It has been a momentous occasion for The Leyton Orientear as they celebrated their 30th birthday with a special fanzine anniversary edition last week.

Leyton Orient fan Dave Knight started the magazine in 1986 and it has since gone on from strength to strength.

It quickly got the attention of the O’s faithful and in total they have had eight editors with Jim Nichols currently holding the reins.

“Thirty years ago Dave Knight and a few of his friends were not happy about the way the club was being ran and the way that football was going throughout the country,” Nichols explained.

“They got together to decide how they would go about it and it started from that. They all used to meet at Dave’s house and just discuss different kinds of things going on at Orient.

“I think originally they did not know how long they would be doing it for. It carried well so they just kept going.”

Nichols is particularly pleased about how the history of the Orientear has been pulled together and brought forward to the present day.

The previous editors of Knight, Steve Harris, Tom Davies, Jamie Stripe, Rory Macqueen, Sean McNeill, Matthew Arnott along with Nichols got together a few months ago to discuss how they would go forward with this iconic piece.

He said: “I have been involved for the past two-and-a-half years and this is the best thing we have run over that time and that will continue over the next few issues.

“It just shows the strength it has had and this edition also shows its progression from a news outlet to a place where the fans can write about their views.

“The magazine gives them the chance to read the different opinions that are out there. It brought it home just how important we are for the O’s fans.

“We are all really proud, to be honest. It is a great achievement.”

A key ingredient of their success is that they still sell the magazine as a hard copy and have not moved towards having all the articles online.

Nichols said: “The fans are very important to us. We have discussed about going online only before and it is something we have toyed with.

“But there are still a lot of people who come up to me and say they really appreciate us being there.

“We have subscribers from all over the world, Orient fans who can no longer attend games anymore. It does draw it home how it is still important for people to be able to buy it.”

The mag has been around ever since it began to report on two promotions, two relegations, 11 years in the bottom division, boardroom upheavals, stadium developments and various managers.

Nichols said: “It would be great if we could go on for another 30 years.

“We are doing great at the moment and we keep getting editions out there so we are all enjoying it. Will we be here in another 30 years? Who knows?”