Our Charles Reep Project 2

Last month, I wrote about a Charles Reep project.
I have been doing some research following a lead from Simon Gleave.
The project has been given some urgency by a post by Joe Sykes and Neil Paine.
I was surprised that they thought Charles was responsible for the ruin of English football … and that his maths were to blame (“based on a fatally flawed premise”).
My aim is to address the academic issues surrounding Charles’ work and then to consider his impact on the playing of the game.
I had the privilege of meeting Charles at his home in Torpoint in 1996.
He was 92 when I met him. He seemed much , much younger. He had stayed up late the night before I met him and had completed his 2194th hand notation (46 years of real-time and lapsed-time notation).
I am hopeful that the project will add to the conversation about Charles and contribute to a distinction between the value of his work and value judgements about it.

Photo Credit

Shrewsbury v Rochdale Football Match 1950 (Geoff Charles Collection at the National Library of Wales, no known copyright restrictions)