''War of the Monster Trucks'' is a fanzine for the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

football club

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

. Brainchild of David Richards and Matthew Cooper, War of the Monster Trucks first hit the shelves in 1993 with the now famous headline '' Lucan Alive! Found in

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

Trophy Room''. The name of the fanzine was derived from the events of 21 April 1991, when

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

elected to show the 1986 TV special ''War of the Monster Trucks'' in preference to the post match celebrations of Sheffield Wednesday’s famous and unlikely 1–0 League Cup Final victory over Manchester United. This acrimonious decision has been cited over the years by both Sheffield Wednesday and

fans as a prime example of Yorkshire Television's bias towards

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

in general and

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

in particular. The fanzine was launched at a time when the club had managed to win its first trophy in almost 50 years, finish third in the First Division and reach the final of two major cup competitions in the same year. The fanzine was co-edited by Richards and Cooper for several years before passing to Paul Taylor. Andy Selman, Nick Riley and Steve Walmsley. Though losing some of its early ‘fizz’ the fanzine ran for several years as a paper fanzine and then moved online.

References

External links

*{{URL, wotmt.co.uk, Official website Sheffield Wednesday F.C. Football fanzines Magazines established in 1993 Mass media in Sheffield Association football magazines Sports magazines published in the United Kingdom