A KICK UP THE R’S | est. 1987

QUEENS PARK RANGERS

akutrs. com • @ akutrs DAVE THOMAS

FAVOURITE COVER Ex- owners Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone knew a lot about Formula 1, but nothing about QPR. Briatore said he would never listen to fans “who paid £ 20 to come through the turnstiles”, then set the price for away fans at £ 50. Their aim was to turn QPR into a ‘ boutique club’ ( nope, nor us). Despite promotion to the top, their tenure crashed and burned. When they sold their shares, we summed it up with a cover featuring a boutique and ‘ closed for business’ sign. MEMORABLE PLAYER/ MANAGER INCIDENT

In August 1987, I was ‘ invited’ to Loftus

Road to discuss Issue 1. It turned out to be an undisguised attempt to strangle AKUTR’S at birth, citing so- called unfair criticism aimed at then- secretary Ron Phillips, who had dismissed pitch protesters the previous season as “not real QPR fans”. The reason for their sit- down had been the proposal to merge QPR and Fulham. I stood my ground with director Brian Rowe. Fast- forward over 350 further editions and counting: Brian ( and family) are now avid readers of the fanzine. We even built bridges with Ron.

MOST IMPORTANT STORY Our coverage of the High Court trial involving ex- chairman Gianni Paladini and the alleged gun plot to oust him was in- depth. The most important story, though, was arguably our account of a two- hour call about why, as a fanzine, we would never lend our support to QPR – then deep in administration – moving to Milton Keynes [ in 2001].