017) reprinted a selection of items that had been published in the Cray Chatter fanzine during the 1980s and 1990s. Finding that we still had bundles of unpublished material in the Wands’ archives we then published THERE’S MORE TO SAY ABOUT CRAY (2017) featuring a range of football and social history since the football club first saw the light of day at Star Lane.
Three of our recent books focus on the 1970s, 1960s and 1950s decades of local football: WHERE HAVE ALL THE STARS GONE? (2018), LET US SEE THE GOALS GO IN (2019) and CRAYONS IN MY SCRAPBOOK (2020).
At the start of the new 2021/22 football season (August 2021) the Wands are playing in the Isthmian Premier League and you can see their home matches at Hayes Lane, Bromley FC. A new book THE TRIBUTE PROGRAMMES (author: Phil Babbs) was published at the start of the season. Now newly available from 27th November 2021 are two little books EXCITING DISCOVERIES and SHIRTS THAT STAND THE STRAIN each featuring a selection of articles by various authors that have been printed in the match programme during the club's long history.
All of our books can be purchased from Phil at Cray Wanderers home matches or at The Croft Tea Room, 263 High Street, St Mary Cray.
To enjoy regular reads about the history please visit Peter Goringe's excellent Twitter site:
CrayWands History
@OfficialwandsH
The Official Twitter account dedicated to the history of Cray Wanderers - London's Oldest Association Football Club dating back to 1860.
Photo: Phil Babbs at his familiar post selling programmes and books (including Cray 150 books) at the Cray Wanderers home match versus Ebbsfleet United on 27th November 2021. At this game there were two new Cray 150 books on sale: Exciting Discoveries and Shirts that Stand the Strain. Each of these new books offers more stories from the fascinating history of London's oldest football club Cray Wanderers.
Cray Wanderers FC is featured in many of our books. WANDERING THROUGH THE CRAYS (2015) is a social history of St Mary Cray and the Crays seen from the perspective of London’s oldest football club the Cray Wanderers. THE BEST OF CRAY CHATTER VOLUME ONE (2016) and VOLUME TWO (2017) reprinted a selection of items that had been published in the Cray Chatter fanzine during the 1980s and 1990s. Finding that we still had bundles of unpublished material in the Wands’ archives we then published THERE’S MORE TO SAY ABOUT CRAY (2017) featuring a range of football and social history since the football club first saw the light of day at Star Lane.
Three of our recent books focus on the 1970s, 1960s and 1950s decades of local football: WHERE HAVE ALL THE STARS GONE? (2018), LET US SEE THE GOALS GO IN (2019) and CRAYONS IN MY SCRAPBOOK (2020).
At the start of the new 2021/22 football season (August 2021) the Wands are playing in the Isthmian Premier League and you can see their home matches at Hayes Lane, Bromley FC. A new book THE TRIBUTE PROGRAMMES (author: Phil Babbs) was published at the start of the season. Now newly available from 27th November 2021 are two little books EXCITING DISCOVERIES and SHIRTS THAT STAND THE STRAIN each featuring a selection of articles by various authors that have been printed in the match programme during the club's long history.
All of our books can be purchased from Phil at Cray Wanderers home matches or at The Croft Tea Room, 263 High Street, St Mary Cray.
To enjoy regular reads about the history please visit Peter Goringe's excellent Twitter site:
CrayWands History
@OfficialwandsH
The Official Twitter account dedicated to the history of Cray Wanderers - London's Oldest Association Football Club dating back to 1860.

Exciting Discoveries
Publication date: 27th November 2021. Every football club issues a programme at its home matches. Cray Wanderers are no exception. But a Cray programme always offers an exceptional feast of reading. Please enjoy the amazing, amusing and interesting articles that we have selected for a reprint in this new book.
Price: £2.95 - or £5 the pair if also buying our other new little book Shirts that Stand the Strain.
Publication date: 27th November 2021. Every football club issues a programme at its home matches. Cray Wanderers are no exception. But a Cray programme always offers an exceptional feast of reading. Please enjoy the amazing, amusing and interesting articles that we have selected for a reprint in this new book.
Price: £2.95 - or £5 the pair if also buying our other new little book Shirts that Stand the Strain.

Shirts that Stand the Strain
Publication date: 27th November 2021> Do you ever read the advertisements in a football programme? They can offer a uniquely interesting perspective of a football club and its local area if you survey the changing face of local businesses, shops and services over a 120-year period. So in this delightful little book please enjoy a light-hearted nostalgic look at a range of historic local advertisements featuring blacksmiths, boot makers, broughams and dog carts, cattle dealers, coal and coke merchants, confectioners, dyers, fruiterers, grocers, hosiers ... and then coming up to modern times: P.V.C. systems, software technologies and website designers.
Price: £2.95 - or £5 the pair if also buying our other new little book Exciting Discoveries.
Publication date: 27th November 2021> Do you ever read the advertisements in a football programme? They can offer a uniquely interesting perspective of a football club and its local area if you survey the changing face of local businesses, shops and services over a 120-year period. So in this delightful little book please enjoy a light-hearted nostalgic look at a range of historic local advertisements featuring blacksmiths, boot makers, broughams and dog carts, cattle dealers, coal and coke merchants, confectioners, dyers, fruiterers, grocers, hosiers ... and then coming up to modern times: P.V.C. systems, software technologies and website designers.
Price: £2.95 - or £5 the pair if also buying our other new little book Exciting Discoveries.