A Leeds United membership card from the 1992-93 season has been reunited with its owner more than 30 years after it vanished into a patch of overgrown land near Leeds. The card was cut for the year Leeds were the defending league champions, when its owner, Mark Dexter, was a 30-year-old sports reporter on the Yorkshire Evening Post.
Dexter, now 63, said he has no memory of losing the wallet, which also held a membership card for a long-defunct video shop. The 34-year wallet reunion in Yorkshire was set in motion this week by Claire Wilson, who runs The Secret Garden Rawdon, a forest school on land that was once attached to a hotel and later used as a private garden. Wilson first dug up the wallet about a year ago, lost it to the weeds again, and recovered it on Sunday during a community clean-up.
A 1992-93 Membership Card, Pulled From the Weeds
The card was issued for the 1992-93 season, when Leeds were the defending league champions and Dexter was reporting on football in Yorkshire. The wallet held two cards: the Leeds membership card, which let fans buy tickets to away games, and a card for a long-defunct video shop whose name Dexter cannot now remember. The card is the only artefact of the pair to survive the 34-year burial in any recognisable form.
The wallet surfaced this week inside a forest school on a patch of overgrown land on the edge of Rawdon, a suburb just outside Leeds, beside a public footpath. “It’s next to a public footpath, but I’ve no recollection of ever walking down there at any time in the past. So I’ve no idea how it’s got there,” Dexter said. He and his wife Nicola collected the wallet on Tuesday, three days after the Sunday clean-up that brought it back to the surface. He has since wiped the mud from his Whites card, leaving it looking, as the BBC reported, as good as new. The leather jacket found beside the wallet had been sent to the tip months before the Sunday clean-up.
Dexter’s memory of his 1990s self, by his own admission, is patchy. “I hope I’ve cheered up a bit since then!” he told the BBC, after being shown the photo on his 1992-93 card. The reunion was the second time in less than a year that the wallet had surfaced in Wilson’s hands.
The Wallet Took a Year of Digging to Surface
The forest school is run by Claire Wilson, 39, who has worked the plot for four years. The Secret Garden Rawdon class schedule advertises outdoor learning through play for children and older visitors, and Wilson said the land was once attached to a hotel and later used as a private garden before the school took it on.
- 1992-93 season on the membership card
- More than 30 years lost in the soil
- Dexter’s age when the card was cut: 30
- Dexter’s age today: 63
- Wilson’s age: 39
Wilson said the wallet could have been thrown from the playing fields next door or pitched over the wall from the footpath. “Where we found the wallet is next to a dry stone wall that borders some allotments, so it could have been chucked lengthways from the playing fields or just over the wall,” she said. Beside the wallet lay a leather jacket, which did not survive the wait and was sent to the tip months before the wallet resurfaced. Wilson first uncovered the wallet about a year ago while working the plot, then set it aside while she kept digging, and the weeds swallowed it again. The Sunday community clean-up was the wallet’s second surfacing in Wilson’s hands.
The forest school’s purpose is to give children and older nature-lovers time in the soil, and buried finds come with the territory. “You find all sorts when you’re digging,” Wilson said. A child had previously dug up a watch on the same patch, with no strap and only the face intact.
How a Facebook Post Bridged 34 Years
The reunion started with a Facebook post, not a phone call. Wilson, who runs the forest school, said she posted about the find online after the Sunday clean-up. The post reached Dexter’s wife Nicola, who recognised the club crest and the year on the membership card. Within days, Mark and Nicola were standing in Wilson’s forest school, holding the wallet Dexter had not thought about in three decades.
The chain of events was short: dig, post, recognise, collect. Wilson had uncovered the wallet about a year ago, set it aside, and lost it to the weeds again before the Sunday clean-up recovered it. She has run the forest school for four years and said the site has given up other buried items before.
A Sports Reporter With No Memory of Losing It
In 1992 Dexter was a sports reporter on the Yorkshire Evening Post, the year the card was cut. He had just watched his club win the league title the season before, beating Manchester United to the championship. He moved on, settled in Burley-in-Wharfedale, and never gave the missing wallet a second thought. The card was issued for the season when Leeds were the defending league champions.
I look miserable as sin, so I hope I’ve cheered up a bit since then!
Mark Dexter, a 63-year-old former sports reporter on the Yorkshire Evening Post, told the BBC after seeing the photo on the recovered card. The card was issued for the 1992-93 season, when Leeds were the defending league champions, a status that did not survive long into the new campaign. He has kept the card and said the mud came off without leaving a mark. He also cannot remember if the leather jacket found beside the wallet was his. “The only thing I can think of is either it’s been nicked, my jacket, but again I don’t remember that, so I don’t know what that says about my memory!” he said.
What Else Has Surfaced on That Patch of Land
The forest school’s overgrown plot has produced more than one buried surprise in the four years Wilson has worked it. The site’s history as a hotel garden and then a private plot means the topsoil keeps turning up small relics of its earlier life. It also sits beside a public footpath that runs through Rawdon, a Leeds suburb, and borders allotments on the other side of a dry stone wall.
- A 1992-93 Leeds United membership card, pulled from the weeds beside a leather jacket
- A watch, dug up by a child, with no strap and only the face intact
- A membership card for a long-defunct video shop, hidden inside the same wallet
“There was no strap, it was just a face. You find all sorts when you’re digging,” Wilson said.
The leather jacket found beside the wallet was too far gone to save and was sent to the tip months before the wallet resurfaced. Wilson said she had originally uncovered the wallet about a year ago, set it aside, and lost it to the weeds again. The Sunday clean-up was what brought it back, this time for keeps. Dexter, who has kept the card, said he was surprised by how clean it came up after a wipe-down.
The Defending Champions When the Card Was Cut
The 1992-93 season was the year Leeds defended the league title they had won the season before. Leeds United’s three league title wins are listed on the club’s honours page, with 1991-92 the most recent of the three. The card was issued for that defending season, and it allowed fans to buy tickets to away games. Dexter, then 30, was a sports reporter on the Yorkshire Evening Post at the time the card was issued, covering football in Yorkshire while his club tried to defend their crown.
Dexter said his reaction now is one of bemused gratitude, and a little self-deprecation about the photo on the card. “I’m 63 now, so in ’92 I was 30 and happy, having a good time, loving journalism, loving working in newspapers. It was just great,” he said, holding the same card 34 years on, not much the worse for wear.
The Card Returns to Its Owner
Mark and Nicola Dexter collected the wallet on Tuesday, three days after the Sunday clean-up that brought it back to the surface. He has since wiped the mud from his Whites card, leaving it looking as good as new. The leather jacket, found beside the wallet, had been sent to the tip months before the wallet resurfaced.
Dexter has his own theory of how the wallet ended up in a patch of overgrown land, and most of it centres on a long-defunct pub crawl. He used to drink in the Emmott Arms, a pub that sits right next to Rawdon Cricket Club, and the wallet’s spot on the edge of the allotments is a short walk from the door. “The pub is right next to Rawdon Cricket Club and I’m a big cricket man, so I don’t know whether I’ve had a few drinks at the cricket club or at the pub and somebody pinched it, I really don’t know,” he said. The 1992-93 card is back with the man who last had it 34 years ago, and Wilson, who found it, handed it over to Mark and Nicola on Tuesday at the forest school.
For now, the find has made a former sports reporter very happy, as the BBC reported. Wilson said she will keep an eye on what turns up next time she turns the soil. Dexter has the card in his hand, 34 years late, and the Whites crest looks as good as new.
