Biscuitmen to Royals...

[Great Knolly]

True, but Windsor is far more Royal. I've never thought of Reading as Royal. Does anybody ?

[Dirk Gently]

ISTR that in the Branfoot years there was a competition in the EP/Chronicle to find a new nickname, because H&P was closing down.

"Royals " was the winner. I did have a link to this a few years ago but I can't find it now!

[Barry the bird boggler]

I'd vote for a re-introduction of The Biscuitmen, perhaps STAR could start a campaign to return us to our roots.

Mind you if it were successful it'd ruin our Peterborough chant "You're Posh but you're not Royal".

[Great Knolly]

Time for new name maybe:

archaic and quirky...

Monks : Abbey connection. Players could warm up in habits. Monk day - everyone's asked to shave the middle of the tops of their heads.

fairly relevant...

Brewers : We do have what certainly used to be, and may still be, the largest canning brewery in Europe. You can smell the Brewery across half the town on some days. Used to have a big brewery bang in the middle of town. Brewer day - everyone's asked to drink beer.

pertinently ridiculous...

Discombobulators : We have discombobulated the media and the pundits. If Discombobulators was the name, then everyone one would be discombobulated thereby justifying the nickname. It would indicate our disdain for whole idea of nicknames and would make for elaborate and strange chants. Discombobulator day - everyone's asked to be confused and upset.

glamourous...

The Oscars

tough...

The Gaolers

self-effacing...

The Journeymen

[1960]

What happens if Windsor FC get a sugar daddy and end up in League Two.

Actually Windsor & Eton FC, but interestingly their nickname is "The Royalists".

[Whistle]

It was Charlie Hurley not Branfoot who picked the Royals as the new nickname. I forget the other candidates - Lions? Blues? R's?

As I recall, it suddenly appeared on silk scarves first day of 1976/7 - welcome back to Div Four. General reaction? Small groan. Don't recall people liked Biscuitmen much then but we probably thought it was illegal to change your nickname! Chelsea should still be The Pensioners.

Royals is part of the naffness of our plasticky image unfortunately. We should adopt Berkshire's top, most famous mammal. C'mon you pigs. We're the pigs, the pigs from Pigs Green Lane. Oink.

[tom_t69]

Why did we have to change it because the factory shut down? Stoke are still the potters and luton the hatters?

[Whistle]

Why did we have to change it because the factory shut down? Stoke are still the potters and luton the hatters?

I expect we were 'enhancing our brand.'

We'd just been promoted - contrary to what I said in my last post - and promotion always stimulates the club to do something mad - like having to wear a tie to get in the Rendezvous.

[biscuitman]

I've never thought of Reading as Royal. Does anybody ?

I didn't think it was Royal but I now work near the abbey ruins and was reading about it in my lunch break. I now feel very royal.

[Behindu]

Why did we have to change it because the factory shut down? Stoke are still the potters and luton the hatters?

They still make china goods in Stoke though !

Although I agree in principle with your point !

[Behindu]

True, but Windsor is far more Royal. I've never thought of Reading as Royal. Does anybody ?

Does having a monarch buried in the town give us a reasonable 'Royal' connection ?

[elman]

Although Huntley & Palmers were the major Biscuit (Cookie)
factory in the town there also Serpells up till I believe sometime
in the 1950's

[1960]

Yes, Biscuitmen is old school, but can anyone seriously say they could sing "Come on you Biscuits" at a corner? Furthermore Royals was invented long before plasticity. Elm Park plastic? Do me a favour. "These toilets have been renovated for your convenience" as urine swilled around your shoes was as plastic as Elm Park got.

[Trevor Senior's Gap]

Yes, Biscuitmen is old school, but can anyone seriously say they could sing "Come on you Biscuits" at a corner? Furthermore Royals was invented long before plasticity. Elm Park plastic? Do me a favour. "These toilets have been renovated for your convenience" as urine swilled around your shoes was as plastic as Elm Park got.

those signs never failed to make me chuckle,and the fact it was going to be a memento with the words elm park in it was the other reason one of said signs occupies prime position in my (recently renovated!) bathroom!

[Z175]

True, but Windsor is far more Royal. I've never thought of Reading as Royal. Does anybody ?

Does having a monarch buried in the town give us a reasonable 'Royal' connection ?

Long live King Henry I!

[Sir Rodney Effing]

Then there's Maidenhead Utd (The Magpies?) - they live in the Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, try to take our crown (pun intended). So come on, if you think you're hard enough.

[Norfolk Royal]

Does this mean that Huntley and Palmer has to change his username?

[brendywendy]

I believe the nickname buscuit-men came from the fact that reading was originally the home of a small race of people made entirley from biscuits

they were a distant relative of the pigmys and the borrowers,and their time was mostly spent working in the counties treacle mines

i believe that they were used as our nickname becuase these little people built Elm-Park sometime in the victorian era, with their bare little hands, using only porridge and tooth picks.

the nick-name was changed to the royals in 1978 when all the biquitmen were killed by a particularly virulent strain of pubic lice
the queen took pity on us for our loss and allowed us to use the "Royal" moniker

[tomrfcurz]

well as we all know the queen and the royal family love their biscuits so we decided that the royals would show honour for the royal family's love of biscuits...........case closed.

[bobby m's syrup]

We're not Berkshire FC. We're Reading FC. I've always hated "Royals".

Maybe it's time the papers asked us to come up with another name, though, to be honest, nothing springs to mind. The town is becoming too diverse to sum it up in one word.

But we are the capital of Berkshire and the only professional club in Berkshire. So by default we are Berkshire!

How can we be the capital of a county that only exists for 'ceremonial' reasons. Berkshire is deader than Exmouth on a wet Monday night in winter.