A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd. – checklist cards (England)
A&BC Chewing Gum began producing annual English football cards for the 1958/59 season, but at that time there were no checklist cards. Checklist cards began with the following season, 1959/60 and continued through to the last set of cards in 1974/75, with the exception of the 1961/62 set of 64 and the 1967/68 Star Players set of 55. This gallery aims to show these checklist cards, and any variants.
1959/60 Footballer (Football Quiz)
When A&BC produced their first ever football cards checklist they kept things simple. A set of 98 cards, neatly divided into two series, 1 to 49 and 50 to 98, and used cards 49 and 98 as checklists. Job done!
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Card 49. Series 1 checklist front | Card 49. Series 1 checklist (1-49) back |
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Card 98. Series 2 checklist front | Card 98. Series 2 checklist (50-98) back |
1960/61 Footballer (Black backs)
When you are onto a good thing, stick to it. A set of 84 cards, two equal series, with the checklists being the last cards of each series. Why ever change?
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Card 42. Series 1 checklist front | Card 42. Series 1 checklist (1-42) back |
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Card 84. Series 2 checklist front | Card 84. Series 2 checklist (43-84) back |
1962/63 Footballer (Bazooka)
In 1961/62 A&BC moved from colour to black and white photos, and reduced the number of cards in the set to 64. I’m not aware that the cards were issued in two series, and there were no checklists. The following season they moved back to colour photos and an 82 card set, with two checklists, but it is not clear whether this set was issued as two series. To perhaps reinforce this confusion, the checklists (Cards 81 and 82) are identical, both listing players from cards 1 to 82.
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Card 81. Series 1 checklist front | Card 81. Series 1 checklist (1-82) back |
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Card 82. Series 2 checklist front | Card 82. Series 2 checklist (1-82) back |
1963/64 Footballer (Make-a-Photo)
In 1963/64 A&BC increased the size of the set to 110 cards, and went back to the idea of two series. However, there are two versions of the Series 2 checklist, one having the Everton checklist card as number 105 (with a checklist to 105) and another with the checklist card as 110 (and a checklist to 110). The set is known to have 110 cards, and the 110 card checklist has ‘English Series No. 2 revised’, indicating a change.
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Card 55. Series 1 checklist front | Card 55. Series 1 checklist (1-55) back |
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Card 105. Series 2 checklist front | Card 105. Series 2 checklist (56-105) back |
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Card 110. Series 2 revised checklist front | Card 110. Series 2 revised checklist (56-110) back |
1964/65 Footballer (Bazooka)
A&BC go to a 149 card set, with three checklists, although the three series were of different sizes i.e. 58, 45 and 46 cards respectively.
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Card 58. Series 1 checklist front | Card 58. Series 1 checklist (1-58) back |
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Card 103. Series 2 checklist front | Card 103. Series 2 checklist (59-103) back |
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Card 149. Series 3 checklist front | Card 149. Series 3 checklist (104-149) back |
1966/67 Footballer (colour pairs)
A&BC went a bit crazy in the mid-60s, going away from the established size and design of their cards to small pairs. They also introduced a vast number of checklist cards, as you can see below. It led to the slightly ridiculous situation where you had checklist cards listing checklist cards! Fortunately for collectors it only lasted one year before the concept was tossed.
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Card 107 Front and Card 108 Front | Card 109 Front and Card 110 Front |
Card 103 Front and Card 104 Front | Card 105 Front and Card 106 Front |
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Card 108. Checklist (33-48) back Card 107. Checklist (49-64) Back | Card 110. Checklist (1-16) back Card 109. Checklist (17-32) back |
Card 104. Checklist (97-110) back Card 103. Checklist (111-125) back | Card 106. Checklist (65-80) back Card 105. Checklist (81-96) back |
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Card 216 Front and Card 215 Front | Card 214 Front and Card 213 Front |
Card 220 Front and Card 219 Front | Card 218 Front and Card 217 Front |
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Card 215. Checklist (150-161) back Card 216. Checklist (162-173) back | Card 213. Checklist (126-137) back Card 214. Checklist (138-149) back |
Card 219. Checklist (198-209) back Card 220. Checklist (210-220) back | Card 217. Checklist (174-185) back Card 218. Checklist (186-197) back |
1968/69 Footballer (Yellow backs)
The yellow backs set came with two checklists. Perhaps life was simpler back then, and perhaps also because this was a small set (101 cards), there are no known errors or variants of the checklists for this set. Interestingly, the checklists are now numbered at the start of each Series i.e. cards 1 and 55.
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Card 1. Series 1 checklist front | Card 1. Series 1 checklist (1-54) back |
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Card 55. Series 2 checklist front | Card 55. Series 2 checklist (55-101) back |
1969/70 Footballer (Green backs)
The green backs set came with three unnumbered checklists. The series 2 checklist is strange in that it came in a version with player and team names (as in Series 1), to be replaced by a slightly different checklist (three different players) without the team names. The first version is known as the Series 2, 4-column checklist, and the second as the 5-column checklist. The three player cards listed on the 4-column checklist but not on the 5-column were not issued.
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Series 1 checklist front | Series 1 checklist (1-64) back |
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Series 2 checklist front | Series 2 checklist (65-117) 4-column back |
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Series 2 checklist front | Series 2 checklist (65-117) 5-column back |
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Series 3 checklist front | Series 3 checklist (117-170) back |
1970/71 Footballer (Orange backs)
The orange backs set came with three checklists. The series 2 checklist has a numbering sequence error for cards 144 to 160. The cards on the checklist from 144 to 159 are numbered one less than the actual cards i.e. Peter Dobing is listed as card 155 on the checklist, but is issued as card 156. The Series 3 checklist has two versions, one listing to card 255, the other to 256. The cards listed on the 256 version are the ones issued, with the exception of card 256 (Check List III) which was not issued.
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Card 84. Series 1 checklist front | Card 84. Series 1 checklist (1-85) back |
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Card 85. Series 2 checklist front | Card 85. Series 2 checklist (86-170) back |
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Card 170. Series 3 checklist front | Card 170. Series 3 checklist (171-255) back |
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Card 170. Series 3 checklist front | Card 170. Series 3 checklist (171-256) back |
1971/72 Footballer (Purple backs)
The purple backs set came with three checklists, and incorporated a new design where the checklist was also on the front of the cards, replacing the previous images. The series 2 checklist is riddled with errors i.e. there are many cards listed on the checklist which differ from the cards actually issued. A&BC issued a Series 3 checklist with cards listed to 293, then later issued a ‘New checklist’ with cards to 290 and another with cards to 291. The Series 3 checklist to 291 is the same checklist as printed on the back cover of the Footballer Stamp Album issued to store the Club Crests and Superstar stamps. The actual cards issued number only to 290.
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Card 57. Series 1 checklist (1-44) front | Card 57. Series 1 checklist (45-109) back |
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Card 170. Series 2 checklist (110-153) front | Card 170. Series 2 checklist (154-219) back |
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Card 277. Series 3 checklist (220-263) front | Card 277. Series 3 checklist (264-293) back |
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Card 277. Series 3 new checklist (220-263) front | Card 277. Series 3 checklist (264-293) back |
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Card 277. Series 3 new checklist (220-263) front | Card 277. Series 3 new checklist (264-291) back |
1972/73 Footballer (Orange/red backs)
The Orange/red backs came in two series with cards up to 219, although the initially issued Series 2 checklist only listed cards up to 218. A later checklist was issued with ‘Revised checklist’ clearly marked and a total of fourteen different players. The cards listed on the initial Series 2 checklist and not on the revised checklist were not issued e.g. 112 Terry Dolan.
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Card 45. Series 1 checklist (1-44) front | Card 45. Series 1 checklist (45-109) front |
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Card 154. Series 2 checklist (110 – 153) front | Card 154. Series 2 checklist (154 – 218) back |
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Card 154. Series 2 revised checklist (110 – 153) front | Card 154. Series 2 revised checklist (154 – 219) back |
1973/74 Footballer (Blue backs)
The Blue backs came in two series with cards up to 261, with a variant checklist card 182. The variant card lists cards up to 264, though cards 262 and 264 are not known to exist. Card 263 does exist, though card 235 doesn’t. There are a number of differences between the players listed on the two checklist 182 cards, with the 261 version being correct (except for Marvin Hinton being 263 not 235).
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Card 36. Series One checklist (1-44) front | Card 36. Series One checklist (45-131) back |
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Card 182. Series Two checklist(132-175) front | Card 182. Series Two checklist (176-261) back |
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Card 182. Series Two checklist(132-175) front | Card 182. Series Two checklist (176-264) back |
1973/74 Footballer (Blue backs)
An era was coming to an end. As described in detail on another page of this website, A&BC could not complete their 1974/75 series. Following a costly trial and then a factory fire, they went out of business in the autumn. Consequently, only a single checklist was made for this final set of 132 cards
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Card 13. Checklist (1-56) front | Card 13. Checklist (57-132) back |