Hob Nob Anyone?

The Reading Football Club Internet Fanzine

Hob Nob Anyone? was one of the first football sites to hit the web. We are probably the oldest football website still running without any interruption. When the site was first launched in November 1994 only a handful of clubs were lucky enough to be represented on the Internet. In the early days we were used by Reading Football Club as an outlet for news and ticket information. We were then involved in the build of the first official website until a large corporate deal was struck between the Football League and NTL. Since our inception over 20 years ago we've seen two promotions to the Premier League. We never thought we'd see that. The Royals continue to provide plenty of inspiration to keep the website fresh with news and fans opinion and discussion.

Hob Nob Anyone? was hosted at the University Of East Anglia from 1994 until the summer of 1996 when it made the move to VIA NET.WORKS - who hosted the site until 2002. Early in 1999 this site got it's own domain name ( royals.org) and moved to it's own server. In the summer of 2002, Hob Nob Anyone? moved again to be hosted at Oscura Ltd. Oscura are a local web development and hosting company in the centre of Reading.

The website currently (as of February 2014) produces 1.5M page views and 200,000 user sessions (45,000 unique users) a month.

The Team

We've had a lot of contributors and reporters through the years. If you've helped out in the past hopefully we've said "thank you" below. The current contributors for the 2015/2016 season are as below:

Graham Loader - Founder, creator, editor, news and views
Alex Bower - News and views
John Wells - Home match reporter
Dave Roberts - Away match reporter
Forum moderators

Thank you...

Thanks to those who've helped out...

To all contributors.
All those who have sent in match reports, match opinion and all news items, with any luck I should have given you a credit with the article you sent.
Special thanks go to:

Oscura Ltd for domain name services and hosting from June 2002.
The University Of East Anglia for hosting this website from November 1994 until June 1996.
i-way for their sponsorship, and website hosting from June 1996.
2-TEN FM / Classic Gold who sponsored this site from 1997 until 2000.
Future Publishing who sponsored this site from 2000 to 2001.
The Whiff fanzine team
Justin Beasley
Neil Cole
Neil Maskell
Nigel Meek
Dean Madden
Roger Titford and STAR.
Alex Donaldson, Tony Ella, Malc Leary, Phil Newton, Chris Bennett, David Spencer, Jeff McFee, and Steve Rudd.
The playing staff at Reading Football Club who provide all the inspiration for this site.
Philpott Black who sponsored the fixture list
And thanks to everyone who looks at, and supports, this site.

Hob Nob Anyone? in the Media

During Hob Nob Anyone?'s long history we've been widely promoted in the press:

National Papers

Featured in 'The Times'

Featured in 'The Guardian'

Featured in 'The Telegraph'

Featured in 'The Observer' (Regular on Sundays during 2002/2003, 2003/2004, 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 seasons)

Featured in 'Daily Star' as site of the week

Local Papers

Featured weekly in 'The Reading Evening Post' (Tuesdays during 1998-99 season, Thursdays during 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 seasons)
(The Hob Nob Anyone? Column)

Featured weekly in 'The Reading Chronicle' (Weekly during 1996-97 season)
(The Jim and Mick Answer Column)

The Reading Post and getReading - 20 years article

The Eastern Daily Press

Television And Radio

Featured on BBC Berkshire

Featured on BBC Radio 5 Live

Featured on BBC Radio Wales (before Pants Day vs Wrexham)

Featured on Classic Gold Football Show - Local Radio Station

Featured on 2-TEN FM / Heart FM - Local Radio Station

Featured on Meridian TV

Featured weekly on Meridian ITV Teletext during 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 seasons.

Fanzines

Featured in 'Taking The Biscuit' - Reading FC's previous premier fanzine

Featured in 'The Whiff' - Reading FC's current premier fanzine

Front cover of The Whiff in August 2000 following the club's short-sighted attempts to restrict this website

And more...

We were awarded the STAR (Supporters Trust At Reading) 2010 award "for services to supporters of Reading Football Club"

Our news feed is featured in News Now

Featured in 'FRONT' Magazine (March 2003)

Featured in 'Sports First' (July 2002) (October 2002)

Featured in 'When Saturday Comes' national football mag - (December 2001)

Featured in '90 Minutes' national football mag

Featured in '4-4-2' national football mag

Featured in 'Total Football' national football mag

Featured in 'MOTD (Match of the Day)' national football mag

Featured in 'The Official Manchester United Magazine' as a recommended site (really!)

Featured in 'Match' magazine - awarded 9 out of 10

Featured in 'The Mac' magazine

Featured in 'Concrete', UEA's own newspaper!

Been the Nationwide's fan site of the week

Won a Top Award!

Getting In Touch

Please don't hesitate to get in touch should you wish to voice your opinions on this fanzine site or to contribute (either a one off or regularly - all input is welcomed!). All regular contributors will be rewarded in some way - although we can't promise much!

E-Mail: comments@royals.org

Phone Message / Fax Message: 07092 033861

Disclaimer

This website site is not the official Reading FC website.

This internet fanzine is a service available free of charge to all Reading FC supporters out there and anyone else who stumbles across these pages. 'Hob Nob Anyone?' is unofficial and the views expressed are nothing to do with Reading FC, the University Of East Anglia, Classic Gold, I-Way, VIA NET.WORKS, or Oscura Ltd in any way. The views are those of supporters and contributors.