Pinnace Cards

Are you confused as to what is and what isn’t a Pinnace card? Probably not, in truth, but I do still get messages from people who are not so sure, so I have added a short section which might help the less knowledgeable identify cards that they might have in their possession.

Click on the picture here of a 1923 Thomson “Cricketers & Footballers” set to read it.

Just in time for Christmas come this small but excellent book of cards and stickers featuring the players of Norwich City.

Self-published by Canaries fan Gary Enderby, you will find a fuller review and ordering details by clicking the picture.

Merry Christmas, Norwich fans! 🎅🏻

Andy Wilson transferred to Chelsea in November 1923. He doesn’t appear as a Chelsea player on any cards in this series, regardless of size, except for this cabinet card which was discovered by Andrew Rowley in September 2025. Usually appearing as card 382 Dunfermline and Middlesbrough, this large card clearly shows him registered on Chelsea’s books.

I have never seen any Chelsea Pinnace cards of him, so I believe this to be a new discovery – but you, of course, might tell me otherwise!

I wonder just how many of these are out there?

I have just uploaded the latest version of the Excel file containing lists of which versions of cards are available. It is free to download but is not editable.

This latest version – 2.4 – includes amongst others a few Sunderland players previously unknown on Cabinet cards, for which I thank Dave Horn for alerting me.

Head to the VARIATIONS section and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Once again I am indebted to Adrian Cummings for supplying me with one of the missing cards. This time it is card 1106 featuring the later image of Joe Corsi, by then of the Rochdale Hornets R.F.L. club.

In case you weren’t already aware, Corsi had already appeared in the set and on the very same card number but as a player for York N.U. with a very different photograph.

You can see both images by clicking on the photograph and scrolling to 1106.

Now, I’ll be perfectly honest when I say that I am not 100% sure as to whether or not the card that I have today added to my personal collection is particularly rare, but I will say that I had never actually come across one before until I snagged this from eBay the other day.

The issue here is that card 695 appears twice, each time with a different name and photograph. The CORRECT version is that of J. Elliott, the Preston goalkeeper; the error card is this one, showing R. Woodhouse who has already appeared – albeit with a different photograph – on card 316.

You can see lots more variations and errors on this section of my website.

Once again my most grateful thanks go to fellow collector, Adrian Cummings, who has sent me eleven of the cards that I was missing.

Whilst I am now on the hunt for the remaining 567, Adrian collects every different card, be it players playing for more than one club, misspellings, etc. but not different backs, and he now needs only 51, including the almost impossible to find Hughie Gallacher (card 1254).

I wonder if either of us will ever get there? 🤷🏻‍♂️

My grateful thanks go to Duncan Jardine who has supplied four more cards that were on my ‘WANTED’ list.

If you have any spares that you think I might be interested in, please get in touch using the CONTACT page.

I am indebted once more to Adrian Cummings who has again donated a number of his spares to my personal collection. His thirteen cards have brought my ‘needs’ list down to a meagre 582; yes, I’m still a long way from home, but every little bit helps!

I am grateful to James Cotton for pointing out a strange fact relating to Ben Beynon.

He appears on cards 508 and 2160. Click either of those links to see what makes him unique in this set!