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Kingsley Royal - History

Many years ago a mysterious massive stone plinth appeared in the heart of Reading. On the top was a huge lion, casting his magnificent eye over the town. On the plinth were written the words, "It shall come to pass in the latter days that a leader will arise, a leader who will take his chosen people to glory and the promised land. His name will mean 'first among princes' and all will follow him".

Scholars argued over the meaning of these magical words. In time the true meaning of the stone was forgotten and people assumed that it was a normal statue. The area around the statue became a garden where many of the more interesting Reading residents would gather.

Then one day a bright star fell from the firmament and Kingsley Royal was born.

Key Dates

1997/98

• 1997 - Kingsley makes first appearance
• 6th January 1998 - Kingsley in trouble after an incident with the Middlesbrough mascot. All true Kingsley fans realise that this is the beginning of the path to world domination.
• 3rd May 1998 - now that Uri Geller is out of the way, Kingsley takes over the role of Reading prophet by sporting a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase "Reading FC - Division 2 Champions 1998/99".
  Footnote: Subsequent events indicated that Kingsley is as good at telling the future as the aforementioned Mr. Geller.

1998/99

• 22nd August 1998 - at his new home, Madejski Stadium, Kingsley discovers that the stadium has been designed with huge ceremonial arches at either end of the East Stand, just so that he can stand there to watch the games.
• 7th November 1998 - Kingsley runs onto the pitch to celebrate Reading's first goal against Bournemouth. A Bournemouth fan reports Kingsley to a steward and asks that he be ejected! After the match, Reading's Sales and Marketing Manager, Boyd Butler, says, "He's getting a reputation for banter with the fans but he's been told to behave himself. We don't want to turn Kingsley into a tame animal and we give him a long lead - but I suppose he is the king of the jungle and he will do the things lions do."
• 27th March 1999 - first running race against the Manchester City mascot, Moonchester. A glorious victory for our hero.
• 17th April 1999 - running race against the Northampton Town mascot. Kingsley keeps up his 100% record.
• 1st May 1999 - Kingsley joins some junior Royals in a relay race against the Millwall mascot and some young fans from Millwall. Tragically the home team lose, but Kingsley shows superior speed over his supposed rival.
• May 1999 - Kingsley comes joint 8th in the Hob Nob Anyone? player of the year poll. Given the club's performances in the 1998/99 season, Kingsley is understood to be "disappointed" with the result.

1999/2000

• July 1999 - The Kingsley Royal home page is published on the World Wide Web.
• 21st August 1999 - Kingsley joins some junior Royals in a relay race against the Luton Town mascot and some young fans from Luton. The Royals win, thanks partly to Kingsley's dominance over his rather uppity opponent.
• 26th September 1999 - the first running of the British Mascot Grand National at Huntingdon Racecourse. Kingsley does not take part and no-one knows why.
• 2nd October 1999 - in a rare appearance at an away game, police have to step in and separate Kingsley Royal from the Wycombe Wanderers mascot, Bodger. Kingsley was winning the fight, of course. [This incident formed part of the "Nice Swan Cyril" Radio 5 programme broadcast on 16th July 2001.]
• 20th November 1999 - Kingsley engages in a mock fight with the Halifax mascot (a fox, for reasons that escape us at the moment). Kingsley catches the fox with a sneaky late blow as the fox walks away - perfect, because Reading FC are all about winning!
• 5th February 2000 - at Deepdale Kingsley displays his new orange away kit. He also learns a few tactics in how to encourage the Reading support from our new assistant manager, Martin "Mad Dog" Allen.
• 12th February 2000 - it's back to the relay races, and again Kingsley is the difference between victory and defeat as he outsprints the impostor fake lion from Millwall to help the Junior Royals win. The Millwall "lion" is even seen taking his head off at one point, proving that it's just a person in a costume! Real lions can't do that.
• 4th March 2000 - Kingsley joins in the Beach Party spirit for the game against Bournemouth, sporting a very very fashionable shirt and a natty oversized pair of sunglasses.

2000/01

• July 2000 - The Kingsley Royal home page becomes part of this website. And Kingsley thinks that it is the best bit by a long way.
• 28th August 2000 - some fans start up a campaign to replace Kingsley with a Berkshire pig as club mascot. Naturally Kingsley himself maintains a dignified silence on the matter, but sources close to the throne state that if the club quickly wants to become a laughing stock they should pursue the matter of adopting a pig as mascot further.
• 4th September 2000 - the Football League propose to introduce new rules for mascots. Running on the pitch during a game, winding up the away fans and vulgar behaviour will all be banned. This does not affect Reading, as Kingsley doesn't do anything like that anyway. Cheating mascots, such as Oldham's Chaddy the Owl (seen on Sky News today removing his head, so he's not even a proper owl!) will also not be allowed to patrol behind the goals or along the touchlines. And it serves them right!
• 10th September 2000 - at the end of the Brentford match, Kingsley attempts to lift his XXXXL replica shirt to reveal the T-shirt underneath. Unfortunately it's a ham-fisted (ham-pawed?) attempt and all that the East Stand can see is that the last word is "up". Speculation among Kingsley watchers centres around one of the two phrases "We are going up" and "Pigs - your time is up". Assuming that it was the first, then for Kingsley Royal's prophecy ability see the entry for 3rd May 1998.
• 13th September 2000 - at the end of the Oldham match, Kingsley successfully manages to lift his XXXXL replica shirt to show that the T-shirt underneath does indeed read "We are going UP". [Note added 27th May 2001: Oh dear...]
• 23rd September 2000 - Kingsley takes part in penalty shootout against Cyril the Swan at half-time in the Reading - Swansea game, and loses 2-0. Initially, we could only assume that the swan had cheated but later Reading FC announced the result as a 2-1 defeat - a step in the right direction. Later still the Reading Chronicle stated that Kingsley won the shootout after all. As it should be.
• 24th September 2000 - Kingsley takes part in the second running of the Altro Floors Mascot Grand National, held at Huntingdon Racecourse. The race featured 49 mascots (not all from football clubs) and was run over one furlong (220 yards) including six small fences. Kingsley failed to make the top three and was last seen somewhere in the middle of the pack. A spokesman said that the effort of having to celebrate 14 goals in the last three home games had taken more out of the lion than expected. Kingsley will expect to win next time, despite the same handicap of large numbers of goal celebrations.
• 30th September 2000 - Football Focus showed the Mascot Grand National and it looked like Kingsley finished 8th. [Note: Kingsley did indeed finish 8th according to the official results.]
• 17th October 2000 - tired of waiting for an appropriate away game, Kingsley wears his new third kit at the home match against Wrexham.
• 28th October 2000 - Kingsley models yet another new kit. This time it's a goalkeeper's jersey which Kingsley wears at half-time whilst facing penalties from the six mascots for the Oxford home game. Of the 12 penalties taken, Kingsley manages to save only one and that was probably going wide anyway. Phil Whitehead has absolutely nothing to worry about from this direction. [Note added 14th June 2001: Kingsley was celebrating the birthday of a close personal friend the night before, and was apparently slightly the worse for wear during this shootout.]
• 29th November 2000 - Kingsley has been allocated a squad number. He's now wearing number 1871 on both shirt and shorts, which is thought to be a realistic estimate of his likelihood of appearing for the first team. (Or it could be a reference to the club's formation year, or an advert for this website!) At half-time during the FA Youth Cup Round 3 game against Manchester United, Kingsley entertains the West Stand crowd with his considerable ball-juggling skills.
• 19th December 2000 - on a night when match officials make the main game a mockery, Kingsley Royal and Yorkie Bear take part in a half-time penalty shootout conducted without any officials and in exactly the right spirit. And in a fair contest, Kingsley won (but it went on so long that no-one is really sure whether it was 6-5 or 7-6 or 8-7 or .....).
• 6th January 2001 - before the home game against Millwall, Kingsley beats the fake lion mascot from South London 1-0 in a low-quality penalty shootout, where five of the six penalties taken fail to find the back of the net.
• 13th January 2001 - another half-time penalty shootout, this time against the Stoke City mascot Pottermus. Kingsley, resplendent in his yellow away kit, wins 4-3 despite some attempted cheating by Stoke ball-boys (trying to put him off during his run-up). After this glorious victory, it looked as if Pottermus was trying to start a rerun of the "Wolfie v City Cat and the Three Little Pigs" mascot fight, but after Kingsley punched him on his extremely large nose a few times, he slunk off. Note: The Stoke City PA announcer said that Pottermus had won 9-0 - he should be sacked immediately.
• 5th February 2001 - Kingsley is interviewed for a Radio 5 programme about mascots (hopefully with an interpreter for those of us that don't speak lion that well). The show goes out on Thursday, 31st May at 9.30pm - yes, I know it's advance notice but there'll be a reminder nearer the time. [Note added 23rd April 2001 - the date of the show has changed from Thursday, 31st May to Monday, 16th July, and it is called "Nice Swan Cyril".]
• 9th March 2001 - live on Sky Sports but ignoring the pressure, Kingsley Royal entertains the nation with a stunning display of ball control before the Reading victory over Wigan Athletic.
• 1st April 2001 - Kingsley was supposed to attend the "Battle of the Mascots", a fun day at Shrewsbury Town including a match played by the mascots, but he doesn't appear in the official team line-ups. It's not actually clear why he didn't make it.
• 7th April 2001 - because of the ban on transporting animals into rural areas, and because of some official intransigence, Kingsley is unable to attend the match at Cambridge United. Instead he sends along an actor in a costume with strict instructions not to get anywhere near the end containing the Reading fans. Cambridge retaliate by providing a tiny dressing room, with hardly enough room to swing a moose (the Cambridge mascot is Marvin the Moose). This makes it more difficult for the double to get the costume fastened up correctly. However, the plan goes well until the double's head comes off whilst making a save during a penalty shootout competition against Marvin. Kingsley would like to apologise to his many admirers for the confusion that this has caused. (Anyone who doubts the truth of this story has only to cast their minds back to previous penalty shootouts, particularly the one on 28th October 2000, to remember that the real Kingsley Royal is not at all good in goal and rarely attempts to make a diving save.)
• 28th April 2001 - Kingsley and the Colchester mascot take it in turns to act as goalkeepers in a penalty shootout for young fans. Sadly, Colchester win.
• 8th May 2001 - Kingsley Royal comes fifth in this season's Hob Nob Anyone? Prediction League. As the club mascot, Kingsley felt he had no choice but to adopt the tactic of predicting every game as a win for the Super Royals by the widest possible margin. And it almost worked.
• 27th May 2001 - on his debut at the Millennium Stadium, Kingsley displays to the world his new signs showing classic Reading songs such as "Super Martin Butler" and "There's only one Jamie Cureton".
• 16th June 2001 - Kingsley Royal appears at the end of "Slap Bang with Ant and Dec" on ITV, together with 49 other football mascots. They dance to "Tiger Feet" as the closing credits roll. Whilst on camera, Kingsley holds his head as if to suggest that he is not well. However, Kingsley was not given the star billing due to him as the number one mascot in the country, but was instead treated the same as all the others.

2001/02

• 7th July 2001 - Kingsley Royal comes third in the Mascot Derby held over the final furlong of Chepstow racecourse. Freddy the Fox from Heatherton County Sports Park was the clear winner, with Spytty the Dog from Newport County just edging Kingsley out. You'll be pleased to hear that a number of the mascots present ganged up on Cyril the Swan after the race!
• 16th July 2001 - Kingsley takes part in the Radio 5 Live show called "Nice Swan Cyril". The only Kingsley incident mentioned was that from 2nd October 1999 when police chose to separate Kingsley Royal from the Wycombe mascot.
• 14th August 2001 - whilst wearing his new England shirt, Kingsley Royal defeats the Evening Post mascot Roary the Lion 2-0 in a half-time penalty shootout during the England Under-21 friendly match against Holland.
• 18th August 2001 - THE END! After an exciting and at times controversial period as the club mascot, Kingsley Royal has decided to step down. His replacement was introduced to the crowd today, and is also called Kingsley Royal (after all, when there's a new Pope, he's still called the Pope, right?). Although the club have decided to describe the change as a makeover, you would really have to be blind not to realise that it is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT LION. The original Kingsley will attend matches when his hectic social life permits (and when the stewards see fit to allow a fully-clawed, carnivorous jungle animal through the turnstiles). He will however be incognito so you may not recognise him.
  
  The original Kingsley Royal believes that all Reading fans should support the new mascot, and that we will all come to love him in the very near future.

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