After two and a half years the BRFPA organisation was delighted to welcome former players and guests to the Annual Dinner held at The Pavilion, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. Our thanks go to Marc Trought, the Hospitality and Events Manager who, together with his team, provided superb service and the atmosphere was warm and welcoming.  In addition, we extend our thanks to Thatchers for sponsoring the welcome drink.

It was such a pleasure to see everyone mingling and the players animated as they took pleasure in meeting up again. Here’s your opportunity to name all the players who joined us.

All these former players were about to receive a Club Cap, an initiative set up by Bristol Rovers Supporters Club, and here is Keith Brookman’s report on proceedings with the presentation of caps undertaken by our guest speaker, Bruce Bannister:-

“Over the years I have written numerous programme articles for the Bristol Rovers matchday programme and one I wrote almost two years ago made quite an impact and caused me a great deal of work!

It began when I read an article about West Bromwich Albion presenting caps to all former Baggies players, reckoning that if you were awarded a cap for representing your country then you should receive one for representing your club.

I wrote about their scheme and suggested that the various support groups here at Rovers could unite and introduce a similar scheme for our club, not thinking for one minute that anyone would run with the idea because of the cost involved and the difficulty in tracking down so many former players.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when the Bristol Rovers Supporters Club Committee said that they liked the idea and that they would fund the caps.

That was my cue to panic because whilst I suggested the idea I didn’t have a definitive list of every player who had made a league appearance for the club. Fortunately, Mike Jay and Stephen Byrne keep extensive records of playing matters and thanks to them I was able to use their seasonal spreadsheets to go all the way back to our first season in the league and record the names of every player to have made a league appearance.

It took me five attempts to come up with a definitive list and I decided, early on, that each player would be given a number and that where more than one player made his debut in the same match they would appear alphabetically on my list. That’s why the caps produced have a number on the reverse and, thanks to the Football Club, we were allowed to have the club badge on the front.

To date the Supporters Club has purchased 1,000 caps and it’s down to the hard work of Supporters Club Director Helen Wigmore and Chairman David Thomas that we are beginning to award them as and when we can. There has also been unanimous support from committee members and from supporters, who have the opportunity to sponsor caps if they so wish.

Last Friday, at the BRFPA Annual Dinner, we were delighted to be able to present some twenty caps to former players who attended. It was the first time the BRFPA has been able to host their dinner since those long ago pre Covid days and it turned out to be a marvellous evening.

It was a delight to see the way that Harold Jarman and Bruce Bannister greeted each other, to see Jim Eadie proudly wearing his cap and to witness all players, both young and not so young, enjoy the company of their contemporaries and the many supporters in attendance.”

Cap Presentations

Guest Speaker - Bruce Bannister

There then followed what we had all been waiting for – our guest speaker Bruce Bannister.  It was 50 years ago that Bristol Rovers won the Watney Cup and of course Bruce was in that team and scored one of the winning penalties in the final against Sheffield United.  He recalled his memories of that era with humour of his first-hand experiences, then answered the many questions from the audience.

Raffle and Auction Hosted by Craig Hinton

Another highlight everyone enjoyed was the professional manner in which this was run, spattered with humour as Craig Hinton was the surprise auctioneer for the evening.   A total of £1200 towards the BRFPA fund in support of former players was achieved and those who attended the Dinner are to be applauded.

All in all this resulted in a most enjoyable occasion and thanks go to everyone who supported the event.

All photos courtesty of Neil Brookman

Co written by Keith Brookman and Mo Bell