The Bristol Rovers History Group. |
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No 493. Michael Alan Adams. 1982-83.
Born, 20.2.1965, Banwell, Somerset. 5’ 10”; 11 st 5 lbs. Début: 14.5.83 v Cardiff City. Career: Banwell; 1.7.81 Bristol Rovers (professional, 21.2.82) [0+1,0]; 7.3.84 Bath City (loan); 22.5.84 Bath City; August 1988 Weston-super-Mare; 18.10.93 Keynsham Town; 23.1.06 Odd Down. Teenage striker Mike Adams’ 27-minute Rovers career took place on the final day of the season, as Nick Platnauer’s goal earned the Pirates a 1-1 draw at home to Cardiff. Ron Gingell was in charge of the side, as manager Bobby Gould had resigned the previous day and this match was also the final League game in the career of World Cup winner Alan Ball. Having scored a penalty when Rovers Youth lost 4-1 at home to Spurs Youth in January 1983 and played against Trevor Francis of Forest Youth, Adams could not build on this appearance, despite playing in Rovers’ 1-1 draw with Airdrieonians in August 1983. In April 1984 he played and scored against Southend United in the Associate Members’ Cup, but this simply led to 154(+21) games and 22 goals with Bath City. Noted at Twerton Park for having scored the last-minute goal with his knee which set up an FA Cup-tie against Bristol City in 1986, Adams was released by Harold Jarman upon Bath’s relegation in the spring of 1988, and later made his Keynsham début against Warminster Town. The youngest of four children to Gerald Adams and Patricia Harding, he was also captain of Blagdon Cricket Club. |
No 209. Robert James Adams. 1934-35.
Born, 28.2.1917, Coleford, Gloucestershire. Died, 1.9.1970, Blakeney, Gloucestershire. 6’; 13 st. Début: 6.2.35 v Bristol C. Career: Coleford; Chepstow; January 1933 Cardiff City (professional, 14.3.33) [11,0]; 31.7.34 Bristol Rovers [2,0]; August 1935 Millwall (free) [6,0]; 24.8.36 Bristol City (retired, 1937); 1938 Hereford United. Fifteen years of age when he made his Bluebirds’ début against Southend United, Bob Adams remains one of the 39 footballers to appear in League football before their sixteenth birthday. Understudy at Cardiff to Tom Farquharson (1899-1970) and at Eastville to Jack Ellis, he nonetheless played for the Welsh side at Eastville in October 1933 and for Rovers in the FA Cup against Manchester United in January 1935, after Ellis had broken his collar-bone seven days earlier at Luton. Bob Adams was part of a large family to Woodman Adams, a Cornish-born man living in Chepstow (1867-1946) and Elizabeth Morse, who had married in 1904 in Westbury-on-Severn, after the death of Woodman’s first wife, Sarah Elizabeth Haile (1862-1902). A “well-built custodian with almost uncanny anticipation”, Adams signed for Rovers despite competition from Crystal Palace, but soon underwent a thigh operation and broke a leg whilst at Millwall. Although he made his Bristol City Colts début against Salisbury City the day he signed at Ashton Gate, Adams was not to join the short list of players to appear in League football for both Bristol clubs. A keen cricketer, where he used his height to excel as a fast bowler, he later worked as a sanitary engineer. |
No 213. Hugh Adcock. 1935-36.
Born, 10.4.1903, Coalville. Died, 16.10.1975, Coalville, 5’ 5½”; 10 st 2 lbs. Début: 31.8.35 v Notts County Career: Coalville All Saints School; 1919 Ravenstone United; August 1920 Coalville Town; April 1921 Ravenstone United; September 1922 Loughborough Corinthians; 5.3.23 Leicester City [434,51]; 4.7.35 Bristol Rovers [13,1]; 11.9.36 Folkestone; Ibstock Penistone Rovers; Whitwick Colliery (trainer); Coalville Town (trainer). Five England caps, all of them in 1929, and a goal against Wales that November in his final international was great reward for a long and loyal career at Leicester City. The only surviving child of coal mine hewer Charles Adcock (1879-1953) and Eliza Wilton (1880-1963) of Swannington, Hugh Adcock, who also represented an England Army XI against Irish, Welsh, Spanish and French military sides, won a Leicestershire County Cup winner’s medal in 1922 at Loughborough and a Second Division championship medal in 1924-25; Leicester were runners-up in the First Division during his time at Filbert Street and he played in the 1934 FA Cup semi-final. He also played in Leicester’s club record 10-0 win against Portsmouth in October 1928 and scored twice in their astonishing 6-6 First Division draw with Arsenal over Easter 1930. Born in Belvoir Road, Coalville and a cousin of the England international Joe Bradford (1901-80), Adcock married Doris Horton at Coalville Ebenezer Baptist Church on 7th June 1930, their wedding cake being ringed with small figurines of footballers; they lived at 354 Ashby Road, Coalville and their son Hugh junior was born in May 1933. Later a pub landlord at Sileby, he worked for years as a colliery maintenance engineer in the Leicestershire coalfield, Hugh Adcock sadly went blind towards the end of his life. Since 1929 local schools in Leicestershire have competed in a six-a-side tournament for the Hugh Adcock Trophy. |
No 922. Ayomide Victor Adeboyejo. 2019-2020.
Born, 12.1.1998, Ibadan, Nigeria. 5’ 10”; 11 st 10 lbs. Début: 3.8.19 v Blackpool. Career: Arsenal; AFC Wimbledon; 2013 Charlton Athletic; 1.10.14 Orient (free) [4+11,1]; 19.2.15 Royston Town (loan); 2.10.15 Hemel Hempstead Town (loan); 21.10.15 Heybridge Swifts (loan); 15.7.16 Dulwich Hamlet (loan); 4.9.16 Soham Town Rangers (loan); 28.9.16 Hastings United (loan); 24.11.16 Margate (loan); 29.9.17 Chelsea (trial); 6.11.17 Barnsley (free) [18+65,7]; 26.7.19 Bristol Rovers (loan) [6+12,1]; 24.1.20 Cambridge United (loan) [7+1,0]; 15.7.22 Burton Albion (free). Fast striker Victor Adeboyejo, the first Nigerian-born player to represent Rovers in the Football League, made a quick impression. Introduced as a 73rd-minute substitute the day after joining on loan, he scored the only goal of the game ten minutes later, as Plymouth Argyle were defeated at Home Park in a pre-season friendly. Consequently, he started up front as the 2019-20 campaign opened with Rovers’ trip to Bloomfield Road and hit the inside of a post on his home début against Wycombe Wanderers. His solitary Rovers League goal came eight minutes into a win at Rochdale’s Spotland ground. Brought up in London, he made his League bow alongside Gary Sawyer, replacing Jobi McAnuff six minutes from time against Peterborough United in December 2014 and he scored eighteen minutes into a 2-1 home victory over Hartlepool United in League Two in April 2017. A raft of loan spells saw the young striker scored in a 2-0 victory at Aylesbury United, one of two goals in five appearances with Royston; not appearing for Hemel Hempstead or Hastings in any game, his sole match for Highbridge was the 8-1 defeat at home to Cheshunt in the Ryman League North, in which he played the final twenty minutes, although he also featured in a penalty shoot-out win over Wivenhoe Town in the Essex Senior Cup; he made two substitute appearances for Dulwich and his six games with Soham featured a début goal in the FA Cup at Rushall Olympic; he also made three substitute appearances in the National League South |
No 709. Manuel "Junior" Agogo. 2003-06.
Born, 1.8.1979, Accra, Ghana. Died, 22.8.2019, London. 5’ 10”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 9.8.03 v Scunthorpe United. Career: Ridge Church School, Accra; St Augustine’s College, Cape Coast; Chelsea (schoolboy); 1995 Willesden Constantine; 8.10.96 Sheffield Wednesday [0+2,0]; 18.7.99 Oldham Athletic (loan) [2,0]; 3.9.99 Chester City (loan) [10,6]; 11.11.99 Chesterfield (loan) [3+1,0]; 17.12.99 Lincoln City (loan) [3,1]; 24.2.00 Chicago Fire; 10.4.11 Colorado Rapids [32,11]; 13.6.01 San Jose Earthquakes (exchange for Chris Carrieri); 1.8.01 Queen’s Park Rangers [0+2,0]; 15.6.02 Barnet; 30.6.03 Bristol Rovers (trial); 1.7.03 Bristol Rovers (£110,000) [109+17,41]; 30.8.06 Nottingham Forest (£150,000) [47+17,20]; 7.7.08 El Zamalek Sporting Club (£565,000) [15,6]; 5.8.09 Apollon Limassol [24,6]; 27.2.11 Odense Boldklub (trial); 26.7.11 Hibernian [9+3,1] (released, 13.1.12). Yeovil Town were proving difficult to defeat and, when nine-man Rovers found themselves 2-0 down in October 2004, all appeared lost. Having pulled a goal back, Rovers persevered and, as Junior Agogo calmly slotted home a final-minute equaliser, the crowd erupted, sensing that they had witnessed one of Rovers’ most memorable games. Teaming up alongside his former Lincoln colleague, Lee Thorpe, and most effectively with Richard Walker, with whom he shared penalty-taking duties, Agogo proved he could score goals regularly – speedy, incisive and determined, he was “a dangerous, young attacking player”(Chris Chamides, San Jose Earthquakes’ Senior Director of Soccer). He was sent off at Lincoln in January 2005 and at Peterborough in February 2006 and contributed nineteen League goals in 2004-05 and seventeen the following campaign. One outstanding performance saw him score twice and set up Walker’s late winner, as Rovers recovered a two-goal deficit to defeat Torquay United 3-2 at Plainmoor. More controversially, Agogo was taken to court, charged with the attempted rape in May 2004 of a sixteen-year-old girl; after a four-day trial in February 2005 he was found not guilty at Sheffield Crown Court. One of eleven siblings, he had left Ghana with his family in 1989 and moved to the United Kingdom. Named after his father Emmanuel and fluent in two dialects, Ga and Fant, Junior Agogo scored 37 goals for Wednesday’s youth side between 1995 and 1997 and twenty goals for the reserves in 1997-98, before making his League début as a substitute for Guy Whittingham in the 2-1 defeat at Newcastle on the opening day of the 1997-98 season. One goal for Chester against Cheltenham Town in October 1999 was voted the best ever scored at the Deva Stadium. He appeared in Chester’s final League campaign and hit the post in the dying |
No 419. Peter Gerald Aitken. 1972-80.
Born, 30.6.1954, Penarth. 6’; 10 st 11 lbs. Début: 29.8.72 v Chesterfield. Career: 1967 Bristol Rovers (professional, 4.7.72) [230+4,3]; 30.11.80 Bristol City [41,1]; 17.2.82 York City [18,2]; August 1982 Bulova, Hong Kong; 30.10.82 Bath City; 12.11.82 Bournemouth [1,0]; 20.8.85 Trowbridge Town (player-coach); 1987 Forest Green Rovers; February 1988 Bath City (assistant manager, July 1991-January 1992); 2.5.92 Cheltenham Town (assistant manager); 15.9.95 Stapleton; 21.6.96 Gillingham (youth team manager); October 1998 Bristol Rovers (youth coach; Community Manager, July 2000-October 2016). Only one man has captained both Bristol’s professional clubs in the Football League: dependable defender Peter Aitken. Known early in his career as “Charlie” in deference to the contemporary Aston Villa player of the same name, Aitken gave Rovers sterling service over many years and played in the promotion campaign of 1973-74. Peter Aitken is the son of Leonard Aitken, the youngest of eight children to Malcolm Aitken (1886-1950) and Olive Harrin (1888-1965), and Barbara Hudd, the fourth child of Frederick Hudd and Gladys Pritchard. With nine Welsh Youth caps to his name, he won three caps for the Under-21 side, two games against Scotland following a début in the 2-0 defeat against England at Wrexham in January 1975. As Rovers established themselves in Second Division football, he was an ever-present in 1974-75, respected for his accomplished reading of the game and scoring an own goal against Notts County in December 1974, but broke his leg against Nottingham Forest in October 1975. On New Year’s Day 1977, his first League goal proved to be the only strike of the game, as Rovers defeated Luton Town 1-0 and further goals followed at Cambridge and at home to Charlton. He also conceded an eighty-seventh minute own goal as Rovers, after a goalless first-half at home to Preston in March 1980, drew a Second Division fixture 3-3. Twice in the Bristol City side that faced Rovers in League action, Aitken became one of the “Ashton Gate Eight”, given a free transfer to safeguard Bristol City’s future. He and Gerry Sweeney signed at King’s Cross station for York and made their débuts together against Torquay United, Aitken conceding an own goal in the 5-0 thrashing at Northampton. A solitary game for Bournemouth was the 5-1 drubbing at Newport in November 1982, before he apparently scored sixteen times for Trowbridge Town. Alongside Vaughan Jones at Stapleton, Peter Aitken worked at Rolls Royce in Filton, then coached both at Rovers and for schoolboys at Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital; married to Gillian Child (the daughter of John Child and Kathleen Surtees) with two daughters, he lives in Stapleton. A testimonial game was held in his honour between Rovers and Tony Pulis’ West Bromwich Albion at The Memorial Stadium in July 2017. |
No 790. John Job Ayo Akinde. 2010-11..
Born, 8.7.1989, Gravesend 6’ 2”; 13 st 9 lbs. Début: 4.9.10 v Oldham Athletic. Career: Ebbsfleet United; 4.8.07 Margate (trial); 13.8.07 Margate (loan); 29.8.08 Bristol City [1+15,1]; 11.3.09 Wycombe Wanderers (loan); 13.11.09 Wycombe Wanderers (loan) [15+2,8]; 1.2.10 Brentford (loan) [2,0]; 27.8.10 Bristol Rovers (loan) [9+5,0]; 15.1.11 Dagenham and Redbridge (loan); 27.5.11 Crawley Town (free) [7+18,1]; 17.3.12 Dagenham and Redbridge (loan) [4+1,0]; 8.2.13 Portsmouth (free) [3+8,0]; 13.8.13 Alfreton Town (free); 24.5.14 Barnet (free) [117+4,56]; 6.7.18 Lincoln City (free) [44+24,20]; 24.1.20 Gillingham (free) [38+32,9]; 27.1.22 Colchester United (free) [6+9,2]. Gravesend-born of Nigerian parentage, John Akinde was the first player whose transfer was decided by a fans’ poll. He joined Bristol City via the website MyFootballClub and was to score on his début for City was also Scott Shearer’s team-mate at Wycombe. Ten goals in 19(+9) Conference games for Ebbsfleet were supplemented by an appearance alongside Lance Cronin in the 2008 FA Trophy Final, a 1-0 victory over a Torquay United side featuring Lee Mansell and Chris Zebroski, in which he set up Chris McPhee for the only goal on the stroke of half-time, and he also made seven substitute appearances with Margate. Joining Rovers after only one League goal during the 2009-10 season, when he scored and was then sent off after just 22 minutes against Oldham Athletic in December 2009, Akinde was a 59th-minute substitute for Dominic Blizzard on his Rovers début and scored for the reserves, from Ben Swallow’s through ball, against Hereford United reserves in October 2010. Both Rovers and Dagenham were relegated from League One in 2010-11, despite his goal for the Daggers after just 21 seconds against champions Brighton in April 2011. The following campaign, Crawley were promoted to League One, Akinde scoring just one goal, at Shrewsbury in February 2012, although he also featured in the Crawley side which knocked his former side, Bristol City, out of the FA Cup. The tall front-man was part of the Pompey side relegated to League Two in the spring of 2013 and marked his second game for Alfreton with a hat-trick against Salisbury City, a thirty-ninth-minute low shot followed by two second-half headers. His brother Samuel Akinde, once of Hereford United, joined him at Alfreton Town in the autumn of 2013 and John was top scorer for Alfreton in 2013-14, with eighteen goals in 42(+1) Conference matches. As Barnet swept to the top of the Conference in 2014-15, he scored against Rovers early in the campaign and added a first-half hat-trick, including two penalties, as Altrincham were defeated 5-0 in the Conference in September 2014, as well as hat-tricks against both Telford and Aldershot that calendar year. However, he was sent off at Wrexham on Valentine’s Day 2015 as Rovers briefly caught his side at the top of the table. Barnet returned to the Football League as champions in April 2015, staving off Rovers’ challenge by one point, Akinde contributing 31 goals in 45 matches to be that season’s top scorer in the Conference. Having played against Rovers in both Conference games, he appeared in both League Two fixtures between the clubs in 2015-16 and scored eleven goals in his final twelve appearances of that season. Consistent and prolific, he was an ever-present for Barnet the following campaign and joint top scorer in League Two. The Bees were relegated from the Football League in the spring of 2018, whereupon was top scorer at Lincoln City, who were League Two champions in 2018-19. Akinde came on as substitute in September 2019 as Rovers defeated Lincoln 1-0 at Sincil Bank and his final contribution in an Imps shirt was a cameo substitute appearance, featuring two goals in the final four minutes of a 5-1 victory over beleaguered Bolton Wanderers. The following season he played against Rovers for Gillingham, alongside Jack Bonham; he later scored for Colchester at Newport on Good Friday 2022 and at Hartlepool on the final day of that campaign. He married Abbi in May 2014 and they live in Kent. |
No 520. Ian Alexander. 1986-94.
Born, 26.1.1963, Glasgow. 5’ 8”; 10 st 7 lbs. Début: 23.8.86 v Walsall. Career: Leicester Juveniles; 1.10.81 Rotherham United [5+6,0]; 1.9.83 Motherwell [24,2]; 1.2.84 Morton [7,1]; 1985 Pezoporikos Larnaca; 23.8.86 Bristol Rovers [284+7,6]; 27.10.94 Yate Town (manager; player only, 22.4.97); 2005 Wotton Rovers (manager). Abrasive on the pitch, tough-tackling full-back Ian Alexander epitomised Rag-bag Rovers’ march to success in the late 1980s and remained at the club sufficiently long to enjoy three seasons in second-tier football. He is also the only outfield player who has saved a penalty in a League fixture for Rovers. A proud Glaswegian and a childhood Rangers fan, Alexander contrived to be sent off on three occasions in local derby matches against Bristol City, before half-time in Division Three in September 1989, in the Gloucestershire Cup in August 1991 and in the newly-renamed Division One in April 1993. Initially a speedy winger, he had won a Scottish Premier Reserve League medal with Motherwell and set up the winning goal against his boyhood favourites Rangers on his League début, before scoring his solitary Morton goal in a 3-2 victory at St Mirren in April 1985. Joining Rovers from football in Cyprus, he was converted to full-back on the arrival of John Scales and made the right-back position his own, playing in the first game at Twerton Park and recovering from a swallowed tongue in the FA Cup against Fisher Athletic in November 1988, when his life was saved by the prompt actions of Roy Dolling, to play a major rôle in Rovers’ Third Division championship campaign of 1989-90. That campaign, he scored a wonderful goal when, set up by Geoff Twentyman’s headed pass, he stormed away down the right-wing and fired home Rovers’ fifth goal of a 6-1 victory over Wigan Athletic thirteen minutes from time. Having secured promotion with a 3-0 victory over Bristol City, Rovers were crowned champions after their 3-0 win at Blackpool and Alexander played at Wembley in the Leyland Daf Trophy Final against Tranmere Rovers. Once in second-tier English football, Alexander was sent off against Leicester, saved a penalty from Brighton’s John Byrne, after Brian Parkin had been dismissed and suffered relegation in the spring of 1993, conceding a last-minute own goal at Exeter the following September. So many Scotsmen revel in the pseudonym “Jock” and, no exception to this, he then played 20(+5) times in the Beazer Homes League for Yate Town, despite an increasingly arthritic hip, being sent off at Weymouth in January 1996, before replacing Phil Purnell as manager. Working at ABC Contract Services and later with the Almondsbury-based firm FPL, recruiting for the construction industry, Alexander moved back to Glasgow and now works for the Glasgow East Regeneration Agency. |
No 407. (Sandy) Alexander Begg Allan. 1969-73.
Born, 29.10.1947, Forfar. 5’ 11”; 11 st 9 lbs. Début: 21.3.70 v Walsall. Career: Clackmannan Schools; 1963 Barnsley (amateur); 1964 Doncaster Rovers (amateur); 1966 Rhyl; March 1967 Cardiff City (£12,500) [8,1]; 15.3.70 Bristol Rovers (£12,500) [51+7,18]; 9.3.73 Swansea City (loan) [6+2,1]; 4.5.73 Cape Town City (£5,000) (to 1979); 1981 Clyde Pinelands; 1983-86 Harrogate Railway Athletic (manager). With two Scottish Schools trials behind him, Sandy Allan joined Cardiff on the back of 33 Cheshire League goals with Rhyl and headed a hat-trick as Cardiff defeated Mjøndalen 5-1 in October 1969, to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup-tie 12-2 on aggregate. A folk music fan, who was recommended to Rovers by Bryn Jones, he scored reliably for Rovers, notably in the 1971-72 season, when his eleven League strikes included two penalties in the August 1971 match with Tranmere Rovers. He also missed a penalty in the November 1971 League Cup clash with QPR, but made up for this by tapping home the only goal eleven minutes from time to set up a quarter-final clash with eventual winners Stoke City. Another missed penalty came in front of an Eastville crowd of 20,428, the largest of the season, as Rovers lost 1-0 to 1971-72 champions-elect Aston Villa. Following this, he scored Swansea’s second goal as Halifax Town were defeated 2-0 in March 1973. Moving to South Africa later that year, Allan won two League titles, two League Cup Finals, one Bowl Final and one Champion of Champions Cup Final with Cape Town City. Later managing Harrogate Railway to promotion to Division One of the Yorkshire League, whilst working for Polypipe, he moved to Australia and was back in South Africa in the 1990s, where he manufactured sash windows. |
No 274. James Frederick Allaway. 1946-47.
Born, 23.4.1922, Bristol. Died, 1991. 5’ 10”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 9.11.46 v Norwich City. Career: Bristol Rovers (professional, 13.1.47) [4,0]; September 1947 Bristol City; 22.11.47 Glastonbury; 9.8.52 Trowbridge Town; 1.7.53 Chippenham Town; 23.7.54 Street; 1955 Bridgwater Town. Starting on weekly wages of £2, Jim Allaway played for Rovers in the first post-war season, initially as an amateur. Unable to make the side at Ashton Gate, he was later top scorer at Trowbridge Town in the 1952-53 season. His twenty goals there included three in the FA Cup against Calne and Harris United and a hat-trick against Barnstaple Town as Trowbridge finished third in the Western League. Jim Allaway was the elder of two sons to Sydney James Allaway (1902-31) and Emily Ellen Victoria Dallimore (1902-91), who married in Bristol in 1921, and he married Joan Denford in 1949, the daughter of Joseph Frederick Denford (1903-57) and Ethel Hayes (1903-60), and they had two children, David and Jane. |
No 322. Francis Edward Allcock. 1953-56.
Born, 7.9.1925, Nottingham. Died, 8.6.2005, Nottingham. 5’ 11”; 12 st 2 lbs. Début: 19.4.54 v Oldham Athletic. Career: Beeston Boys’ Club; March 1945 Nottingham Forest; August 1946 Aston Villa; May 1948 Cheltenham Town; 10.6.52 Bristol Rovers [59,0] (retired, 23.11.56). Shocks in the FA Cup do not get much greater than when Manchester United’s international-studded Busby Babes came to Eastville in January 1956 and were defeated 4-0. Rovers’ right-back that day, who had gradually ousted Geoff Fox, was Frank Allcock who, unable to make the grade at Villa or Forest, had made his Rovers début in the Gloucestershire Cup Final of May 1953. Four years at Cheltenham rendered just one goal, in the 5-4 defeat at Merthyr in the Southern League Cup in March 1952, but Allcock’s defensive qualities were sufficient that Rovers gave him an extended run in Division Two until a knee injury enforced early retirement. Frank Allcock was brought up with two younger sisters by his parents, Frank Percival Allcock (1903-71) and Edna Evelyn Barnes (1907-97). Living in Nottingham, he married twice, in 1946 to Myra Charters, the eldest of three children to John Charters (1902-85) and Sarah Notman of Carlisle, and in 1964 to Kathleen Shaw, having three daughters from his first marriage and one from the second, as well as seven grandchildren. He died from a long illness shortly before his eightieth birthday, his third daughter Myra commenting: “Dad, you’ve suffered long enough. Finally got the red card”. |
No 699. Bradley James Allen. 2002-03.
Born, 13.9.1971, Romford, Essex. 5’ 8”; 11 st. Début: 30.11.02 v Rushden and Diamonds. Career: Tottenham Hotspur (schoolboy); 1987 Queen’s Park Rangers (professional, 30.9.88) [56+25,27]; 28.3.96 Charlton Athletic (£400,000) [30+10,9]; 24.2.99 Colchester United (loan) [4,1]; 9.7.99 Grimsby Town (free) [46+33,15]; 29.8.02 Peterborough United (free) [10+1,3]; 28.11.02 Bristol Rovers (free) [5+3,1]; 13.9.03 Hornchurch (free); 30.3.04 Ford United (free); 12.4.04 Redbridge (free); 22.7.04 Billericay Town (free); 2007 Tottenham Hotspur (Under-14 coach). As footballing dynasties go, the Allens take some beating. Arthur Allen and Mary Gordon had at least thirteen children, three of whom enjoyed great success on the football field. These three successful brothers, Les, a member of Spurs’ 1960-61 double-winning side, Dennis (1939-95) and Ron Allen all had sons who broke into League football: Ron’s son Paul became, in the 1980 FA Cup, temporarily the youngest player to appear in the Wembley final of that competition; Dennis’ son Martin became a successful player and manager, whilst Martin’s son Charlie played for Gillingham against Rovers in September 2012; Les’ elder son Clive played for England and is the father of Oli, who played for Barnet against Rovers in 2007, whilst the younger son was Bradley. A compact, skilful forward, Bradley Allen played alongside Gary Penrice and Ian Holloway in top-flight football with QPR, appearing at Old Trafford and scoring seven goals in one six-game run in the autumn of 1993, before Rangers were relegated in 1995-96. An England Youth cap, he scored once in eight England Under-21 games and contributed a hat-trick when QPR won 3-0 at Everton. He helped Charlton to the play-offs and played in a League Cup-tie at Anfield, before returning to Liverpool in the Grimsby side which pulled off a League Cup shock in 2001-02, their 2-1 victory being followed by a 2-0 defeat at Arsenal. Despite a broken toe suffered in Grimsby’s game at Norwich, Allen played alongside Graham Hyde at Posh before joining Rovers, who lost on his début. The club was struggling and a 3-1 defeat at Cambridge just before Christmas 2002 put the Pirates at the foot of the Football League for the first time in the club’s history; Allen’s 45th-minute equaliser on that frosty day, stabbing the ball home before a crowd of 3,701 after Adam Barrett’s header from a Danny Boxall corner had been saved, proved the only one of his Rovers career. An exceptionally clean player, never sent off and accruing only the rare yellow card, Allen scored an equaliser on his Ford United début, a 4-2 defeat at home to Sutton United in April 2004, having scored three in eight matches for Hornchurch; he added two goals in six matches with Redbridge. He is married to Hayley and has a daughter, Phoebe. |
No 203. John William Alcroft Allen. 1934-35.
Born, 31.1.1903, Newburn-on-Tyne. Died, 19.11.1957, Burnopfield, Co Durham. 5’ 9½”; 12 st. Début: 3.11.34 v Newport County. Career: Newburn Manor School; May 1920 North Walbottle; 1921 Prudhoe Castle; February 1922 Leeds United [2,0]; August 1924 Brentford [55,23]; 8.3.27 Sheffield Wednesday (£750) [104,76]; 8.6.31 Newcastle United (£3,500) [81,34]; 2.11.34 Bristol Rovers (£200) [6,2]; 28.8.35 Gateshead (£100) [23,12]; February 1936 Ashington. Controversial goals can swing games and such was the case in the 1932 FA Cup Final at Wembley. After thirty-eight minutes Newcastle equalised against Arsenal, before a crowd of 92,298, when the ball clearly crossed the goal-line before Jimmy Boyd’s (1907-91) cross was “beautifully taken by Allen”; eighteen minutes from time Jack Allen, “cool, calculating and deliberate”, according to a contemporary report, collected the ball thirty yards out, shook off Herbie Roberts (1905-44) and placed the ball in the far corner of the net for his second goal of the game. Initially an inside-forward, he was converted in 1928 to a central rôle, contributing 22 goals in his first fourteen matches in his new position, and goals flowed wherever Allen played. Top scorer at Wednesday, Gateshead and Newcastle, he won consecutive League championships at Hillsborough in 1928-29 and 1929-30, finishing as top scorer with 33 League goals in both campaigns, although a losing FA Cup semi-final appearance in 1930 was put right by his success in the 1932 final. Left-footed, he also scored seven goals when Wednesday reserves beat Rotherham United reserves in a Sheffield Invitation Cup-tie in November 1930. His fervour for success was illustrated at Brentford by two sendings-off in 1925-26, against Brighton and Merthyr Town, even though he also scored an FA Cup hat-trick against Oldham Athletic in January 1927. Newcastle paid an extraordinarily high sum for him to fill Hughie Gallacher’s (1903-57) illustrious shoes and, although international honours eluded him, he represented the Football League. His Rovers début, however, lasted just thirty minutes, until he clashed heads with Newport’s Bristol-born Bert Emery and left the field with concussion, Rovers playing the final hour with only ten men. The eldest child of Edward Allen and Elizabeth Ann Musselwhite, Jack was the elder brother of Ralph Allen, who played for Fulham, Brentford, Charlton Athletic, Reading and Torquay United; Jack Allen married Evelyn Summerbee in Sheffield in 1931 and they had two daughters. A keen motorist and railway enthusiast, he was publican of the Travellers’ Rest in Burnopfield at the time of his early death. |
No 664. Daniel Lee Allsopp. 2000-01.
Born, 10.8.1978, Melbourne, Australia. 6’; 12 st 8 lbs. Début: 14.10.00 v Northampton Town. Career: Knox City; Monbulk; 1995 Croydon City Arrows; 1995 South Melbourne; 1997 Carlton; March 1998 Port Melbourne Sharks (loan); 7.7.98 Manchester City (trial); 7.8.98 Manchester City (£10,000) [3+27,4]; 5.11.99 Notts County (loan); 25.2.00 Wrexham (loan) [3,4]; 13.10.00 Bristol Rovers (loan) [4+2,0]; 5.11.00 Notts County (loan); 22.12.00 Notts County (£300,000) [100+8,43]; 6.5.03 Hull City [45+19,22]; 8.3.05 Melbourne Victory (free); 8.9.09 Al-Rayyan; 18.1.10 DC United; 24.12.10 Melbourne Victory (free) [121+8,42]; 1.2.13 Croydon City Arrows (retired, December 2014) [35,23]; December 2014 Launceston City (trial) [1,3]. Prolific scoring through many years in Australian football has left Danny Allsopp the seventh highest goal-scorer of all-time in the Australian League. Tall and strong, his club form earned three full international caps late in his career. With a father from Southampton, he graduated through the Victoria State Youth development Scheme and headed off for English football in 1998 on the back of eleven goals for Monbulk and four for Arrows, two in 12(+8) games for South Melbourne, three in 5(+10) for Carlton and nine in fourteen appearances with Sharks. He played as a substitute at The Mem in May 1999 as Manchester City secured promotion via the play-offs to Division One and went up to the Premier League in 2000. Medial ligament trouble in his knee, suffered playing for Wrexham against Brentford, meant Allsopp missed the remainder of the 1999-2000 season and missed out on a place in the Australian squad for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. A goal after two minutes of his Notts County début and an appearance in a goalless draw against Rovers in February 2001 preceded first-half hat-tricks against Tranmere Rovers in March 2002 and, with the future Rovers keeper Steve Mildenhall scoring their other goal, in an eleven-minute burst during the League Cup-tie at Mansfield Town. Having scored the goal which relegated Bobby Gould’s Cheltenham in May 2003, Allsopp was promoted to Division Two with Hull in 2003-04, playing against Rovers on the final day of the season. The scorer of ten goals in 11 games for Australia Under-17 and three goals in six matches for the Under-20 side, he also added three goals in eight Under-23 internationals, before winning his first full cap as a 78th-minute substitute in a 2-1 defeat against Uruguay in June 2007; further caps followed against Ghana in 2007 and Indonesia in 2009. In addition to six goals in 12 matches in Qatar and one goal in 23(+5) fixtures in the States, Danny Allsopp achieved further success back in Australia. A-League champion in 2006-07 and 2008-09, Golden Boot holder for 2006-07 and twice Player of the Year for Victory, his 42 goals render him Victory’s second highest and the league’s third highest goal-scorer ever. In February 2009, he picked up the first red card of his career in the A-League final against Adelaide and he was Arrows’ top scorer in his second and final season with the club. He later scored a hat-trick when Launceston Town defeated Hobart Zebras 4-2 to put an end to a run of twenty-five defeats in succession. The elder brother of Australian comedian, Thomas Allsopp, Danny Allsopp is married to Vanessa and they have two sons, Ethan and Joshua. |
No 609. Julian Mark Alsop. 1996-98.
Born, 28.5.1973, Nuneaton. 6’ 4”; 13 st. Début: 15.2.97 v Luton Town. Career: Nuneaton Town; June 1993 VS Rugby; Racing Club Warwick; 1994 Tamworth Town; September 1995 Doncaster Rovers (trial); July 1996 Halesowen Town (£2,300); 14.2.97 Bristol Rovers (£15,000) [20+13,4]; 19.1.98 Swansea City (loan); 6.3.98 Swansea City (£15,000 plus Lee Jones) [80+12,16]; 27.6.00 Cheltenham Town (free); 13.6.03 Oxford United (free) [29+5,5]; 21.10.04 Northampton Town (free) [1+6,1]; 23.12.04 Forest Green Rovers (free); 21.7.05 Tamworth (free); 24.10.05 Forest Green Rovers (loan); 5.1.06 Forest Green Rovers (free); 24.7.06 Newport County (free); 1.7.08 Cirencester Town; 3.11.08 Bishop’s Cleeve; 13.7.09 Cheltenham Town (free) [123+38,40]; 12.7.10 Bishop’s Cleeve (free); 2.1.12 Carmarthen Town; 6.1.14 Monmouth Town. Joining Rovers on the day Marcus Browning was sold to Huddersfield, labourer and bricklayer Julian Alsop scored Rovers’ second goal against Burnley at Turf Moor in his second appearance. He also contributed a hat-trick when Rovers won 10-1 at Bideford in a pre-season friendly in July 1997. “Demolition Man” was to score freely wherever his travels took him, but most extensively at Cheltenham. Prior to his arrival at Rovers, Alsop had scored 23 goals in 39 matches at Nuneaton, 24 in just 32 fixtures at Rugby, 27 goals in 38 outings at Warwick, twelve times in 33(+3) Beazer Homes League games with Paul Hendrie’s Tamworth and twelve times in 22 Doctor Martens League matches at Halesowen, yet his greatest claim to fame was an extraordinary three goals in two minutes when Tamworth defeated Port Vale 4-1 in the Staffordshire Senior Cup on Valentine’s Day 1996. Alsop almost repeated his earlier feat with three goals in four minutes in a Welsh Premier Cup-tie against Cwmbran Town in October 1999, the fastest ever hat-trick by a Swansea player. Helping Swansea to the play-offs in 1998-99 and promotion as Division Three champions the following campaign, Alsop was also sent off in a 2-2 draw with Brighton in February 1999. Red cards marred his time at Oxford, where he played under the future Rovers manager Ian Atkins, dismissals against Hull, Doncaster and Huddersfield preceding his departure from the club following a training incident. His two spells as top scorer at Cheltenham, though, were positive, including a play-off goal against Rushden, promotion and relegation, a goal in the 1999 Gloucestershire Senior Challenge Cup Final, an appearance in the astonishing 6-5 win at Burton Albion in March 2010 and a seventieth-minute trademark close-range headed winner at the far post when the Robins won 2-1 at The Mem in March 2002. He was to remain Cheltenham’s aggregate top scorer in the Football League until his record was bettered in September 2022 by Alfie May. Many years in senior non-league football brought career totals of forty goals in 85 games alongside Richard Dryden and Carl Heggs at Tamworth, six in 23(+3) at Forest Green, including a Boxing Day début goal at Aldershot, eleven in 50 for Newport, thirteen in 31 for Cirencester and 23 goals in his two spells at Bishop’s Cleeve, in addition to twelve matches for Carmarthen, a Welsh Cup goal against Porth Town and a red card in the fifth minute of the 1-1 draw with Prestatyn in November 2012. He appears to have only played once with Nuneaton Town, a 1-0 victory at Redditch United in the Midland Floodlit Cup in March 1993. More controversially, it was Alsop’s heavy challenge on the Tamworth keeper which led to Scott Bevan, later in goal for Rovers, having a kidney removed in February 2006, whilst a coaching scheme based in Cheltenham led to claims of financial irregularities. Strong, never work-shy and with an eye for goal, Julian Alsop even scored in a pre-season friendly against Rovers for Newport County in August 2007. Now training for accountancy, he is married to Katherine with three daughters, Lucy, Molly Mae and Poppy. |
No 779. Mikkel Anderson. 2009-11.
Born, 17.12.1988, Herlev, Denmark. 6’ 5”; 13 st. Début: 5.9.09 v Millwall. Career: Herlev; Akademisk Boldklub [7,0]; 1.1.07 Reading [3,0]; 26.2.08 Torquay United (loan) [3,0]; 15.4.08 Rushden and Diamonds (loan); 27.11.08 Brentford (loan) [1,0]; 6.3.09 Brighton (loan) [5,0]; 1.9.09 Bristol Rovers (loan); 2.8.10 Bristol Rovers (loan) [58,0]; 18.8.12 Portsmouth (loan) [18,0]; 11.6.13 Randers Freja (loan) [12,0]; 25.6.15 FC Midtjylland (free); 24.6.17 Lyngby Boldklub (free) [21,0]; 16.8.18 FC Midtjylland (free) [46+3,0]; 9.7.21 FK Brann (free) [1,0]; 31.8.21 Viborg FF (free) [6,0]. When goalkeeper Fraser Forster was recalled, Rovers hastily signed the Danish Under-21 custodian Mikkel Andersen from Reading, then the second tallest player in the club’s history. Andersen proved adept, courageous, athletic and popular, supporters clamouring first for a second loan spell and later for an extended run in the side. The youngest top-flight goalkeeper in Danish League history, Andersen appeared in three Conference games at Rushden, was Man of the Match on his Brentford début in December 2008, a 2-1 victory over Bradford City, for whom Rhys Evans was in goal, and later played in Brighton’s 5-0 victory over Yeovil in March 2009. He arrived at Rovers with three Under-21 caps and won four more caps at the 2010 Toulon Under-20 championships. Consistent and strong, Andersen was unluckily debited with an own goal in February 2010, when Scott McGleish’s penalty rebounded off a post and went in off the goalkeeper’s head, the third goal in a 5-0 defeat at Orient. Having played in Reading’s July 2011 pre-season friendly against Rovers, he was in their squad as the Royals’ late-season surge took them to the title of English second-tier football and promotion in 2012 to the Premier League. Both Reading and Pompey were relegated in the spring of 2013 and Andersen returned to Denmark on a year-long loan with Randers, managed by the former England central defender Colin Todd, where he played in twelve League fixtures. Andersen’s belated first League appearance for Reading came at Hillsborough in September 2014. Having returned to his native Denmark, Andersen played in the Midtjylland side which lost over two legs to Manchester United in the Europa League in February 2016, saving a penalty from Juan Mata at Old Trafford, but could not break into their side during his second spell at the club. Andersen made his sole appearance for Brann in a Norwegian Cup-tie against Fana in August 2021 but resigned after a club party and returned to Denmark. |
No 977. Elliot Anderson. 2021-22.
Born, 6.11.2002, Whitley Bay. Début: 5.2.22 v Sutton United. 5’ 10”; 9 st 13 lbs. Career: Benfield School; Wallsend Boys’ Club; 2011 Newcastle United (professional, 6.11.20) [0+1,0]; 31.1.22 Bristol Rovers (loan) [20+1,7]. In signing creative, attacking midfielder Elliot Anderson on loan on Transfer Deadline Day, Rovers’ manager Joey Barton attempted to offer the side greater options as Rovers pushed for a League Two play-off place. Anderson, a Newcastle journalist declared, “stands out like a Belisha beacon of hope at a time when the Newcastle landscape is as dark as a mineshaft at midnight” and he arrived in Bristol despite interest from Luton Town and Sheffield Wednesday. On his first appearance, he drew the foul from Australian goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis, as Rovers snatched a late equaliser from the penalty-spot at Sutton United. Over the remainder of the season, “The Geordie Messi” proved hugely popular at The Mem, his goal in the home victory over Harrogate Town in March 2022 drawing comparisons with the slaloming run of Spurs’ Argentinian international Ricardo Villa in the 1981 FA Cup Final. This was just one of several outstanding goals as Rovers surged up the table through the spring, chasing an unlikely promotion from the basement division. Another sensational goal, from Paul Coutts’ astonishing through-ball, drew Rovers level in the vital six-pointer at Vale Park, with Port Vale defeated 3-1 on Easter Monday to set up a final promotion push. Ultimately, Rovers had to better Northampton Town’s score by five goals on the final day; with the Cobblers 3-1 up and Rovers having scored six, Elliot Anderson got his head to Antony Evans’ cross with four minutes left on the clock, headed powerfully home and dramatically sent Rovers up to League One with virtually his final touch in League Two action. The son of Iain Anderson, whose football career had taken in several senior non-league sides in the North-East, and Helen Allen, the daughter of Geoff and Katie Allen, he could also claim Scottish ancestry through his paternal grandmother. This had enabled him to represent Scotland once at Under-16 level, three times at Under-17 and twice at Under-18; lured away to play for England’s Under-19 side in a 6-1 victory over Arsenal Under-23 in March 2021, he had subsequently been selected for the Scottish Under-21 squad in November 2021 and missed a Rovers fixture late that campaign for the same reason. A first cap for Scotland at Under-21 level duly arrived in Stayen in June 2022, as the Scots drew 0-0 with Belgium. Elliot Anderson’s maternal grandfather, Geoff Allen, had been Man of the Match in Newcastle United’s first European Fairs Cup-tie, a 4-0 victory over Feyenoord in September 1968 and was delighted to see his grandson following in his footsteps. Having scored six goals for Newcastle’s Premier League 2 side in 2019-20 and three more in 2020-21, Anderson broke into their first team in January 2021. He had first appeared in the Football League Trophy away to Macclesfield Town in September 2019, his three goals in 6(+1) games including two first-half strikes in a 3-2 defeat at Bolton Wanderers in November 2020. In the space of a few days in January 2021 he played twice against Arsenal, appearing in the final nine minutes plus extra-time in a 2-0 FA Cup defeat and the last three minutes of a 3-0 Premier League loss, replacing Miguel Almirón on both occasions. These appearances enabled him to play against the likes of Granit Xhaka, David Luiz, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, not to mention the English international paring of Bukayo Sako and Emile Smith Rowe such that, despite his tender years, he arrived at The Mem with significant experience. |
No 957. Harry Anderson. 2021-
Born, 9.1.1997, Chertsey. 5’ 10”; 9 st 12 lbs. Début: 7.8.21 v Mansfield Town. Career: 2013 Crawley Town; July 2014 Peterborough United (professional, 20.5.15) [9+7,0]; 15.1.16 Braintree Town (loan); 19.2.16 St Albans City (loan); 16.8.16 Lincoln City (loan); 20.7.17 Lincoln City (free) [100+42.19]; 13.7.21 Bristol Rovers (free) [38+5,6]. Efficient and versatile wing-back Harry Anderson joined Rovers in the summer of 2021 as part of Joey Barton’s overhaul of the club, following relegation to League Two. He arrived from Lincoln City after five very successful years, during which he had scored six goals in 14(+12) National League matches and helped the Imps to promotion from that League in 2016-17 and from League Two in 2018-19, as well as success in the Football League Trophy final of 2018. In that game at Wembley, he had replaced Danny Rowe after sixty-four minutes as Lincoln defeated a Shrewsbury side including Alex Rodman and Stefan Payne by a solitary goal. He scored or assisted with 63 League goals during his time at Sincil Bank. With Lincoln he had played against Liverpool and scored against Everton in the League Cup, been sent off at Luton on New Year’s Day 2018 and against Northampton Town in February 2019, and had played in large wins over Bradford City (5-0), Burton Albion (5-1) and Port Vale (6-2). He had also scored twice in a 4-1 win at Crewe in November 2017 and played for the Imps against Rovers in three league fixtures between 2019 and 2021. Prior to that, he had made his Peterborough bow in a 2-0 home victory over Bradford City in February 2015, replacing Luke James with nine minutes left to play in a side also featuring Tom Nichols and Jack Baldwin, plus Erhun Öztümer on the bench. Posh’s Young Player of the Year for 2014-15, he set up both goals as his former club Crawley was defeated 2-0 in August 2015. Anderson made 1(+1) National League appearances with Braintree, against Forest Green Rovers and Wrexham, and played in thirteen National South matches with St Albans, scoring in a 3-1 victory over Hayes and Yeading United. That club’s Player of the Month for March 2016, he also played in the Hertfordshire Cup Final which was lost to Bishop’s Stortford, having scored against Hemel Hempstead Town in the semi-final. When set up by Antony Evans, he scored a spectacular first goal for Rovers during the October 2021 home fixture against Swindon Town and his goal after just thirty-eight seconds at promotion rivals Northampton in March 2022, helped the side complete the double and set up an unlikely promotion push. Against all odds, Rovers went into the final few games with an outside chance of promotion and secured their return to League One by demolishing Scunthorpe United 7-0 on the final day, Anderson playing his part and setting up Aaron Collins for the sixth on a momentous afternoon. In August 2022 he put in a hugely accomplished performance at The Mem, subduing a highly-rated Oxford attack and setting up a 1-0 win which put Rovers briefly top of League One, and he scored with a thumping drive in the Football League Trophy two months later, at home to Swindon Town. |
No 704. Ijah Massai Anderson. 2002-05.
Born, 30.12.1975, Hackney. 5’ 8”; 10 st 6 lbs. Début: 8.2.03 v Southend United. Career: Homerton House School, Hackney; Tottenham Hotspur (professional, 1.8.93); 2.8.94 Southend United (free); 31.7.95 Brentford (free) [196+6,4]; 26.11.02 Wycombe Wanderers (loan) [5,0]; 31.1.03 Bristol Rovers (trial); 7.2.03 Bristol Rovers (free) [51+2,0]; 20.10.04 Oldham Athletic (trial); 22.11.04 Swansea City [8+10,0]; 15.8.06 Lewes; 1.9.06 Harlow Town; 1.4.10 Brentford (trial). During the 2003-04 season, full-back Ijah Anderson was sent off in both Rovers’ fixtures against Orient, becoming the first Rovers player to receive a red card twice in one season against the same opposition. He was also sent off against Cambridge in October 2003, but was not a dirty player, more a cultured, defensive right-back. He had made his Rovers début against the side which had rejected him as a teenager and was Man of the Match later that month against Macclesfield Town, the team for whom he scored an own goal the following campaign, his fifteenth-minute deflection putting the visitors 2-0 ahead at The Mem. At that point he was also taking an Information Technology course at Bristol University. Previously Brentford’s longest-serving player towards the end of his Griffin Park stint, Anderson was an ever-present in 1996-97, enjoyed promotion as Third Division champions in 1998-99, suffered defeat in two play-off finals and played alongside Rovers names in Rob Quinn and Danny Boxall. Injuries also took their toll, a broken leg in 1997-98 being followed by three months out in 1999-2000 with a thigh injury and knee problems the following campaign. With Andy Rammell at Wycombe, Anderson played alongside Kevin Austin and Lee Thorpe at Swansea, where he played in their reserves’ 3-2 defeat against Rovers reserves in April 2005. That spring, the Swans were promoted to League One and Anderson headed the ball off his own line as Wrexham were defeated 2-1 in the Welsh Cup Final but, being found in possession of illegal substances, Anderson was released by the club and later played four times for Lewes. A Brentford supporter, he has three children and worked for a while at Rime FM.; he now works for Hackney Soccer Academy, enthusing young footballers. |
No 323. James McFarland Anderson. 1954-57.
Born 25.9.1932, Glasgow. Died, 15.11.1992, 5’ 8½”; 11 st. Début: 15.9.54 v Liverpool. Career: RAOC Hilsea; 27.4.53 Bristol Rovers [24,0]; 7.6.57 Chester [62,0]; 1960 Rhyl; 1961 Weymouth. Unlikely though it may seem, Scottish wing-half Jim Anderson made his League début at Anfield. Rovers travelled to play Liverpool in Division Two and, with John Evans scoring all five of Liverpool’s goals, crashed to a 5-3 defeat. Nevertheless, this product of Army football, played sporadically for Rovers over the next two years. He had come to Rovers’ notice when on National Service, for he was working closely with Barrie Meyer, who recommended him to the club, whereupon he was given a trial and taken on. Jim Anderson married Margaret Wilkins in Bristol in the autumn of 1957 and furthered his career with Chester. |
No 720. John Anderson. 2003-06.
Born, 2.10.1972, Greenock. 6’ 2”; 12 st 2 lbs. Début: 27.3.04 v York City. Career: Gourock YAC; 20.1.94 Morton [97+3,18]; 5.6.00 Livingston (free) [42+1,3]; 11.6.02 Hull City (free) [42+1,1]; 25.3.04 Bristol Rovers (free) (assistant manager, 22.9.05) [46+8,2]; 15.11.07 North Ferriby United (assistant manager; manager, October 2010-11.9.11). Few present will forget the evening at Cheltenham in January 2006 when, trailing after ninety minutes to goals from two former Bristol City players, Rovers scored twice in injury-time to record a 3-2 victory. One of these goals was registered by tall Scottish central defender John Anderson, who was playing in the penultimate League match of his career. Anderson had broken his nose on his Scottish League début for Morton in a 1-1 draw at home to Falkirk in January 1994 and helped the Cappielow side secure the Division Two title in 1994-95. He had scored in the astonishing 7-3 home defeat against Aberdeen in the League Cup in September 1996, which featured two hat-trick scorers for the opposition, and received red cards at Motherwell in August 1997, for punching the ball over the bar during a League Cup-tie, and at St Mirren in a League game in April 1999 as well as at Ayr United in February 2000. Livingston were Division One champions in 2000-01 and finished the following campaign third in the Premier League to secure European football for the first time and Anderson played a key rôle in all of this, despite a sending-off at Raith Rovers in March 2001. A Hull team-mate of Ryan Williams, he was that club’s Player of the Year for 2002-03, the season he played twice against Rovers in the basement division. Having scored his first Rovers goal at home to Bury in August 2004, that season was disrupted by a back injury as well as a red card accrued at Shrewsbury. A carpenter and joiner by profession, John Anderson became a football manager in North Yorkshire. |
No 313. (Bob) John Robert Anderson. 1952-54.
Born, 9.11.1924, Durham. Died, 14.11.1994, Bristol. 6’ 2½”; 14 st. Début: 11.4.53 v Watford. Career: Ponteland School; Blackhall Colliery; 5.11.45 Middlesbrough [1,0]; Blackhall Colliery: October 1951 Crystal Palace [38,0]; 12.3.53 Bristol Rovers [10,0]; 5.11.54 Bristol City [106,0]; 1960 Avon Federation Boys’ Club (coach); St Aldhelm’s (coach). Throughout the history of the Football League, only one player has appeared in championship-winning teams in the same division with two clubs from the same city. Giant goalkeeper Bob Anderson, a former miner who was picked up by Middlesbrough from service in the Royal Air Force to play in a 7-0 defeat at Arsenal on Good Friday 1948, joined Rovers during the Third Division (South) championship campaign of 1952-53. Following Bert Hoyle’s injury, Anderson kept goal as Rovers secured the title and was made captain against his former club, Palace, on the last day of the season. “Gentleman Bob” was to help Bristol City to the same title in 1954-55 and played for the Ashton Gate side in four League games against Rovers between March 1956 and the end of the 1957-58 season. Awarded the Harry Bamford Trophy for Sportsmanship in 1960-61, he was forced to retire with a back injury and worked for many years as an area manager for Bollom, the dry-cleaning company, as well as coaching Suburban League St Aldhelm’s for nine years. The elder of two sons to William Anderson and Lottie Stonebank, Bob Anderson suffered a stroke in 1986 and died five days after his seventieth birthday. |
No 899. Alexis Junior Andre. 2017-18.
Born, 31.5.1997, Mulhouse, France. 6’; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 9.9.17 v Walsall. Career: 2004 Racing Club de Strasbourg; 2010 Vauban; 2011 Schiltigheim; 2012 Kehl; 14.2.15 Schiltigheim; 22.8.16 Kehl; 20.4.17 Dijon (trial); June 2017 Leeds United (trial); June 2017 Bury (trial); 2.7.17 Bristol Rovers (free) [0+1,0]; 24.11.17 Paulton Rovers (loan); 31.1.18 Tiverton Town (loan); 20.2.19 Yate Town (loan); 28.3.19 Truro City (loan); 16.12.19 Salisbury (loan); 10.3.20 Gloucester City (loan); 21.10.20 Salisbury (loan); 15.10.21 Folkestone Invicta (free); 26.11.21 Dover Athletic (free); 3.7.22 Maidenhead United (free). Young French goalkeeper Alexis André was an unused substitute when Rovers defeated second-tier Fulham 1-0 at Craven Cottage in the League Cup in August 2017; a hand injury to Adam Smith had enabled him to move up the pecking order. Sam Slocombe’s red card at home to Walsall then handed him an unexpected twenty-eight minutes as a substitute goalkeeper in a 2-1 victory. A participant at the Nike Academy at St George’s Park, where 500 players had been narrowed down to just twelve, he toured Russia and was privileged to play in Spartak Moscow’s stadium. He played six games with Truro, three times for Paulton and five times with Tiverton and in three matches for Salisbury. In October 2018 he was called up to the Morocco Under-23 squad for friendlies against Algeria and Senegal. Born to a Guadeloupean father and Moroccan mother, he had been brought up by his father after his parents’ separation. He made his first of six appearances for Folkestone Invicta in an FA Cup-tie against Eastleigh in October 2021 and played in eleven National League matches with Dover Athletic, his side being relegated back to the National League South. With four million followers on TikTok, he appeared in the summer of 2022 on a reality show on Amazon Prime featuring the actress Lindsay Lohan. |
No 620. Marcus Andreasson. 1998-2001.
Born, 13.7.1978, Buchanan, Liberia. 6’ 4”; 13 st 2 lbs. Début: 8.8.98 v Burnley. Career: Kungsmadskolen, Växjö; Kosta IF; July 1996 Östers IF [6,0]; 8.7.98 Bristol Rovers (trial); 15.7.98 Bristol Rovers (free); July 1999 West Ham United (trial); 23.8.99 Kalmar FF (£20,000); 23.3.00 Bristol Rovers (free) [14+1,1]; 5.8.01 Bryne FK (loan); 22.11.01 Bryne FK (£22,000) [57,5]; 22.12.03 Molde FK [152,5]; 30.11.10 Lierse SK [11,0]; 14.6.12 Kosta IF (player-coach) [19,0]; January 2013 Lierse SK [32,0]; August 2013 Molde FK (Player Co-ordinator, to September 2019). Born to a Liberian mother and a Swedish father, Marcus Andreasson moved with his family from Liberia’s third largest city to Växjö in the south of Sweden at the age of two and, after twelve appearances with Kosta, helped Östers finish the 1997 season in eleventh place in top-flight Swedish football before joining Rovers. A tall, dominant central defender, he missed much of the 1998-99 season through injury but returned to the club to score the first of three first-half goals at Swindon in October 2000, sweeping the ball past Bart Griemink after fourteen minutes when Mark Walters’ corner had been headed down by Mark Foran. Highly respected at Bryne, where there was media speculation about potential international honours, he gave sterling service before joining Molde on the same day as the former Sheffield Wednesday winger Petter Rudi. Both scored on their Tippeliga début, a 2-0 win against Lyn Oslo and Andreasson also played in the 2005 Norwegian Cup Final, a 4-2 victory over Lillestrøm. In the autumn of 2006 a crushing 8-0 defeat at Stabaek confirmed Molde’s relegation and, after seven years at the club, Andreasson played briefly in the Belgian League before returning to Kosta in a coaching capacity. An Achilles injury ended his career, after which he enrolled at the university in Molde on a degree course in IT and Logistics and lives in Sollivegen. He became a Senior Advisor at the advertising company McCann AS in 2019 and set up his own firm, Stiftelsen, in April 2021. |
No 638. Bradley James Andrews. 1998-99.
Born, 8.12.1979, Bristol. 5’ 11”; 10 st 12 lbs. Début: 20.3.99 v Walsall. Career: Downend School; Bromley Heath; 1989 Bristol City; Manchester United (trial); Arsenal (trial); Southampton (trial); 1994 Norwich City (professional, 6.7.98); 6.3.99 Bristol Rovers (trial); 18.3.99 Bristol Rovers (free) [3,0]; July 1999 Mangotsfield United; 2000-01 in Australia; July 2001 Clevedon Town; July 2002 Brislington; 4.11.04 Thornbury Town; 20.8.06 Almondsbury Town; 28.11.09 Cinderford Town. Despite appearing on numerous occasions over a four-year period for their reserve side, left-winger Bradley Andrews could not make the first-team at Norwich City. After playing in a friendly against Mangotsfield United, a 1-0 win, and for the reserves against Swansea City reserves, he made his first League appearance against Walsall, his cousin Jamie Cureton scoring a hat-trick for Rovers in a 3-3 draw away from home. The middle child of Peter Andrews and Sandra Cole (the daughter of Michael Cole and Valerie Parker), who married in Bristol in 1976, Bradley Andrews has two sisters, Natalie and Ashleigh. |
No 769. Wayne Michael Hill Andrews. 2007-08.
Born, 25.11.1977, Paddington. 5’ 10”; 11 st 2 lbs. Début: 29.3.08 v Yeovil Town. Career: October 1992 Watford (professional, 1.8.94) [16+12,4]; 1.10.96 Cambridge United (loan) [1+1,0]; 5.2.99 Peterborough United (loan) [8+2,5]; 1.8.99 St Albans City (free); August 2000 Aldershot Town (free); August 2001 Chesham United (free); 14.5.02 Oldham Athletic (free) [28+8,11]; 2.7.03 Colchester United (free) [36+10,4]; 31.8.04 Crystal Palace (free) [5+28,1]; 3.6.06 Coventry City (free) [0+10,1]; 23.11.06 Sheffield Wednesday (loan) [7+2,1]; 19.1.07 Bristol City (loan) [3+4,2]; 1.10.07 Leeds United (loan) [1,0]; 27.3.08 Bristol Rovers (loan) [1,0]; 17.10.08 Luton Town (loan) [1+6,0]; 26.2.09 Yeovil Town (trial). Seventeen minutes into striker Wayne Andrews’ début at Huish Park, he went down in a challenge with Yeovil’s Terry Skiverton and, with damaged knee ligaments, his Rovers career was over; Skiverton, by now manager at Huish, signed him for Yeovil less than a year later. In a wide-ranging career Andrews, a tall, strong striker of Barbadian descent, had often been used as an impact substitute and his career figures especially at Palace and Coventry bear testimony to this. A Watford débutant against Derby County in March 1995, the youngster showed incredible pace and skill and, recovering from a broken ankle, he played alongside Devon White, Kevin Miller and Gary Penrice in the Watford side which opposed Rovers in September 1996. Partnering Giuliano Grazioli in attack at London Road, his Peterborough side scored four second-half goals on his début to defeat Barnet 5-2, whilst he represented Palace at Old Trafford in the Premier League. Sent off in his final game for Oldham, in the 2003 play-offs, and for Colchester against Peterborough in March 2004, as well as after scoring a hat-trick for Watford reserves against Portsmouth in 1995, Andrews also played in the two Johnstone’s Paint Trophy games for Bristol City in February 2007, when Rickie Lambert’s vicious volley earned Rovers a place at the Millennium Stadium. His solitary appearance for Leeds was their 1-0 victory at Oldham in October 2007. In non-league circles he had earlier scored eleven goals in 24 games for St Albans, ten in 37 matches at Aldershot and twenty in 31 appearances with Chesham. He also had a minor rôle in the film “Mean Machine”, which starred the former footballer Vinnie Jones. Having retired from football, Wayne Andrews works at Watotalfitness, a sports fitness centre in London. In February 2016 he had a kidney transplant and, with a daughter Chloë and son Ryan with his ex-partner Donna, now lives in Dagenham with his partner Jessica and their daughter Indy. |
No 754. Byron Joseph Anthony. 2006-11.
Born, 20.9.1984, Cardiff. 6’ 1”; 10 st 7 lbs. Début: 12.8.06 v Grimsby Town. Career: Cromwell FC; 2001 Cardiff City; 2005 Forest Green Rovers (loan); 29.6.06 Bristol Rovers (trial); 4.8.06 Bristol Rovers (free) [155+8,7]; 17.2.12 Hereford United (loan) [13+2,1]; 26.7.12 Barnet (trial); 7.8.12 Burton Albion (trial); 2.11.12 Newport County (trial); 16.11.12 Newport County (free; 2.12.14 Academy coach) [7,0]; 29.9.20 Bristol Rovers (Academy coach); 1.3.21 Swansea City (Under-18 coach); 3.11.21 Bristol Rovers (Academy Head of Coaching; 4.7.22 Academy Manager). Unable to make the League side at Cardiff, central defender Byron Anthony had played in 1(+1) League Cup-ties for the Bluebirds, scoring against MK Dons, and in four matches for Forest Green prior to his arrival at the Memorial Stadium. Popular and polite, he soon acquired the pseudonym “The Lord” on account of his first-name being the surname of a Romantic poet, and swiftly became well-liked by the Rovers support. An unused substitute at the Millennium Stadium in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final against Doncaster Rovers, he played at Wembley in May 2007, as Rovers defeated Shrewsbury Town 3-1 to seal promotion to League One. Finally scoring his first goal for the club against Nottingham Forest in September 2007, he in fact scored for both sides in the space of three minutes, and he also converted the successful spot-kick as Rovers knocked Crystal Palace out of the League Cup on penalties. Sent off in the FA Cup against Bournemouth in November 2008 and after 95 minutes against Walsall the same season, Anthony also scored twice in August 2009 as Rovers defeated a Liverpool XI 4-3 in a pre-season friendly. In December 2010 he conceded an own goal and then missed a penalty in the shoot-out of Rovers’ final game under Paul Trollope, but he continued to show sterling effort in Rovers’ ultimately unsuccessful bid to avoid relegation to League Two, conceding another own goal in March 2011 against Peterborough. Hereford, despite Anthony’s goal against Bradford City, lost their League status in 2011-12, the tall Welshman playing against Torquay in their final game. He remained at Edgar Street but, sent off in his second Conference match, against Cambridge United, was released and subsequently played trial games for Barnet against Charlton Athletic and Burton against Leeds United. Three goals in 19(+2) Conference games helped propel Newport into the Conference play-offs at the close of the 2012-13 campaign; he then set up Christian Jolley’s opening goal at Wembley on a heady May afternoon, as Newport defeated Wrexham 2-0 to return to the Football League after an absence of twenty-five years. He appeared in County’s opening fixture back in the League, but suffered a double fracture of the ankle in the Ambers’ League Cup-tie with Brighton three days later which effectively ended his playing career, all but one of his League games for County being at home. |
No 807. Joseph Greene Anyinsah. 2011-13.
Born, 8.10.1984, Bristol. 5’ 8”; 12 st 5 lbs. Début: 6.8.11 v AFC Wimbledon. Career: 1994 Bristol City (professional, 1.7.01) [2+5,0]; 14.1.05 Hereford United (loan); 1.7.05 Preston North End (free) [0+6,0]; 9.2.06 Bury (loan) [3,0]; 20.9.07 Carlisle United (loan); 11.9.08 Brighton (loan) [10+1,0]; 9.1.09 Carlisle United (free) [46+13,16]; 31.8.10 Charlton Athletic (free) [14+5,3]; 6.7.11 Bristol Rovers (free) [47+15,8]; 4.7.13 Cheltenham Town (trial); 18.7.13 Wrexham (trial); 9.8.13 Wrexham (free); 6.8.14 Hayes and Yeading (free, to 2015). Fast and effective on either wing, Joe Anyinsah gave Rovers sterling service. Despite being a boyhood Bristol City fan and having made his League bow for the Robins against Torquay United in August 2004, his efficient work-rate and team-work endeared him to Rovers’ supporters. Although he had not scored in nine months prior to his arrival at the club, a 72nd-minute goal, struck low and hard from inside the box to the bottom right corner of the goal, proved the winner in the 3-2 victory over Morecambe in September 2011 and he struck a venomous thirty-yard goal as Rovers trounced Rotherham 5-2 the following month. Anyinsah had played in three Conference games and three FA Trophy matches at Hereford, before registering his first League goal after 66 minutes of Carlisle’s 3-1 victory at Bournemouth in September 2007, Jo Kuffour scoring for the Dean Court side. At one point over Easter 2010 he scored five goals in a four-match spell and he also played on three League occasions for Carlisle against Rovers. Sent off at Yeovil on his Brighton début, Anyinsah did score in a League Cup-tie against Manchester City before adding the winning goal against MK Dons on his return to Brunton Park. Another substitute goal-scoring appearance saw Joe Anyinsah, a popular man wherever his travels take him, contribute the only goal of the game as Charlton defeated Notts County in September 2010. He scored four times in 24(+10) Conference matches with Wrexham and in 2(+3) Conference South games with Hayes and Yeading. He lives in London with his wife Marlene and daughter Sophie, engaged in an engineering course with a view to working on railway signal testing and also working in sports management. |
No 566. Lee Archer. 1991-97.
Born, 6.11.1972, Bristol. 5’ 9”; 11 st 4 lbs. Début: 4.9.91 v Bristol City. Career: Bromley Heath; Warmley; Parkway; Bristol Rovers (professional, 18.7.01) [104+22,15]; July 1997 Cardiff City (trial); 27.8.97 Partick Thistle (trial); 6.10.97 Yeovil Town; 21.5.98 Rushden and Diamonds (£30,000); 5.1.99 Slough Town; 10.9.99 Yeovil Town (to 2000); 29.8.10 Gloucester City. An exciting attacking player, one-club man Lee Archer, the son of John Archer, a local non-league player, made his Rovers début in the cauldron of a local derby. Newly-promoted to second-tier English football, Rovers used the youngster sparingly, although he scored with a twenty-five-yard shot in the 3-0 win at Millwall in May 1993 in the final game ever played at The Den. Meanwhile, he played 30(+1) games for the reserves in 1992-93 alone, his eleven goals including a hat-trick in the 6-0 victory over Mangotsfield United in January 1993. Once relegated that spring, Rovers fielded Archer more regularly and he responded with a brace of goals on New Year’s Eve 1994 in a 3-0 victory at home to Chester City. A former Avon and Northavon Schoolboys player, he was at the club long enough to make a substitute appearance at Wembley, replacing Justin Channing with eight minutes left of the disappointing play-off final against Huddersfield Town. He scored Rovers’ consolation goal when humbled 2-1 by Hitchin Town in the FA Cup in November 1995 and, having been absent with a knee injury, returned to the side in August 1996 to score Rovers’ first League goal at the Memorial Ground, a header in off the bar at the Downend Road End after twelve minutes of the 1-1 draw with Stockport County. After he and Andy Tillson had opened the new play area at Bristol Zoo in 1997, Archer played in 25(+10) Conference games for Yeovil, his ten goals including one in the 2-2 draw with Northwich Victoria in October 1997 alongside Steve Parmenter and Matt Hayfield. After 1(+2) Conference games alongside David Mehew and Carl Heggs at Rushden, Archer retired with a knee injury, only to re-emerge with nineteen Ryman League games and three goals alongside Justin Channing and Paul Hardyman at Slough and three games for Mehew’s Gloucester City in the autumn of 2010, his first game in a decade coming in the 5-0 victory over Redditch United. Married to Emma, he lives in Wraxall with his daughter Ava and step-daughter Tallulah and worked from 2004 to 2021 at the Pro-Fitness Gym in Clifton, through which he co-ordinated Europe’s largest event for improving elite sportsmen’s performance, the Elite Sports Performance Expo, in June 2015. In May 2021 he qualified as a football coach and began working for the Football Association. |
No 33. Harold Arthur Armitage. 1922-26.
Born, 16.8.1901, Sheffield. Died, 2.9.1973, Crewe. 5’ 7½”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 26.8.22 v Portsmouth. Career: Hope and Anchor FC; 1919 Hathersage; June 1920 Sheffield Wednesday (free) [3,0]; 19.5.22 Bristol Rovers (free) [122,0]; 11.8.26 Lincoln City (exchange for Josiah Barratt); August 1927 Scarborough Town. Despite his diminutive stature, Harold Armitage was a fearless and tough-tackling full-back and a practical joker in the changing rooms, who became a regular for four seasons with Rovers and club captain in 1925-26. Having won a Sheffield Amateur League championship in his season at Hathersage, two of his three games at Hillsborough were against Bristol City. In addition, he was in Wednesday’s reserve side which defeated Barnsley reserves 2-0 in March 1921 in the Sheffield Challenge Cup Final at Bramall Lane. Armitage never scored for Rovers, although a twenty-five-yard free-kick against Merthyr Town in February 1924 crashed back off the crossbar and he struck a post against Bristol City in the FA Cup-tie of January 1925. Having appeared in more than seventy games for Rovers, the first time he was in a side conceding five times in a match was when his own goal contributed to a 5-0 defeat at Northampton Town in September 1924. A cricketer with Stapleton CC, Harold Armitage married his childhood sweetheart Alice de Smedlais in Sheffield in 1925 and later played alongside another former Rovers player Jackie Storer at Scarborough. |
No 150. James William Armstrong. 1930-31.
Born, 6.9.1901, Swalwell-upon-Tyne. Died, 12.8.1977, Gateshead. 5’ 8”; 10 st. Début: 14.3.31 v Fulham. Career: Spen Black and White; January 1922 Chelsea [29,9]; May 1927 Tottenham Hotspur [28,7]; July 1930 Luton Town [10,1]; 6.3.31 Bristol Rovers [9,2]; July 1931 Walker Celtic (to 1933). Small in stature for a leader of the line, James Armstrong scored a hat-trick in Rovers’ friendly against Watchet in April 1931 but had minimal impact in the League. A goal on his Chelsea début over Christmas 1922 against a Spurs side he would later join preceded thirteen appearances and two goals the following campaign as the Stamford Bridge side was relegated from top-flight football. A similar fate befell him at Spurs in 1927-28, although he scored twice in a 4-1 win against Manchester United that season. Brought up at Bridge Row, Swalwell in a large family, he joined Rovers after a spell at Luton Town, where he played alongside another north-easterner to appear for Rovers, George McNestry, and scored in the 1-1 draw at Torquay United on Boxing Day 1930. He scored twice in April 1931 as Rovers defeated Orient 4-1 at Eastville. It is possible he is the man who, in 1922, married Emma Jane Swan (1900-68) from Willington Quay. |
No 596. Steven Craig Armstrong. 1995-96.
Born, 2.5.1975, South Shields. 5’ 11”; 12 st 4 lbs. Début: 6.1.96 v Hull City. Career: 1985 St Leonard’s; 1991 Nottingham Forest (professional, 2.6.92) [24+16,0]; 30.12.94 Burnley (loan) [4,0]; 5.1.96 Bristol Rovers (loan); 28.3.96 Bristol Rovers (loan) [13+1,0]; 18.10.96 Gillingham (loan) [10,0]; 23.1.97 Watford (loan) [15,0]; 19.2.99 Huddersfield Town (£750,000) [102+6,5]; 15.2.02 Sheffield Wednesday (£100,000) [29+6,1]; 23.2.04 Grimsby Town (loan) [9,1]; 20.1.05 Bradford City (free); 13.7.05 Cheltenham Town (free); 6.6.07 Gillingham (trial); 21.11.08 Burton Albion (loan); 23.1.09 Kidderminster Harriers (loan); 12.6.09 Mansfield Town (free); 22.2.10 Forest Green Rovers (loan); 1.4.11 Forest Green Rovers (free); 26.5.11 Eastwood Town (player-joint manager); 22.9.11 Boston United; 26.10.11 Hucknall Town (manager); 30.3.12 Quorn (manager); May 2012 Nottingham Forest (Elite Development Coach); 28.6.12 Basford United (coach); August 2014 Central College, Nottingham (coach); January 2018 Arsenal (scout co-ordinator); January 2021 Crystal Palace (academy national recruitment manager). Following his début as a 64th-minute substitute for Paul Tovey in a 2-1 win at Twerton Park, Craig Armstrong set up Marcus Stewart’s left-footed equaliser against Carlisle United a fortnight later. Man of the Match against Walsall after that, he was later to choose Marcus Stewart as godfather to one of the three children with which he and his wife Sam were blessed. Having made his Burnley début in a 5-1 victory over Southend United, left-back Armstrong was deputy to England international Stuart Pearce at Forest and, amongst several loan spells, he was in the Gillingham side which drew 0-0 with Rovers in November 1996. Rare appearances at Forest continued to accumulate as his club returned to top-flight football in 1998. Despite an own goal in the League Cup, as Doncaster were despatched 10-1 on aggregate, left-footed Armstrong was called up to the England Under-21 squad in November 1997, although injury deprived him of a place. A first League goal followed his expensive transfer to Huddersfield, coming a minute after half-time in a 3-2 home win over Bolton Wanderers in March 1999 and, having suffered relegation with Grimsby, Armstrong helped secure Cheltenham’s promotion to League One in 2006 with a 1-0 Wembley play-off victory over his former club Grimsby. He played in three League matches for Cheltenham against Rovers. Forest Green, for whom Armstrong played in against Rovers in a pre-season friendly in July 2010, survived relegation from the Conference by the slightest margins in 2009-10 and again in 2010-11, when he was a team-mate of the former Rovers midfielder Matt Somner. After thirteen games for Forest Green, he played eight times for Eastwood (scoring against Droylsden in August 2011) and three games, playing against Altrincham, Histon and Workington, for Boston and now lives in Nottingham. Armstrong featured in a bizarre match for Grimsby at Chesterfield in March 2004, the game finishing 4-4 in front of a crowd of 4,444, a mathematician’s dream. |
No 686. Neil Darren Arndale. 2001-04.
Born, 26.4.1984, Bristol. 5’ 7”; 10 st 7 lbs. Début: 20.4.02 v Rochdale. Career: 1992 Bristol Rovers (professional, 19.4.02) [2+3,0]; 11.7.03 Clevedon Town (loan); July 2004 Colchester United (trial); July 2004 Shrewsbury Town (trial); 13.8.04 Cirencester Town; 9.6.06 Mangotsfield United; 13.6.11 Cirencester Town; 10.10.11 Mangotsfield United; 26.1.12 Bitton (free); 19.5.12 Mangotsfield United (free; 28.10.15 joint caretaker-manager); 12.11.15 Larkhall Athletic (free; 16.10.16-10.1.17 assistant manager); 10.2.22 Mangotsfield United (assistant manager). A final-day of-the-season débutant at Rochdale, full-back Neil Arndale replaced Carlos Sánchez López for the final 35 minutes. Tough-tackling and with a long throw-in, the teenager had impressed in the reserve side and on a national level. An international début for England Under-15s at the Memorial Stadium against Holland in March 2000 was followed by six caps for the Under-16 side, including participation at the European Championships and he was on standby for the Under-18 squad to face Italy in Bellaria. Having started two League matches, the 2-1 home defeat against Orient in October 2002 and the 4-0 defeat at Yeovil in March 2004, his final appearance in a Rovers shirt was as a substitute for goal-scorer Sonny Parker at home to Torquay. On his twentieth birthday he contrived to score a hat-trick for the reserves, with a volley and two second-half penalties, in a 5-3 defeat against Oxford United reserves. A site manager for Staple Hill Motors in Downend by profession, Arndale played 23 times for Clevedon and, having scored in the FA Cup against Leatherhead in November 2007, was sent off the following month in the goalless draw with Yate Town. His ten games for Cirencester in the 2011-12 season curtailed by a broken leg came alongside the former Rovers striker Dave Gilroy and, scoring five penalties in his 34 matches during 2012-13, he helped Mangotsfield secure the Gloucestershire Senior Challenge Cup, defeating Cinderford Town 4-0 in the May 2013 final and captaining the side to a 3-0 victory over a young Bristol City side in the 2014 final. He opened the 2013-14 campaign with a goal in his side’s FA Cup victory at Winchester City, as well as being sent off in August 2014, as Mangotsfield lost 6-0 at North Leigh, as his Calor League Division One appearance tally for the Mangos reached 117(+4), his fifteen goals including thirteen penalties. Briefly caretaker manager alongside Lewis Hogg, he left Mangotsfield on the arrival of the new management team and conceded a second-minute own goal in Larkhall’s 5-0 drubbing at Banbury United in January 2016, one of 24(+3) Southern League appearances. The son of Ian and Tracey Arndale, Neil Arndale married in June 2014 to Kirsty Leonard and they have a young daughter, Ruby. |
No 96. James William Ashford. 1926-27.
Born, 24.5.1897, Barlborough, Derbyshire. Died, 1970, Poole. 5’ 8”; 9 st 7 lbs. Début: 30.10.26 v Bournemouth. Career: 28.2.18 Brodsworth Main (amateur); 27.2.19 Ebbw Vale; March 1920 Chelsea [8,0]; June 1925 Doncaster Rovers [25,0]; 19.5.26 Bristol Rovers [12,0]; August 1928 Scunthorpe United. Arriving at Rovers from Doncaster Rovers, where he had played in an 8-1 victory over Coventry City the previous January as Doncaster finished tenth in Division Three (North), James Ashford played for Rovers in twelve League and five FA Cup matches. Having appeared for Chelsea in top-flight football, the final game of his five Midland League appearances for Scunthorpe United was against Gainsborough Trinity in September 1928. Ashford married Nellie Littlewood (1903-61) in Doncaster in the autumn of 1921 and they had two daughters, Marjorie and Jean, and a son, James, before retiring to the south coast. In 1939, working as a colliery hewer, he was living in Adwick-le-Street at 66 Windmill Balk Lane. |
No 67. Sir Hubert Ashton. 1924-25.
Born, 13.2.1898, Calcutta. Died, 17.6.1979, South Weald. 5’ 9½”; 11 st 4 lbs. Début: 2.5.25 v Reading. Career: Winchester College; Trinity College, Cambridge; West Bromwich Albion (amateur); February 1920 Corinthians; 23.8.24 Bristol Rovers [1,0]; 21.8.26 Orient [5,0] (to May 1927). Astonishing though it may sound, a Conservative MP whose picture hangs in the National Portrait Gallery played League football for Bristol Rovers. His mother was the god-daughter of Queen Victoria and he and his brothers and cousins had once formed an Ashton XI which defeated the Australians at cricket. Appearing in trial football games, he was considered “a second Banfield of Bristol City”, but his solitary game for Rovers did not live up to expectations. Reports indicate that Hubert Ashton played too far forward, allowing Reading’s Hugh Davey (1897-1971) to score a hat-trick in a 4-1 win; his Orient début came in a 6-0 defeat at Blackpool in December 1926 and he played alongside Jimmy Gardner and Jack Townrow, two players also on Rovers’ books during their careers. Greater success came his way on the cricket field, where he scored 236 not out for Cambridge University against Free Foresters at Fenners in 1920 (one of eight first-class centuries), 75 in seventy-two minutes for an England amateur side against Australia at Eastbourne in 1921 and was a triple cricket blue at Cambridge, scoring 118 in the 1921 Varsity match and being captain in 1922, the year he was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year. He “must have taken a high place had he been able to continue in first-class cricket” (Wisden). He played in 21 matches for Essex sporadically between 1921 and 1939, and for both Europeans and Burma during 1926-27, twice registering 1,000 runs in a first-class season. Greater yet was Hubert Ashton’s political career. Having won a Military Cross on the Western Front with the Royal Field Artillery, where he served from April 1917 to August 1919, he worked for the Burmah Oil Company and was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Chelmsford from 1950 to 1964, serving as Personal Private Secretary to the Exchequer, Lord Privy Seal and, briefly, Home Secretary in 1957. President of the MCC in 1960-61, he was also President of Essex CCC between 1948 and 1970 as well as their Chairman from 1946 to 1951, High Sheriff of Essex and a Church Commissioner. He was knighted in 1959. Hubert Ashton’s family background is extraordinary in that, at every turn, lie famous names from the world of politics, sport and the Church. A nephew of two Kent cricketers, Alfred Inglis (1856-1919, whose great-grandson is the famous conductor Anthony Inglis) and John Inglis (1853-1923, who also played in one unofficial football international for Scotland in 1871), and a nephew of the England rugby international Rupert Inglis (1863-1916, an Army chaplain who was killed at the Battle of the Somme), he was the fourth of five sons to Hubert Shorrock Ashton (1862-1943) and Victoria Alexandrina Inglis (1858-1929), whose father John Eardley Wilmot Inglis (1814-62), the son and grandson of bishops of Nova Scotia, had led the British forces at the Siege of Lucknow; one brother, Gilbert, played cricket for Worcestershire, whilst two more, Claude and Percy, played for Essex – Hubert, Gilbert and Claude all captained Cambridge. Their father had acquired a fifty-acre field in Essex in 1912 to turn it into a sports field for his sons, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Winston Churchill (1874-1965) and Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937) all attending the official opening. Indeed, Claude also won an England cap at football, captaining his country in the goalless draw with Northern Ireland in October 1925 when “the big disappointment of the match was CT Ashton, who wasted many good passes by wild shooting and rarely led the England forwards with any marked ability”; sadly, Claude was killed on active service in October 1942, the Cambridge football and cricket blue Roger Winlaw (1912-42) dying in the same plane. With Hubert Ashton, though, escaping a feeling of privilege is difficult. Hubert Ashton married on 2nd June 1927 Dorothy Margaret “Bunty” Gaitskell (1899-1983), the daughter of Arthur Gaitskell (1869-1915) and Adelaide Mary Jamieson (1870-1956) and sister of his one-time political rival Hugh Gaitskell (1906-63), and they had two sons, two daughters and twelve grandchildren. His nephew Jeremy Ashton, Claude’s elder son, was consecrated Bishop of Papua New Guinea in 1976. Hubert Ashton is buried at St Peter’s in South Weald, his grave and headstone next to that of his brother Gilbert. |
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No 647. Vitalijs Astafjevs. 1999-2003. (Виталий Астафьев)
Born, 3.4.1971, Riga. 5’ 11”; 12 st 5 lbs. Début: 29.1.00 v Wigan Athletic. (sub) Career: Daugava; 1990 FK Pardaugava [26,11]; July 1992 Skonto Riga; September 1996 Austria Memphis (loan) [26,1]; 14.10.99 Charlton Athletic (trial); 30.11.99 Bristol Rovers (trial); 1.12.99 Millwall (trial); 22.12.99 Bristol Rovers (£150,000) [87+21,16]; 3.9.01 Walsall; 15.7.03 Austria Wacker Mödling [38,2]; 9.8.04 Rubin Kazan [30,10]; 3.3.06 Skonto Riga; 2.3.09 VfB Olimps [14,1]; 7.7.09 FK Ventspils (free) [5,0]; 22.2.10 Skonto Riga (free) [182+2, 68] (assistant manager, 15.7.10); 3.1.13 Latvia (Under-21 assistant coach); 11.7.13 Latvia (assistant coach, to 19.3.18); 4.6.14 FK Jelgava (manager, to 17.5.16); 4.1.17 Riga FC (Under-16 coach; 3.1.19 Under-19 coach); 24.8.20 FK Auda (assistant manager); 16.6.21 Aris Limassol (assistant manager). Shock qualifiers for Euro 2004, Latvia proceeded to draw 0-0 with Germany and, although eliminated, were certainly not outclassed. Their captain in all three games was Vitālijs Astafjevs, who won thirty full caps whilst with Rovers, a club record, and who gave Rovers great service. In all, Astafjevs scored sixteen goals in his 167 matches for his country, an all-time European appearance record until it was equalled by Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas in 2016 and overtaken in March 2017 by the Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. The Latvian played almost exclusively as captain, from his first cap against Euro 1992 winners Denmark in Riga in August 1992, taking the field as a 66th-minute substitute for Jurijs Popkovs, to his final international against China in November 2010. On the occasion of his hundredth cap, in Celje against Slovenia, he was given a bouquet of flowers on the pitch prior to kick-off and, alongside games against the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland, he appeared in the 3-0 defeat against Brazil in June 1999 in which both Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos scored. Joining Rovers ahead of Charlton Athletic, Huddersfield Town and Millwall, following a long tribunal involving Alan Mullery and Mike Walker, Astafjevs brought a wealth of domestic experience too. He had five Latvian championship medals, two cup-winner’s medals and three awards as Latvian Footballer of the Year to his name and had opposed Chelsea in the Champions League in 1998-99. Skonto were unbeaten in 1994, in 1995, when he was the Latvian League’s top scorer, and in 1997, losing just five matches between 1994 and 1998; one Latvian Cup game had even finished 16-0 in Skonto’s favour against hapless Aizkraukles Dardedze, Astafjevs scoring after seven, twelve and 33 minutes. The talented midfielder even managed to score the Champions League’s first-ever goal, an eighteen-yard volley after 28 minutes of an August 1992 game against Klaksvik of the Faeroe Islands in the Við Djúpumýrar Stadium and they twice took the lead against Barcelona in the Nou Camp. A spell in Austria, including one goal against Linz, and numerous years in Latvia preceded his League début, as a substitute eleven minutes from time, as Rovers moved to the top of the division. An astonishingly adroit and skilfully creative player, he was the lynchpin of an otherwise struggling side and Rovers supporters looked on with anguish, wondering how powerful a squad member he could have been in a successful side. Enormously popular – “ooh arr, he’s the Latvian” was Supporters’ Player of the Year for 2002-03 – Astafjevs, suffering with an ankle injury, was unable to prevent Rovers’ relegation into the basement division for the first time in the club’s history in 2001. Sent off against Rochdale and Swansea, he then scored in three consecutive fixtures in the spring of 2003 before making his Wacker début against Liebherr. Joining Rubin Kazan at the same time as the Belgian player Cédric Roussel, he helped the side finish in ninth place in the Russian League. Incredibly, on his return to Latvia, Astafjevs was named Latvian Player of the Year in 2008, to add to his parallel achievements in 1995, 1996 and 1999, and helped Skonto secure the League title in 2010. Retiring from both international and domestic football just short of his fortieth birthday, Vitālijs Astafjevs turned to coaching the game which has made him a legend in Latvia and in a small corner of Bristol. His success continued there, as he led Jelgava to third place in the Latvian League and to the 2015 Latvian Cup Final where, despite being reduced to ten men after three minutes, his side defeated Ventspils 2-0. |
No 695. Kevin Levi Austin. 2002-04.
Born, 12.12.1973, Hackney, Died, 23.11.2018, Sheffield. 6’ 1”; 14 st. Début: 28.9.02 v Kidderminster Harriers. Career: Edward Redhead School, Walthamstow; Orient (schoolboy); football in Phoenix, Arizona; 1991 Leyton Wingate; 1.8.92 Saffron Walden Town; 19.8.93 Orient (free) [101+8,3]; 31.7.96 Lincoln City (£30,000) [127+1,2]; 5.7.99 Barnsley (free) [3,0]; 27.10.00 Brentford (loan) [3,0]; 1.8.01 Cambridge United (free) [4+2,0]; 1.7.02 Bristol Rovers [52+4,0]; 18.6.04 Swansea City [110+10,0]; 5.6.08 Chesterfield (free) [41+13,0]; 3.8.10 Darlington (free); 18.2.11 Boston United (loan); 13.6.11 Boston United (free) (to March 2012); 8.9.16 Scunthorpe United (youth team coach). Sturdy and dependable central defender Kevin Austin was a feature of Rovers’ defensive line as the club struggled to establish itself in the basement division following relegation in 2001. His début as a 72nd-minute substitute for Trevor Challis, which followed a delay caused by a toe injury, came seconds before Paul Tait headed Rovers’ equaliser. He had made his début for the reserves in a 2-0 defeat at QPR ten days earlier. Austin was sent off in an FA Cup-tie at Bournemouth in November 2003 and again along with goal-scorer Adebayo Akinfenwa in the home match with divisional leader Doncaster Rovers in April 2004. Although he never scored a League goal in his career, his very late header from a left-wing corner in Rovers’ 4-0 drubbing at Yeovil was not far off the mark. A Spurs fan, who was taught PE at school by Tony Mercer, a highly experienced former non-league player, Austin had made his Orient début at Brentford in September 1993, played against Rovers that December and suffered relegation to Division Three in 1994-95. An ever-present as Lincoln were promoted to Division Two in 1997-98, he played alongside Paul Miller and Lee Thorpe at Sincil Bank and was sent off at Notts County in October 1998. He experienced highs and lows at Lincoln, helping the Imps knock Manchester City out of the League Cup but losing an FA Cup-tie to Wakefield and Emley and crashing 7-1 in the League at Colchester. Although his career at Barnsley was cut short by a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered against his former club, Lincoln, and a subsequent ten-month absence from football, he had attracted interest from Trinidad and Tobago, his parents’ country of birth, and he won one full cap in November 2000 in a 1-0 victory against Panama, the erstwhile Rovers striker Nigel Pierre scoring the only goal. Promoted to League One with Swansea in 2004-05, playing with Lee Thorpe, Ijah Anderson and Andy Gurney and appearing at The Mem in April 2005, he also appeared in the victorious 2005 Welsh Cup Final and was an unused substitute for the Football League Trophy Final against Carlisle United in April 2006. Sent off as Swansea defeated Bristol City 7-1 in September 2005, “The Doorman” played as the Swans subsequently lost a play-off final to Barnsley on penalties in 2006 and played twice against Rovers in March 2008 before being an unused substitute as Darlington knocked Rovers out of the FA Cup in November 2010. “A giant of a guy and a true gentleman” (Leon Britton), he also played eight times for Saffron Walden, thirteen for Darlington and 39 for Boston. In March 2012 he launched the Sheffield branch of “Active Soccer Football Coaching” at 17 Shinning Bank, Handsworth. Kevin Austin lived in Sheffield with his wife Joanne and sons Aaron and Kyle and helped out at the Sheffield Wednesday Academy and with the Sheffield Ladies University side. Sadly, having announced in April 2018 that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer, he died at the age of just forty-five, his funeral service taking place in Sheffield Cathedral on 10th December 2018. A memorial match in his honour saw Swansea Legends defeat Rovers Legends 3-2 at The Mem in May 2022, Kevin’s son Aaron fittingly scoring the Swans’ third goal. |
No 135. Arthur Albert Attwood. 1930-32.
Born, 1.12.1901, Walsall. Died, 6.12.1974, Hove. 5’ 9”; 11 st 3 lbs. Début: 30.8.30 v Northampton Town. Career: Shropshire Regiment; Walsall LMS; January 1928 Walsall [14,13]; March 1929 Everton (£1,500) [3,0]; 31.5.30 Bristol Rovers [51,27]; 6.11.31 Brighton [87,55]; August 1935 Northfleet United; 10.11.36 Brighton and Hove Omnibus FC; 1.9.45 Leicester City (trial); 4.9.45 Leicester City. Bought to replace Jack Phillips, Arthur Attwood formed a fine attacking partnership with Ronnie Dix and enjoyed scoring freely in the lower divisions. Rovers’ top scorer in 1930-31, he had commanded a huge fee at Goodison Park on the back of an astonishing goal return with Walsall, which included braces against Northampton Town, Newport County and Gillingham, but Everton were relegated from Division One in 1929-30. “Well-built and with a good turn of speed”, Attwood’s final Rovers game was a reserves outing against Bristol University, but both he and the future Rovers forward Jack Eyres scored for Brighton at Eastville in a League encounter in February 1932 and he added six goals in a 12-0 FA Cup victory over Southam in October of that year. Remarkably, he was to appear in one wartime fixture for Leicester City away to Charlton Athletic at the age of forty-three. The youngest of five, Attwood lost his father at an early age; he married Winifred Hill in Walsall in 1924 and they had three daughters, Ivy, Irene and Lilian, and a son, Derrick. |
No 939. Jonah Ananias Paul Ayunga. 2020-21.
Born, 24.5.1997, Beaminster, Dorset. 6’ 1”; 11 st 4 lbs. Début: 12.9.20 v Sunderland. Career: Beaminster School; Bridport Youth; 19.7.15 Dorchester Town; 31.1.16 Brighton (£40,000); 24.10.16 Burgess Hill Town (loan); 23.1.17 Sligo Rovers (loan) [21,4]; 31.7.17 Galway United (loan) [2,0]; 3.8.18 Poole Town (loan); 2.9.18 Sutton United (free); 24.11.18 Havant and Waterlooville (loan); 14.5.19 Havant and Waterlooville (free); 29.7.20 Bristol Rovers (free) [13+17,2]; 26.7.21 Morecambe (free) [20+16,6]; 1.6.22 St Mirren (free). When Jonah Ayunga came on as a substitute for Brandon Hanlan at the Stadium of Light against Sunderland for his début, the Dorset-born striker was making his Football League bow at the age of twenty-three. That said, he brought a wealth of experience, not least as Player of the Year and joint highest goalscorer in the National South for the truncated 2019-20 season. In addition, he had scored in the League Cup for Rovers just four days earlier, his second-half low strike not being enough to avoid defeat at the hands of Darrell Clarke’s Walsall side. A member of his school football and bobsleigh teams, Ayunga represented Dorset at Under-16 football prior to a goal against Histon on his first appearance for Dorchester. “A strong and powerful centre-forward” according to Dorchester manager, Mark Jermyn, he became a cult figure with supporters at the Avenue Stadium, scoring eight times in 24 games, and became that club’s record sale but could not make the League side at aspirational Brighton. He did play for their Under-21 side, his first game coming against Arsenal and his form attracted Kenyan scouts who invited him to train with the national squad in the summer of 2016; Ayunga, who has a younger brother Solomon (a midfielder with Portland United, Dorchester Town and Bridport) and a younger sister Choka, is the son of an English mother, Lisa Ayunga who teaches at Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester, and a Kenyan-born father, Samuel Ayunga Ombasa. A series of loan spells encompassed a Burgess Hill goal against Beaconsfield, his only one in ten games, strikes for Sligo against Bohemians, Drogheda, Limerick and Galway as well as a red card in a 4-0 loss at Dundalk and an injury at Galway which precluded all but one appearance for Poole. Ayunga proved an inspirational National South signing, scoring four times in 28 games for Sutton United and, starting with a début goal against Maidstone United, nineteen times in 34 matches with Havant. This prolific form resulted in several clubs sending scouts and it was after his goal in the play-offs had been insufficient to defeat Dartford that Ayunga joined Rovers in time for the delayed start to the 2020-21 season. The campaign proved an unfortunate one, as Rovers suffered relegation to League Two; before an injury curtailed the season for him, Ayunga had scored twice in ten first-half minutes in February 2021 in a home victory over Portsmouth. He was to score against Pompey again the following campaign; Morecambe struggled, ultimately successfully, against relegation during the 2021-22 campaign, but Ayunga played both in the 4-3 victory against fellow strugglers Doncaster Rovers, when his side came from three goals behind to secure victory, and also shortly afterwards in January 2022 in the 3-1 FA Cup defeat away to Spurs. In addition, he scored two first-half goals in the 2-2 draw at Accrington Stanley, also in January 2022. When Celtic lost a Scottish League match for the first time in exactly a year, in September 2022, it was Ayunga, voted Man of the Match, who struck the decisive second goal eight minutes after half-time, after Curtis Main had nodded down Declan Gallagher’s chipped pass. However, in October 2022 he was sent off towards the end of St Mirren’s 2-1 victory over Livingston for a deliberate handball. |
No 502. Stephen William Badock. 1985-86.
Born, 10.9.1958. Kensington, London. 6’ 2”; 12 st 8 lbs. Début: 18.8.85 v Darlington. Career: West London Boys; Dynamo; Yatton; Mangotsfield United; Welton Rovers; Portway Bristol; 26.6.85 Bristol Rovers [14+3,3]; July 1986 Gloucester City; January 1988 Wokingham Town (£3,000); 1989 Clevedon Town (to November 1989); 1993 Long Ashton; February 1994 Hengrove Athletic (player-manager); 2008-09 Brislington (assistant manager). Fast and tricky winger Steve Badock scored after just two-and-a-half minutes on his Rovers début in a 3-3 draw and added two more goals past England goalkeeper Tim Flowers when Rovers won at Molineux the following calendar month. He had previously scored against David Seaman in Rovers’ 1985 pre-season friendly with Birmingham City. An exciting, attacking player, he was a part-time professional at Rovers, added 31 goals in 52(+1) Southern League appearances with Gloucester for a club total under manager Brian Godfrey of 43 goals in 78(+3) matches in all competitions and later scored ten goals in 22 matches for Clevedon. Retiring from the game through injury, Badock worked in a newsagent’s in Yatton and later as a British Rail clerk based in Swindon. |
No 908. Mohammad Baghdadi. 2017-18.
Born, 30.10.1996, Hanover, Germany. Début: 14.4.18 v Blackburn Rovers. 5’ 10” 10 st 9 lbs. Career: DJK TuS Marathon Hannover; SV Kleeblatt Stöcken; 2011 SC Langenhagen; July 2012 Eintracht Braunschweig [0+1,0]; 7.7.17 Bristol Rovers [0+2,0]; 24.10.17 Dorchester Town (loan); 5.1.18 Poole Town (loan); 3.3.18 Weston-super-Mare (loan); 16.11.18 Bath City (loan); 28.1.19 Eintracht Norderstedt 03 (free); 28.5.19 VfV Borussia 06 Hildesheim (free) [29,2]. German-born of Lebanese descent, Mo Baghdadi joined Rovers with experience in Bundesliga II under his belt. He had played the final seventeen minutes of Braunschweig’s fixture with Union Berlin in May 2015, replacing captain Marc Pfitzner, and also featured 38 times without scoring for their second string side. He was denied a penalty after half an hour of the 2-1 Development Squad victory over Southend United in October 2017. Later he scored eight goals in ten matches at Dorchester, playing alongside the former Rovers striker Rory Fallon at Dorchester Town and scoring four times as St Ives Town were defeated 6-0 in the Southern League in December 2017. After a goal in seven games with Poole Town and one goal in five matches at Weston-super-Mare, he made his first League appearances as a seventy-seventh-minute substitute for Byron Moore in a 1-1 draw with Blackburn Rovers. At Norderstedt he was limited to 0(+3) appearances in the Regionalliga Nord, making his début for the final twenty minutes of a 2-0 victory over VfB Lübeck in February 2019. He scored the final goal as Hildesheim beat Lupo-Martini Wolfsburg 4-0 in December 2019 and added a thirty-third-minute goal in a 2-1 home victory over Atlas Delmenhorst in October 2021. Hildesheim lost to SV Meppen in the semi-final of the 2022 Lower Saxony Cup. |
No 548. Dennis Lincoln Bailey. 1988-89 and 1990-91.
Born, 13.11.1965, Lambeth. 5’ 10”; 11 st 6 lbs. Début: 1.3.89 v Reading. Career: Tulse Comprehensive School; 1982 Watford (schoolboy); 1984 Barking; 8.11.86 Fulham; February 1987 Farnborough Town; 2.12.87 Crystal Palace (£10,000) [0+5,1]; 28.2.89 Bristol Rovers (loan); 3.8.89 Birmingham City (£80,000) [65+10,23]; 27.3.91 Bristol Rovers (loan) [23,10]; 2.7.91 Queen’s Park Rangers (£175,000) [33+7,10]; 2.10.93 Charlton Athletic (loan); 24.3.94 Watford (loan) [2+6,4]; 26.1.95 Brentford (loan) [6,3]; 14.8.95 Gillingham (£25,000) [63+25,11]; 26.3.98 Lincoln City [1+4,0]; July 1998 Hereford United (trial); July 1998 Cambridge City (trial); August 1998 Farnborough Town; 17.3.99 Cheltenham Town (£15,000); 3.8.99 Forest Green Rovers (£15,000); 26.1.01 Aberystwyth Town (free); 1.8.01 Tamworth; 27.12.01 Halesowen Town; 14.8.02 Stafford Rangers; 2.9.03 Moor Green (free); 6.9.04 Stratford Town (free) (to November 2006). Undefeated at home, Wolves were running away with the Third Division championship, but came unstuck at home to Rovers over Easter 1989, when loan striker Dennis Bailey turned quickly and fired home five minutes before half-time for the only goal of the game at Molineux. Bailey scored in each of his first four League games for Rovers, making such an impression that he was recalled for a second loan spell two years later, scoring against Middlesbrough. Nationally, Bailey is renowned as the last opponent to register a League hat-trick at Old Trafford, his three right-footed shots, “definitely the highlight of my career”, giving QPR a 4-1 victory away to Manchester United, televised live on New Year’s Day 1992. Having previously top-scored at Birmingham City, for whom he played against Rovers during the 1989-90 campaign, he also scored on his début for Gerry Francis’ Rangers side against Arsenal and opposed Rovers in the QPR reserve side in August 1993. Two goals in the final four minutes of his Brentford début were part of the six registered in 25 minutes as the Bees defeated Cambridge United 6-0 and he added a début goal for Tony Pulis’ Gillingham, in a 3-0 win at Lincoln in August 1995. Playing for the Gills against Rovers, and scoring in a League Cup-tie at Twerton Park, he helped Gillingham to promotion to Division Two in 1995-96 and top-scored for their reserve side the following campaign. A Lincoln team-mate of Paul Miller, Bailey top-scored for Farnborough in 1998-99 and contributed sixteen goals in 46 matches during his two spells at that club, before adding 7(+1) games and two goals at Cheltenham, as well as helping the Robins defeat Gloucester City in the Gloucestershire Senior Cup Final of 1999. Nine goals in 47(+13) games for Forest Green included a hat-trick, after 26, 39 and 67 minutes against Telford in February 2000 and he opened the scoring after eight minutes as Forest Green defeated his former club Cheltenham in the 2000 Gloucestershire Senior Cup Final. Bailey, who added twelve goals in thirty games for Stafford, seven in two appearances with Tamworth and three in 24 fixtures with Moor Green, as well as scoring three times as Halesowen secured the Doctor Martens League Western Division title in 2001-02, is divorced with two daughters, Adina and Ashleigh; a keen member of “Christians in Sport”, he runs the “Sports Pursuits” charity based through his church, the Renewal Christian Centre in Solihull. |
No 483. Steven John Bailey. 1981-82.
Born, 12.3.1964, Knowle West, Bristol. 6’; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 9.2.82 v Exeter City. Career: Eagle House Boys’ Club; 1.7.80 Bristol Rovers (professional, 12.3.82) [15+1,1]; 9.12.83 Paulton Rovers; 1984 Bath City; Wessex Glass; St Phillips Marsh Adult School; Bristol Spartak; August 1993 Allmass. Unwittingly, midfielder Steve Bailey caused Rovers to be deducted two points, for he was an unregistered player at the time of his League bow. Innocent in all this, the youngster who had been talent-spotted by Gordon Bennett more than made up by scoring a last-minute winning goal against Walsall in April 1982, a header from David Williams’ cross and was a popular addition to the side. Goals for the reserves at Highbury and Upton Park gave promise for a successful 1982-83 season. “It was all going so well”, Bailey mused. “Then, in a pre-season training friendly at Almondsbury, my knee just gave out and it was all over”. Given a testimonial against Coventry City in November 1983 Bailey, a keen cyclist, later played briefly at Paulton Rovers as a centre-forward and captained Allmass, for whom he was an Evening Post Football winner for one performance in May 1996. Living in Lower Dundry, Steve Bailey worked as a landscape gardener, roofer and printer before accepting job in 2010 at the packaging company DS Smith at Portbury Docks. Twice married, he has three children from his first marriage and a daughter with his second wife, Hayley. |
No 282. Clifford Henry Baker. 1946-47.
Born, 11.1.1924, Bristol. Died, 14.12.2010, Bristol. 5’ 8½”; 10 st. Début: 28.12.46 v Reading. Career: Ashley Down School; Coalpit Heath; 12.11.46 Bristol Rovers (professional, 13.1.47) [5,2]; 2.8.48 Swindon Town (trial); 9.8.48 Bath City (released, 14.5.49). “Fast and tricky”, Cliff Baker had played rugby at Ashley Down School, winning local trophies but, on his return from time in the Royal Air Force, replaced Vic Lambden for five League encounters, scoring in successive weeks against Crystal Palace and Aldershot. He had previously won the Bristol and District League First Division with Coalpit Heath in 1945-46 and was paid the princely sum of £2 per match with Rovers. Baker lived to the age of eighty-six. The elder of two sons to Henry Baker and Lilian Edwards, Clifford joined Bath City on the same day as his brother Dennis, three years his junior. He married Hazel Cook in Bristol in 1944, Hazel being the daughter of Thomas Cook and Gladys Emily Eastment (1904-1961) and they had three children, Colin, Roger and Susan. Hazel’s brother John Cook, Cliff Baker’s brother-in-law, also played for Rovers in the Football League. |
No 367. Thomas Arthur Baker. 1962-63.
Born, 9.8.1939, Charlton, London. 5’ 9”; 10 st 8 lbs. Début: 1.9.62 v Wrexham. Career: October 1956 Bristol Rovers [1,0]; 19.1.63 Dover (trial); 2.3.63 Dover; June 1964 Ashford Town (released, May 1965). Having made his début for Rovers’ Colts at outside-left against Dorchester Town in October 1956, wing-half Tom Baker waited longer than most for his League bow. When it came, Rovers lost 5-2 at Wrexham and, although he later defied cartilage problems to score eleven times in fourteen reserve appearances, he never returned to League action. He is also known to have scored the final goal when Rovers defeated Plymouth Argyle 4-0 in the FA Youth Cup in December 1956. Signed for Dover by the former Bristol City manager Pat Beasley (1913-86), he scored nineteen times in 42 Southern League matches before adding fifteen goals in 35 games in all competitions at Ashford. Later living in Orpington, Tom Baker worked for the Standard Telephone Company. |
No 936. (Timmy) Jason Timiebi Ogheneobruceme Bakumo-Abraham. 2019-2020.
Born, 28.12.2000, Camberwell. 6’ 1”; 12 st 2 lbs. Début: 8.2.20 v Wycombe Wanderers. Career: 2011 Charlton Athletic; 22.4.17 Fulham (trial); 26.5.17 Fulham (professional, 31.12.17); 30.1.20 Bristol Rovers (loan) [0+4,0]; 16.10.20 Plymouth Argyle (loan) [1+2,0]; 29.1.21 Raith Rovers (loan) [2+5,0]; 13.7.21 Cheltenham Town (trial); 28.7.21 Newport County (loan) [3+9,0]; 6.7.22 Walsall (trial); 26.7.22 Walsall (free). As transfer deadline day approached, Rovers’ manager Ben Garner obtained the services of fast, direct striker Timmy Abraham from Championship side Fulham. Younger brother of Tammy Abraham, who had played for Bristol City before winning full England caps, Timmy was a fellow front man but could also play out wide. Born in London of Nigerian heritage, his father being Anthony Oghenetega Tamaraebi Bakumo from Bayelsa State and his mother Marian Abraham, he had first played for Charlton’s Under-18 side in a 2-2 draw with Norwich City and scored against Bristol City, Cardiff City and Watford. At Craven Cottage, he had scored twice in 6(+4) Under-18 Premier League matches, both his goals coming in a 3-0 win against Brighton in September 2017, and he also scored in a cup match against Aston Villa. Progressing to the Under-23 side, he managed 2(+5) goalless League appearances and scored in a cup-tie against Reading in February 2019. The Football League Trophy afforded Abraham his initial taste of first-team action, playing in 2(+1) games in the autumn of 2018 away to Oxford, Wycombe and Northampton, but it was with Rovers that he first appeared in the Football League. Playing alongside Joe Day, James Clarke, Dom Telford and Ed Upson at Newport, he was in the side which won 3-1 against Rovers at The Mem in October 2021. |
No 268. Douglas Wilson Baldie. 1946-48.
Born, 16.4.1921, Scone, Perth and Kinross. Died, 10.11.1998, Bristol. 5’ 5½”; 10 st 4 lbs. Début: 28.9.46 v Bristol City. Career: Luton Town; 1.11.45 Bristol Rovers (professional, 2.4.46) [8,4]; 17.7.48 Crystal Palace (trial); 20.8.48 Chippenham United; August 1952 Minehead. Following Royal Air Force service, Scotsman “Sam” Baldie played four times, scoring twice for Rovers in the unofficial 1945-46 season and made his League bow in the cauldron of a local derby. He scored both goals as Rovers won 2-1 at Brighton in April 1947 and added the winning goals in home fixtures against Exeter City and Southend United. Against Brighton in April 1946, a wartime game in which he scored Rovers’ second goal in a 3-1 victory, he was “the best forward on the field”, according to the Western Daily Press. In 1946, whilst resident at 71 Knighton Road, Southmead, he married Amelia Atkins (1926-90), a twenty-year-old Wantage girl and they had two sons and four daughters. Sam and Amelia lived in Southmead for many years and he went into joint business with his former Chippenham Town team-mate Tom Cunningham, who had been on the books of Bristol City. |
No 947. Jack Baldwin. 2020-21.
Born, 30.6.1993, Barking. 6’ 1”; 11 st 1 lb. Début: 3.10.20 v Northampton Town. Career: Eastbury Comprehensive School; 2010 Faversham Town; 4.7.11 Gillingham (trial); 17.7.11 Hartlepool United (trial); 1.8.11 Hartlepool United (free) [70+7,4]; 31.1.14 Peterborough United (£500,000) [97+3,4]; 28.7.18 Sunderland (free) [34,3]; 2.9.19 Salford City (loan) [10+3,1]; 20.7.20 Bristol Rovers (free) [34+7,1]; 25.8.21 Ross County (free) [27+3,2]. Central defender Jack Baldwin arrived at The Mem with a reputation as a versatile and dedicated player, “a young Alan Hansen” (Neale Cooper, manager at Hartlepool). He played in a League Cup defeat at Ipswich Town prior to making his League bow with the Gas and marked his League début with a goal, firing in Rovers’ second at home to Northampton Town, right-footed, after a corner had been headed on to him by defensive partner Cian Harries; in his second game, he conceded an own goal against Lincoln City at Sincil Bank. Rovers endured a tough 2020-21 campaign and were relegated to League Two. Married to Victoria and with two children, Gracie and Alfie, he had eschewed the opportunity to study Sports Therapy at Kent University in favour of a professional career as a sportsman. A League début in Hartlepool’s 1-0 defeat at home to Colchester United in December 2011 was followed by two goals in four days in January 2013, against Bournemouth and Portsmouth, and two goals during the 2013-14 FA Cup campaign, against Notts County and Coventry City. Baldwin commanded a transfer fee to join a forward-thinking Posh side where, despite conceding a penalty in his first game, he helped his new team to the 2013-14 League One play-offs. The following season, a knee injury against Rochdale was followed by a red card at Crewe before further knee issues, suffered in a game against Scunthorpe, led to a ten-month spell out of the game. Baldwin, to his credit, returned stronger and was appointed club captain at Peterborough as well as being named the club’s 2015 Community Champion. After receiving six red cards in his time at Posh, he moved back to the north-east to sign for Sunderland. The Black Cats’ woes were well-documented in the television series “Sunderland ‘til I die”, which featured a number of interviews with Baldwin and his family. His first goal for the Rokerites came in the 2-1 victory over Bradford City in October 2018, but the club was unable to gain promotion from third-tier football and lost at Wembley in the March 2019 Football League Trophy Final, where Lee Brown converted one of Portsmouth’s winning penalties. Having played in the astonishing 5-4 home defeat to Coventry City in April 2019, he was loaned to Salford City in their inaugural season in the Football League, scoring in the home fixture with Northampton Town in January 2020. Jack Baldwin, who had taken part in a 120-mile charity cycle in 2014 to raise money for and awareness of a children’s charity, was well-known to Rovers’ supporters prior to his arrival, as he had played against the club in three League fixtures with Peterborough and one, in December 2018, for Sunderland. However, he was made a scapegoat amidst Rovers’ poor start to the 2021-22 League Two campaign, being substituted at half-time at Exeter, as Rovers trailed by four goals, and joining Ross County within days, scoring for the Dingwall side against Celtic before the calendar year was out. |
No 782. Michael Patrick Baldwin. 2009-10.
Born, 12.11.1982, London. 6’; 12 st 7 lbs. Début: 21.11.09 v Gillingham. Career: 1.8.01 Chelsea; 31.8.02 Colchester United (free) [182+27,1]; 6.12.03 St Albans City (loan); 20.11.09 Bristol Rovers (loan) [6,0]; 29.1.10 Southend United (loan); 30.1.12 Southend United (free) [2,0]; 16.3.12 Exeter City (loan); 22.7.12 Exeter City (free) [80+2,1]; 4.6.15 Weymouth (free; retired 26.4.16); 28.8.16 Beer Albion (free). Powerful central defender Pat Baldwin, a former Chelsea trainee who played three times on loan at St Albans, enjoyed many years with Colchester and scored in their 3-0 victory over his future club Southend in November 2006. Player of the Year at Layer Road in 2004-05, as the club was promoted to the Championship, Baldwin played against Rovers in January 2009, picked up red cards against Palace and Brighton and appeared in the extraordinary games against Norwich in 2009-10, when United won 7-1 at Carrow Road on the opening day of the campaign and then lost 5-0 at home in January. Having conceded an own goal after 95 minutes on his final appearance for Rovers, Baldwin then scored a final-minute equaliser against Swindon on his Southend début and scored for Exeter at Rochdale in December 2012. He suffered relegation at both Southend and Exeter, for whom he played against Rovers in both fixtures of the 2012-13 season and again on the opening day of the 2013-14 campaign. Pat Baldwin, who bizarrely escaped unhurt from two traffic collisions on the same day in 2002, took part in the 2009 Three Peaks Challenge, raising £700 for the Teenage Cancer Trust. He graduated in 2015 from Staffordshire University with a degree in Sports Journalism and later completed his PGCE at Exeter University. Married to a graphic designer, Pat Baldwin began to train as a primary school teacher in the autumn of 2015, combining this with a regular berth at the heart of Weymouth’s defence, where he played in 31(+1) Southern League fixtures without scoring. He played in the Dorset Senior Cup Final of April 2016, in which Weymouth defeated Gillingham Town 2-1, before retiring to work full-time in the teaching profession, living in Beer. |
No 492. Alan James Ball. 1982-83.
Born, 12.5.1945, Farnworth, Lancashire. Died, 25.4.2007, Warsash, Hampshire. 5’ 6”; 10 st 5 lbs. Début: 29.1.83 v Chesterfield. Career: St Peter’s Church of England School; Oswestry Boys’ High School; Farnworth Grammar School; 1959 Wolverhampton Wanderers (amateur); 25.8.60 Ashton United; September 1960 Bolton Wanderers (amateur); September 1961 Blackpool (professional, May 1962); 15.8.66 Everton (£115,000) [208,66]; 22.12.71 Arsenal (£220,000) [177,45]; 23.12.76 Southampton (£60,000); March 1978 Philadelphia Fury [25,5]; June 1979 Vancouver Whitecaps [31,10]; 18.7.80 Blackpool (player-manager) [146,46]; 3.3.81 Southampton [195,11]; July 1982 Floreat Athena [3,2]; November 1982 Eastern Athletic; 26.1.83 Bristol Rovers [17,2]; 17.5.83 Minehead (coach); August 1983 Portsmouth (coach; acting manager, 11.5.84; manager, 5.6.84; coach, July 1988); 18.1.89 Colchester United (first-team coach); 7.11.89 Stoke City (caretaker manager; manager, 23.11.89); 6.8.91 Exeter City (manager); 20.1.94 Southampton (manager); 3.7.95 Manchester City (manager); 24.1.98 Portsmouth (manager) (to 9.12.99). One glorious July afternoon in 1966 at Wembley, England became world champions for the only time, defeating West Germany 4-2 after extra time in the World Cup Final. Distinctive for his diminutive stature, mop of orange hair and squeaky voice, midfield dynamo Alan Ball ran the show with his socks around his ankles, creating chances and showing apparently boundless energy levels. “Ball, the effervescent, the irresistible [was] unbelievably everywhere, like a wasp”, commented the Times correspondent. “La Suisse”, the Geneva-based newspaper, picked out Ball as clearly the best player on the field. “Covering every inch of the right side of the Wembley pitch like the fire from a flamethrower” (Norman Giller), Ball created the second and third England goals. He remains, unsurprisingly, the only man to play for Rovers in the Football League and win a World Cup winner’s medal. Born in Brookhouse Avenue, Farnworth at the home of his grandfather, Norman Duckworth (1902-79), where a blue plaque today marks the spot, Alan Ball was the elder child of Alan Ball senior (1924-1982), a former joiner and publican who had played in the League with Southport, Oldham and Rochdale, and Val Duckworth (1924-90) Brought up in Walkden, Lancashire with his younger sister Carol, he scored once in seven games with Ashton United, a side managed at that time by his father. Famously rejected as a schoolboy by Bolton coach Bill Ridding (1911-81) on account of being too short to make a professional footballer, he made his Blackpool début in a 2-1 win at Anfield in August 1962, aged just seventeen years 98 days, a club record which has since been surpassed. Ball’s club form for Blackpool, which included a hat-trick against Fulham in November 1964, earned him eight caps for England Under-23 and a full England début against Yugoslavia in May 1965. The central midfielder was to enjoy an astonishing career, winning 72 caps, a World Cup winner’s medal, and a League championship medal with Everton in 1969-70, as well as playing in two FA Cup finals and one League Cup final and commanding a British transfer record fee when he joined Arsenal. He also represented the Football League and was England’s captain when they defeated Scotland 5-1 at Wembley in May 1975; “World Cup or no World Cup, to be captain on the day we beat Scotland 5-1 must be the highlight of his career”, responded Don Revie (1927-89). Although he never won an FA Cup winner’s medal, he three times joined the Cup holders, Everton in 1966 to become part of the Merseyside scene at that celebrated period in history, Arsenal in 1971 and Southampton in 1976. His own FA Cup experience encompassed the 1968 final when “Ball, the outstanding player of the match, ran his heart out, covering every blade of grass, taking control of the central no-man’s land, …. riding every hard tackle with courage and a fine balance” (The Times), Everton losing to West Brom’s Jeff Astle’s (1942-2002) 93rd-minute goal, and the final of four years later when Ball received a yellow card in a 1-0 defeat to Leeds. He also scored in the 1971 semi-final as Everton lost 2-1 to their Merseyside rivals. On the international stage, Ball was the youngest member of England’s victorious 1966 side and of his 72 caps, six were as captain; he scored eight times, one a penalty although he also missed a penalty against Finland in 1966, and he hit the bar during the famous 1-0 defeat against Brazil in the 1970 World Cup Finals. Ball was also the first man to be sent off twice in England’s colours, a record subsequently equalled by David Beckham and Wayne Rooney, once for the Under-23 side in Vienna in 1965 and for grabbing the throat of Poland’s Lesław Ćmikiewicz in a 1973 fixture which went some way towards England’s eventual failure to qualify for the 1974 finals. On a club level, Ball scored a European Cup hat-trick when Everton played Keflavik in September 1970. Sent off for Arsenal against Sheffield United in October 1972, he scored a brilliant headed goal against Manchester United at Highbury in January 1973 and he was the Gunners’ top scorer and Player of the Year in 1973-74, earning selection to the annual Rothman’s Golden Boot XI that campaign. According to Liam Brady, Ball was “one of Arsenal’s greatest players of all time”. Promoted to top-flight football before losing the 1979 League Cup Final to Larry Lloyd’s Forest with Saints, he then managed Pompey to the top division, coached the England B side and, although Premier League Manager of the Month for November 1995, suffered relegation that campaign with Manchester City. “I’m not a believer in luck … but I do believe you need it”, he is quoted as saying. Blessed with a bubbly character and infectious sense of humour, Ball was the first player to appear one hundred times in the League for four different clubs and tried his arm abroad, scoring twice in Vancouver’s 3-1 home victory over Seattle Sounders in July 1979 and being voted Man of the Match in the 1979 Soccer Bowl Final against Tampa Bay Rowdies, before joining Rovers from Hong Kong football. Alan Ball added a distinctive touch of class and experience to Rovers’ midfield, scoring in the home games against Plymouth and Huddersfield, the latter being a delightful long-range effort following a left-wing throw-in, the final goal registered in League football by any member of the England side from that glorious afternoon in 1966. Resplendent in his car, AB333, to reflect the three hat-tricks in his first-class career, Alan Ball was not only the last of the World Cup Final side to play international football, he was also the last one to appear in the League and also in management. In 1985 he ran the London Marathon. Ball’s long career enabled him to profit through three autobiographies, “Ball of Fire” (1967), “It’s All about a Ball” (1978) and “Alan Ball: Playing Extra-Time” (2004). Retiring from the game, he suffered a heart attack whilst putting out a bonfire at his Warsash home and, the second member of the 1966 side to die, after Bobby Moore’s death in 1993, his funeral at Winchester Cathedral attracted many of his former colleagues, Gordon Banks (1937-2019), Geoff Hurst and the Charlton brothers being present as Canon Michael St.John-Channell (1953-2014) led the singing of “Jerusalem”. Alan Ball married Lesley Newton, whose death aged fifty-seven after thirty-six years of marriage in May 2004, shortly after the birth of their third grandchild, was a devastating blow to him; they had three children, Jimmy Ball, who played for Petersfield Town and Winchester City before managing Forset Green Rovers, Mandy Byrne and Keely Allen, for whose upkeep he had sold his World Cup winner’s medal and cap for £140,000 in May 2005. |
No 136. Christopher George Ball. 1930-31.
Born, 31.10.1906, Leek. Died, 1.2.1987, Great Barr, Birmingham. 5’ 8½”; 11 st 2 lbs. Début: 30.8.30 v Northampton Town. Career: Leek St Luke’s; May 1925 Coventry City (professional, August 1925) [10,0]; June 1929 Colwyn Bay United; 1.7.30 Bristol Rovers (£10) [15,0]; 4.12.31 Bristol City [3,0]; February 1932 Walsall [112,21]; 1935 Colwyn Bay United; September 1935 Cradley Heath; 1936 Brierley Hill Alliance. Precious few players transfer directly between the Bristol clubs or represent both in League football, but Chris Ball can lay claim to both achievements. A “ferocious tackler” in midfield, Ball was in the same Coventry side as Norman Dinsdale, another Rovers player, whilst his season with Rovers was dogged by an arthritic left knee. The eldest child of George Ball and Georgina Ford Taylor, a Congleton braid tiller, he played for Rovers in consecutive weeks against two of his other clubs, Coventry and Walsall, and scored his only goal for the club in the FA Cup against Stockport County in December 1930. After City lost all three games in which he played, he found his niche at Fellows Park, becoming a regular in the Walsall side and starring in their infamous 2-0 FA Cup win over Arsenal in January 1933, in which he contributed one of the goals. Showing “fine speed and the utmost enthusiasm”, his exciting play led to the opening goal from close in, early in the second-half, as the Saddlers produced what has been described as the biggest cup shock of the 1930s. He also played in the 1935 Third Division (North) Cup Final, which Walsall lost 2-0 to Stockport County. Quite bizarrely, Ball was twice sent off, in March 1932 and March 1933, on both occasions by referee Bert Mee in matches against Crewe Alexandra. Chris Ball married Ethel Smith in Walsall in the spring of 1937. |
No 26. John Ball. 1921-22.
Born, 29.9.1900, Marple, Stockport. Died, December, 1989, Coventry. 5’ 9”; 12 st 7 lbs. Début: 17.9.21 v Charlton Athletic. Career: Silverwood Colliery, Rotherham; November 1918 Sheffield United (trial); 6.5.19 Sheffield United (£10) [6,0]; 12.5.21 Bristol Rovers (with Sam Furniss) [22,4]; September 1922 Wath Athletic; May 1923 Bury (£350) [204,93]; 21.3.29 West Ham United [15,9]; May 1930 Coventry City [22,4]; September 1931 Stourbridge; August 1932 Hinckley United; 1933 Atherstone Town; 21.10.35 Coventry Gas FC. When Ted Hufton (1892-1967), England’s goalkeeper, broke his right arm in a collision with Bury’s Jimmy Chambers (1897-1977) in October 1927, during the 2-0 defeat at the hands of Northern Ireland in Belfast, another Bury player, Jack Ball, played the entire second-half in goal. This was to prove the only international cap for this inside-forward who, after a stop-start career following a goal on his wartime Sheffield United début against Grimsby Town in November 1918, finally blossomed on his arrival at Gigg Lane in 1923. Bury were a force to be reckoned with in English football and, as top scorer in four consecutive seasons, Ball’s goals propelled The Shakers up to Division One and into contention for major honours; the Shakers enjoyed three top-five finishes during Ball’s time at the club. Playing under manager Percy Smith, who also managed Rovers in his career, he scored a hat-trick in the 3-3 First Division draw with Bolton Wanderers in September 1924, whilst his two penalties in October 1927 earned a 5-3 win at home to Sunderland which sent Bury temporarily to the top of the league. As one contemporary reporter noted, “his power and thrust produced many goals”. He also scored once as Bury won the Lancashire Cup Final in 1925-26, defeating Accrington Stanley 5-2. He remains Bury’s eighth highest Football League scorer of all time. Later in his career, he scored twice each in Hammers games against Middlesbrough and Newcastle and he was one of the scorers as Coventry demolished Thames 7-1 in a Third Division (South) match in September 1930. With Jesse Whatley saving Arthur Whalley’s (1886-1952) penalty on Ball’s Rovers début, the future England forward was unable to find his true form with Rovers, goals coming against Northampton Town, QPR, Brentford and Brighton. Jack Ball, not to be confused with his namesake (1907-76), who played at a similar time for Manchester United and Sheffield Wednesday, was born at home in High Lane, Marple, the youngest of ten children and the sixth son to a Welsh railway labourer George Ball and his Kent-born wife Phoebe Ann Stewart, who had married in 1883 in Yorkshire. He married Annie Clarke in Rotherham in 1924, when his address was given as 27 Doncaster Road, Rotherham, and worked as an aero department inspector. |
No 260. (Harry) Charles Henry Bamford. 1946-58.
Born, 8.2.1920, Bristol. Died, 31.10.1958, Bristol. 5’ 11½”; 12 st 7 lbs. Début: 31.8.46 v Reading. Career: St Silas School; Bristol Boys; 1936 St George’s Brewery; Bristol City (trial); 7.4.39 Ipswich Town (amateur); St Phillips Marsh Adult School; 13.12.45 Bristol Rovers [486,5] (to 1958). The importance of Harry Bamford as a man and as a footballer was perfectly summarised by Rovers’ manager Bert Tann at Bamford’s memorial service at St Mary Redcliffe Church, when he commented that “a part of Bristol Rovers died with him”. Harry Bamford’s influence on the spirit and performance of Rovers sides during the halcyon days of the 1920s was an essential ingredient in the success enjoyed. The eldest of three sons to Henry John Bamford (1891-1970) and Daisy May Bartlett (1892-1986), who married in Bristol at the onset of World War One and lived in Moor Street, he scored thirteen goals in one school match against Emmanuel School, appeared in Bristol City’s Western League side as a teenager and played in three consecutive seasons for Bristol Boys. Described as a shy but perfect gentleman and sportsman, he was an inside-forward who, after three-and-a-half wartime years in Burma and India with the First Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, was converted into a cultured and reliable full-back. Popular with his team-mates and a huge favourite with the supporters, Bamford once dribbled the ball into his own net against Exeter City in March 1948, rather than lose possession. He was known for his steady reliable defensive work and for “pattern-weaving his way upfield”, as the contemporary local press noted. As his reputation grew, he was selected to tour Australia with the Football Association in 1951, playing in the unofficial 17-0 win against Australia in June of that year, and contrived to score three goals on that tour; goal-scoring was not his forte, although he did score against Fulham in August 1953 in Rovers’ first ever game in Division Two. His first goal for the side had been the result of a thirty-yard solo run ten minutes from the end of a comfortable home victory over Ipswich Town the previous March. One of six ever-presents in Rovers’ Third Division (South) championship side of 1952-53, he was one of many Bristol-born players who represented the side for long careers during this successful period. On 22nd May 1954 at St Mary Redcliffe, he married Lilian Violet Holvey (1924-2006), the second of three daughters to Albert Edward Holvey (1893-1964) and Violet Gertrude Beake (1894-1965); she was the widow of Harry’s close friend Harry Boon (1921-51), who had allegedly told Violet during his illness: “that Harry Bamford, now he’s a nice chap”. Despite hitting the veteran stage of his career, the responsible full-back was an ever-present in 1955-56 and 1957-58 and continued to enjoy his passions of pigeon-racing and motor-cycling. The latter, sadly, played a rôle in Bamford’s tragically early death for, heading off for an afternoon coaching session with schoolboys at Clark’s Grammar School in Clifton, he was involved in a collision with a lorry on the corner of Apsley Road and died three days later of his injuries sustained. Just thirty-eight years old, he left a pregnant widow, his second daughter Julie (1958-75) being born that December. A testimonial game drew a crowd of 28,347 to Eastville to see a combined Rovers/City XI defeat Arsenal 5-4. Bamford’s footballing career was honoured with the annual award of a memorial trophy to commemorate sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct on the field, presented by his wife Violet, this memorial being a true reflection of the heritage left behind by undeniably one of the most gifted players to have worn the blue-and-white quartered shirt of Bristol Rovers. The Harry Bamford Trophy, lost for forty years, was recovered in 2014 and presented by Harry’s surviving daughter, Hilary Lewis, to the son of Doug Hillard, the nominal winner for 1974. |
No 179. Edward William Bann. 1932-33.
Born, 15.8.1902, Broxburn. Died, 16.3.1973, Haringey. 5’ 10½”; 11 st 12 lbs. Début: 19.11.32 v Newport County. Career: Winchburgh Thistle; 3.8.22 Broxburn United [2,0]; February 1923 Tottenham Hotspur [12,0]; 22.5.30 Brentford [7,0]; 4.6.32 Bristol Rovers [1,0]; September 1933 Aldershot [7,0]; August 1934 Northfleet United. If right-back Bill Bann’s career at Rovers was brief, it was only marginally longer elsewhere. Having featured in the Broxburn United side which finished the 1922-23 season in eighth place in the Scottish Second Division (he appeared in draws at Bathgate and at home to Cowdenbeath), he made eight appearances for Spurs in Division One in 1925-26. His Brentford début came in their 4-0 victory over Rovers in September 1930, after which he helped their reserve side secure the 1931-32 London Combination title and played regularly for Rovers’ reserve team, where he “revealed sterling defensive qualities”. A rare appearance for Aldershot culminated in a 9-2 defeat at Orient in February 1934. Bill Bann married Lily Jenkins (1900-64) in Edmonton in the spring of 1928 and they had three sons, James, Anthony and Harold, as well as a daughter, Margaret. |
No 414. Bruce Ian Bannister. 1971-77.
Born, 14.4.1947, Bradford. 5’ 7½”; 11 st 5 lbs. Début: 9.11.71 v Rotherham United. Career: Grange Grammar school; Bradford Boys; Yorkshire Boys; Leeds United (amateur); June 1963 Bradford City (professional, August 1965) [199+9,60]; 5.11.71 Bristol Rovers (£23,000) [202+4,80]; 16.12.76 Plymouth Argyle (£10,000 plus Jimmy Hamilton) [24,7]; June 1977 Hull City (£15,000) [79+6,20]; July 1980 Union Sportive Dunkerque (to 1982). Brian Clough’s (1935-2004) early management years were marked by one spectacular defeat, as Bristol Rovers scored eight times at the Goldstone Ground to defeat Brighton in December 1973, with Alan Warboys and Bruce Bannister scoring seven of these goals. The younger of two sons to Edwin Bannister (son of William Bannister and Lily Feather) and Edith Kite, babies of the First World War who had married in Bradford as storm clouds gathered across Europe in 1939, Bannister had been selected to play for England Schools but missed the game through illness and became, at Mansfield in January 1971, the first Bradford City player since 1914 to score four times in an away League match. Rovers’ club record signing, he had appeared at Eastville before, as a member of the side defeated 7-1 in 1971, but he swiftly showed the goal-scoring form upon which his fame is derived and built up an astonishing rapport with fellow striker Warboys. Four times Rovers’ seasonal top scorer, Bannister was a Watney Cup winner with Rovers in 1973 and scored two penalties in a game the previous year against Blackburn Rovers. However, during the 1973-74 campaign, “Smash and Grab”, as the attacking pair became known nationally, came to the fore, Bannister’s eighteen goals, including his hat-trick at Brighton, helping Rovers on a 32-match unbeaten League run which led to promotion to Division Two in April 1974. The goals at Brighton came from a header and two close range finishes, all before half-time as Rovers raced to a 5-1 lead at the interval. He also missed one penalty and scored another as Bournemouth were defeated 3-0 the following month. To many people of a certain generation, these are the two names which come to mind the moment Rovers’ name is mentioned. An astute penalty taker and a forward who clearly enjoyed playing, he was busy, brave and, despite his stature, alarmingly effective. Sent off at York in March 1974 for elbowing Chris Topping nine minutes from time, Bannister then set about trying to secure Rovers’ status in second-tier English football. In January 1976 he became the earliest substitute used by Rovers in the League, replacing Gordon Fearnley in the first minute of a 1-0 win against Fulham and, characteristically, scoring the only goal of the game. His later career took in relegation with Hull and a spell in French football. A leading figure on the Professional Footballers’ Association national union committee for a decade, Bannister became a sports shoe manufacturer in Bradford, developing his company into one of Europe’s largest sports shoe outlets, and passed a management degree as well as qualifying as a Football Association coach. Still a popular figure on his frequent returns to watch Rovers, he is married to Janet Corlett and their children, Brett and Victoria, are amongst over fifty people employed in his company. |
No 495. Paul Anthony Bannon. 1983-85.
Born, 15.11.1956, Dublin. Died, 15.2.2016, Cork. 6’ 2”; 11 st 2 lbs. Début: 11.2.84 v Orient. Career: June 1975 Nottingham Forest; July 1977 Corby Town; April 1978 Corby O’Rahilly’s; July 1978 Ammanford Town; September 1978 Bridgend Town; 10.2.79 Carlisle United (£8,500) [127+12,45]; October 1983 Darlington (loan) [2,0]; 26.1.84 Bristol Rovers (£8,000) [27+2,8]; 31.8.84 Cardiff City (loan) [3+1,0]; 7.11.84 Plymouth Argyle (loan) [0+2,0]; 5.7.85 NAC Breda (£8,000) [9,6]; July 1987 PAOK Thessalonikis [19+1,9]; July 1988 Larissa [11,3]; July 1989 Cork City [106,9]; July 1993 Cobh Ramblers [60,4] (to May 1995). Moustachioed striker Paul Bannon scored in three consecutive home games for Rovers in the spring of 1984 and added a hat-trick for the reserves against Swindon Town reserves that March. The son of Séamus Bannon, a senior inter-county hurler with Tipperary, and his wife Sally, he had come to England as a teenager in search of regular football. Unable to make the grade with Forest, he had enjoyed Gaelic football for O’Rahilly’s and scored eleven goals in 38 matches with Corby, where he was suspended by the club on more than one occasion. A team-mate of Peter Beardsley at Carlisle, his début came in a 2-1 defeat against Bury in February 1979 and he appeared in both games against Rovers in the 1981-82 season. He scored in three consecutive home fixtures in the spring of 1984 and a goal in the 1984 Gloucestershire Cup Final brought his overall tally with Rovers into double figures. Having left Eastville, Bannon played in Holland and Greece before returning to live in his native Ireland. Joint top scorer at Thessalonikis, as his club finished third in the table, his goal tally included a hat-trick in a 4-1 victory over Lavadiakos on Valentine’s Day 1988, before his transfer to champions Larissa. He later appeared for Cork City in the UEFA Cup, his appearances in this competition including an October 1991 fixture away to Bayern Munich. He scored the goal against St Patrick’s Athletic which took Cork to the 1992 FAI Cup Final which was lost 1-0 to Bohemians and, in his final appearance for City, added the goal which secured the 1992-93 League title. Playing local football until the age of forty-seven and coaching youngsters for seventeen years, Paul Bannon lived in County Cork with his wife Helen and their daughter Heather, but died suddenly at the age of fifty-nine. |
No 217. Henry Frank Barley. 1935-36.
Born, 2.1.1905, Winterton, Lincolnshire. Died, 1958, Winterton, Lincolnshire. 5’ 6½”; 10 st 12 lbs. Début: 7.9.35 v Bristol City. Career: Humber United (Grimsby); 12.8.29 Grimsby Town [5,0]; 27.5.31 Hull City [13,2]; 10.8.32 New Brighton [21,4]; 2.2.34 Notts County (£750) [11,1]; 3.8.34 Scunthorpe United; 10.5.35 Bristol Rovers [17,5]; 23.5.36 Barrow [40,8]; July 1937 Kidderminster Harriers; July 1938 Frickley Colliery; 1942-43 Bath City. A small but skilful winger with a venomous shot, Harry Barley was noted as the player whose long-range goal for New Brighton against Darlington in November 1933 broke the net and floored a ball boy standing twenty-five yards behind the goal. Barley had earlier suffered a broken leg whilst at Grimsby, but recovered to play in League football for six clubs. His career appearance tally would have been greater but for Hull’s game against Wigan Borough in September 1931 being expunged on their opponents’ resignation from the League and a season in Midland League football at Scunthorpe, in which he scored six goals in 33 matches. His Notts County goal came in a 2-1 defeat at Blackpool in February 1934. At New Brighton he scored a second-half hat-trick which helped defeat Mansfield Town in the FA Cup in November 1933, but also played in the humiliating 11-1 hammering at Wrexham in January 1934. This, though, paled into insignificance compared to the 12-0 defeat at Luton over Easter 1936, one of his seventeen League matches in a Rovers shirt. Barley scored a brace in the 3-0 home victory over Newport County in November 1935, all but one of his goals for Rovers coming at Eastville. He scored four Wartime League goals and one Wartime Cup goal for Bath City. The 1911 census shows young Barley, who was baptised at All Saints, Winterton on 1st February 1905, at Blankley House, Winterton, the home of his widowed maternal grandmother, Ellen Sawyer; a Joseph Barley, a waterman living in Winteringham Road, married Eleanor Jane Sawyer in 1904 and these were in all likelihood Harry’s parents and, after 1911, a further son and two daughters are recorded from this marriage. He appears to have been a witness at a friend’s wedding on 3rd August 1958, but to have died not many weeks later, aged just fifty-three. |
No 29. Kossuth Seed Barnes. 1921-22.
Born, 21.5.1892, Preston. Died, 12.10.1965, Sunderland. 5’ 9½”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 27.12.21 v Brighton. Career: August 1920 Durham City; 16.11.21 Bristol Rovers [17,0]; 1922 Houghton Rovers (Sunderland); 15.2.23 Accrington Stanley (trial) [2,0]; 1926 Ryhope Colliery. Lajos Kossuth (1802-94), a Hungarian revolutionary, was the source of the name of the youngest of five children born to a patternmaker James Thomas Barnes (1849-1930) and his wife Elizabeth Ellen Seed (1855-1927). Kossuth was brought up at 149 Haselock Street, Preston and, after his grandmother Caroline Seed (1820-1900) had died, the family moved to 26 Salisbury Street, Preston, where his three elder brothers took jobs in the cotton industry. Kossuth was baptised at St Matthew’s, Preston on 16th June 1892, served from 1916 in the Royal Navy under reference number J65329 and, with Durham City beating Preston North End to his signature, saved a penalty in their trials. One of three goalkeepers used in Rovers’ second Football League campaign, he saved a penalty from Tober Weston (1888-1966) of Swindon Town in February 1922 as well as one from Bristol City’s Jack Wren (1894-1948) in a reserve fixture the previous October. An even more bizarre incident occurred against Newport County when Jimmy Haydon, erroneously believing his goalkeeper to be injured, picked the ball up and conceded a penalty which County’s left-half Andrew Walker (1891-1964) contrived to miss. He “gave a good account of himself” in the match at Millwall in March 1922 and was also in goal when Rovers lost a friendly 6-1 at Coventry City two months earlier, Alick Mercer (1891-1977) scoring a hat-trick. Oddly, Barnes conceded nine goals in his two matches for Stanley, both against Barrow in Division Three (North). Kossuth Barnes married Elizabeth Ellen Dixon (1888-1971) in Sunderland in the autumn of 1915, and they had three children, Tom, Alan and Joyce. In 1930 Barnes, then of 3 Leechmere Road, Grangetown, Sunderland was discharged from court on an unproved charge of not having an efficient silencer on his motor-cycle. |
No 387. Victor Roy Barney. 1966-70.
Born, 18.11.1947, Oxford. 5’ 7”; 10 st 7 lbs. Début: 12.11.66 v Torquay United. Career: Oxford United; 1963 Bristol Rovers (professional, 6.12.65) [30+1,3]; 1970 Glastonbury; 14.7.72 Trowbridge Town; 1974 Bath City; Mangotsfield United; Yate Town (manager, until November 1993). Appearing alongside Ray Graydon, Larry Lloyd and Stuart Taylor in Rovers’ youth side, when he was responsible for cleaning the boots of Ian Hamilton, his childhood hero, Vic Barney appeared in Rovers’ side in four consecutive seasons, his most successful campaign being 1968-69 in which he scored in the home fixtures with Brighton, Barnsley and Northampton. He also played in front of 55,000 at Goodison Park, when Rovers played eventual finalists Everton in an FA Cup fifth round tie in the spring of 1969. Prior to this, he scored for Rovers in the FA Youth Cup in November 1963, during a 3-3 draw with Plymouth Argyle at Eastville. His father, Vic Barney senior (1922-2006), the son of Vic Barney (1902-80) and Amelia Boddington, was a clever inside-left who had played for Bristol City, Reading and Grimsby Town before joining Napoli; Vic senior married Alma Barrett in 1943 and they had two sons, Duncan at Oxford City and Vic junior. Former Rovers players appeared to sign him wherever he went, as George Petherbridge took him to Glastonbury, where he appeared alongside Ronnie Briggs and Dave Stone, whilst he worked under Johnny Petts at Trowbridge (scoring three goals) and Doug Hillard at Mangotsfield. Despite missing a penalty for Trowbridge against Bath City on Boxing Day 1973, the opposition were encouraged to sign him for the 1974-75 season. Married to Julia Musson and with a son and a daughter and several grandchildren, Vic Barney worked for Rolls Royce for 29 years and then as a postman before taking up employment as a part-time pharmacy delivery driver for Alliance Unichem. |
No 87. Josiah Barratt. 1926-27.
Born, 21.2.1895, Bulkington, Warwickshire. Died, April, 1968, Coventry. 5’ 7”; 11 st 2 lbs. Début: 28.8.26 v Luton Town. Career: Bulkington; Newdigate Colliery; Daimler Athletic; Nuneaton Town; Royal Berkshire Regiment; December 1916 Leicester City; February 1917 Birmingham; March 1919 Southampton [52,5]; March 1922 Birmingham (joint deal with Fred Foxall) [30,1]; June 1923 Pontypridd; June 1924 Lincoln City [74,7]; 11.8.26 Bristol Rovers (exchange for Harold Armitage) [22,4]; 18.8.28 Nuneaton Town; 24.7.30 Coventry Colliery. An exciting, dashing forward, who always played with a piece of straw in his mouth, Joe Barratt scored in Southampton’s 4-0 victory over Rovers in November 1920 and won a Third Division (South) championship medal the following campaign. To his impressive tally at The Dell, you can add five goals in 41 Southern League matches in 1919-20 and he played in their first ever Football League fixture. Reaching the veteran stage of his career, he was a strong stabilising force in Rovers’ side, although he missed a penalty in the home game against Watford in December 1926. Rovers scored 78 League goals during Barratt’s campaign at Eastville, the experienced inside-forward scoring both the side’s goals in the 2-2 draw at Plymouth in November 1926, one of the five put past Southend United on Christmas Day and the only goal of the game when Norwich City visited Eastville in January 1927. Nuneaton were Birmingham Combination champions in 1928-29, finishing two points clear of Leamington Town and Barratt scored five goals in 55 Combination matches over two seasons, helping the side defeat Atherstone Town in the February 1929 Tamworth Charity Cup Final. A cricket trialist with Warwickshire, he ran the Coventry City youth side after World War Two. Joe Barratt was brought up at Sand Pit, Bulkington, the sixth of nine children to Eli Barratt (1861-1930) and Eliza Neale (1860-1941), a coal miner and ribbon maker respectively; he married Dorothy Beckett (1891-1968) in 1917 and they had two children, Harry (1918-90), who later played for Coventry City, and Joan, who married Vincent Rowe. |
No 688. Adam Nicholas Barrett. 2002-04.
Born, 29.11.1979, Dagenham. 5’ 10”; 12 st. Début: 10.8.02 v Torquay United. Career: Belfairs High School, Leigh-on-Sea; Orient (professional, 1.8.98); 19.2.99 Plymouth Argyle [47+5,3]; 1.12.00 Mansfield Town (£10,000) [34+3,1]; 1.7.02 Bristol Rovers (free) [90,5]; 14.6.04 Southend United (free); 6.7.10 Crystal Palace (free) [5,0]; 12.3.11 Orient [14,0]; 5.7.11 Bournemouth (free) [21,1]; 17.8.12 Gillingham (free) [88,3]; 7.8.14 AFC Wimbledon (loan) [23,1]; 15.1.15 Southend United (free) [304+4,31] (retired, 28.2.17); 10.3.17 Millwall (coach; 3.10.19-22.10.19 caretaker manager). There is a wave of feeling amongst Rovers supporters that Adam Barrett was one of the best defenders the club has had. Certainly, his track record around the lower leagues is exceptional and he has played consistently effectively for over a decade. Rovers’ captain, he led by example as the club struggled to find its footing in the basement division and scored the club’s first goal of the 2003-04 season with a thirteenth-minute header at Scunthorpe. Always at the heart of the action, he conceded own goals at Runcorn in the FA Cup in the autumn of 2002 and against Bury twelve months later and was sent off in the goalless draw at home to Rochdale in August 2003. Barrett joined Rovers after a brief scholarship spell in the States and, having not made the grade at Orient, he made his League bow in Argyle’s 5-0 win against Scunthorpe in March 1999 and scored Plymouth’s winning goal in April 2000 against high-flying Swansea City. Captain at Southend and playing alongside his former Rovers team-mate Ryan Clarke, he scored at The Mem in August 2004 and headed against his own bar against Rovers in October 2008. In addition, he played in the side which lost the 2005 LDV Vans Trophy Final 2-0 to Wrexham, captained his side against Chelsea in a 1-1 draw in the FA Cup in January 2009 and only left the Shrimpers after they were relegated to League Two in 2010. Selected for the PFA divisional team of the season in 2005-06, as Southend were League One champions, Barrett also played against Rovers for Plymouth, Mansfield, Southend and Gillingham, being sent off whilst playing for Plymouth and Southend. After his prodigious career in Essex, Adam Barrett was sent off in Bournemouth’s 3-1 defeat against Stevenage in August 2011, conceded an own goal against Sheffield United and scored at the correct end against Wednesday; he returned to haunt beleaguered Rovers in the Gillingham side which defeated the Pirates 4-0 in September 2012 and 2-0 at The Mem the following January en route to securing the League Two title. However, Barrett played as the Gills were knocked out of the FA Cup by unfancied Brackley Town in November 2013. He later appeared alongside Sean Rigg at Wimbledon playing in the televised FA Cup defeat against Liverpool in January 2015, and scored his solitary League goal for the club at Cheltenham in October 2014, although he also scored a Football League Trophy goal against his former club Southend United. Returning to Essex and named League Two Player of the Month for April 2015, Barrett played alongside Cian Bolger at the heart of the Shrimpers’ defence as they reached the League Two play-offs that spring; at Wembley in May 2015, Southend defeated Wycombe Wanderers on penalties to secure promotion to League One, Bolger and Barrett both successfully converting spot-kicks beneath the Wembley Arch. The following campaign saw the Shrimpers narrowly missing out on a play-off berth, Barrett conceding an own goal in the final-day dead rubber at Bury; he played for Southend against Rovers in 2016-17, but retired from the professional game before the season was out and, armed with a coaching license level A, took up a coaching position at Millwall. He formed the Players’ Football Academy, based in the Essex town of Thundersley, in October 2013 and is runs the Southend United Ex-Players’ Association. |
No 666. Graham Philip Robert Barrett. 2000-01.
Born, 6.10.1981, Dublin. 5’ 10”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 16.12.00 v Stoke City. Career: Arsenal (professional, 14.10.98) [0+2,0]; 13.12.00 Bristol Rovers (loan) [0+1,0]; 11.9.01 Crewe Alexandra (loan); 14.12.01 Colchester United (loan); 29.8.02 Brighton (loan) [20+10,1]; 30.5.03 Coventry City (loan) [32+23,6]; 24.3.05 Sheffield Wednesday (loan) [5+1,1]; 31.8.05 Livingston (loan) [5,0]; 1.8.06 Falkirk (free) [35+13,8]; 24.2.09 St Johnstone (free) [9,1]; 8.7.09 Grimsby Town (trial); 27.8.09 Shamrock Rovers [20,1] (retired, 2010); 9.9.11 Kilnamanagh. Just forty minutes on the pitch for Rovers, in which Stoke, already three goals ahead through a first-half Peter Thorne hat-trick, held on to defeat Rovers 3-0 even though both sides were reduced to ten men, constituted the career at the club of Irish international forward Graham Barrett. Having represented Republic of Ireland Schools and won the UEFA title at Under-16 level in 1998, Barrett added to 25 Under-21 caps and six goals, with six full appearances as well as goals against Finland and Jamaica for the Republic of Ireland between 2002 and 2004. An FA Youth Cup winner with Arsenal in 1999-2000, he returned to his mother club from Rovers with glandular fever, but was soon loaned out again. Sent off on his Brighton début in a 4-2 defeat at Portsmouth, Barrett was a team-mate of Michel Kuipers and Bobby Zamora but suffered relegation to Division Two, before scoring on his Wednesday début, as the Owls recovered a 2-0 deficit to draw with Torquay United. He scored from the penalty-spot after eight minutes when Coventry beat Rovers 3-0 in a friendly in August 2005. After helping St Johnstone to the Scottish Division One title in 2008-09, Barrett scored once in 22 appearances for Shamrock Rovers, the alma mater of his father Gary Barrett, a member of the Irish amateur side in qualifying games for the 1980 Olympics. Retiring with a knee injury to work full-time for the football agents, Platinum One, he was persuaded to reappear in the Leinster Senior League. |
No 932. Joshua Lee Barrett. 2019-2021.
Born, 21.6.1998, Oxford. 5’ 11”; 11 st 3 lbs. Début: 11.1.20 v Doncaster Rovers. Career: St Kevin’s Boys Club; 1.7.15 Reading (professional, 13.10.15) [4+6,0]; 1.1.18 Coventry City (loan) [1+5,0]; 10.11.18 Aldershot Town (loan); 7.1.20 Bristol Rovers (free) [3+13,0]; 13.10.21 King’s Lynn Town (free). New manager Ben Garner’s first permanent signing for Bristol Rovers was strong and powerful midfielder Josh Barrett. The young player arrived at The Mem having already represented the Republic of Ireland at Under-16, Under-17, Under-19 and Under-21 level. Eleven games and three goals for the Under-17 side had preceded three matches and a goa, for the Under-19s; a March 2016 début for the Under-21 team came as a substitute against Slovenia and he also appeared at the 2019 Toulon Tournament, where a foul on him led to a penalty against Bahrain. Barrett’s international career stemmed from having parents from Dublin and Tipperary and, growing up in Oxfordshire, he had earlier represented Hampshire at Gaelic Football. Graduating through the ranks at Reading, he made his League bow in March 2016 as an eighty-fourth-minute substitute for Chris Gunter in the 3-1 defeat at Huddersfield Town. Captain of the Under-23 side, he led his team to the FA Youth Cup quarter-finals whilst, during 2016-17, his six goals in 37 matches included an appearance in the Premier League Cup Final against Swansea City. Reading used Barrett in the Football League Trophy: he played in their 3-2 victory at The Mem in August 2016; he featured in the astonishing 7-5 defeat at Gillingham in November 2017; and he added goals at both Yeovil Town (a last-minute penalty) and Colchester United. In addition, he enjoyed two loan spells, the latter at Gary Waddock’s Aldershot bringing 3(+2) Conference appearances and two FA Cup games against Bradford City. Early in the 2019-20 season, playing alongside former Rovers trialist Gabriel Osho, he scored two equalisers in Reading’s 4-2 victory over Plymouth Argyle in a League Cup-tie at Home Park before joining Rovers shortly into the New Year. He was unable to help Rovers avoid relegation to League Two during the 2020-21 season and King’s Lynn were relegated from the National League in 2021-22, despite his five goals in 21(+8) appearances. Adapting quickly to life in the National League North, he scored two excellent goals to help defeat Darlington in October 2022, a left-footed curled “screamer”, followed by a delicate chip. He also played as King’s Lynn drew 1-1 at Doncaster Rovers in the FA Cup in November 2022. Josh Barrett and his partner Aoife were expecting their first child in the summer of 2022. |
No 464. Michael John Barrett. 1979-84.
Born, 12.9.1959, Bristol. Died, 14.8.1984, Bristol. 5’ 10”; 10 st 6 lbs. Début: 5.4.80 v Swansea City. Career: St Bede’s Comprehensive School; Bristol City (trial); 1976 Shirehampton Sports; 15.10.79 Bristol Rovers [119+9,18] (to 1984). Tragically young at his death, Mike Barrett remains one of the most talented and popular players ever to wear the quartered shirt of Bristol Rovers, and his name recurs whenever Rovers supporters of a certain generation discus the club they cherish. Barrett had the ability to beat defenders at pace and turn defence into attack, creating numerous goal-scoring opportunities for Archie Stephens and Paul Randall and exciting the home crowd with his pace and skill. He is believed to have been the youngest of three children, and only son, of the 1950 marriage between Albert Barrett, the third of twelve children to William Barrett and Isabella O’Brien, and Violet Griffiths, the eldest of three daughters to Edward Griffiths and Florence Packer. He had worked beforehand as a Post Office computer operator and was a second cousin of the Rovers striker Graham Withey. Having represented the District League against the Downs League at the age of seventeen, and broken a bone in his hand playing for the reserves at Luton in 1979, he made his début in a 2-0 defeat as a substitute for Paul Petts. Quickly claiming a regular starting place in Rovers’ side, Barrett helped Rovers establish themselves in Division Three, following their recent relegation, and scored in the exciting 5-4 victory over Newcastle United in the centenary game of December 1983. Rovers came close to promotion in the 1983-84 season and Barrett’s trickery, speed and finishing, hitting nine League goals that campaign, certainly played their part. In the final home game of the season, his last-minute goal snatched a 3-2 victory over Millwall, when the game had earlier appeared lost. However, struggling in pre-season training, he entered Bristol Royal Infirmary for tests and, tragically, died shortly afterwards of cancer, aged just twenty-four, leaving a young widow, Louise, who gave birth to their son Liam six weeks later. Mike Barrett’s immense respect at Eastville was reflected in the huge support shown at testimonial games in the autumn of 1984 against Aston Villa and his former club Shirehampton Sports. |
No 459. Stewart James Barrowclough. 1979-81.
Born, 29.10.1951, Barnsley. 5’ 7”; 9 st. Début: 18.8.79 v Queen’s Park Rangers. Career: Barnsley Boys; March 1967 Barnsley (professional, 1.11.69); August 1970 Newcastle United (£40,000) [201+18,21]; 23.3.78 Birmingham City (£140,000) [26+3,2]; 25.7.79 Bristol Rovers (£100,000) (player-coach, 10.7.80) [60+1,14]; 26.2.81 Barnsley (£20,000) (player-coach) [55+6,1]; 4.8.83 Mansfield Town (free) [50+4,10] (to 1985); 1993 Grimethorpe Miners’ Welfare and Social Club (manager); Frickley Athletic (manager, to 23.9.00); 2005 Barnsley (Under-15 coach). For a period of twelve years, slightly-built winger Stewart Barrowclough was Rovers’ record signing. The fee paid reflected the positive reputation the young Yorkshireman had built up in footballing circles and, a reliable penalty expert, he scored from spot-kicks in three consecutive League games in the autumn of 1979. The holder of five England Under-23 caps, Barrowclough had made his Barnsley début shortly after his eighteenth birthday, in an FA Cup-tie at Darlington in November 1969 and, having missed Newcastle’s 1974 FA Cup semi-final appearance with flu, and thereby missed the final as the Magpies were reluctant to change a winning side, he played at Wembley in the 1976 League Cup Final, only for United to lose 2-1 to Manchester City, Dennis Tueart’s overhead kick deciding matters. He had been in the Newcastle side which had knocked Rovers out of the tournament in an earlier round. At Eastville, Barrowclough was swiftly promoted to a coaching rôle, despite a red card accrued against Preston in September 1979 and, although the side was relegated to Division Three in 1980-81, he continued to exude confidence and experience. Living in Thornbury at this time, he later returned to Barnsley and ran a fruit and flowers shop in Chadworth. Having led Grimethorpe to an unexpected Wembley appearance in the May 1996 Carlsberg Cup Final against Dawlish Town Social Club, he later resigned as Frickley manager after they suffered a Unibond League record 12-0 defeat at Worksop Town. The youngest of three children to William Barrowclough and Mary Abbott, who married during the war in Barnsley, he married Pat Branston and they had three children, the eldest Carl playing for Barnsley between 2001 and 2003 and being in turn the father of James Barrowclough, a trainee at Sheffield Wednesday in 2012. |
No 443. Michael James Barry. 1977-79.
Born, 22.5.1953, Kingston-upon-Hull. 5’ 7”; 10 st 10 lbs. Début: 10.9.77 v Luton Town. Career: Huddersfield Town (professional, June 1970) [21+5,0]; 25.5.73 Carlisle United [73+8,10]; 1975 Washington Diplomats [22,6]; 9.9.77 Bristol Rovers (exchange for Jim Hamilton) [46+1,3]; 14.4.79 Columbus Magic; Cleveland Force; Columbus Capitals. Youngest of eight children and the fourth son to Leonard Barry and Elizabeth Grady, who married in 1938 in Hull, Mike Barry won a Wales Under-23 cap in the 2-0 defeat against England in January 1975. A brief career at Huddersfield, in which he played against Jimmy Greaves (1940-2021), Bobby Moore (1941-93) and Geoff Hurst, preceded four successful seasons with Carlisle. A début in the 3-0 home victory over Notts County in September 1973 was his first appearance in a season which saw the Cumbrians promoted to top-flight football, where Barry played in 1974-75. Having scored in both Division Two fixtures against Rovers in 1975-76, with a header at Eastville and a close-range shot at Brunton Park, Barry was Carlisle’s captain in 1976-77 when United’s relegation was confirmed on the penultimate game of the season, as Rovers recovered a two-goal deficit after 83 minutes to win with three very late goals. He had also spent a summer in North American football, Diplomats losing 8-0 at Miami and 9-2 at home to New York Cosmos in successive weeks, with Pelé scoring twice in the latter match. He scored for Rovers against three London sides, at Charlton and at home to Palace and Fulham, before scoring seven times in 27 games for Columbus Magic and has been a football coach in the States ever since, working with the former Hereford and Swansea player Mike Thomas. |
No 111. George McIntosh Barton. 1928-31.
Born, 15.10.1899, Newtongrange. Died, 1970, Weston-super-Mare. 5’ 7½”; 10 st 10 lbs. Début: 21.8.28 v Swindon Town. Career: Newbattle; 1918 Midlothian United; 1919 Newtongrange Star Juniors; 28.5.21 Raith Rovers [141,1]; 24.5.28 Bristol Rovers [65,5]; 15.8.32 Bedminster Down Sports. A prolific penalty-taking full-back, who scored on his Rovers début, George Barton arrived from Scottish football, gave Rovers long and loyal service and settled in the Bristol area. “A clever and dashing defender” (The Sunday Post), his seven seasons with Raith Rovers had seen the side finish third in Division One in 1921-22, still their highest ever position and, although relegated in 1925-26, gain promotion with champions Bo’ness the following campaign. A close friend of the legendary Alex James (1901-53), Barton toured the Canary Islands with Raith, including being on the “Highland Loch” when she ran aground off Corrubeón in June 1923 and was described in the press as “outstanding” in the 4-2 win against Third Lanark at Cathkin Park in September 1924 and “very sound and resourceful” in the goalless draw with St Johnstone in January 1925. His only Scottish League goal, indeed the only one in 185 matches in all competitions for Raith, was a long shot just before half-time in a 5-1 home victory over Partick Thistle in March 1925 – he “put the Rovers on the lead with a surprise shot, which was really a clearance”, reported The Scotsman. The second son of a coalminer, James Barton, and his wife Jane of 27 Monkswood, Newbattle, Midlothian, George Barton married Elizabeth Hasell (1904-74) in 1930, the daughter of the Rovers director Mark Hasell and his wife Alice Maggs, with team-mate Fred Forbes as his best man. Their daughter Jean, born in 1931, married Charles Furber and had three children, Andrew, Ian and Valerie. |
No 617. Luke William Basford. 1997-99.
Born, 6.1.1980, Lambeth. 5’ 6”; 8 st 7 lbs. Début: 11.11.97 v Grimsby Town. Career: Rosendale Primary School; Harris CTC; Kingsdale Secondary School; 1995 Crystal Palace (schoolboy); 1996 Bristol Rovers (professional, 9.7.98) [11+5,0]; June 1999 Barnet (trial); 31.7.99 Kingstonian (free); 16.3.01 Woking; August 2001 Croydon; 26.1.02 Whyteleafe; 13.8.02 Dulwich Hamlet; 22.1.03 Whyteleafe (to 2005, re-signed 16.12.06). Solid in the tackle, tenacious and a sound passer of the ball, full-back Luke Basford played for Surrey Schools and Inner London Schools and had trials for England Schoolboys before becoming the first player born in the 1980s to represent Rovers in the Football League. A Millwall supporter, he was a ball boy in the final game at The Den, when Rovers defeated the Lions 3-0 in May 1993. Man of the Match when replacing Jason Perry for his League bow in a demoralising 4-0 home defeat, he received one red card and three yellows in his Rovers career, the dismissal after 56 minutes at Gillingham in January 1998 rendering him the youngest Rovers player to be sent off in the League. Making his Kingstonian début as a 75th-minute substitute for Chris Luckett in the 1-0 defeat at Telford, to his 8(+9) Conference games he could add a Wembley appearance, as a substitute five minutes from time, as Kingstonian defeated Kettering Town 3-2 in the 2000 FA Trophy Final. Three games for Woking were followed by many years with Whyteleafe, being a member of the side that ended AFC Wimbledon’s 22-month unbeaten home run on New Year’s Day 2005. A Level One football coach and married since 2000 with three children, Basford works as an office administration worker for “The Economist” newspaper and is training to be a London taxi driver. |
No 740. Jonathon David Bass. 2004-06.
Born, 1.7.1976, Weston-super-Mare. 6’; 12 st 2 lbs. Début: 23.4.05 v Swansea City. Career: Birmingham City (professional, 27.6.94) [60+8,0]; 1.10.96 Carlisle United (loan) [3,0]; 23.3.00 Gillingham (loan) [4+3,0]; 14.7.01 Hartlepool United (free) [21+3,1]; August 2004 Persatuan Bolasepak Negeri Pahang; 1.3.05 Bristol Rovers (free) [10+2,0]; 28.6.06 Salisbury City (free) (to May 2009). Experienced central defender Jonathan Bass joined Rovers from Malaysian football and produced the cross for Junior Agogo’s headed goal after twenty-five minutes of his Rovers début. A boyhood Rovers supporter, he had never opposed Rovers in the League, and he joined after a series of injuries had prevented him making any first-team appearances for a year. From his League bow in Carlisle’s 2-2 draw at Rochdale in October 1996, Bass scored just once in the League, a 74th-minute equaliser for Hartlepool, also against Rochdale, in November 2001. He had played at Highbury in the League Cup in October 1997, appeared in Birmingham’s 7-0 win at Stoke in January 1998 and, making his Hartlepool début in a friendly against Billingham in July 2001, played alongside Anthony Williams as Pools were promoted to League One in 2002-03. Having scored for Rovers’ reserve side in the 1-1 draw with Yeovil Town in January 2006, Bass then played alongside Ryan Clarke in the Salisbury side which drew 1-1 with Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup in December 2006 and he and Andy Sandell were both sent off in Salisbury’s 3-1 home defeat against Altrincham in October 2008. He played in 68(+4) matches for Salisbury City, without scoring. |
No 427. Philip Thomas Bater. 1974-81 and 1983-86.
Born, 26.10.1955, Cardiff. 5’ 10 ½”; 12 st 12 lbs. Début: 14.9.76 v Aston Villa. Career: Clifton Athletic: 1971 Bristol Rovers (professional, October 1972); 10.9.81 Wrexham (£50,000) [73,1]; 15.9.83 Bristol Rovers (£10,000) [301+9,3]; 26.6.86 Brentford [19,2]; July 1986 Cardiff City (free) [67+9,0]; July 1989 Gloucester City (trial); September 1996 Bristol Rovers (Under-16 coach; first-team coach, 21.3.97; assistant manager, July 1997; youth team coach, 30.4.98; caretaker manager, 8.4.02-26.4.02 and 17.1.04-25.3.04); 17.10.05 Clevedon Town (manager); 13.1.09 Mangotsfield United (caretaker manager; manager, 14.4.09-6.4.12); 10.1.17 Larkhall Athletic (manager, to 24.11.21); 10.2.22 Mangotsfield United (manager, to 31.5.22); 1.11.22 Mangotsfield United (manager). Long-serving dependable full-back Phil Bater made his Rovers début shortly after the club’s return to second-flight English football and his career with Rovers spanned twelve years. From establishing the club in Division Two, through two Welsh Under-21 caps, relegation to the Third Division in the spring of 1981 and the unsuccessful push for a swift return, Bater was a lynchpin of the defensive make-up of the side. The youngest of three children to Eric Bater and Patricia Thomas, the young Welshman came of age in the autumn of 1974 when newly-promoted Rovers, missing Lindsay Parsons, asked him to mark Ray Graydon and his work was so effective that Rovers defeated Aston Villa 2-0, Alan Warboys scoring twice. Bater also scored at home to promotion-favourites Forest over Easter 1977, at Wrexham in November 1979 and in the 2-1 victory over Burnley at Eastville in November 1983. Although goals were a rarity, reliability was his password, one blip being own goals in both legs of the League Cup-tie with Walsall in August 1977. Sent off in Wrexham’s defeat at Brentford in December 1982, he captained the Robins but could not prevent relegation to Division Three in 1981-82, only to be sent off on his Cardiff début, ironically at Wrexham. Having helped the Bluebirds to promotion from Division Four in 1987-88, he was a Welsh Cup winner in 1988, a triumph which led to European football against Derry and Aarhus. Taken briefly to Gloucester under Brian Godfrey, Bater’s horticulture degree led to a career in landscape gardening, but he kept returning to Rovers in a variety of capacities after gaining his preliminary Coaching Badge. Given a 28-day touchline ban after referee Gurnham Singh reported him to the Football Association for a half-time fracas with former Rovers team-mate Tony Pulis in November 1997, Bater led Clevedon to the 2005-06 Southern League West Championship and Mangotsfield, who were relegated from the Southern League Premier Division in 2008-09, to the May 2011 play-offs. Separated and living with his partner Jane in Hanham, Phil Bater’s two sons, Sam and Geraint are both good footballers, the latter having been on Rovers’ books as a schoolboy; Phil succeeded Geraint as manager of Larkhall Athletic. |
No 463. (Chic) Philip Desmond Bates. 1979-81.
Born, 28.11.1949, West Bromwich. 6’; 11 st 12 lbs. Début: 11.3.80 v Preston North End. Career: Tipton; August 1969 Stourbridge; May 1974 Shrewsbury Town; 25.1.78 Swindon Town [50+13,15]; 7.3.80 Bristol Rovers [26+3,4]; 16.12.80 Shrewsbury Town (player-coach; assistant manager, 21.6.83; manager, 25.7.84) [274+20,64]; Swindon Town (coach; assistant manager); Birmingham City (assistant manager); Stoke City (assistant manager; caretaker manager, 27.10.93); 10.11.93 Celtic (assistant manager); November 1994 Stoke City (assistant manager; manager, 7.7.97; coach, 22.1.98-15.5.98); 22.10.04 Shrewsbury Town (caretaker manager, to 15.11.04). Eldest of four children to Harry Bates and Annie Hill, Chic Bates gave sterling service to Shrewsbury for many years before serving several clubs in a stand-in managerial capacity. A goal-scoring striker, with a predator’s instinct, his stay at Eastville was brief but included relegation from Division Two in the spring of 1981 and a goal within two minutes of the start of the match with Watford in November 1980. Indeed, all four of his Rovers goals came at Eastville, against Sunderland, Leicester, Sheffield Wednesday thirteen minutes from the end of an exciting 3-3 draw and Watford. Never opposing Rovers in the League, Bates was a Welsh Cup winner with Stourbridge in 1974 and a mainstay of the Shrews’ side for many years. Subsequently deputy to Lou Macari at Swindon, Birmingham and Stoke, he enjoyed a 100% record as caretaker manager with Stoke, but was not so fortunate full-time and stepped down after a 7-0 home defeat against Birmingham City. Leaving Stoke on the day Frank Sinatra died, his side having been relegated, he took over the reins briefly at Shrewsbury, a Kevin Street goal earning a 1-1 draw against Southend in his first game temporarily in charge. |
No 595. Peter Clifford William Beadle. 1995-98.
Born, 13.5.1972, Lambeth. 6’; 11 st 12 lbs. Début: 18.11.95 v Wycombe Wanderers. Career: 1988 Gillingham (professional, 5.5.90) [42+25,14]; 3.6.92 Tottenham Hotspur (£300,000); 25.3.93 Bournemouth (loan) [9,2]; 4.3.94 Southend United (loan) [8,1]; 12.9.94 Watford [12+11,1]; 17.11.95 Bristol Rovers (£50,000) [98+11,39]; 6.8.98 Port Vale (£300,000) [18+5,6]; 18.2.99 Notts County (£250,000) [14+8,3]; 18.10.99 Bristol City (loan); 19.10.99 Bristol City (£200,000) [51+31,14]; 29.7.03 Cheltenham Town (trial); 2.8.03 Brentford (trial); 7.8.03 Brentford (free) [1,0]; 12.9.03 Barnet (free); 13.12.03 Team Bath (coach); 19.6.04 Clevedon Town (commercial manager; caretaker manager, 28.9.04); 11.5.05 Taunton Town (manager); October 2005 Newport County (manager); 13.3.10 Clevedon Town (manager); West Bromwich Albion (coach); August 2010 Cheltenham Town (Under-16 coach); 4.4.13 Hereford United (Head of Youth Football; caretaker manager, 19.3.14); 23.5.14 Sutton United (head coach, to 2.9.14); 17.4.15 Hereford FC (manager, to 13.9.18); 22.8.20 Barnet (manager, to 12.12.20); 9.5.22 Yate Town (manager, to 23.10.22). Larger than life and with the propensity to score when most needed, Peter Beadle contributed dramatic goals for Rovers and was the club’s top scorer in 1996-97. A strong physical presence, he was not frightened of shooting from distance and his skilful knock-downs, heading ability and muscular power created ample opportunities for those around him. First-half hat-tricks against Bury in November 1996, these three goals coming in nine minutes, and Bournemouth over Christmas 1997 and a hat-trick in a 5-0 win at home to Wigan Athletic at Easter 1998 endeared him to Rovers’ supporters. A dramatic last-minute equaliser at Ashton Gate in December 1996, which sparked a pitch invasion, and a brace at Ashton Gate when Rovers won 2-0 there the previous campaign, render his contribution to Rovers’ cause well-nigh unforgettable. Yet, Beadle returned to the Rovers story in the 2000-01 relegation season, signing for the rival club at Ashton Gate and scoring when City played Rovers that season. Beadle had made his first League appearance in the Gillingham side that lost 2-1 at home to Cardiff City in March 1989, playing at Priestfield alongside former Rovers players in Mark O’Connor, Tony Pulis, Phil Kite and Francis Joseph. Signed for Spurs by Terry Venables and sold by Watford when they signed Gary Penrice, having scored his solitary Watford goal against Charlton Athletic in May 1995, he had joined Rovers in the aftermath of FA Cup ignominy at Hitchin Town and made an immediate impact by giving Rovers a 58th-minute lead at Shrewsbury on Boxing Day 1995. On the eve of the 1998-99 season, Beadle moved to John Rudge’s Port Vale, but left when Rudge lost his post, playing against Rovers both in March 1999 and as a substitute for Duane Darby in September 1999 with Notts County and scoring for both sides when County drew 4-4 with Bristol City that November. Recovering from a knee operation, he helped City to two Auto Windscreens Shield finals, playing in defeat in the first in 2000, and to the play-offs in 2002-03, as well as coming on as substitute against Millwall in March 2001 to be one of four men sent off that day. Another red card, just twelve minutes into his Brentford début against Tranmere Rovers, finished his Bees career before it had really started. Following 10(+3) Conference games and three goals at Barnet, Beadle branched into management, where his abrasive yet effective style has made its mark. Sent off at Ysbyty Park, as Newport lost an FA Cup-tie 3-1 to Swansea City in November 2006, the incident led to a coin being thrown and an official injured, all of which led to Beadle’s reactions and subsequent interview being frowned upon by the authorities. Beadle led Newport to success in the FA Premier Cup in 2007-08, defeating Llanelli 1-0 in the final. After steering Hereford to an unlikely escape from relegation out of the Conference by winning three of their final five games, he also took the reins of the new Hereford club which rose phoenix-like from the ashes to reach an FA Vase Final against Morpeth Town in May 2016 and to secure the title of the Midland League that summer. Although the Vase Final was lost, Hereford secured three trophies that season, scoring 203 goals in all competitions and enjoying one run of 22 consecutive victories. The following campaign, he was sent to the stands during a tempestuous game at Didcot Town in March 2017, which saw Ryan Green also dismissed before the game was abandoned; Hereford were Southern League Division One champions by eighteen points and won their respective division in three consecutive seasons. He and his wife Clare have two sons, Matthew and Connor. |
No 854. Christopher Kelan Beardsley. 2013-14.
Born, 28.2.1984, Derby. 6’; 12 st 7 lbs. Début: 2.11.13 v Oxford United. Career: 2002 Mansfield Town (professional, 4.7.03); 14.1.04 Worksop Town (loan); 1.7.04 Doncaster Rovers (trial); 19.7.04 Doncaster Rovers (free) [1+3,0]; 9.12.04 Kidderminster Harriers (free) [15+10,5]; 6.7.05 Mansfield Town (free) [8+25,1]; 19.1.07 Rushden and Diamonds (loan); 31.1.07 Rushden and Diamonds (free) [5+7,2]; 19.6.07 York City (free); 31.12.07 Kettering Town (loan); 28.1.08 Kettering Town (free); 27.11.08 Kidderminster Harriers (loan); 29.5.09 Stevenage (free) [29+25,7]; 12.8.12 Preston North End (free) [12+7,2]; 31.10.13 Bristol Rovers (loan) [15+8,0]; 12.7.14 Stevenage (free) [23+6,4]; 5.6.15 Mansfield Town (free) [6+8,1]; 7.7.16 Burton Albion (fitness coach; 12.7.21 first-team coach) [0+1,0]. As Rovers plummeted towards the drop-zone at the foot of League Two in the autumn of 2013, manager John Ward brought in the experienced forward Chris Beardsley on loan. He played the opening eighty-five minutes as Rovers recorded an unlikely and unexpected 1-0 victory away to table-topping Oxford United, thanks to a penalty from John-Joe O’Toole nineteen minutes from time, and contributed Rovers’ third goal, a header from Michael Smith’s cross, in the exciting 3-3 FA Cup draw at home to his former club, York City, and another goal in the replay. He was then sent off eight minutes before half-time as Rovers lost 1-0 at Burton Albion. The tall striker had enjoyed a string of clubs and a plethora of loan spells prior to signing for the Memorial Stadium side. However, “Beardo” departed goalless after Rovers had lost their Football League status in May 2014. A boyhood Derby County supporter, he had made his League bow in Mansfield’s 1-0 defeat at Brentford in December 2002 and scored as a teenager against his future club, York City, in October 2003, before setting up two goals against Radcliffe Borough on his Worksop début, and appearing in three games and scoring against Blyth Spartans; he added a goal for Doncaster against Lincoln City in the Football League Trophy. Having suffered relegation from the League ranks with Harriers in 2005, his two goals helped Mansfield defeat Grimsby Town 3-0 in the Football League Trophy in October 2006. He managed 5(+7) Conference games for Diamonds and goals against Cambridge United and Oxford United, 4(+4) Conference matches with York and a further three substitute appearances on his 2008 return to Aggborough. His fifteen goals in 52 matches for Kettering included two goals on his first appearance, a 6-1 victory over Solihull Moors as well as a brace against Harrogate Town four days later, and he also appeared against Fulham in the FA Cup. At Stevenage, he scored against Ebbsfleet United on his début, appeared in that side’s first ever Football League fixture, a 2-2 draw with Macclesfield Town in August 2010 and scored seven goals in 30(+6) Conference matches. Beardsley suffered a string of injuries, a broken leg after colliding with Notts County goalkeeper Kevin Pilkington in August 2005, a broken jaw whilst playing for York City against Gray’s Athletic in September 2007 and a dislocated shoulder in Stevenage’s 1-0 home defeat against Brentford in August 2010. However, he also enjoyed promotion as Conference North champions with Kettering and, having helped unfashionable Stevenage into the Football League, assisted their promotion through the League Two play-offs in 2011. He was used as a substitute in the 1-0 victory over Paul Buckle’s Torquay United at Old Trafford in May 2011 which secured promotion and scored twice as Rochdale were defeated 4-2 at the start of the following campaign and appeared in the 6-1 victory that Boxing Day at Colchester. Despite seeing his 2011-12 season restricted by hamstring issues, he was top scorer that campaign, using his sports journalism degree from Staffordshire University to good effect by contributing frequent articles for the local Stevenage press. Latterly with Preston, he scored in both fixtures against Yeovil Town in 2012-13 as well as in a Football League Trophy tie at Carlisle United. He was sent off fifteen minutes from the end of Stevenage’s 2-2 draw at Wycombe Wanderers in February 2015 and had scored two first-half goals as Cheltenham were defeated 5-1 three months before that, his side reaching the League Two play-offs, only to lose to Southend United. He played alongside Reggie Lambe and Scott Shearer in the Mansfield side defeated 1-0 by Rovers in March 2016 and scored in the Stags’ 1-0 win at Crawley. In an injury crisis, Beardsley was named on the substitutes’ bench when Burton drew 0-0 at The Mem on New Year’s Day 2019. |
No 347. Ian Harper Bearpark. 1960-61.
Born, 13.1.1939, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire. Died, 5.12.1997, Tiverton, Devon. 6’; 11 st 4 lbs. Début: 12.9.60 v Rotherham United. Career: Dursley Grammar School; 1954 Cam Bulldogs; 1958 Stonehouse; 1958 Bristol City (trial); August 1960 Bristol Rovers (professional, 12.9.60) [2,0]; 31.12.60 Exeter City; 18.9.63 Bath City; 19.8.65 Weston-super-Mare; Stonehouse. Consecutive home games in the autumn of 1960 proved the extent of the footballing career of goalkeeper Ian Bearpark. A Gloucestershire XI custodian training as an apprentice to a Dursley textile firm in the dyeing trade, he signed as an emergency goalkeeper for Bath City at midnight prior to a game at Bexleyheath, as both the Romans’ senior keepers, Mervyn Gill and Jimmy Boag, were injured; although he played well, City lost the game 2-0. A cricketer for fourteen years with Stinchcombe Stragglers, he once hit 109 for Stroud 2nd XI in July 1969 and lived for many years in Stroud, where he was head dyer at a wool manufacturers’ workshop. The third of five children to Ambrose Bearpark and Elizabeth Bell, a couple whose trade had brought them to Gloucestershire from the north-east, Ian Bearpark married Merrilyn, who still lives in Tiverton, and they had two sons, Jon and Rob. |
No 577. Andrew Beasley 1992-93.
Born, 5.2.1964, Sedgley. 6’ 2”; 13 st 2 lbs. Début: 10.4.93 v Portsmouth. Career: 1980 Luton Town (professional, 23.2.82); August 1983 Mansfield Town (loan); 22.3.84 Gillingham (loan); 6.7.84 Mansfield Town (free) [94,0]; 28.7.86 Peterborough United (loan) [7,0]; 24.3.88 Scarborough (loan) [4,0]; October 1989 Kettering Town (loan); November 1989 Cheltenham Town (loan); November 1992 Kettering Town (loan); 25.3.93 Bristol Rovers (loan) [1,0]; 30.7.93 Doncaster Rovers (free) [37,0]; 12.8.94 Chesterfield (free) [31+1,0]; 1997 Nottingham Forest School of Excellence (coach); 1.7.06 Swindon Town (goalkeeping coach); 24.10.06 Leeds United (goalkeeping coach); 5.1.09 Darlington Railway Athletic; 22.6.12 Brighton (goalkeeping coach); 8.10.13 Sunderland (goalkeeping coach); 29.10.15 AEK Athens (goalkeeping coach); 11.5.16 Real Betis (goalkeeping coach); 29.11.16 Shanghai Shenhua (goalkeeping coach). Guy Whittingham scored the record-breaking forty-fourth goal of his season in a 2-1 victory at Twerton Park in Andy Beasley’s sole game for Rovers. Twice a losing finalist in the Nottinghamshire FA County Cup, Beasley had conceded seven goals in a League Cup-tie at Luton in October 1989 and was in the Mansfield side which drew 1-1 at Twerton Park in January 1990, being beaten by Geoff Twentyman’s header after 26 minutes as Rovers headed for the Third Division title that campaign. Having made two Conference appearances for Kettering, a highly successful 1994-95 campaign saw the goalkeeper concede only 37 League goals as Chesterfield reached the Division Three play-offs, although a fractured cheekbone forced him to miss the Wembley play-off final, as the Spireites defeated Bury 2-0 to secure promotion. Beasley followed manager Gus Poyet to several clubs, but then remained at Shanghai Shenhua after the Uruguyan left that team. |
No 177. (Jack) John Victor Beby. 1932-33.
Born, 23.8.1907, Gillingham, Kent. Died, 8.4.1976, Rochester. 6’ 1½”; 13 st. Début: 15.10.32 v Bristol City. Career: Cuxton; November 1924 Charlton Athletic (amateur); Grenadier Guards; August 1929 Gillingham (professional, January 1930) [20,0]; April 1930 Leicester City [29,0]; June 1932 Ashford Town; 4.10.32 Bristol Rovers [24,0]; 7.7.33 Crystal Palace; March 1934 Darlington [74,0]; 5.3.36 Exeter City [10,0]; May 1936 Ashington; 3.10.36 Vickers Aviation, Weybridge; 1945-46 Shorts Sports, Rochester; 1950 AEK Athens (coach); Blida (Algeria) (coach); coaching in Germany and India; mid-1950s Erith and Belvedere (manager). Many years in the Grenadier Guards helped shape the career of Jack Beby, a talented goalkeeper with huge hands and a penchant for pipe-smoking. He was the eldest child of John Beby, who was born in the year of Rovers’ formation, the son of John Beby (1856-1946) and Emma Dinham (1857-1941); Jack’s father married twice, Mabel Pepperell being the mother of both Jack and his brother Bill. Jack was brought up by his mother and maternal grandmother, Ann Harriett Pepperell, née England, the widow of William Francis Pepperell, at 222 Nelson Road, Gillingham. “In full command of all the shots sent in”, he made his Rovers début in the cauldron of a local derby, City winning 3-1 before an Eastville crowd of 24,800, although he had played for Gillingham on the ground before. A disastrous Division Three (South) Cup-tie in January 1934 saw him conceded eleven goals as Exeter astonishingly beat Palace 11-6; he never appeared in the League for Palace, although he joined Exeter two years later and, when making his début against Reading two days later, was described as “quick and fearless” (Exeter Express and Echo). Having been a team-mate of the Rovers player Hugh Adcock at Filbert Street, Beby was an ever-present with Darlington in 1934-35 and had won a winners’ medal in the Division Three (North) Cup in May 1934, as his side defeated Stockport County 4-3 in the final. In his final game, he was in the Exeter side which conceded six goals at Eastville in April 1936. Jack Beby later ran the Cricketers Arms at Gillingham; he married Cissie Price (1906-86) in 1930 and they had three children and seven grandchildren. |
No 1. Harold Bell. 1920-21.
Born, 11.7.1898, Thurlstone, Yorkshire, Died, November, 1992, Barnsley. 5’ 9”; 10 st 10 lbs. Début: 28.8.20 v Millwall. Career: 1919 Craven Sports; 30.9.19 Barnsley [15,6]; 12.8.20 Bristol Rovers [2,0]; July 1921 Castleford Town. Perhaps the hardest to trace of all those who played in Rovers’ first ever Football League game has been inside-left Harold Bell; by the time of his death, though, Bell was the last survivor of that Rovers team. Wartime football had seen him score five goals in eleven games for Sheffield Wednesday, his first appearance coming against his future club Barnsley over Easter 1917. He had made his début for Barnsley against Rotherham County in Division Two in October 1919 and he scored twice in the match against Lincoln City a fortnight later. Having made the first-team at Eastville, he spent the rest of the 1920-21 season in the reserves, for whom he scored in the 3-0 Western League victory over Mid-Rhondda United over Christmas 1920, and he was in the Rovers side that played Trowbridge Town in a friendly at the end of April 1921. Harold Bell was brought up at 16 Castle Street, Penistone, Yorkshire, although his birthplace, a neighbouring village, is given in his father’s own handwriting in the 1911 census. He and his younger brother Arthur were the sons of James and Alice Bell, who both had children from previous marriage; indeed, James, a blacksmith, was in his late fifties when Harold was born, whilst Alice ran a sweet shop from the family home during her sons’ childhood. |
No 968. James Belshaw. 2021-
Born, 12.10.1990, Nottingham. 6’ 3”; 13 st 1 lb. Début: 17.8.21 v Oldham Athletic. Career: The Becket School, West Bridgford; 1996 Notts County; 2005 Dunkirk; 2006 Heanor Town; 2009 Walsall; 2009 Duke Blue Devils [78.1]; April 2013 Walsall (trial); April 2013 Everton (trial); April 2013 Notts County (trial); April 2013 Coventry City (trial); 31.7.13 Nuneaton Borough (free); 30.6.14 Tamworth (free); 18.5.17 Harrogate Town (free) [38,0]; 23.7.21 Bristol Rovers (free) [42,0]. Early in the 2021-22 season, Rovers found themselves four goals down at Exeter after just twenty-four minutes. Although the side rallied to finish defeated 4-1, the damage had been done; goalkeeper James Belshaw, however, in his second League match with The Gas, played well and could not shoulder much of the blame. He was to suffer the same fate of conceding four first-half goals at Derby County fourteen months later, but by then was established as a top-notch third-tier goalkeeper as well as a firm crowd favourite. A son of Paul and Lynn Belshaw, he and his brother David had sat together regularly at Notts County, where his father and grandfather were both season ticket holders. He captained his school to victory in the Nottinghamshire Schools Cup in 2009. Representing Nottingham Schools at football at Under-15, Under-16 and Under-18 levels, he was also a keen cricketer and he was simultaneously Player of the Year at Heanor Town in 2007-08. Having attained ten A*s and two As and GCSE, James Belshaw majored in History, specifically studying the history of Nazi Germany, with a minor in Business Studies at college in North Carolina, enabling him to enjoy four years of AS college football. Spending two seasons as captain, he played for the All-America NSCAA third team, winning regional honours. In 2012 he kept eight clean sheets and saved three penalties, and it was in September 2012 that he scored a penalty as Duke won 2-0 against Clemson. The following year, in November 2013, Belshaw played for the England C side and represented Great Britain at the World University Games in Kazan, Russia, where they lost to France after extra time in the final. He played 31 times for Nuneaton and 117 for Tamworth before joining ambitious Harrogate. Belshaw appeared in 41 National League North matches and 82 National League games, helping the side gain promotion via the play-offs on two occasions, latterly defeating his beloved Notts County in 2020 to secure Football League status for the first time in the club’s history. Following a successful first League campaign, Belshaw arrived at Rovers, ostensibly as back-up for Finnish international Anssi Jaakkola. However, the popular and talented custodian soon claimed the position for his own and produced a string of fine performances as the club moved inexorably up the table. Belshaw was named Player of the Season at half-time on the final day, as he played his part in ensuring Rovers defeated Scunthorpe United 7-0 to secure an extraordinary promotion back to League One on goals scored. The going was a little tougher a league higher, Belshaw conceding six goals at home to Lincoln City in September 2022. |
No 608. Frank Bennett. 1996-2000.
Born, 3.1.1969, Birmingham. 5’ 7”; 12 st 1 lb. Début: 30.11.96 v Bury. Career: Local football in Birmingham; 1.8.92 Halesowen Town; 24.2.93 Southampton (£7,500) [5+14,1]; 28.10.96 Shrewsbury Town (loan) [2+2,3]; 23.11.96 Bristol Rovers (£25,000) [15+29,4]; 27.9.99 Oxford United (trial); 3.2.00 Exeter City (loan); 14.3.00 Exeter City (free) [8+1,1]; 20.3.00 Forest Green Rovers (free); 31.5.01 Cinderford Town; July 2001 Aberystwyth Town; 5.1.02 Weston-super-Mare; 12.6.02 Bath City; 29.7.04 Brislington (retired, 8.3.05). Prime Minister John Major was in the crowd when crowd-pleasing front-man Frankie Bennett made his Southampton début against Chelsea over Christmas 1993. Bennett’s career with Rovers, though, was fraught with injuries, a knee operation in the spring of 1997 preceding a comeback goal for the reserves as they defeated English Universities 5-0, whilst he scored after nineteen minutes in the Auto Windscreens Shield against Exeter City in January 1998 on his return from a further lay-off. One indication as to these injury issues is that, having then scored one of Rovers’ three goals in the May 1998 first leg of an ultimately unsuccessful play-off campaign, Bennett’s very next game saw him head one of the four goals Rovers registered at Macclesfield in May 1999. A goal-scorer of some merit, his most notable strike in a Rovers shirt was perhaps the twenty-five-yard match-winner against Notts County in April 1997. Previously in the Shrews side which defeated Rovers 2-0 at Gay Meadow in November 1996, he suffered relegation with the Shropshire side. In addition to 20(+7) Conference games and two goals at Forest Green, he played the second-half as a substitute in the 2001 Wembley FA Vase Final, which was lost 1-0 to Canvey Island and helped his side win the Gloucestershire Senior Challenge Cup Final by defeating Cheltenham Town 2-1 in the final. Playing under manager Frank Gregan at both Aberystwyth and Weston-super-Mare, Bennett scored twice and hit the bar for the latter in a 2-2 draw away to his former side Halesowen in March 2002. Working from 2002 for United Parcels Service, Frankie Bennett lives in Hanham with his wife Michelle and daughters Shene’e and Josh. |
No 85. Frederick Bennett. 1925-30.
Born, 2.10.1906, St George, Bristol. Died, 20.8.1990, Redfield, Bristol. 5’ 8½”; 11 st 6 lbs. Début: 27.2.26 v Brentford. Career: Hanham Athletic; HJ Packers Ltd; Hanham Athletic; HJ Packers Ltd; 4.12.25 Bristol Rovers [129,1]; 15.7.30 Chester (£500) [158,1]; September 1936 Nantwich (loan); August 1937 Oswestry Town. Following an impressive début in the friendly against Belfast Distillery, Fred Bennett became a regular name on Rovers’ team-sheet for several seasons. Rightly proud of his achievements in the side, he was a solid and dependable defender who “kicked like a horse and kept his cool”. The second of five children to John and Mary Bennett of 2 Park Street, Knowle, his sole League goal for Rovers came on Christmas Day 1928 when, as a consequence of injuries to others, he was fielded at centre-forward. Despite interest from Blackpool and Newcastle United, Bennett joined Chester, whom he helped into the Football League and for whom he appeared in two Welsh Cup finals, winning in 1933 although not two years later. He also played in the 6-1 win against Darlington in November 1933, which remains Chester’s largest ever FA Cup victory and scored his solitary League goal for Chester from the penalty-spot in a 1-1 draw with Doncaster Rovers in January 1932. Following wartime service in North Africa, he returned to live in Bristol, where he enjoyed some success as a local amateur cricketer. |
No 904. Kyle Bennett. 2017-18.
Born, 9.9.1990, Telford. 5’ 5”; 9 st 6 lbs. Début: 3.2.18 v Shrewsbury Town. Career: 2000 Wolverhampton Wanderers (professional, 10.3.09); 24.3.10 Leicester City (trial); 16.4.10 Port Vale (trial); 3.8.10 Bury (free) [13+19,2]; 30.6.11 Doncaster Rovers (£180,000) [72+44,15]; 25.10.13 Crawley Town (loan) [4,0]; 25.1.14 Bradford City (loan) [14+4,1]; 21.5.15 Portsmouth (free) [84+15,12]; 1.2.18 Bristol Rovers (free) [29+19,3]; 31.1.19 Swindon Town (loan) [14+1,4]; 8.10.20 Grimsby Town (loan) [9+3,0]; 16.7.21 Notts County (trial); 12.8.21 AFC Telford United (free); 8.1.22 Hednesford Town (free). Armed with “blistering pace and close ball control”, coupled with a powerful shot, Kyle Bennett joined Rovers midway through the 2017-18 season. Unable to retain a regular place in the side, he offered neat skills and jinking runs, but the end product was not always evident. Against ten-man Accrington Stanley in September 2019 his shot hit the crossbar eight minutes into stoppage time at the end of a 3-3 draw. He had previously helped both Bury and Pompey gain promotion to League One and had won an England Under-18 cap in 2008. On Wolves’ books for years, he had made the breakthrough at Bury, scoring two goals in four second-half minutes of a 3-1 victory over Crewe Alexandra in February 2011. “Bennett’s introduction added pace and purpose to Donny’s perspiration”, according to one Sky sports journalist, but Doncaster were relegated to League One in 2011-12. Having scored his club’s Goal of the Season that campaign against Peterborough United, Bennett suffered a knee injury in 2012-13 and was subsequently sent out on two loan spells. He was sent off just twenty-five minutes into his Bradford City début, a goalless draw with Preston North End, and later scored at Colchester United in March 2014. Paul Cook’s first signing for Portsmouth, he scored twice against Dagenham on his first appearance and claimed goals in four consecutive League matches in 2017-18 as Pompey were promoted from League Two. He played twice against Rovers in both 2015-16 and 2017-18, the latter including his final moments in a Pompey shirt, as a late substitute at The Mem on New Year’s Day 2018. With paternal grandparents from Jamaica, he is the fourth of six sons, alongside two daughters, to Paul (once of Bridgnorth Town) and Tracey Bennett; an elder brother Elliott, once at Bristol City on loan, played for Blackburn Rovers, whilst younger brother James and nephew Theo Hannah both looked to have football careers ahead of them. Bennett was in the Swindon side which defeated Notts County on the final day of the 2018-19 season to send England’s oldest professional side out of the Football League, played twice for Telford and he later played for Hednesford in 5(+1) Southern League matches, missing a penalty against Hitchin Town in January 2022. |
No 201. George Albert Berry. 1934-35.
Born, 1911, Bristol. Died, 17.3.1941, Bristol. 5’ 10½”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 22.9.34 v Charlton Athletic. Career: Coleford Athletic; Rose Green; Bristol City; April 1931 Bristol Rovers (trial); 25.4.33 Bristol Rovers (amateur; professional, August 1933) [1,0]; 1.8.35 Bristol City (loan); 26.9.35 Yeovil and Petters United (to April 1936). Local forward George Berry had trialled for Rovers against a Suburban League XI over Easter 1931 and impressed on his début for Rovers’ reserve side against Torquay United reserves in April 1933; this earned him a solitary League appearance, when he replaced the injured Jimmy Smith for a goalless draw at home to Charlton Athletic. He scored a hat-trick when the reserves defeated Cheltenham Town 7-1 in September 1934 and, a fortnight later, scored from a header from Charlie Wipfler’s cross against Reading in a Third Division (South) Cup-tie. Yeovil had secured the Western League title in 1934-35 and his début for them was a 2-1 defeat at Dartford in the Southern League in October 1935. Dropped after their demoralising 9-0 defeat at Folkestone in March 1936, he never played competitive football again. The youngest of five children to John Berry and Emma Whitnell, he was a cousin of Norwich City’s Ken Nethercott (1925-2007) and a distant relative of Johnny Berry (1926-94) of Manchester United and England. George Berry was married during the summer of 1936 to Edna May Stone (1912-41), the daughter of William Stone and Dora Williams of 27 John Street, Easton, with a daughter Barbara Ann, who was born in 1937, and sadly the whole family died, along with Edna’s aunt Elizabeth Blanche Stone (1897-1941), at 3 Stork Street in the Luftwaffe bombing raid on Bristol. |
No 137. George Leslie Berry. 1930-31.
Born, 28.4.1906, Dorking, Surrey. Died, 15.2.1985, Great Glen, Leicestershire. 5’ 11”; 10 st 10 lbs. Début: 30.8.30 v Northampton Town. Career: Symington’s; 1926 Leicester City (trial); April 1927 Market Harborough Town; March 1929 Sheffield Wednesday; 13.6.30 Bristol Rovers [34,0]; 26.8.32 Swindon Town [22,0]; 29.9.33 Nuneaton Town; 1.10.35 Anstey Primitives; 14.9.36 Leicestershire Nomads (player-coach). As a goalkeeper, Les Berry enjoyed limited success. He had not broken into League football before his arrival at Eastville, aged twenty-four, and he conceded a hat-trick to Northampton’s Ted Bowen on his début. Following Jesse Whatley’s retirement, Berry played in 39 consecutive League and Cup games for Rovers until a broken wrist in training curtailed this run; however, he conceded four or more goals in eleven of his 34 League appearances. Following a spell with Symington’s, who finished the 1926-27 season at the foot of the Second Division of the United Counties League, he was signed by Wednesday from Market Harborough. Having served as understudy at Hillsborough to the England custodian Jack Brown, he enjoyed third-tier football and returned to Eastville in the Swindon Town side that was defeated 1-0 by Rovers in November 1932. He was to add 32 Birmingham Combination games with Nuneaton, whom he helped win the Nuneaton Hospital Cup, defeating a West Bromwich Albion side 3-2 in the November 1933 final. As a cricketer, Berry was astonishingly talented. A right-handed batsman and captain of Leicestershire, he played in 605 county matches, scoring 30,225 runs and taking ten wickets between 1924 and 1951; this tally incldes forty-five first-class centuries for his county. Scoring 1,000 runs in a season on eighteen occasions, he top-scored with 232 against Sussex in 1930. After World War Two he became the first professional county captain in English cricket. The son of Ephraim Berry (1875-1933) and Kate Longhurst (1876-1957), who married in 1901, Les Berry married Jean Wilkins in Swindon in 1934 and they had a son and a daughter. Living in High Street, Great Glen for many years, he coached cricket at Uppingham School from 1952 until 1980, training up a young Jonathan Agnew, who was to play for England before becoming Cricket Correspondent at the BBC. |
No 2. John Bethune. 1920-21.
Born, 19.10,.1888, Milngavie, Glasgow. Died, 23.1.1955, Sittingbourne, Kent. 5’ 11”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 28.8.20 v Millwall. Career: Milngavie Allander; Vale of Clyde; 1910 Glasgow Ashfield; 28.2.12 Heart of Midlothian [3,0]; 27.3.12 Hamilton Academical; August 1912 Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic; August 1912 Darlington; 27.9.12 Barnsley [100,1]; 21.5.20 Bristol Rovers [30,0]; 2.11.21 Brentford [10,0]; July 1922 Sittingbourne; 19.7.27 Sittingbourne Paper Mills. Tall for his generation, this quick-tempered but stylish left-back lost the bulk of his career, as did so many, to the war. The middle child of five to a mason, Peter Bethune and his wife Grace, Jock was brought up in New Kilpatrick, Stirlingshire, and three games for Hearts, against Hamilton Academical, Aberdeen and Queen’s Park, preceded an illustrious spell at Second Division Barnsley. It was with the Tykes that he registered his sole League goal, during a 4-2 victory against Wolves at Molineux in November 1919. A wartime guest at Fulham and (from December 1915) Dumbarton Harp, he played in Rovers’ first ever Football League fixture and contributed an own goal against Northampton Town in March 1921, before his career was curtailed by an injury sustained whilst playing for Brentford against Aberdare Athletic on Boxing Day 1921. Subsequently with Sittingbourne for five seasons, he settled in the town with his Barnsley-born wife Florence Turner; they had married in 1915 and had two sons, Jack and Gordon, and three grandsons. Despite being Scottish by birth, Jock Bethune represented England at indoor bowls in the series of 1936 and 1938. |
No 808. Scott Anthony Bevan. 2011-13.
Born, 19.9.1979, Southampton. 6’ 6”; 15 st 10 lbs. Début: 6.8.11 v AFC Wimbledon. Career: Southampton (professional, 1.8.97); 22.10.99 Ayr United (loan); 1.2.02 Stoke City (loan); 15.3.02 Woking (loan); 10.7.02 Huddersfield Town (loan) [30,0]; 14.11.03 Woking (loan); 17.1.04 Wycombe Wanderers (loan) [5,0]; 12.3.04 Wimbledon [17,0]; 13.10.05 Scarborough (trial); 28.10.05 Tamworth (loan); 16.6.06 Kidderminster Harriers (free) [57,0]; 31.1.08 Shrewsbury Town (exchange deal involving Chris McKenzie) [5,0]; 25.8.08 Torquay United [54+1,0]; 6.6.11 Bristol Rovers (free) [37,0]; 13.7.13 Havant and Waterlooville (free); 1.8.14 Portsmouth (goalkeeping coach); 4.7.18 Birmingham City (Under-23 goalkeeping coach; 5.8.21-26.10.21 first team goalkeeping coach). During his time at the Memorial Stadium, there was only one Football League player who had just one kidney, this being giant goalkeeper Scott Bevan, who lost his when injured playing for Tamworth against Forest Green Rovers in January 2006. Indeed, the second tallest player in Rovers’ history, having spent seven years as a professional at Southampton without making the first-team, made his name in non-league football. Eleven games in two spells at Woking prefaced ten Conference games and historic FA Cup victories over Bournemouth and Hartlepool whilst at Tamworth. On the books of Wimbledon when the club was re-branded as MK Dons, Bevan subsequently played under manager Paul Buckle at both Torquay where, for the second time in his career he helped a non-league club reach the third round of the FA Cup, and Rovers. Along with Mustapha Carayol and Wayne Carlisle, he helped Torquay return to the Football League in 2009, having appeared in 34 Conference matches. The first choice custodian as Rovers began their first season back in the basement division, he was substituted at half-time on New Year’s Eve 2011, with Rovers 4-1 down at home to Crewe and it appeared his Rovers career was over. Undaunted, Bevan fought his way back into the side, re-appearing at Rotherham in February 2012 when Michael Poke, a former Torquay team-mate, was injured and keeping a clean sheet before enjoying a fine performance when Rovers returned to Plainmoor the following month to play Torquay. Injury was to rule Bevan out of competitive action for the 2012-13 campaign and he retired from professional football that June to focus on obtaining UEFA coaching qualifications. He went on to appear in seventeen Conference South matches with Havant and Waterlooville, before helping coach Pompey as they returned to League One in the summer of 2017. |
No 317. Alfred George Biggs. 1953-61 and 1962-68.
Born, 8.2.1936, Bristol. Died, 20.4.2012, Poole. 6’; 11 st 8 lbs. Début: 6.2.54 v Lincoln City. Career: Connaught Road School; Bristol Boys; Eagle House Youth Club; 1952 Bristol Rovers (professional, February 1953); 17.7.61 Preston North End (£18,000) [49,22]; 5.10.62 Bristol Rovers (£12,000) [424,178]; 16.3.68 Walsall (£10,000) [23+1,9]; November 1968 Swansea City [16,4]; July 1969 Taunton Town (to 1970). Amongst the plethora of players who have represented Bristol Rovers across the years, there are a handful of names that stand out, one of whom is undoubtedly Alfie Biggs, a tall, strapping centre-forward, whose rumbustious style and never-say-die attitude epitomised Rovers’ halcyon days of the 1950s. Biggs, like so many of his contemporaries in the Rovers side, was Bristol-born; he was the youngest of nine children, and the seventh son, to George Burt Biggs (1884-1962) and Lily Ewans (1886-1967), who had married in Bristol during World War One. Brought up in Knowle and rejected as a schoolboy by Bristol City, he represented Bristol Boys, for whom he played in Woodcock Shield finals in 1949, 1950 and 1951. Making his début against, ironically, Manchester United in a friendly in 1953, he joined a side which had just been promoted to the second tier of English football for the first time in its history; Biggs was part of the reason Rovers were able to secure their footing there and push for greater success. His early years were somewhat restricted by military service as a corps lance-corporal stationed at Corsham and, in April 1955, he played for a Southern Command XI against Weymouth. In addition, he appeared alongside Duncan Edwards and Jimmy Armfield in an Army side which played the Royal Navy at Eastville in March 1956 in an Inter-Services Championship fixture. For the next sixteen years, the soi-disant Baron of Eastville Biggs enjoyed a successful, popular and prolific football career, predominantly with Rovers. Two matches serve as ample illustration of the rôle Biggs played in the Bristol Rovers story, one from the League and one from the FA Cup. In September 1955, Rovers travelled to Anfield for a Second Division fixture and defeated Liverpool 2-0. After Geoff Bradford had opened the scoring, Biggs cut in from the right on fifty-nine minutes and shot low and hard into the net to seal victory. Liverpool, of course, progressed to multiple Football League championships and European triumphs, whilst this fixture remains the sole time Rovers have won at Anfield. Later that season, in January 1956, Manchester United’s star players were humbled 4-0 at Eastville in the FA Cup, with Biggs scoring twice. The visit of a side bristling with international players encouraged a crowd of 35,872 to mass on the terraces and the home supporters were not disappointed as Biggs scored once in each half to secure arguably the greatest victory in Rovers’ long history. His 178 League goals leave him in second place behind Bradford, the club’s record League goal-scorer of all time; only seven men have played in more League fixtures for Rovers than he did; his is the sixth longest Rovers career, in terms of the gap of over fourteen years between his first and last League matches for the club. The thirty League goals he scored in 1963-64 represent the most recent occasion any Rovers player has reached this seasonal landmark, although Rickie Lambert came very close in recent years. Both Bradford and Biggs registered League goals against fifty-five different clubs. Biggs scored hat-tricks for Rovers at Stoke City in 1957, in eighteen second-half minutes at Notts County in 1964 and at Brentford in 1966, as well as in a home game against Peterborough United in September 1964. He was an ever-present in 1956-57 and in 1963-64 and “Clubman of the Year” in 1966-67. His six goals during the League Cup campaign of 1963-64 remain a club seasonal record as yet unsurpassed. He even scored after just fifteen seconds, in the home game with Bury in March 1968. An extrovert on and off the pitch, Alfie followed the Berkeley Hunt and invariable dressed smartly; his impeccable appearance in the changing room earned him the sobriquet “The Baron”. On the field, his style of play also led to his nickname of “Elbows”; yet this style earned him many admirers and much success. There is little doubt that, without his presence, Bristol Rovers Football Club would have been all the poorer. Prised away from Eastville by Preston North End, who paid £18,000 for his services as the successor to Tom Finney, he served as captain and was top scorer at Deepdale, contributing hat-tricks in the home wins against Scunthorpe United and Brighton and scoring for Preston at Eastville in February 1962; he also recommended the young Jimmy Humes to Rovers. That Rovers could sign him back represented a major coup for the club; however, despite being appointed club captain on his return, Biggs could not prevent his home-town club from being relegated back to third-tier football. He left Rovers for good in 1968, scoring against Rovers that August in a 2-2 draw at Fellows Park, although part of the agreement in his transfer to Walsall was that he would be granted a Rovers season ticket for life and he later worked at Taunton Town with Doug Hillard. On his retirement from football, Alfie Biggs worked as a car salesman at Newton Cars and at Luton’s Car Sales, postman, baker, on the maintenance staff at Eastville, for a business parcel delivery service and, from 1997, as a security officer at Bristol University. A regular snooker player at the Eastville Club, he continued to attend Rovers games. Together with his wife Marion Hill, whom he married in 1963, he moved to Poole in 2003; their two daughters are teachers, whilst their son works for a New Zealand-based timeshare company and they have five grandchildren. An authorised biography of The Baron was published in 2021, written by Mike Jay and Ian Haddrell. |
No 652. Marcus Bignot. 2000-01.
Born, 22.8.1974, Birmingham. 5’ 9”; 11 st. Début: 12.8.00 v Bournemouth. Career: 1991 Birmingham City; 1992 Telford United; 1.8.96 Kidderminster Harriers; 1.9.97 Crewe Alexandra (£150,000) [93+2,0]; 3.8.00 Bristol Rovers (free) [26,1]; 16.3.01 Queen’s Park Rangers (£40,000); 8.8.02 Rushden and Diamonds (free) [68,2]; 25.3.04 Queen’s Park Rangers (free) [172+10,2]; 9.11.07 Millwall (loan); 15.1.08 Millwall (free) [18+5,0]; 17.2.10 Kidderminster Harriers (loan); 21.7.10 Gainsborough Trinity (trial); 30.7.10 Brackley Town (free); 2.8.11 Solihull Moors (player-manager); 7.11.16 Grimsby Town (manager, to 10.4.17); 31.8.17 Barrow (assistant manager); 20.9.17 Chester (manager); 15.5.18 Guiseley (manager, to 11.4.22); 3.9.19 England (Under-18 coaching staff); 25.1.21 Aston Villa Women (interim coach, to 10.5.21); 26.8.21 England Under-19 (assistant coach); 26.7.22 Cheltenham Town (first team coach). Twenty-eight seconds into a local derby against Bristol City in December 2000, defensive midfielder Marcus Bignot gave Rovers a dramatic early lead – it was to be his only goal for the club, but remains the one of the earliest goals Rovers have scored in a League match. Man of the match on his Rovers début, although booked for a foul on Stephen Purches, Bignot had captained Birmingham City youth and a Telford side also including David Pritchard and Steve Foster and appeared in 95 games at Kidderminster before a shoulder injury, accrued against Pompey in March 2000, had side-lined him temporarily. An England semi-professional at Kidderminster, he had also had a rare “goal” disallowed against Holland. Crewe’s Player of the Year, he was signed three times by Ian Holloway, once for Rovers and twice for QPR, where he re-joined Jamie Cureton. He played against Rovers as Rushden secured the Third Division championship in 2002-03, but was sent off against Plymouth Argyle in January 2004. Promoted to Division One with QPR in 2003-04, he scored an own goal against Brighton in March 2006 and appeared at The Mem in Jamie Shore’s testimonial in April 2004. His Millwall début also came at The Mem and, playing alongside Rhys Evans, he helped the Lions earn promotion to the Championship through the play-offs in 2009-10. Latterly manager at Solihull Moors, he attracted a former Rovers contingent to the club in Richard Walker, Craig Hinton and Aaron Lescott. Having led Moors to the Nationwide North title in 2015-16, his final action was to draw 2-2 away to Yeovil Town in the FA Cup in November 2016 before becoming manager at Grimsby Town and, in November 2018, he led his Guiseley side to a 4-3 FA Cup victory over Cambridge United as well as the 2019 West Riding Cup Final. His brother Paul was in the Plymouth Argyle side which won 3-2 at The Mem on Boxing Day 2011. Coach at Birmingham Ladies and at Arsenal Ladies, Marcus Bignot is married since June 2013 to Emma Byrne, the Republic of Ireland international goalkeeper, who has won nine League titles and nine FA Cups in women’s football. |
No 3. Walter Smith Bird. 1920-21.
Born, 12.7.1891, Griffydam, Leicestershire. Died, 2.3.1965, Ellistown, Leicestershire. 5’ 10”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 28.8.20 v Millwall. Career: Ellistown St Christopher’s; Hugglescote United; Coalville Swifts; April 1911 Notts County (amateur) [10,1]; March 1917 Leicester Fosse; July 1919 Coalville Town; February 1920 Grimsby Town [7,2]; 12.5.20 Bristol Rovers [20,5]; 7.8.21 Dundee; 7.1.24 Heart of Midlothian (£600); July 1924 Kilmarnock (£400) [17,5]; August 1925 Loughborough Corinthians. When Rovers took to the field for their inaugural Football League fixture, Bill Bird was appearing at inside-forward; a month later, against Brighton, he registered the first hat-trick in the League by a Rovers player. All his goals for Rovers came at Eastville, for he also scored in the 2-1 victory over Brentford in November 1920 and the 2-2 draw with Portsmouth the following February. As a junior, Bird had been described as “the best young forward in Leicestershire” and, prior to his arrival at Eastville, he had scored at Old Trafford, in Notts County’s First Division 2-2 draw with Manchester United in January 1915, as well as adding eight goals in 22 wartime games for Leicester Fosse and serving in Greece and India. At Eastville, though, he was described as possessing “expert ball control, but a disinclination to shoot”. Reversing the trend of that era that Scottish players excelled in lower-league football south of the border, Bird arguably found his greatest success in Scotland. Having hit the bar before half-time and created the equalizer on his Dundee début in a friendly against Airdrie at Dens Park in August 1921, he scored two first-half goals against Queen’s Park the following month and, whilst never completing a hat-trick, added two more at Kilmarnock in February 1922, when the future Rovers striker Willie Culley scored three for the home side, and in a 5-1 win over Hearts in August 1923. Attracted by his performances with Dundee, Hearts signed him that year and he added a hat-trick in a 5-2 victory over Queen’s Park on his début at Tynecastle. The seventh of ten children to Thomas Bird (1850-1896) and Mary Ann Wood (1862-1948), who had both been married before, Bill Bird was from coal-mining stock and one of his brothers was also on the books of Newport County. After his father’s early death, they had been brought up by his stepfather John Mugginson (1867-1945), the widow of Selina Hill (1872-1907), along with an array of half- and step-siblings. A coal miner colliery roadman, his death entry, at which time he left £1,290 to his widow Alice Mabel Smith Bird of 76 Midland Road, Ellistown, lists his name as Walter Smith-Bird. |
No 935. Jamal Clint-Ross Blackman. 2019-2020.
Born, 27.10.1993, Croydon. 6’ 6”; 12 st 7 lbs. Début: 25.1.2020 v Fleetwood. Career: 2007 Chelsea (professional, 1.8.11); 31.8.14 Middlesbrough (loan); 18.3.16 Östersunds FK (loan) [12,0]; 15.8.16 Wycombe Wanderers (loan) [42,0]; 27.7.17 Sheffield United (loan) [31,0]; 16.7.18 Leeds United (loan); 3.9.19 Vitesse Arnhem (loan); 22.1.20 Bristol Rovers (loan) [10,0]; 24.8.20 Rotherham United (loan) [25+1,0]; 15.9.21 Los Angeles FC (free) [8,0]; 31.1.22 Huddersfield Town (free); 26.7.22 Exeter City (free). With Finnish goalkeeper Anssi Jaakkola side-lined, Rovers loaned Chelsea’s Jamal Blackman for the second half of the 2019-20 campaign. First named on the bench for a Premier League game in October 2011, when Chelsea played Arsenal, Blackman was an ever-present as the Blues won the 2011-12 FA Youth Cup and was subsequently sent out on a series of loans. At Boro, he made a last-minute save from Raheem Sterling to take a League Cup-tie with Liverpool in September 2014 to a penalty shoot-out in which he scored, only to see his side lose 14-13. He was to keep three Allsvenskan clean sheets after making his Swedish bow in a 1-1 draw at Hammarby IF and he was named Wycombe’s Young Player of the Year for 2016-17 as the Chairboys missed the League Two play-offs by one point. He also played as Wycombe, 2-0 up at Spurs in the FA Cup in January 2017, conceded two last-minute goals to lose 4-3. Despite a groin injury, which kept him out for six weeks, Blackman enjoyed success with the Blades in the Championship, and was sent off in a 1-1 draw at Brentford after fighting with Ryan Woods for the ball after the equaliser. His Leeds career comprised League Cup-ties against Preston and Bolton and, having broken his tibia against Birmingham City’s Under-23 side, he did not make Vitesse’s Eredivsie side. Of Jamaican heritage, the tall shot-stopper had represented England at Under-17, Under-18 and Under-19 level, representing his country in the Victory Cup in 2009 in the youngest category, and was selected for the England Under-21 squad in 2014 ahead of the Euro qualifiers against Lithuania and Moldova. Blackman was in goal as Rotherham were relegated from the Championship in May 2021, conceding a goal two minutes from time at Cardiff on the final day, which consigned the Millers to third-tier football. After a spell in the States, he appeared in two FA Cup-ties with Huddersfield Town. Regularly an understudy to former Rover Lee Nicholls, he was an unused substitute at Wembley as Huddersfield lost 1-0 to Nottingham Forest in the 2021-22 Championship play-off final. In October 2022 he was beaten by Ryan Loft’s stoppage time euqlaiser, as Rovers drew 2-2 with Exeter City at James’ Park. Jamal Blackman started up his own clothing line, Prodigieux, in 2016, selling snapback caps before venturing into the world of bikini fashion. |
No 147.John Ross Black. 1930-32.
Born, 26.5.1900, Dunipace, Lanarkshire. Died 14.12.1993, Scunthorpe. 5’ 7½”; 10 st 12 lbs. Début: 25.10.30 v Bournemouth. Career: 1917 Gordon Highlanders; Denny Hibernian; 12.4.21 Sunderland (professional, 30.8.21) [2,0]; 23.8.22 Nelson [29,5]; 9.2.24 Accrington Stanley [14,5]; 13.6.24 Chesterfield [23,0]; 6.8.26 Luton Town [91,3]; 22.10.30 Bristol Rovers [49,3]; May 1932 Normanby Park Steelworks. Only four former Rovers players have lived to an older age that red-haired wing-half John Black, a former Gordon Highlander who had won Scottish Junior international caps against England and Ireland in 1920-21. A veteran by the time of his arrival at Eastville, he had played in all four divisions of the Football League, his first goal coming in Nelson’s 1-0 win against Tranmere Rovers in October 1922 as the Lancashire club stormed to the Third Division (North) championship. Despite losing most of the 1925-26 season to a broken leg, he played in four League fixtures for Luton against Rovers, and scored for Rovers against QPR in his final League match. From 1932 to 1965, John Black worked at Normandy Park Steelworks in Scunthorpe and captained the works side to success in the regional British Legion Cup. A brother of Leicester City’s Adam Black (1898-1981), John married Dorothy Roe, born in 1907, in Chesterfield in 1926 and they had three children, Barbara, Ian and Ann. Over the years, his sight gradually failed him and he died of cancer at the grand age of ninety-three. |
No 163.Herbert Charles Edwin Blake. 1931-33.
Born, 16.3.1908, Bristol. Died, 21.4.1986, Bath. 5’ 10½”; 12 st 5 lbs. Début: 21.11.31 v Cardiff C. Career: Brislington School; Brislington Old Boys; July 1930 Bristol City (amateur); Glenmore; 1931 Yeovil and Petters United; 16.9.31 Bristol Rovers (professional, 13.5.32) (player-coach) (manager of Bristol Rovers Colts, 23.7.34) [31,2]; 14.11.35 Bath City; 12.8.38 Trowbridge Town (to 1947). Tall, dependable centre-half Bert Blake enjoyed a degree of responsibility during his stint with Rovers, serving in a variety of capacities, whilst simultaneously working as a schoolmaster from 1932 at Eastville Boys’ School. His parents, a potter George Henry Blake (1884-1942) and Edith Kate Oxenham (1885-1938), lived in 14 Parnall Road, Fishponds; his uncle Herbert Edwin Blake (1894-1958), who also lived in Parnall Road, had made 51 League appearances for Spurs during the 1920s. Having won the Bristol and District League Second Division title with Brislington Old Boys, Bert appeared for the reserve side at Ashton Gate and on nine occasions for Gloucestershire and represented Brislington at cricket. He scored for Rovers reserves in the 3-1 win against Bristol City reserves on Christmas Day 1931 and for the Colts in a 7-1 victory over Cheltenham Town in September 1934. Later he made his début for Bath City in a 2-2 draw with Exeter City reserves in November 1935, scoring three Southern League goals in his first season at Twerton Park. Blake’s Trowbridge Town début came in an 11-3 win against Rovers’ Colts side in August 1938 and his opening season saw him captain his new club in securing the Western League Second Division title, the campaign including an 8-0 thumping of Warminster Town and an October 1938 fixture against Street in which he was “heroic”; sporadic appearances in 1946-47, after wartime football for BAC and service with the Royal Garrison Artillery, saw Trowbridge Town regain the Western League title. In 1933 Bert Blake married Gladys Florence Brooks (1908-99), and they had two children, Valerie and Kenneth. Baptised at St John’s, Fishponds on 4th June 1908, he is buried at St Laurence’s, East Harptree. |
No 872. Nathan Anton Blissett. 2015-16.
Born, 29.6.1990, West Bromwich. 6’ 4”; 12 st 7 lbs. Début: 20.10.15 v Notts County. Career: Romulus; 17.8.12 Kidderminster Harriers (free); 4.3.13 Cambridge United (loan); 27.12.13 Hednesford Town (loan); 20.11.14 Bristol Rovers (loan); 1.1.15 Bristol Rovers (£50,000) [0+2,0); 20.8.15 Tranmere Rovers (loan); 26.11.15 Lincoln City (loan); 14.1.16 Torquay United (free); 4.1.17 Plymouth Argyle (£15,000) [7+15,3]; 15.1.18 Macclesfield Town (loan); 18.6.18 Macclesfield Town (free) [11+8,0]; 21.12.18 Solihull Moors (free); 27.7.20 Maidenhead United (free); 15.6.22 AFC Telford United (free). In consecutive Conference games in November 2014, tall, powerful striker Nathan Blissett scored against and for Rovers. Having scored at The Mem in his final game for Harriers, he joined Rovers, initially on loan as the club pushed towards potential promotion in its first season outside the Football League, and put the Gas ahead at Chester in his first appearance. That campaign, Rovers pushed hard for an immediate return to the Football League, Blissett appearing in 17(+5) Conference matches and scoring five goals as the Gas finished one point behind champions Barnet; he played as a substitute in the Wembley play-off final against Grimsby Town in May 2015 as Rovers dramatically secured promotion back to League football. Thirteen goals in 34 matches with Romulus, whilst working for British Gas, preceded ten in 36(+23) Conference games at Kidderminster, where he registered his first two goals in a 2-2 draw at Woking in November 2012. Loan spells at Cambridge, where he scored against Southport and Luton Town in 3(+4) Conference matches, and Hednesford, where a début goal at Leamington proved the first of three in 5(+1) Conference North matches, earned the bearded front man a regular start for Harriers. Goals against Gateshead and Rovers, coupled with a brace against League leaders Barnet, in his 13(+5) appearances in 2014-15 brought him to the attention of Rovers’ manager Darrell Clarke. Having scored twice in each game as Rovers defeated Mangotsfield United and Salisbury in pre-season friendlies in July 2015, he also scored away to Grimsby Town during his 2(+3) Conference appearances on loan at Tranmere Rovers. Having played just nineteen minutes of Rovers’ 2015-16 League Two promotion campaign, his flurry of goals ensured Torquay avoided relegation to Nationwide South in the spring of 2016, Blissett scoring twelve times in 37(+4) Conference matches over two seasons, despite a missed first-half penalty in the Gulls’ 2-0 defeat at Boreham Wood. He then played alongside Gary Sawyer at Plymouth Argyle, scoring against Wycombe Wanderers and Crewe Alexandra, as Argyle were promoted in the spring of 2017 to League One and scoring an equaliser at The Mem in September 2017. Subsequently, his five goals in 15(+1) Conference matches helped propel Macclesfield back into the Football League in the spring of 2018. Once there, though, the team endured a torrid start, winless in the League and crashing 8-0 in a League Cup-tie against West Ham in which Blissett featured as a substitute; he also appeared in the FA Cup first round, as Macc lost 2-1 at non-league Maidstone United. In February 2019 he hit a hat-trick as Solihull Moors recorded a 3-0 victory away to Gary Waddock’s Aldershot side in the Conference, scoring nine goals in 20(+2) appearances as Moors finished second in the table and missed out in the play-offs. The following season, as Moors hit top spot, he scored a seventeen-minute hat-trick in a 6-1 win at Chorley in August 2019, totalling thirteen goals in 34(+7) Conference games for that side and eight goals in 46(+10) games for Maidenhead in the same division. In addition, he played as a substitute in the astonishing FA Cup first round tie at Halifax in November 2021, which Maidenhead lost 7-4. Blissett is the son of Simon Blissett and Sharon Francis, his father being a brother of Luther Blissett OBE of Watford, AC Milan and England, their parents being Richard Blissett and Gwenneth Husbands. |
No 775. John Dominic Blizzard. 2009-11.
Born, 2.9.1983, High Wycombe. 6’ 2”; 12 st 4 lbs. Début: 8.8.09 v Orient. Career: 1.7.01 Watford [22+7,2]; 8.2.07 Stockport County (loan); 22.3.07 MK Dons (loan) [8,0]; 10.8.07 Stockport County [53+6,3]; 9.7.09 Bristol Rovers (free) [26+14,1]; 18.3.11 Port Vale (loan) [1,0]; 14.7.11 Yeovil Town (free) [39+15,4]; 25.6.13 Plymouth Argyle (free) [45+12,2] (released, 15.5.15). Defensive midfielder Dominic Blizzard, “a skilled passing footballer”, scored once for Rovers, against Colchester United in February 2010 with a right-foot shot from Paul Heffernan’s pass to give Rovers a sixteenth-minute lead in a match ultimately won 3-2 but, despite his guile and effort, was unable to prevent Rovers’ relegation to the basement division in the spring of 2011. Scoring a late consolation goal on his Watford début as a substitute against Norwich City in April 2004, he played at Anfield in the League Cup in January 2005, becoming a regular that spring under manager Aidy Boothroyd. Having lost out to Shrewsbury Town in the 2006-07 play-offs with MK Dons, Blizzard then missed the 2008 play-off final with Stockport, where he played alongside Fraser Forster. In County’s side on three occasions against Rovers, and in their side which won nine consecutive Football League fixtures in the spring of 2007, he scored after just fourteen seconds in the 4-1 victory over Hereford United in January 2009, the fastest ever Football League goal by a Stockport player. Brown-haired and with green eyes, Dominic Blizzard returned to the Memorial Stadium in September 2012, in the Yeovil side which defeated Rovers 3-0 in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy and was part of the Glovers’ side which enjoyed unprecedented success that campaign, reaching the Championship through the League One play-offs; he was not, though, in their squad for the Wembley show-piece against Brentford in May 2013. Two seasons at Plymouth included a sixty-fifth-minute goal in the 1-1 home draw with Southend United in January 2014 and the winning goal the following campaign at Luton, as the Pilgrims reached the League Two play-offs, only to lose to Wycombe Wanderers. From 2015 he gained post-graduate acting qualifications from City Lit in London and turned to films, working in a feature film “In Development” in 2017 and 2018. |
No 558. Robert Stephen Bloomer. 1990-92.
Born, 21.6.1966, Sheffield. 5’ 10”; 11 st 6 lbs. Début: 1.9.90 v Charlton Athletic. Career: Sheffield Wednesday (schoolboy); 21.8.85 Chesterfield [120+21,15]; 22.3.90 Bristol Rovers (£20,000) [11+11,0]; 15.8.92 Cheltenham Town [6+17,1] (player-coach, August 1996; assistant manager, 4.11.96; caretaker manager, 20.10.03; youth team coach, 5.7.04). A Wednesday fan as a schoolboy, Bob Bloomer trained as a fibrous plasterer before making his début as Chesterfield’s centre-forward at Bournemouth in January 1986. A long career for the Spireites, for whom he was sent off twice in a month during the 1986-87 campaign, included five League appearances against Rovers, whom he joined as the club was poised to secure the Third Division title. Sporadic Division Two games could be added to a spell in goal to replace Brian Parkin in the FA Cup at home to Crewe in January 1991. A keen golfer and cricketer and a fitness instructor with the Ministry of Defence at Abbeywood, Bloomer’s long association with Cheltenham began with a début in the 1-1 draw with Chelmsford City in August 1992 and, despite the setback of a broken leg in 1995, he had accumulated 255(+35) games and fifteen goals for the Robins by the summer of 1999, the year he won a Gloucestershire Senior Challenge Cup winner’s medal. Third in the Beazer Homes League in 1995-96, Cheltenham were promoted to the Conference the following campaign and won the FA Trophy Final at Wembley in May 1998, Bloomer playing as another former Rovers player Jason Eaton scored the only goal eleven minutes from time. Sent off twice at Chesterfield, he received a red card as Cheltenham drew at Stevenage in March 1999 and played against Rovers in a pre-season friendly in July 2000. Part of the Robins’ success story in recent years, his seventieth-minute goal in a 3-1 win over Brighton in February 2001 represented his first Football League strike in almost eleven years, since the winning goal against Exeter City in his final game for Chesterfield in March 1990. Bob Bloomer is the middle of three children to William Bloomer, the youngest of nine children of James Percy Bloomer (1899-1973) and Emily Hopkinson (1900-75), and Elizabeth Westropp, the daughter of William Raymond Westropp (1906-89) and Marjorie Louise Ford (1908-87). Married to Catherine Sandra Cruse Purnell, a cousin of the former Rovers winger, Phil Purnell, with two children Megan and Alex, Bob Bloomer now lives in Bradley Stoke and works for the Football League as South-West Regional Manager, supporting and monitoring Football League Clubs’ Academy set-ups. He raised £1,500 in 2011 from a charity bike ride for Marie Curie Cancer Care, cycling over 800 miles around fourteen Football League clubs. |
No 882. Hiram Kojo Kwarteng Boateng. 2016-17.
Born, 8.1.1996, Wandsworth, London. 6’; 11 st 1 lb. Début: 10.9.16 v Rochdale. Career: 2004 Crystal Palace (professional, 15.4.14) [0+1,0]; 7.2.14 Crawley Town (loan) [1,0]; 23.7.15 Plymouth Argyle (loan) [22+2,1]; 31.8.16 Bristol Rovers (loan) [9,0]; 1.1.17 Northampton Town (free) [11+5,0]; 31.8.17 Exeter City (free) [50+16,2]; 27.5.19 MK Dons (free) [23+26,3]; 9.10.20 Cambridge United (loan) [20+5,0]; 15.6.22 Mansfield Town (free). An uncertain start to the 2016-17 League One season saw Rovers look to strengthen at the heart of the side and Hiram Boateng arrived on Transfer Deadline Day. There had been speculation in the media about his imminent arrival, Rovers supporters being excited as he had impressed when Rovers drew with Plymouth at Home Park in September 2015. Young Player of the Year at Palace in 2012-13 and 2013-14, Boateng had made his first League start as a substitute for Yohan Cabaye against Swansea City in February 2016, having first appeared in the FA Cup against Stoke City three years earlier. A loan game for Crawley against Stevenage preceded a pivotal spell at Plymouth, whose seasonal aspirations appeared to hang on his form. A goal against his former side, Crawley, helped ease the Pilgrims to a promotion play-off final and Boateng played at Wembley as Argyle lost 2-0 to AFC Wimbledon in May 2016. Having participated in Palace’s 2016 tour of the United States, in which he played in three games, he arrived at The Mem in the autumn of that year to appear sporadically in the side through the autumn, picking up a yellow card at Bramall Lane. Having left Rovers, his Northampton début was a 5-0 hammering at The Mem, Ellis Harrison scoring four times. His only League goal for Exeter came against champions Accrington Stanley in November 2017, but he did score a thirty-yard goal in the play-offs, which helped take Exeter to Wembley, where they lost the 2018 final 3-1 to Coventry City. Boateng was in the MK Dons side which lost to a Tom Davies goal at The Mem in October 2019 and helped Cambridge to promotion to League One in 2020-21. In the penultimate game of the season, requiring a win to be promoted, Cambridge retrieved a 3-0 deficit to draw level at 4-4 before losing to a late decider at Harrogate; however, they were promoted on the final day. MK Dons were almost promoted to the Championship in 2021-22, ultimately missing out by a point before losing in the play-offs to Wycombe Wanderers. In October 2022 he was sent off at home to Swindon Town, a match Mansfield lost 5-2. |
No 859. Billy Paul Bodin. 2015-18.
Born, 24.3.1992, Swindon. 5’ 11”; 11 st 2 lbs. Début: 8.8.15 v Northampton Town. Career: 2008 Swindon Town (professional, 1.4.10) [11+5,3]; 25.8.11 Torquay United (loan); 22.3.12 Crewe Alexandra (loan) [8,0]; 2.7.12 Torquay United (£70,000) [78+9,11]; 29.1.15 Northampton Town (free) [0+4,0]; 31.7.15 Bristol Rovers (free) [74+21,35]; 3.1.18 Preston North End (£400,000) [26+13,3]; 30.6.21 Oxford United (free) [14+7,6]. With Rovers requiring a win and a result elsewhere to go in the club’s favour, Billy Bodin wove in and out of the stretched Dagenham defence to register the Pirates’ first goal of a heady promotion afternoon at The Mem in May 2016. This goal was the wide midfielder’s thirteenth of a first season with the club, in which he had never quite commanded a regular starting berth, but during which his prolific scoring had included a brace against Cambridge United and at York City in the spring run-in. The exciting Swindon-based left-winger had represented Wales at three separate age groups prior to his arrival at Rovers. The son of Paul Bodin, who won 23 full Welsh caps and played for Cardiff City against Rovers, he scored five times in fourteen Under-17 internationals, once in nine games at Under-19 level and three goals in 21 Under-21 caps. Bodin’s first appearance for both Swindon and Torquay United came against Dagenham and Redbridge and he suffered relegation with both clubs, from League One with the Robins and out of the Football League, alongside Rovers, with the Gulls. During the 2011-12 season he played for Swindon, who were League Two champions, and Crewe, who reached the play-offs in the same division, and he appeared alongside Lee Mansell and René Howe at Torquay, scoring his first goal in a 2-2 draw against Cheltenham Town in September 2011. He played four times against Rovers, once for Crewe in April 2012 and three times in all for Torquay, as well as being a member of the Gulls’ side embarrassingly knocked out of the FA Cup at home to Harrogate Town in November 2012. Bodin’s 2013-14 season finished early, as knee ligament damage suffered in another fixture against Dagenham left him out of the game until a brief return to football included appearing in a 5-1 victory over Accrington Stanley on his Northampton début. Rovers took a gamble on his fitness and early indications were positive, Bodin scoring a first-half hat-trick as Cirencester Town were defeated 7-0 in a July 2015 pre-season friendly. Once the season got underway, he was initially not heavily involved, but smartly-taken goals at Hartlepool and Morecambe through the autumn secured his place in the side and won the supporters over to his potential. Despite a slow start to 2016-17, Bodin won over Rovers supporters with a second-half left-footed hat-trick against Coventry City on Boxing Day 2016 and his goal against Southend United at The Mem in March 2017 was timed at fifty-seven seconds. Shortly after his move to Preston, he was called up to the full Welsh squad over Easter 2018 before injury ruled him out of the entire 2018-19 campaign. Whilst he scored his only Preston goal at Forest and was sent off at Burton, Bodin did secure a first full Welsh cap against Uruguay in Nanning in the spring of 2018, playing alongside Tom Lockyer. Although blighted by injuries, Bodin played as a substitute against Rovers in Oxford’s FA Cup first-round tie in November 2021 and scored at The Mem in the subsequent replay, only for Rovers to defeat their higher-tier opposition 4-3 on a night of great drama; he also opposed Rovers in League One the following campaign. His goal tally at Oxford included two in a match against Bolton Wanderers in February 2022 and he was sent off sixteen minutes from the end of the 2-1 win at Cheltenham Town in August 2022 as well as eighteen minutes from time in the 1-1 draw at Portsmouth two months later. |
No 900. Mark Joel Bola. 2017-18.
Born, 9.12.1997, Greenwich. 6’ 1”; 12 st 4 lbs. Début: 16.9.17 v Wigan Athletic. Career: 2012 Hale End; 7.4.16 Arsenal (free); 31.1.17 Notts County (loan) [10+3,0]; 14.7.17 Bristol Rovers (loan) [15+3,0]; 2.7.18 Wigan Athletic (trial); 17.7.18 Blackpool (free); 28.7.19 Middlesbrough (free) [66+5,2]; 10.1.20 Blackpool (loan) [40,2]. Graduating from a Sunday League centre-forward, left-back Marc Bola was used on the right of defence for his first Rovers game. He played the entire ninety minutes as Rovers defeated second-tier Fulham 1-0 at Craven Cottage in the League Cup in August 2017. The son of Nkori Vences Bola and Kimfuta Sunda, Bola had earlier played seventeen times for Arsenal’s Under-21 side, scoring a twenty-five-yard goal against Fulham, and appeared in seven games at Under-19 level; as well as six cup-ties. He played at The Mem in July 2015 when a young Arsenal side visited for a friendly as part of goalkeeper Matt Macey’s transfer from Rovers. The Gunners’ Under-21 side was promoted to Division One in 2017 after defeating Aston Villa in the play-offs and he made the first team’s substitutes bench for the first time in October 2016, for the League Cup fixture against Reading. Loaned out for experience, he replaced Thierry Audel as substitute for his Notts County début and was on the field when Mark O’Brien’s last-minute goal dramatically ensured Newport County’s League survival, as they defeated Notts County 2-1 in May 2017. The Tangerines’ Player of the Year for 2018-19, he was sent off in stoppage time when Blackpool won at Plymouth Argyle in September 2018 and was in their side which lost 3-0 at home to Rovers two months later before playing against Arsenal, his former club, in the FA Cup in January 2019. He scored a late equaliser on his Boro début, in the League Cup against Crewe Alexandra in August 2019, but it proved in vain as the Cheshire side won the tie on penalties, and his League goals for them came at Reading in February 2021 and against Fulham six months later. He did, however, help Boro on an enterprising run to the FA Cup quarter-finals in 2021-22, defeating Manchester United and Spurs, the full-back appearing as a late substitute in the latter. In the autumn of 2021, Bola was investigated over alleged comments he had made on social media as a fourteen-year-old. |
No 795. Cian Thomas Bolger. 2010-13.
Born, 12.3.1992, Celbridge, Co Kildare. 6’ 4”; 12 st 9 lbs. Début: 29.1.11 v Walsall. Career: Salesian College, Celbridge; St Kevin’s Boys; 1.7.08 Leicester City; 11.1.11 Hartlepool United (trial); 17.1.11 Bristol Rovers (loan); 11.7.11 Bristol Rovers (loan); 31.8.12 Bristol Rovers (loan) [44+3,2]; 31.1.13 Bolton Wanderers (free); 24.10.13 Colchester United (loan) [4,0]; 21.2.14 Southend United (loan); 5.8.14 Southend United (free) [43+2,1]; 18.3.16 Bury (loan) [9,0]; 22.5.16 Fleetwood Town (free) [75+9,9]; 17.1.19 Lincoln City (free) [37+8,1]; 21.8.20 Northampton Town (free) [26,1]; 5.7.21 Larne (free) [26+3,0]. Tough tackling, muscular central defender Cian Bolger enjoyed several loan spells with Rovers, his vibrant red hair being dyed blond and his reputation being enhanced by a series of great displays. A creative passer of the ball, he had won two caps for the Republic of Ireland Under-19s, both in victories over Poland in April 2010. A product of Leicester’s Under-18 side, where he made his first appearance against Ipswich Town in September 2008, his five goals in 28(+1) matches including a thundering header from a corner against Coventry City in September 2009, he was named Leicester’s Academy Player of the Year for 2009. Seven days after playing in Hartlepool’s trial game against Horden, he was an unused substitute for Rovers against Hartlepool. Making his début as a 78th-minute substitute for Carl Regan in a 6-1 defeat, he conceded own goals at home to Brighton and Crewe and was sent off at Rochdale for two fouls on Chris O’Grady and received another red card, when on as a substitute, in the 4-1 defeat at Gillingham. However, his positive defensive play and clear confidence on the field far outweighed any negatives and, having scored from a header against Salisbury City in a pre-season friendly, he powered home a header from Matt Gill’s cross after 27 minutes at Morecambe in September 2011 for his first League goal, the first Rovers had ever scored against that opposition. Bolger suffered a posterior cruciate ligament injury in the autumn of 2012, the games he missed coinciding with a poor run in form for the club. Upon his move to Bolton, Bolger secured a first Under-21 cap for the Republic of Ireland, replacing Matt Doherty eighteen minutes from the end of a 2-1 defeat against Portugal at Oriel Park in March 2013. His solitary game on loan with the Shrimpers, a goalless draw at York, was cut short by injury, but he signed for them prior to the new season, only to be sent off just fifteen minutes into the defeat at Plymouth that August and against Dagenham and Redbridge on Boxing Day 2014. Despite this inauspicious start, Bolger became a crowd favourite at Southend, his winning goal against Newport County in April 2015 leading the Shrimpers into the play-offs, having not conceded a home goal for an astonishing eleven League matches. At Wembley in May 2015, Southend defeated Wycombe Wanderers on penalties to secure promotion to League One, Bolger and Adam Barrett both successfully converting spot-kicks beneath the Wembley Arch. He was in the Fleetwood side which lost 2-1 to Rovers at The Mem in November 2016 and scored when Rovers lost at Highbury in January 2017, the Trawlermen reaching the play-offs that season, only to lose over two legs to Bradford City. He scored first-half goals at both ends at Huish Park in a Football League Trophy game with Yeovil Town in February 2018 before helping Lincoln to the League Two title in 2018-19 and played for the Imps against Rovers in September 2019. The following month he was shown a straight red card for a foul on Shrewsbury substitute Shaun Whalley ten minutes from the end of a goalless draw at Sincil Bank. Bolger lined up alongside former Rovers players Joe Martin and Chris Lines at Northampton and he conceded the penalty at The Mem in October 2020 from which Brandon Hanlan scored his first goal for the Gas; both the Gas and the Cobblers were relegated from League One that season. Subsequently, he played for Larne in European Conference football, the side being captained by Jeff Hughes, and was sent off against Carrick Rangers in March 2022 before playing in the play-off victory two months later against Glentoran. |
No 850. Andrew Mark Bond. 2013-14.
Born, 16.3.1986, Wigan. 6’ 1”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 14.9.13 v Dagenham and Redbridge. Career: 1.7.05 Crewe Alexandra; January 2006 Lancaster City (loan); 1.7.06 Barrow (free); 29.6.10 Colchester United (free) [80+33,11]; 28.9.12 Crewe Alexandra (loan) [4,0]; 12.9.13 Bristol Rovers (loan) [5,0]; 27.1.14 Chester FC (free); 8.6.14 Stevenage (free) [16+4,0]; 14.8.15 Chorley (free); 19.2.16 Crawley Town (free) [11+1,0]; 3.7.16 AFC Fylde (free); 25.6.19 York City (free); 10.8.20 Buxton (trial); 18.9.20 Matlock Town (free); 14.11.20 AFC Telford (free, to 1.5.21). Energetic midfielder Andy Bond, an England C cap in his Barrow days, was John Ward’s first signing at Colchester and rejoined his former manager on loan at Rovers. Once a regular with Crewe reserves and having contributed four goals in 24 matches on loan at Lancaster, he made his name at Holker Street, where he was in the Barrow side defeated 3-2 by Rovers in the FA Cup in November 2006. Of his eighteen goals in 161 matches with Barrow, 70(+9) games and six goals came in the Conference following promotion via the play-offs in 2007-08. A red card at Stevenage in January 2009 was followed by a brace of penalties in March 2010, as ten-man Barrow fought back from 2-1 down to defeat Eastbourne Borough. His final campaign with Barrow saw a long FA Cup run, his penalty earning a draw at Oxford United before a 3-0 defeat against Sunderland, during which Bond’s long-range shot flew narrowly wide, and another fierce strike from distance almost brought an FA Trophy Final goal, Barrow defeating Stevenage 2-1 after extra time in 2010. Declining interest from Leicester City, Peterborough United, Carlisle United and Preston North End, he moved to Essex. “A marauding midfield player with a lot of energy and running work in him”, as Ward described him at Layer Road, Bond made his League bow in a 2-2 draw at Exeter and gave sterling service to Colchester over three years, playing against Rovers in both fixtures of the 2010-11 season. A nasty clash of heads with his own goalkeeper Mark Cousins in a July 2011 pre-season friendly against Ipswich Town necessitated hospital treatment and saw the match abandoned. Creative and productive going forward, he opened the 2013-14 campaign with an 88th-minute goal against Gillingham at Priestfield, his first League goal in seventeen months and was an astute loan signing for Rovers as Ward strove to shore up the centre of midfield. With 17(+2) goalless Conference appearances to his name, he was part of the Chester set-up which, conceding a goal four minutes from time at home to Salisbury City on the final day of the season, was relegated from the Conference in 2013-14. He was sent off as Stevenage lost 3-2 at home to York City in September 2014, but his side reached the League Two play-offs that season, only to lose to Southend United. After three goals in 25(+1) Conference North matches with Chorley, scoring in the home fixtures with Northwich Victoria, Curzon Ashton and Fylde, Bond returned to Football League circles in February 2016 and played in Crawley’s 3-0 defeat at The Mem that April. His first Fylde goal came in the 6-0 away victory at Altrincham in August 2016 and, as his side sped to the top of the Nationwide North table, he scored one of six first-half goals in the 9-2 demolition of Boston United that November. In all, he scored five times in 41 Conference North games, Fylde finishing as champions and gaining promotion to the Conference for the first time in their history, where he took his club tally to sixteen goals in 108(+12) matches, one strike being a first-minute goal against Dagenham in November 2018. He also scored the tenth goal, following substitute Sheldon Green’s driving run, in the dramatic 5-5 draw with Ramsbottom United in the FA Trophy in February 2019. In May 2019 he played in successive weekends for Fylde at Wembley; his side lost 3-0 to Rory Gaffney’s Salford City, who were elected to the Football League as a result, but he returned a week later to defeat Orient 1-0 in the FA Trophy Final. The following season, he missed a penalty and hit the crossbar from the rebound, as York lost at home to Altrincham in the final FA Cup-tie played at Bootham Crescent, and he later played in 1(+2) Northern Premier League matches for Matlock Town. Andy Bond was sent off in Telford’s away fixture at Bradford Park Avenue in November 2020, his solitary National League North appearance for that club. |
No 915. Jack Elliot Bonham. 2018-19.
Born, 14.9.1993, Stevenage. 6’ 4”; 14 st 13 lbs. Début: 1.9.18 v Shrewsbury Town. Career: June 2010 Watford (professional, 17.9.10) [0+1,0]; 17.2.12 Harrow Borough (loan); 12.6.13 Brentford (free) [1+1,0]; 15.11.13 Arlesey Town (loan); 27.6.17 Carlisle United (loan) [42,0]; 27.8.18 Bristol Rovers (loan) [40,0]; 4.6.19 Gillingham (free) [79,0]; 28.6.21 Stoke City (free) [15,0]. Following a season with Carlisle, in which he had kept fourteen clean sheets in League and cup fixtures, tall goalkeeper Jack Bonham arrived at The Mem as Sam Slocombe returned to the east of England. He impressed through the season with a series of fine displays, but joined Gillingham, for whom he played alongside Alex Jakubiak at The Mem in September 2019. Capped five times for Ireland at Under-17 level, Bonham had previously not enjoyed the most fortuitous start to his Football League career. He played the final 24 minutes of the final day clash with Leeds United in May 2013, in which Watford conceded twice to miss out on promotion, whilst his Brentford career had been stop-start, even though he was Man of the Match against Brighton in one of five cup-ties for the Bees. Nine Isthmian League games with Harrow, his first coming in a 2-2 draw with Bury Town, had ended with a broken bone in his hand during a game against Canvey Island, whilst he could add a 5-1 FA Trophy defeat at Whitehawk to fifteen Southern Premier Division appearances with Arlesey Town. He played against Rovers in 2020-21 for a Gillingham side which also included John Akinde. |
No 750. Kim Steven Book. 2005-06.
Born, 7.7.1969, Bournemouth. 5’ 11”; 11 st 1 lb. Début: 11.3.06 v Notts County. Career: Paulton Rovers; Welton Rovers; Frome Town; Bath City; 1992 Weston-super-Mare; 30.6.92 Gloucester City (trial); 1.8.92 Frome Town; 2.10.93 Brighton (loan); 2.11.93 Slough Town (loan); 1.7.94 Lincoln City (trial); 8.9.94 Forest Green Rovers; 23.7.97 Cheltenham Town (£8,000) [174,0]; 1.7.04 Swindon Town (free) [1+1,0]; 30.6.05 Cirencester Town (free); July 2005 Bristol Rovers (goalkeeper-coach; player, 1.12.05) [1,0]; 2.8.06 Mangotsfield United (free); 24.8.07 Bristol Rovers (non-contract); 16.8.08 Tiverton Town; 10.6.10 Cheltenham Town (goalkeeping coach); 5.8.21 Bath City (goalkeeping coach, to 27.5.22). Julia Charlton and Charles Book were the parents of Tony Book, Manchester City’s 1968 League title-winning captain, and Kim Book, whose career with Bournemouth, Northampton, Mansfield and Doncaster never featured a game against Rovers. Kim was, though, the Northampton goalkeeper on the day they lost 8-2 to Manchester United in an FA Cup-tie in 1970, George Best (1946-2005) scoring six times, and he married Ann Starkey (the daughter of Henry Starkey and Violet Vranch) in Bath in 1967. The second of Kim’s three sons, Steve, a goalkeeper with an extraordinarily complex career in local non-league football, played once for Rovers in the twilight of his career. Replacing Scott Shearer, who had injured his back, Book conceded a headed goal to Daniel Chillingworth from David Pipe’s cross after just four minutes in becoming, at just short of his thirty-seventh birthday, at the time Rovers’ seventh oldest League débutant. A belated League débutant in any case, aged thirty when he played in Cheltenham’s first Football League match, a 2-0 defeat at Rochdale in August 1999, he saved penalties against both Rochdale and Orient that season and helped the Robins to promotion from Division Three in 2000-01, keeping Shane Higgs out of the side. He had been working as a carpenter in Paris when the phone call came through about signing for Cheltenham and helped the Robins win the FA Trophy in 1998, beating Southport 1-0 at Wembley through Jason Eaton’s goal eleven minutes from time. “Confident and cheerful, with excellent reflexes and a tendency to punch”, Book played twice in the League against Rovers and was sent off after 78 minutes at Halifax and after 64 minutes at Boston in what was to be his final appearance for Cheltenham. At Swindon, he made his début as a substitute at home to his home-town club, Bournemouth, when signed as cover for Rhys Evans, and conceded seven in a League Cup-tie at Crystal Palace. An ever-present with Southern League Forest Green in 1995-96, he played twelve times for Cirencester, twice for Slough and on 106 occasions for Tiverton. Conference appearances for Bath City and Slough Town, a Somerset League Cup winner’s medal with Frome Town in 1991-92 and three England semi-professional caps were also highlights of a long career, which culminated in a goal, scored from a last-minute goal-kick, as Mangotsfield won 2-0 at Rugby United in August 2006. Married to Leesa, Steve Book was part of the Cheltenham set-up which reached the League Two play-off final in May 2012, only to lose to Crewe Alexandra, and which dropped out of the Football League in 2014-15 only to return twelve months later. |
No 561. Adrian Neil Boothroyd. 1990-92.
Born, 8.2.1971, Bradford. 5’ 8”; 10 st 2 lbs. Début: 9.3.91 v Oldham Athletic. Career: July 1987 Huddersfield Town (professional, 1.7.89) [9+1,0]; 20.6.90 Bristol Rovers (£30,000) [10+6,0]; 18.11.92 Heart of Midlothian [0+4,0]; 5.11.93 Mansfield Town (trial); 9.12.93 Mansfield Town (free) [99+3,3]; 3.7.96 Peterborough United [24+2,1] (assistant Academy Director, 1998-2001); February 2001 Norwich City (youth team coach; assistant director, Youth Academy); 2002 West Bromwich Albion (youth coach); July 2004 Leeds United (coach); 29.3.05 Watford (manager); 2.9.09 Colchester United (manager); 21.5.10 Coventry City (manager); 30.11.11 Northampton Town (manager) (to 21.12.13); 28.2.14 England Under-20 (coach); 28.9.16 England Under-21 (coach; 3.2.17 manager, to 16.4.21); 31.1.22 Sheffield United (coaching mentor and consultant); 10.6.22 Jamshedpur (manager). Full-back Aidy Boothroyd, who lived in Keynsham and Brislington whilst with Rovers, suffered ankle problems at Twerton Park but gave sterling service to Rovers, his appearances including a game at Anfield in the FA Cup in February 1992; Rovers took the lead before losing 2-1 to the eventual cup-winners. Formerly in the Huddersfield side which drew 1-1 with Rovers in April 1990, he was in the Peterborough team Rovers defeated 1-0 in August 1996. Sent off at Walsall in February 1995, and reaching the play-offs with Mansfield before suffering relegation at Peterborough, he found his goal-scoring boots late in his career, first for Mansfield against Torquay United in April 1994 and then with three penalties, the final goal being in March 1997 for Peterborough against the Watford side he later managed. His career ended by a broken leg suffered at Notts County, Boothroyd met his wife Emma as he attempted rehabilitation in the gym, and they have two children, Nathan and Cerys. During his first six weeks in management, he took unassuming Watford to safety from their anticipated relegation and, the following campaign, to a play-off final, where a 3-0 victory over Leeds United secured an unlikely Premier League place. The 2006-07 season saw him manage in the top flight, combining humour and realism. “If it was a boxing match, it would be Muhammed Ali against Jimmy Krankie”, he said of the game against Manchester United; against Charlton Athletic, “on current form, both teams will probably be relegated”. After managing the Watford side which defeated Rovers through Will Hoskins’ goal in a League Cup-tie in August 2008, Boothroyd suffered a 7-0 defeat at Preston with Colchester and returned to manage Northampton against Rovers. In the spring of 2013 he led his Cobblers side to the play-offs at the top of League Two, where they lost the Wembley final to Bradford City, the club he had supported as a boy; as a fourteen-year-old Aidy Boothroyd had been a spectator at the end-of-season match with Lincoln City at Valley Parade which ended in the catastrophic fire claiming fifty-six lives. In 2022 Boothroyd moved to Indian football, taking over at a Jamshedpur side already captained by the former Rovers defender Peter Hartley. |
No 74. Alfred George Walter Bowers.
Born, 2.4.1895, Bethnal Green. Died, 16.3.1975, Hackneym 6’ 1”; 12 st 6 lbs. Début: 31.8.25 v Exeter City. Career: December 1913 Writtle; Hoffmans Athletic; Chelmsford; Mile End Albion; 1918 Bromley Celtic; July 1919 Charlton Athletic [5,0]; 12.6.25 Bristol Rovers [3,0]; 9.8.26 Queen’s Park Rangers [1,0] (to 1927). With only nine League games to his name, tall, imposing central defender Alf Bowers has proved difficult to research. He played three times for Rovers in the autumn of 1925 and scored when the reserves recorded a 3-2 win against Swindon Town reserves that September. He also appeared in the QPR side defeated 6-2 at Bournemouth in October 1926 and his Charlton début at Ashton Gate in September 1924 had preceded a run in the Addicks’ side. Born at home at 219 Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, he was the fourth child of a vellum binder in the print industry and was brought up at 4 Clark’s Place in Bow; his parents, John Bowers (1852-1930) and Alice Fowler (1864-1947) had married in the summer of 1883, John being the son of Robert Bowers (1811-77) and Louisa Sims (1818-68) and Alice the daughter of Ebenezer Fowler (1829-77) and Ann Kalthoeber (1830-95). His three sisters all married, Alice (1889-1978) to John Belcher, Amy (1892-1971) to Henry Wright and Lilian (1902-23) briefly to Walter Burgess, before dying in childbirth, but it appears Alf remained a bachelor. In 1939 he was working as a timber porter and living with his widowed mother at 182 St Stephen’s Road, Poplar. |
No 689. Daniel James Boxall. 2002-04.
Born, 24.8.1977, Croydon. 5’ 8”; 10 st 5 lbs. Début: 10.8.02 v Torquay United. Career: Holy Trinity School; 1990 Tottenham Hotspur; October 1993 Crystal Palace (professional, 19.4.95) [5+3,0]; 17.11.97 Oldham Athletic (loan); 27.2.98 Oldham Athletic (loan) [17,0]; 29.6.98 Brentford [62+6,1]; 1.7.02 Bristol Rovers (free) [58+5,0]; 10.8.04 Dublin City; 24.3.06 Carshalton Athletic; 14.12.06 Whyteleafe (free); 8.9.08 Croydon Athletic (released, 23.12.08). One of five brothers, full-back Danny Boxall enjoyed a footballing career before becoming a male model. The holder of eight Under-21 caps for the Republic of Ireland, he played against Spurs in the 1998-99 League Cup and scored the only League goal of his career after 57 minutes of Brentford’s 4-1 defeat at Cardiff City in January 1999. Having made his Palace début on the same day as Rob Quinn, Boxall found himself alongside Quinn again as well as Ijah Anderson at Brentford. He played twice for Brentford against Rovers before missing the entire 2000-01 season through a cruciate ligament injury and was released by Rovers after missing the end of the 2003-04 season injured. At Dublin City with Shaun Byrne, another Rovers player, he appeared alongside Luke Basford on his Whyteleafe début in December 2006 at home to his future club Croydon Athletic and, as captain, was sent off in the 2-2 draw with Corinthian Casuals in August 2007. Danny Boxall played seventeen times without scoring for Croydon, the first game being a 2-0 home defeat against Merstham in September 2008. |
No 4. (Harry) George Boxley. 1920-23.
Born, 4.10.1891, Cradley Heath. Died, 15.10.1966, Shrewsbury. 5’ 8½”; 11 st 8 lbs. Début: 28.8.20 v Millwall. Career: Treharris; Stourbridge; 1912 Shrewsbury Town; June 1914 Wellington Town; May 1919 Derby County [7,0]; 20.5.20 Bristol Rovers [47,0]; 1923 Bournemouth (trial); August 1923 Cradley Heath; October 1925 Darlaston; 1926 Oswestry Town. Versatile Harry Boxley played for the Welsh amateur side and scored five times in 27 Birmingham and District League games for Shrewsbury Town, this tally including a brace against Dudley Town in April 1912, having made his début against Wednesbury Old Athletic in December 1912. A Shropshire Senior Cup winner in 1912-13 and a brother of the Shrews’ penalty-taking goalkeeper Fred Boxley, he also played on the wing in local rugby. Brought up at Windmill Hall, Cradley, he and Fred, along with six sisters, were the children of Benjamin Boxley and Caroline Southall, who had married in 1875. During the war he picked up seventeen army medals for wrestling, athletics and football and secured three divisional football championships in France; on one occasion he wrote home asking for a football, which he duly received. Derby having won only one of the matches in which he played, he was signed for Rovers by manager Ben Hall, a former Derby player, and appeared in Rovers’ first ever Football League fixture. A run at centre-forward saw him score eight times in fifteen matches, including a first-minute goal against Swindon Town in January 1921, but he was not infallible and missed a penalty in the reserve fixture with Bath City in October 1921. Harry Boxley married a Bristol girl, Doris Evans (1902-62) in 1922 and they had two sons, Anthony and Ronald. |
No 152. Thomas Dodd Boyce. 1930-31.
Born, 23.8.1905, St Giles, Edinburgh. Died, 11.4.1991, Dunfermline. 6’ 1”; 11 st. Début: 28.3.31 v Walsall. Career: Ardrossan Winton Rovers; August 1926 St Mirren [11,0]; July 1927 Southend United [7,0]; May 1928 Clydebank [72,0]; April 1929 Partick Thistle (trial); 4.7.30 Bristol Rovers (£200) [8,0]; 9.7.31 Leith Athletic [14,0]; 27.2.32 East Fife [42,0]; August 1933 Bo’ness; 30.9.35 Partick Thistle [2,0]; November 1935 Stranraer; August 1936 King’s Park (to 1937). There is in existence a grainy photo of Tom Boyce making a save in front of 20,000 supporters, a ground record at Marine Gardens, on his Leith Athletic début, a 3-0 defeat against Celtic, a game in which the former Rovers defender Fred Forbes also played. This image shows a tall, agile goalkeeper in his prime, having returned north from a brief sojourn in England which saw a Southend début against Luton Town in August 1927 and a spell as stand-in at Eastville after Les Berry broke his wrist in training. His time with Rovers included a 5-1 defeat at Coventry over Easter 1931, a match in which Billy Lake (1910-77) scored four times and he was also in goal for the reserve side’s 7-1 defeat at Torquay. A team-mate of the Rovers player Wally Gillespie at East Fife, he had also conceded eight goals in his two appearances for Partick Thistle, when living in Havelock Street, Partick. An ever-present for two seasons at Clydebank, and a winning team member in the Dunbartonshire Cup in 1929, he had suffered a 7-2 defeat at Queen of the South in February 1929 but was excellent in the Scottish Cup game against Hearts in January 1930. “If calls on the goalkeeper were numerous”, purred The Scotsman, “Boyce was generally well-placed to see the ball and his handling was safe and his clearing confident”; before a crowd of 15,000 at Tynecastle, he was only beaten once, by Willie Murray’s strike on the hour mark. Financial crisis, though, hit Leith, and he was released to ease the wage bill midway through the 1931-32 season in which the side conceded a Scottish record 137 goals in 38 League fixtures. Latterly a regular at King’s Park, he was thankfully not in goal when the side lost 15-0 at Hearts in a Scottish Cup-tie in February 1937. |
No 41. Kenneth Cecil Boyes. 1922-23.
Born, 17.11.1895, Southampton. Died, 6.10.1963, Eastleigh. 5’ 9”; 11 st. Début: 16.9.22 v Reading. Career: Shirley Warren; May 1914 Southampton (professional, 8.10.19) [4,0]; 17.6.22 Bristol Rovers (free) [2,0]; 24.7.23 Weymouth; 9.8.24 Southampton Civil Service; August 1925 Bitterne Sports; 6.9.29 Romsey Town; 1.9.30 Pirelli General (to 1940, groundsman until 1960). Any perusal of the 1901 census will find the England footballer Arthur Chadwick lodging at 122 Milton Road, Shirley at the home of a coachman William Boyes (1870-1948) and his wife Louisa Florence Rapson (1870-1951). The youngest of the Boyes’ three sons was Stuart (1899-1973) who made 474 appearances for Hampshire CCC and toured India, Burma and Ceylon with the MCC; the middle son was Ken, who played twice at outside-left for Rovers. Ken Boyes represented his wartime battalion at football and cricket and was the regimental sprint champion; he was also a member of the ground staff for Hampshire CCC and he had been a Southampton Junior Cup winner at football in 1914. He scored for Rovers in a charity game against a North Somerset XI in November 1922, a match which finished 2-2, and he scored twice in April 1923 against Hanham Athletic in a 5-0 win which secured the Bristol Charity League title; he later added their hundredth goal of the season, against Yeovil and Petters United. He played against Rovers reserves for Weymouth in February 1924 and a début against Royal Engineers in August 1924 prefaced four seasons with the Civil Service before, as groundsman, he oversaw the laying of the Dew Lane pitch at Pirelli General. Ken Boyes married Lilian Louisa Chalk (1901-68) in Southampton in 1925. |
No 490. Leslie John Bradd. 1982-83.
Born, 6.11.1947, Buxton, Derbyshire. 6’ 1”; 13 st. Début: 1.1.83 v Cardiff City. Career: Earl Sterndale; March 1966 Rotherham United [3,0]; October 1967 Notts County [381+17,125]; 1.8.78 Stockport County [116+1,21]; 30.5.81 Wigan Athletic [57+6,25]; 30.12.82 Bristol Rovers (loan) [1,1]; 1983 Kettering Town (retired, 31.12.83); 1984 Notts County (promotions manager); 1994 Nottingham Forest (assistant promotions manager; March 1997, corporate sales manager). When Andy Dibble saved Brian Williams’ penalty after 72 minutes on New Year’s Day 1983, in front of the “Match of the Day” cameras at Ninian Park, veteran striker Les Bradd struck home the rebound for a consolation goal in a 3-1 defeat. “Bradd marked his début with a goal and took up good forward positions”, reported the Bristol Evening Post, but he also pulled a muscle and never reappeared in the side. The youngest of three children to Leslie Bradd and Mabel Love, who had married in 1936, Les Bradd remains the record aggregate League goal-scorer at Notts County, whom he joined after hitting 75 goals in a season of Hope Valley League football with Earl Sterndale, whilst training as a mechanic and welder at Hillhead Quarry, and after featuring in three 3-1 defeats at Rotherham. His career at Notts County included four campaigns as top scorer, being named Player of the Year in 1971-72 and securing the Fourth Division title in 1970-71 as well as promotion to Division Two a couple of years later. Ten League games against Rovers included a goal in a 1-1 draw in November 1975 and a brace as County won 3-2 in December 1977. Linked with moves to top-flight Coventry and West Brom, Bradd contributed both goals as Everton were defeated 2-1 in a League Cup-tie in 1975-76, arguably his best performance in a County shirt. Two hat-tricks deserve a mention, one in the last ten minutes as Stockport, 4-1 down after eighty minutes, drew 4-4 at Barnsley in February 1979 and another, when marked by Ian Botham, as Wigan defeated Scunthorpe United 7-2 in March 1982 to record their largest League victory. An out-and-out marksman for much of his career, he was used reliably as a central defender at Edgeley Park. Retiring from the professional game, Les Bradd later worked under Kettering manager Don Masson, a long-time colleague at Meadow Lane. |
No 296. Geoffrey Reginald Bradford. 1949-64.
Born, 18.7.1927, Clifton, Bristol. Died, 30.12.1994, Bristol. 6’; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 24.9.49 v Crystal Palace. Career: Mangotsfield School; 1942 Torchbearers; August 1948 Soundwell; 18.12.48 Blackpool (trial); March 1949 Blackburn Rovers (trial); May 1949 Bristol Rovers (professional, 1.8.49) [461,242] (to 1964). Eight minutes from the end of England’s 5-1 victory over Denmark in Copenhagen in October 1955, Bristol Rovers’ Geoff Bradford accepted a lofted pass from Jackie Milburn (1924-88) and fired home a right-footed goal for his country’s fifth of the night. It was to be the only occasion that a player on Rovers’ books had played for England. The young striker had heard the news of his England call-up whilst watching a film with his wife Betty at the King’s Cinema in Old Market. Loyal one-club man Bradford also registered a disallowed goal and set up two goals for Nat Lofthouse (1925-2011) in a fixture for which he received £50 match fees and £2 a day expenses. This match proved the pinnacle of a career which encompassed fourteen years at Eastville, a club record 242 League goals and an appearance tally exceeded by just three Rovers players down the years. Quite simply, Geoff Bradford was “the greatest match-winner ever to wear the blue-and-white quarters of Bristol Rovers” (Basil Easterbrook) and epitomised Rovers’ spirit through the halcyon years of the 1950s. Top scorer in five separate seasons, his eleven League hat-tricks for the club included four goals against Rotherham United in March 1959. The Rovers he had joined was a mediocre third-tier team, yet Bradford was part of a predominantly locally-born side which became a force in the Football League. His three goals, plus a header from Des Jones’ cross against the bar, in a 3-0 victory over Torquay United in September 1952 kick-started a season which saw Rovers champions of Division Three (South), with Vic Lambden and Bradford terrorising defences all campaign, promotion to second-tier football for the first time in the club’s history being confirmed on a heady Eastville afternoon, when his three goals, the hat-trick completed with a seventieth-minute header, defeated Newport County 3-1. The 1953-54 campaign saw Bradford register five League hat-tricks, the first after thirteen, 60 and 75 minutes at Fulham in the club’s first Second Division game. Two hat-tricks in five days in September 1954, a goal as Manchester United were unceremoniously dumped out of the FA Cup 4-0 at Eastville in January 1956 and a goal in each of Rovers’ first two FA Cup quarter-final appearances merely enhanced the attacker’s reputation as “one of Britain’s post-war greats” (John Coe). Only George Petherbridge has appeared in more FA Cup-ties for Rovers. Bradford was called up for England’s pre-World Cup trial at Roehampton in June 1954, when he replaced the injured Johnny Haynes (1934-2005) at half-time, and he scored two separate hat-tricks against the Jamaican national side on the FA tour of the West Indies in May 1955. His career may even have been greater but for two serious leg injuries, at Plymouth in November 1953, which necessitated 22 stitches, and Doncaster in January 1956, after which “I was never quite the player … I had lost my quickness in turning and hitting the ball, which was my strength”. The youngest of four children to a railway engine fireman and later policeman, Albert Bradford (1889-1966) and his wife Emily Lambourne (1892-1966), Geoff Bradford was brought up in Downend and Frenchay and is recorded as scoring the only goal as Staple Hill-based Torchbearers won the Kingswood and District Cup Final in 1944. Having served in the Army in Catterick, Colchester, Warminster, Retford and Belfast, he turned his hand to many sports, including boxing, hockey for Gloucestershire against Cheshire, card games especially crib, cricket for Fishponds British Legion and tennis at the Cleeve Hill club. However, it was in football that he excelled, appearing for his county against Berks and Bucks in December 1948, scoring sixteen goals in his Blackpool trial and appearing as a wing-half at Eastville in the Soundwell side that defeated Hanham in the 1949 Gloucestershire Amateur Cup Final. Swiftly signed up by Rovers, young Bradford missed a penalty on his reserve début against Fulham, but added a hat-trick as Reading reserves were defeated 3-2 three days later and had “the look of a potential match-winner” (Bristol Evening World) on his full League début. Rovers’ supporters were treated to over a decade of goals and excitement, as this gentle and unassuming man off the pitch developed into the courageous and indefatigable player whose name became almost synonymous with the unfashionable club. Intuitive on the field, fearless in his style and blessed with the ability to score freely, he “graced the game in Bristol with great distinction” (John Gummow), yet showed his strength of character when standing alone in refusing to vote for a potential wage strike. In 626 competitive matches for Rovers, a tally which included fourteen representative games, ten Western League matches and 73 games for the reserves, he played in all ten outfield positions, 250 as centre-forward, before being converted late in his career into a dependable full-back. Having scored against Fulham in the first League Cup game ever played, Bradford’s final goals came from the full-back rôle, the very last coming in a 4-0 victory over Bristol City over Christmas 1963 in the fiftieth League meeting of the two sides. His career included League goals against fifty-five other sides, a club record held jointly with Alfie Biggs, and Rovers had to turn down a £22,000 bid from top-flight Liverpool in 1952. “Rip”, so named after Van Winkle for his perceived propensity to sleep before games to conserve energy, was rightly the inaugural winner of the Harry Bamford Trophy for Sportsmanship, and was awarded a testimonial game in April 1964, which drew a crowd of 12,000 well-wishers, before turning out for a British Legion charity game in November 1966 following the Aberfan coal disaster. On 19th February 1951, at Christ Church, Downend, Geoff Bradford married Betty Flay (1930-2005), the second daughter of Archibald Flay (1901-55) and Ethel Roberts (1897-1958), a nurse at Purdown until a back injury curtailed her career, and they had three daughters, Lesley, Lynn and Nichola. Indeed, Geoff only heard of Lesley’s birth as he left the field after scoring a brace of goals against Aldershot. The family lived at 57 Dormer Road, Eastville for many years before moving to Lawrence Weston, Downend and Fishponds. A smoker, beer-drinker and fisherman who enjoyed watching westerns, knitting jumpers and following football Bradford, who had driven lemonade vans to support his salary, ran the Golden Lion in Fishponds Road before spending twenty-five years as an oil tanker driver for Shell, based in Avonmouth. A belated biography, appropriately called “Geoff Bradford: Bristol Rovers Legend”, written in 2012 by Ian Haddrell and Mike Jay, reveals that he also once played a rôle in saving a drowning woman from a swollen river in Devon. Geoff Bradford died of cancer at the age of sixty-seven and, following a funeral at St John the Baptist’s, Frenchay, was cremated at Westerleigh; he was without doubt the greatest player in Bristol Rovers’ long history. |
No 536. Paul William Bradshaw. 1986-87.
Born, 28.4.1956, Altrincham. 6’ 3”; 13 st 4 lbs. Début: 4.4.87 v Bury. Career: 1971 Manchester United (trial); July 1973 Blackburn Rovers [78,0]; 29.9.77 Wolverhampton Wanderers (£150,000) [200,0]; June 1984 Vancouver Whitecaps [24,0]; April 1985 West Bromwich Albion; 1986 Walsall (coach); 15.3.87 Bristol Rovers [5,0]; July 1987 Newport County [23,0]; August 1988 West Bromwich Albion [14,0]; June 1990 Peterborough United [39,0]; July 1991 Kettering Town. Having opposed Rovers as a seventeen-year-old with Blackburn, Paul Bradshaw was England’s goalkeeper in the first Under-21 match the country ever played, a goalless draw with Scotland at Molineux in December 1976, playing alongside Ray Wilkins and Glenn Hoddle. Conceding just three goals in his four Under-21 matches, Bradshaw was Wolves’ record signing and, making his début in a 3-0 victory over Leicester City, the club’s Player of the Year in both 1981 and 1982. Wolves had secured the League Cup in 1980, Bradshaw keeping a clean sheet in the Wembley final as Forest were defeated 1-0, and he also appeared in two FA Cup semi-finals and in European football. Having been an ever-present in 1984 at Whitecaps alongside Colin Todd and Frans Thijssen, he emerged from retirement to represent Rovers when Tim Carter was side-lined and subsequently enjoyed a few more years in League football. He only made it to the end of four League games with Rovers, Jeff Meacham replacing his injured goalkeeper between the sticks in the April 1987 fixture against Carlisle United. The middle child and only son of Gerard Bradshaw and Mary Jones, Paul Bradshaw lived for many years in Westcroft Avenue, Wolverhampton and worked as a security adviser; later he moved to Altrincham and worked for a while as a baggage handler at Manchester Airport. |
No 840. Guy Peter Bromley Branston. 2012-13.
Born, 9.1.1979, Leicester. 6’ 2”; 15 st 1 lb. Début: 24.11.12 v Bradford City. Career: 1.8.97 Leicester City; 10.10.97 Rushden and Diamonds (loan); 9.2.98 Colchester United (loan) [13+1,1]; 19.11.98 Plymouth Argyle (loan); 19.3.99 Rushden and Diamonds (loan); 10.8.99 Lincoln City (loan) [4,0]; 15.10.99 Rotherham United (loan); 18.11.99 Rotherham United (£50,000); 19.9.03 Wycombe Wanderers (loan) [9,0]; 25.2.04 Peterborough United (loan); 10.6.04 Sheffield Wednesday (free) [10+1,0]; 30.12.04 Peterborough United (loan); 18.2.05 Oldham Athletic (free) [44+1,2]; 24.7.06 Peterborough United (free) [42+2,1]; 23.8.07 Rochdale (loan) [4,0]; 15.11.07 Northampton Town (loan) [3,0]; 1.1.08 Notts County (free) [1,0]; 7.2.08 Kettering Town (free); 16.7.09 Burton Albion (free) [18+1,0]; 29.1.10 Torquay United (loan); 21.7.10 Torquay United (free) [61,2]; 13.6.11 Bradford City (free) [15+1,1]; 14.10.11 Rotherham United (loan) [103+3,13]; 23.6.12 Aldershot Town (free) [3,0]; 22.11.12 Bristol Rovers (loan) [4,1]; 11.1.13 Plymouth Argyle (loan); 4.5.13 Plymouth Argyle (free) [37+1,2] (retired, 4.7.14); 4.2.15 Notts County (Head of Recruitment); 8.7.16 Nuneaton Town (Operations Manager); 3.4.17 Chesterfield (Head of Recruitment and Development; 17.9.17-28.9.17 caretaker manager); September 2018 Leicester City (PDP Loans Manager, to 22.4.22). Vastly experienced, tough central defender Guy Branston scored with his first touch for Rovers, rising to head home a corner after just 79 seconds against his former club, Bradford City, who equalised three times in an exciting 3-3 draw. Humble and approachable off the pitch, but solid and uncompromising on it, Branston had accumulated fourteen red cards in his long Football League career, plus two more in the Conference, before his arrival at the Memorial Stadium, regularly prompting an apoplectic Jeff Stelling on “Soccer Saturday” to comment on a popular brand of sandwich pickle. A journeyman footballer and “a straightforward uncompromising player” (Mark McGhee), who enjoyed multiple spells at both Rotherham and Peterborough and was captain at Kettering and Posh, after apparently meeting Barry Fry in a branch of Ladbroke’s, Branston had made his League bow in Colchester’s 2-0 victory at home to Mansfield Town in February 1998. In only his fourth game, he scored the solitary goal of an East Anglian derby, against his future club Peterborough. A League career, supplemented by 31 Conference games and a goal for Rushden and 39 Conference matches with Kettering, included goals in consecutive weeks over Easter 2011 as he was named Torquay’s Player of the Year in 2010-11. Highlights of his footballing career included playing at Anfield for Rotherham in the League Cup in January 2001 and being part of the Kettering side which knocked Notts County, a former side, out of the FA Cup in December 2008; he also enjoyed five promotion seasons and helped Torquay to the 2010-11 play-off final. Right-footed Branston was described, on his arrival in the claret and amber shirts of Bradford City, whom he joined in preference to Torquay and Rovers, as “a committed and whole-hearted player” and his fourteenth Football League dismissal had come at the Memorial Stadium in October 2011, as Rotherham were defeated 5-2 by Rovers. Aldershot lost their Football League status in April 2013. He also played for Plymouth Argyle against Rovers in September 2013, a season which was cut short by ankle injuries, the final game of his professional career being a 3-2 victory at Oxford United on Boxing Day 2013. He subsequently worked at an internet-based initiative in promoting the football careers of up-and-coming players and, after leaving Leicester City, worked as a football agent. |
No 382. William Ronald Briggs. 1965-68.
Born, 29.3.1943, Belfast. Died, 28.8.2008, Bristol. 6’ 3”; 14 st 6 lbs. Début: 1.11.65 v Shrewsbury Town. Career: 9.8.58 Manchester United (professional, 29.3.60) [9,0]; 26.5.64 Swansea City [27,0]; 25.5.65 Bristol Rovers [35,0]; 9.12.66 Minehead (loan); 8.6.68 Southend United (trial); 22.7.68 Frome Town; 10.7.69 Glastonbury (free); 26.1.71 Frome Town (loan); March 1971 Taunton Town. “One of life’s true gents, who never forgot where he came from”, Ronnie Briggs was a gentle giant of a goalkeeper who won two full caps for Northern Ireland. Making his Manchester United début as a raw seventeen-year-old in a 6-0 defeat at Leicester in January 1961, he shared digs with George Best (1946-2005) at Mrs Fullaway’s house in Chorlton-cum-Hardy and added to his three schoolboy caps and two appearances at Under-23 level with full international games against Wales in April 1962 and Holland in March 1965 in the pre-Pat Jennings era. Briggs conceded sixteen goals in his nine games at Old Trafford, but joined Rovers as Bernard Hall’s deputy, having guested in the games against Bohemians and Dundalk on Rovers’ Irish tour of 1965. A regular in the Pirates’ side through the autumn of 1967, he eventually lost his place to Laurie Taylor, joined both Southend and Glastonbury with Dave Stone, and played darts for the Masons Arms in Stapleton and the True Blue Club in Eastville. Four Southern League games for Minehead, his début coming away to Portland United, ended when he was carried off injured on Boxing Day 1966, and he won a Western League championship medal with Glastonbury in 1969-70. Later living in Clifton, Whitchurch, Stapleton and then Frenchay, Briggs worked for Brinks for eighteen years, then spent six years at Reliance Security prior to his retirement over Easter 2008. Diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in December 2007, he died at St Peter’s Hospice, Bristol, at the age of sixty-five, leaving a widow Ena, three children, Julie, Stephen and Jane, seven grandchildren and one great-grand-daughter. |
No 428. Martyn Edward Walter Britten. 1974-77.
Born, 1.5.1955, Bristol. 5’ 7”; 10 st 5 lbs. Début: 30.11.74 v Bolton Wanderers. Career: Bristol Rovers (professional, May 1973) [17+3,2]; 6.8.77 Reading (£8,000) [6+2,0]; 28.12.78 Bath City (loan); 1979 Taunton Town; 1980 Glastonbury (to 1981). A slight, swift winger who received the opportunity of first-team football after Rovers’ promotion to Division Two in 1974, Martyn Britten scored Rovers’ opening goal in a 2-0 victory over Portsmouth at home and the consolation strike in a 3-1 defeat at Luton Town. After a brief spell at Reading, where his Fourth Division appearances succeeded a League Cup bow against Watford, he was signed on loan at Bath by the former Rovers player, Brian Godfrey. The younger son of Ralph Britten, the son of Walter Ernest Britten (1895-1968) and Rosaline Emily Prowting, and of Dorothy Kerswell, both his parents had been married before. His mother had earlier been married to Seferino Lopez, whilst his father had a son and daughter from a ten-year marriage to Audrey Gifford. Martyn Britten was interested in motor mechanics and, after retiring with an ankle injury, later ran a building company. His son was on Bristol City’s books as a schoolboy. |
No 123. Clifford Samuel Britton. 1928-30.
Born, 29.8.1909, Hanham, Bristol. Died, 1.12.1975, Anlaby, Hull. 5’ 10½”; 11 st 2 lbs. Début: 29.12.28 v Swindon Town. Career: Hanham Athletic; Hanham United Methodists; Jennings Ltd; January 1928 Bristol St George; March 1928 Bristol Rovers (professional, May 1928) [50,1]; 4.6.30 Everton [221,2]; 16.5.45 Burnley (manager); 21.9.48 Everton (manager); 29.8.56 Preston North End (manager); 12.7.61 Hull City (manager; 19.5.70-30.10.71 general manager). “Never one of the most robust of men, but a football stylist”, was how Archie Ledbrooke and Edgar Turner described Cliff Britton in their 1955 book “Soccer from the Press Box”. Dixie Dean (1907-80) once commented that Britton was the best crosser of the ball he had seen and joked that his crosses were so accurate that the laces on the ball were turned away from Dean at the point he headed it. Either way, having learned his trade at Eastville, his début featuring five goals and three missed penalties, Britton won domestic honours in a decade with Everton and won nine England caps, scoring once, between 1934 and 1937. This goal came direct from a free-kick awarded for handball at a windy Highbury in December 1936, as England defeated Hungary 6-2, Britton also creating the final goal for Horatio Carter (1913-94). He also played as the Football League recorded a 10-2 win against a combined Wales/Ireland XI in May 1935. The recognised pioneer of the slide-rule pass, he created the opening goal for Jimmy Stein (1904-79), six minutes before half-time, as Manchester City were beaten 3-0 in the 1933 FA Cup Final, was successful in consecutive Charity Shields in 1932 and 1933 and, having helped bring the Second Division title to Goodison Park in 1930-31, was an underused squad member of the League title-winning sides of both 1931-32 and 1938-39. A wartime career revival saw him guest for Rovers in three matches, Cardiff City, Aldershot, Liverpool, Chester and, from March 1945, Doncaster Rovers. He also represented western Command against the Czech Army in 1940 and trained the 50th (Northumbrian) Division, an unbeaten side generally viewed as one of the best in the continent at that time. By this stage, he was transforming himself into one of the great managers of his era, taking both Burnley and Everton up to top-flight football and leading the former to an unsuccessful 1947 FA Cup Final; Preston finished twice in the top three in Division One, Britton resigning when they were relegated in 1960-61. He managed the Everton team that defeated Rovers 4-0 on Christmas Day 1953 and led Hull City to promotion from Division Three in 1965-66, after which he was briefly the longest-serving manager in the Football League. The only son of a boot-maker George Britton and Beatrice Alice King (1879-1955) of Bush’s Hill, Hanham, he married on 27th May 1944 Bridget Moores, the daughter of Rowland Moores (1893-1970) and Gladys Wragg (1897-1958), and they had two sons, Michael and John. |
No 134. Francis George Britton. 1929-30.
Born, 4.6.1911, Bristolm Died, 1999, North Somerset, 5’ 7”; 10 st 8 lbs, Début: 3.5.30 v Brentford Career: Bristol St George; 17.9.27 Bristol Rovers [1,0]; 12.6.30 Blackburn Rovers [45,8]; 30.6.34 Oldham Athletic [1,0]; 8.2.35 Accrington Stanley (exchange for Fred Leedham, 1909-96) [11,9]; 23.8.35 Reading (trial); 29.10.35 Aldershot [1,0]; March 1936 Worcester City; 20.8.36 Hereford United; 1937 Cradley Heath; Stourbridge; March 1938 Evesham Town; 1944 Worcester City. Unrelated to the celebrated Cliff Britton, his contemporary at Eastville, Frank Britton scored regularly in Lancashire including in six of the seven home matches he played for Stanley at Peel Park; he scored a hat-trick against Gateshead in Division Three (North) in February 1935. “A stocky player, full of grit and determination to succeed”, as the Lancashire Daily Post Annual of 1932 described him, Britton was a member of the Rovers reserve side which secured the Western League championship of 1928-29 and scored four times as the reserves defeated a Newport League XI 8-6 in March 1930. A club cricketer for St George, he returned to Eastville for a friendly with Blackburn and scored four times in a 5-2 win. His sole match for Oldham was a 4-0 reversal at Barnsley in September 1934. Amongst his 13 goals in 33 Southern League matches for Hereford United was a hat-trick at Stourbridge as well as a 77th-minute consolation goal at Eastville against Rovers reserves, who were already six goals to the good. He worked as a capstan lathe hand and married Iris Williams in Chipping Sodbury in 1936. |
No 893. Thomas William Broadbent. 2017-18.
Born, 15.2.1992, Basingstoke. 6’ 3” 14 st 8 lbs. Début: 5.8.17 v Charlton Athletic. Career: 2002 Southampton; Portsmouth; Bournemouth; 2008 Bognor Regis Town; 2010 Chichester City; 2011 Pagham; 2012 Petersfield Town; 11.8.13 Selsey; 13.8.15 Bognor Regis Town; 7.9.15 Farnborough; July 2016 Hayes and Yeading United; 8.7.17 Bristol Rovers (trial); 19.7.17 Bristol Rovers (free) [23+6,0]; 18.1.19 Swindon Town (free) [24+15,1]; 8.7.21 Eastleigh (free); 29.6.22 South Shields (free). A left-footed central defender with “decent distribution”, Tom Broadbent arrived at Rovers by a circuitous route. Alongside a military career, his nomadic non-league football had seen him sent off playing for Chichester at Sidley in October 2010, score against Horsham YMCAQ on his first Selsey appearance in August 2013, add a goal for Farnborough against Wingate and Finchley in November 2015 and score twice in 26 matches as captain of the Hayes and Yeading side relegated from the Conference South in 2016-17. The son of Eddie Broadbent and Lisa Savage, who married in 1987, he worked at Sainsbury’s before rising to the rank of Lance Bombardier, undertaking a tour to Brazil as a guest of the England team and working a nine-month tour of Afghanistan, based at Camp Bastion, as well as serving on Ascension Island. Tom Broadbent was coached by Stuart Pearce when selected for an Army XI against FA Legends at Reading and was a physically imposing presence as the Army defeated both the RAF and the Royal Navy to retain the Inter-Services title in 2017, scoring with a left-footed free-kick from twenty-five yards in the 4-0 victory over the Navy at Huish Park. Prior to joining Rovers he had been on military duty at the 2017 FA Cup Final, his role being to hand medals to Prince William, to be awarded to the runners-up. He scored his only Rovers goal at Northampton in the Football League Trophy in January 2019, sweeping the ball home following a corner shortly before half-time. Broadbent was in the Swindon side which lost at The Mem against Rovers in the Football League Trophy in November 2019 and which defeated Rovers in League One in November 2020; he scored for the Robins at Oxford United in November 2020 but both Swindon and Rovers were relegated from League One in 2020-21. Broadbent joined former Rovers defenders Josh Hare and Michael Kelly at Eastleigh, playing in 29(+1) National League matches and scoring in a 4-1 victory over Wealdstone in March 2022. Later he was to be in the South Shields side which lost, live on television, to Forest Green Rovers in the FA Cup in November 2022. |
No 831. Fabian Broghammer. 2012-14.
Born, 14.1.1990, Heppenheim, Hessen, Germany. 5’ 9”; 10 st 1 lb. Début: 18.8.12 v Oxford United. Career: Germania Eberstadt; SC Viktoria Griesheim; 1.7.06 Eintracht Frankfurt; 1.7.08 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim; 1.7.09 VfB Stuttgart; 10.8.11 SV Darmstadt 98 [8,0]; 10.1.12 FC Bayern Alzenau [5,2]; 28.7.12 Bristol Rovers (free) [26+14,3]; 1.8.14 SV Wiesbaden 1899 (free, to 1.7.16) [17+6,0]. Distinctly a ray of hope during the disappointing start to the 2012-13 season, Fabian Broghammer joined Rovers having played four times for Frankfurt’s reserve side and 20 times, scoring once, for the second string at Stuttgart, his début coming against Bayern Munich reserves. A Borussia Dortmund fan, he had appeared alongside Toni Kroos, who performed for Germany at the Euro 2012 championships. Club form had earned him a call-up for Germany at Under-17, Under-18 and Under-19 level, helping his country to third place in the Euro 2007 Under-17 championships. With good pace and excellent short passing, as well as being fluent in English, Broghammer appeared in the pre-season game at Frome Town and swiftly pushed his way into the Rovers side, becoming a crowd favourite long before his final-minute equaliser, from Eliot Richards’ ball, at home to Aldershot Town in September 2012. The following campaign, with Broghammer largely absent through injury, Rovers meekly surrendered their ninety-four-year Football League status. Broghammer’s first appearance in a Wiesbaden shirt saw him score both goals in a 2-0 victory over Eberbergland and he played fairly regular football in the Hessenliga in 2014-15. His side secured the Krombacher Cup in May 2015 by defeating FVgg Kastel 5-0 in a one-sided final, but Broghammer did not play in that game and missed much of the 2015-16 campaign with a cruciate ligament injury. His playing career over, Broghammer took a long-distance university degree in Psychology. |
No 879. Ryan James Broom. 2015-18.
Born, 4.9.1996, Newport. 5’ 9½”; 12 st 3 lbs. Début: 19.3.16 v Newport County. Career: Cardiff City; 2013 Bristol Rovers (professional, 19.6.15) [0+9,0]; 14.8.15 Taunton Town (loan); 8.10.16 Bath City (loan); 19.1.18 Eastleigh (loan); 18.5.18 Cheltenham Town (free) [66+7,10]; 24.8.20 Peterborough United (£200,000) [5+10,1]; 1.2.21 Burton Albion (loan) [3+8,2]; 29.7.21 Plymouth Argyle (loan) [29+14,4]. Right-sided midfielder Ryan Broom played the final nine minutes of a League Cup-tie against Birmingham City in August 2015, as a substitute for James Clarke following goals in pre-season friendlies against Cirencester Town and Sutton United. Several appearances on the bench followed, prior to a late appearance, replacing Cristian Montaño with five minutes remaining of a Severnside derby in the town of his birth in March 2016, Rovers’ fifth consecutive League victory en route to promotion to League One. Blond-haired and tenacious, Broom had scored three goals in 9(+7) matches for the Rovers Under-18 side in 2013-14, this figure including a brace in a 3-2 victory over Swindon Town, and had taken part in an Under-16 training camp with Wales. The 2014-15 campaign had seen him score five goals in 25(+1) matches for the Under-18 side, this figure including a brace as Northampton Town were defeated 3-0 in March 2015 and he scored four goals in eight matches with Taunton Town. The 2016-17 season opened with two goals as a second-half substitute, as Rovers defeated Mangotsfield United in a pre-season friendly; he was an unused substitute at Stamford Bridge in the League Cup the following month and scored against Eastbourne Borough on his Bath City début. The following campaign he appeared as a substitute at Craven Cottage as Rovers defeated Fulham in the League Cup and scored twice at Wycombe Wanderers in the Football League Trophy. A former county champion over 800m, he scored three times in 10(+3) Conference matches at Eastleigh before playing regular lower league football at both Cheltenham Town and Posh, where he featured alongside Jonson Clarke-Harris. Helping Peterborough to promotion from League One in 2020-21, he scored at Swindon Town in October 2020, before being part of the Plymouth side which came so close to drawing an FA Cup-tie at Stamford Bridge in February 2022. Alongside Liam Sercombe at Cheltenham, he was in the Robins’ side which Rovers defeated 4-1 at Whaddon Road in October 2022. |
No 373. John Brown. 1963-68.
Born, 29.7.1940, Wadebridge, Cornwall. 5’ 8”; 11 st 4 lbs. Début: 7.9.63 v Peterborough United. Career: Probus School; 1958 Wadebridge Town; September 1960 Arsenal (trial); October 1960 Plymouth Argyle [9,2]; July 1963 Bristol Rovers (free) [156,32]; May 1968 Wadebridge Town (manager, to 1969). Both John Brown and the future Rovers forward Johnny Williams scored at Eastville when Plymouth visited in October 1961 and, with nine months at Highbury and a brief spell at Home Park behind him, “Farmer” Brown joined Rovers in the summer of 1963. The pseudonym derived from his rural heritage, his family having run Benbow Farm at Wadebridge for over 200 years, a background the forward missed so greatly that an understanding Rovers management arranged for him to live on a farm near Clevedon. On the field, Brown was devastatingly fast and effective, contributing two goals on his début and scoring regularly for the side over four seasons. Amongst his appearances in Rovers’ quartered shirts was a League Cup fixture at Old Trafford, when almost 56,000 supporters saw Manchester United win 4-1. He reverted to part-time status in 1966 in an attempt to help out on the family farm and still offer Rovers good service. In the autumn of 1967, though, his father was taken ill and Brown returned to look after the farm, a task he has maintained for many years, developing the fourteen-acre site, at one point owning ninety milking cows, installing green solar energy panels and diversifying to include a nine-hole golf course. John Brown married Fay Derry in 1964 and they had four children and ten grandchildren, the latter figure including Seth Brown, who played for Torquay United Under-18s against Rovers in the autumn of 2012. |
No 972. Junior Brown. 2021-22
Born, 7.5.1989, Crewe. 5’ 9”; 10 st 10 lbs. Début: 11.9.21 v Hartlepool United. Career: Crewe Alexandra (professional, 25.6.07) [0+1,0]; 7.11.07 Kidsgrove Athletic (loan); 19.7.08 FC Halifax Town (free); 12.7.09 Northwich Victoria (free); 18.6.10 Fleetwood Town (free) [51+13,11]; 6.3.14 Tranmere Rovers (loan) [8+1,1]; 31.7.14 Oxford United (free) [6+5,0]; 27.11.14 Mansfield Town (loan); 7.1.15 Mansfield Town (free) [21+3,2]; 24.6.15 Shrewsbury Town (free) [87+2,6]; 1.7.18 Coventry City (free) [17+5,0]; 29.8.19 Scunthorpe United (loan); 18.10.20 Scunthorpe United (free) [34,0]; 31.8.21 Bristol Rovers (free) [4+2,0] (released, 19.5.22). Experienced and versatile left-sided player Junior Brown joined Rovers a few games into the club’s single season back in the fourth tier of English football. “A dynamic full-back”, by his own admission and “the League One Marcelo”, according to Coventry City supporter George Baker, Brown was an adept player who could perform as a winger, wing-back or full-back. Indeed, it had been as a winger that he had made his name, playing the final fourteen minutes of Crewe’s 3-0 defeat at Michel Kuipers’ Brighton in February 2008, scoring for Kidsgrove against Colwyn Bay in November 2007 and adding eight goals in 33 Northern Premier League matches for Halifax. Converted to a more defensive role, Brown added three goals in 32 Conference North appearances with Northwich before helping Fleetwood into the Football League, scoring twice in 38(+4) Conference games. In a team which included Jamie Vardy and which recorded 6-0 away victories at Eastbourne and Southport, Brown scored twice in one match against Aldershot in September 2012. An aggressive player, Rovers were his eighth League club and he had been sent off in fixtures for six of his previous sides, most recently at Barrow whilst with Scunthorpe in January 2021. He had also played for Fleetwood (three times), Coventry and Shrewsbury (twice) against Rovers; he scored Shrewsbury’s fourth first-half goal in a 4-0 thumping in October 2017. In addition, Brown had played alongside Abu Ogogo, Alex Rodman and Stefan Payne at Shrewsbury and was a team-mate of both Luke Thomas and Jonson Clarke-Harris when Rovers raced to a three-goal lead inside twenty-three minutes at home to Coventry in September 2018. Known at Coventry for his impressive hair, he had played under Micky Mellon at both Fleetwood and Shrewbury, playing in an FA Cup-tie against Manchester United at the latter. Goals became rarer throughout his career, scoring his Tranmere goal against Shrewsbury in April 2014, whilst his two Mansfield goals were against Hartlepool United and Dagenham and Redbridge. A fifth goal of a successful 2016-17 campaign effectively sealed the Shrews’ League One status, leading to a 1-0 victory over Southend United, but the following campaign was beset by a cruciate ligament injury, which ruled Brown out long-term, making the bench only at the end of the season for the play-off final which was lost to Rotherham United. The fourth son of David Brown and Diane Finnigan, who had married in 1976, Junior Brown married Zoë Hughes, the daughter of Nick Hughes and Mary Finn, on 9th June 2018 at the delightful setting of Combermere Abbey. ughes, the daughter of Nick Hiughes and Mary Finn, at Combermere Abbey |
No 455. Keith Timothy Brown. 1978-81.
Born, 28.9.1959, Bristol. 5’ 9”; 11 st 2 lbs. Début: 16.4.79 v Brighton. Career: Bristol City (youth); January 1976 Bristol St George; September 1977 Minehead (trial); October 1977 Bristol Rovers [4+3,0]; 12.7.81 Bath City; July 1986 Cheltenham Town (£3,000); 23.9.88 Bath City (£10,000 plus Micky Tanner) (coach, 1990; assistant manager, May 1993); 1.12.95 Chippenham Town; 23.12.95 Stapleton (player-manager); 30.8.97 Torrington; October 1997 Stapleton; July 2003 Bitton (manager); 10.11.04 Brislington (reserve team manager); April 2005 Radstock Town (assistant manager); August 2005 Bishop Sutton (assistant manager); 2007 Shepton Mallet (manager). Once a Gloucestershire Youth player, striker Keith Brown set up David Williams for the only goal of the game at Wrexham in May 1979, ten minutes from time on his first full start, but struggled to hold down a regular place in the side. A mechanical engineer by training, he scored five times in 22 games for Rovers’ reserve side during the 1980-81 season and later added 44 goals in 377 matches for Bath City, as well as scoring the only goal when the Romans defeated Rovers reserves in August 1983. He was signed twice by Bath, the first occasion by Stuart Taylor and the second by Harold Jarman, both highly experienced Rovers players in their own right. A goal on his Cheltenham début at Welling in August 1986 was the first of seven in 87(+10) matches in all competitions and Torrington ended the 1997-98 campaign in bottom place in the Screwfix Direct League, eighteen points adrift of Chard Town. Earlier in his career, Brown had played twice for Minehead after scoring fourteen times in 36 games at St George, a tally which included three goals in a 9-1 win against Gloucester City reserves. Keith Brown works as a driving instructor and lives in Midsomer Norton with Tracey, both with two children from previous marriages. |
No 809. Lee James Brown. 2011-18.
Born, 10.8.1990, Farnborough. 6’; 12 st 6 lbs. Début: 6.8.11 v AFC Wimbledon. Career: Queen’s Park Rangers (professional, 4.7.08) [0+1,0]; 18.9.09 Salisbury City (loan); 10.9.10 Hayes and Yeading (loan); 17.6.11 Bristol Rovers (free) [227+15,19]; 11.6.18 Portsmouth (free) [106+5,6]; 28.1.22 Wimbledon (free) [14+1,0]. Cometh the hour, cometh the man … Chasing an unlikely double-promotion in May 2016, Rovers needed a last-day home victory over relegated Dagenham coupled with a result elsewhere going in the club’s favour. Whilst supporters knew Accrington were only drawing, it was evident that a late Rovers winner would secure promotion from League Two. A stubborn Daggers defence held out until the second minute of added time, when Matty Taylor’s short rebounded off a post and left-back Lee Brown gleefully took the club side-footed into League One. He was an appropriate promotion-winner, having been the only outfield player to take part in every minute of every game for any League Two side that season and his consistent play, not to mention regular goals, had made him a firm favourite. It is odd to read that Brown joined Rovers with just one minute’s League experience to his name, having replaced Tamás Priskin in the final moments of QPR’s 1-0 victory at Barnsley in April 2010. Turning down a trial at Orient, he played in 11(+2) Conference games under Darrell Clarke at Salisbury, where his début came in a 2-0 defeat at Tamworth in September 2009 and, helping Hayes to promotion from Nationwide South, in 38 games for the Mushrooms, his three goals coming against Tamworth, Kettering and Gateshead in the Conference. In addition, he had hit all three goals when Hayes won 3-1 at Poole Town in a FA Cup-tie in October 2010. Developing at Rovers into a respected and reliable defender, he also earned a firm reputation from the penalty spot, notably sending the goalkeeper the wrong way twice, his twice-taken penalty paving the way towards Rovers’ February 2013 victory at Oxford’s Kassam Stadium. Despite a missed penalty at Torquay on the final day of the campaign, he impressed with his consistent form for the Pirates. During an impressive 2013-14 campaign, Brown enjoyed his golden moment when his eleventh-minute free-kick put Rovers ahead in the critical end-of-season six-pointer at Wycombe, where Rovers’ eventual 2-1 victory all but condemned Wanderers to Conference football and appeared to secure Rovers’ ongoing League status. He also conceded an own goal at home to Exeter City in January 2014. Rovers having made the drop into the Conference, Brown was selected for the England C training squad in late September 2014 and he appeared in the side which lost 2-0 in Istanbul that October to a Turkish Under-23 side and defeated Estonia Under-23 4-2 at Halifax the following month; in February 2015 he created England’s goal in a 2-1 defeat against Cyprus Under-21s in Larnaca. That campaign, Rovers pushed hard for an immediate return to the Football League, Brown appearing in 43 Conference matches and scoring twice as the Gas finished one point behind champions Barnet; he played in the Wembley play-off final in May 2015, scoring in the penalty shoot-out as Rovers dramatically secured promotion back to League football. The following season saw him cement his reputation as a reliable and dependable left-back, with Rovers achieving an unpredicted second successive promotion, Brown’s last-gasp goal taking the Gas back to League One. His daughter Mollie Rose Brown was born in December 2013 and a second child was due on the day his goal secured Rovers’ return to third-tier football. Having left Rovers, Lee Brown played for Pompey against the Gas in 2018-19, appeared alongside John Marquis on many occasions and, for a second time in his career, scored in a Wembley penalty shoot-out as Sunderland were defeated in the Football League Trophy Final in March 2019. However, the Black Cats gained their revenge by pipping Pompey in the play-off semi-finals that season. Brown scored his first League goal for Pompey in the 2-2 draw with Peterborough United at Fratton Park in December 2019 and contrived to score twice in first-half stoppage time during the 3-1 victory over his future club Wimbledon in May 2021. Brown was part of the Wimbledon side which was relegated from League One in 2021-22. |
No 398. Robert Brown. 1968-72.
Born, 14.5.1949, Bristol. 5’ 8”; 11 st. Début: 21.12.68 v Gillingham. Career: Bristol Rovers (professional, June 1967) [28+7,4]; 18.3.70 Newport County (loan) [8+1,0]; 30.6.72 Yeovil Town (trial); 7.7.72 Hereford United (loan); 14.7.72 Weymouth (free); 3.5.73 Bath City; 7.2.76 Minehead; 24.12.78 Bath City (loan); 24.1.79 Bath City; 1981 Gloucester City; 1983 Forest Green Rovers; 1985 Yate Town (coach); 1994 Winterbourne (coach); September 1996 Bristol Rovers (schoolboy coach). Despite a goal on his Rovers début, the second in a 2-0 win, midfielder Bobby “Chico” Brown was unable to stake a claim to a regular place in Rovers’ starting line-up. He scored again in the 6-2 victory over Mansfield Town and in games against Reading and Barnsley. Having played alongside Ray Mabbutt at Newport, Brown was later a three-time Somerset Professional Cup winner and coached Yate Town to the Gloucestershire Cup Final in 1989-90. Signed by Brian Godfrey for Bath, he scored in a friendly against Rovers reserves in August 1980. A Minehead début against Bexley United in February 1976 was the first of 151(+5) games in all competitions, which brought twenty goals and his 55 games and two goals for Gloucester City in all competitions included 42 goalless Southern League games and an appearance in the Southern League Cup Final, which was lost to Wealdstone. Whilst working at Yate Town in 1985-86, he also made brief appearances for Rovers’ reserve side and worked at Bristol Fruit Market. A salesman living in Bristol, Bobby Brown married Sue Ball, the niece of Rovers’ Barry Watkins, who is therefore also a cousin of Judith Crabtree, the wife of the former Rovers goalkeeper Richard Crabtree. |
No 783. Wayne Jonathan Brown. 2009-11.
Born, 6.8.1988, Kingston-upon-Thames. 5’ 9”; 12 st 5 lbs. Début: 2.2.10 v Orient. Career: 1.7.07 Fulham [0+1,0]; 25.2.08 Brentford (loan) [7+4,1]; April 2009 TPS Turku (loan); 1.2.10 Bristol Rovers (loan); 25.5.10 Bristol Rovers (free) [31+28,3]; 1.1.13 TPS Turku (free); 8.2.14 Roi Et United (Thailand, trial); 26.2.14 Seinäjoen Jalkapallokerho (free); 16.5.16 Newcastle Jets (free); 2.8.18 Sutton United (free); 27.11.19 Walton Casuals (free); 26.7.21 Colliers Wood United (free; retired, 1.5.22). Midfielder Wayne Brown, whose Rovers début came in a 5-0 defeat at Orient, the heaviest loss of the season, had been in the Fulham side knocked out of the FA Cup in January 2008 by Rovers. After one League appearance for Fulham, replacing Zoltan Gera in a 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford in February 2009, he scored for Brentford at Grimsby and went to Finland on loan. An immense success at Turku, where he was Finnish Player of the Year in 2009 with nine goals in 26 matches, he scored on his début and added a critical penalty against Tampere United in July 2009 as the race for the Finnish title intensified. Having hit the bar early on in Rovers’ astonishing 6-3 victory at Wycombe in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in November 2010, Brown scored his first Rovers goal a fortnight later, when his finish from Ben Swallow’s pass gave the club the lead against promotion-chasing Charlton. Out of favour for some time, he was recalled to score in consecutive games in April 2011 as Rovers fought unsuccessfully to avoid relegation and became a regular member of the side in the basement division, his last action in a Rovers shirt being an injury-time red card in the 3-3 draw with Bradford City in November 2012, before returning to Finnish football, where he scored nine goals in forty games with Turku. Having moved back to Finland, Wayne Brown and his fiancée Natalie had their first child in October 2013, he added two goals, both in May 2015 against VPS and KuPS, in 30(+6) matches as SJK became Finnish champions in October 2015 but, upon their relegation a year later, he emigrated to Australia. Brown scored two goals in the opening quarter of an hour against Canberra Olympic in August 2017, playing 30(+12) times, before adding 9(+5) Conference matches for Sutton United and a December 2018 goal against Solihull Moors. Unable to break into Sutton’s side in 2019-20, he joined former Rovers striker René Howe at Walton Casuals and played eleven times for Colliers Wood in the Combined Counties League, being sent off in the 2-0 defeat to Raynes Park Vale in March 2022 and latterly captaining the side. |
No 554. Marcus Trevor Browning. 1989-97.
Born, 22.4.1971, Bristol. 6’ 1”; 13 st. Début: 28.1.90 v Bolton Wanderers. Career: Whitchurch Sports; Warmley; Parkway; Bristol Boys; Bristol Rovers (professional, 18.7.89) [152+22,11]; February 1990 Gloucester City (loan); 17.8.91 Weymouth (loan); 18.9.92 Hereford United (loan) [7,5]; 14.2.97 Huddersfield Town (£500,000) [25+8,0]; 18.11.98 Gillingham (loan); 25.3.99 Gillingham (£175,000) [61+17,3]; 9.8.02 Bournemouth (free) [156+32,3]; 4.7.07 Weymouth (trial); 28.7.07 Weymouth (free) (player-coach, 3.1.09); 1.8.09 Bath City (free); 5.11.09 Bournemouth (coach); 23.11.10 Poole Town (trial); 24.7.11 Winchester City (free). Having made his League bow during Rovers’ Third Division championship season, Marcus Browning was viewed by many as one of the exciting prospects in League football. Indeed, Malcolm Allison (1927-2010), Rovers’ manager in Division Two, predicted he would play for England. This burgeoning reputation was enhanced by a goal against top-flight Aston Villa in the FA Cup in January 1993. Browning gave great service to Rovers for many years, playing as a substitute at Wembley in the 1995 play-off final against his future employers Huddersfield and did indeed win full international honours, although not in an England shirt. Qualifying through his Welsh heritage, he won the first of five caps for Wales in a 3-0 defeat against Italy in Terni in January 1996, when manager Bobby Gould brought him on as a 57th-minute substitute for Sheffield United’s Glyn Hodges and hit the San Marino crossbar with a thirty-yard shot in September of that year. He was sent off against Reading over Easter 1994 and his absence at the end of that campaign was noted. After playing against Rovers in a Gillingham shirt in the FA Cup in 2002, “Gravy” Browning enjoyed many successful years at Bournemouth, for whom he also opposed Rovers in the League and FA Cup. His robust midfield displays brought three red cards at Dean Court, yet also much admiration and he was Man of the Match as the Cherries defeated Lincoln City 5-2 in the Millennium Stadium play-off final of May 2003 to secure promotion to Division Two. Earlier in his career he could count a hat-trick against Crawley Town in December 1990 amongst ten goals in 12(+6) games with Gloucester City. Sent off twice in his 19(+5) appearances in a second stint at Weymouth, Browning also helped Bath City to promotion to the Conference via the play-offs in 2009-10, before his 10(+3) games helped Poole to the semi-finals of the FA Vase. A qualified Sunday League referee in the Bournemouth leagues, Marcus Browning (who runs a window-cleaning business) and his wife Lisa have two daughters, Alex and India and a son, Morgan, and their first grandchild was born in 2011. |
No 227. David Bruce. 1936-37.
Born, 23.2.11, Perth. Died, 15.9.1976, Bridge of Earn, Perth. 5’ 8”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 29.8.36 v Millwall. Career: Perth Thistle; 16.8.30 East Fife [5,0]; 1931 Dundee East Craigie; August 1935 Leicester City [1,0]; 27.4.36 Bristol Rovers [12,2]; 12.8.37 St Mirren (£50) [18,0]; 1940 Airdrieonians. Alongside Wally Gillespie, another player who was to appear for Rovers, David Bruce was a member of the newly-promoted East Fife side which returned to the Scottish Division Two at the end of the 1930-31 season, playing well in the 4-4 draw in Division One at home to Falkirk in November 1930. Joining Rovers in a joint deal with Tommy Mills, he helped the reserve side secure the 1936-37 Western League championship and completed a hat-trick in the 12-2 win against the Monmouthshire Senior League that January. He also scored League goals in the home games against Swindon Town and Newport County. Although he was placed on the transfer list at £200, St Mirren picked him up for a fraction of that fee and he made his début for them at left-back in a First Division game against Queen of the South in September 1937. A brief career at Airdrieonians opened with a début in the 4-1 home defeat at the hands of Clyde in August 1940. |
No 846. Ryan Samuel Brunt. 2012-14.
Born, 26.5.1993, Birmingham. 6’ 1”; 12 st 4 lbs. Début: 26.1.13 v Rotherham United. Career: Bristol City (schoolboy); 2010 Stoke City (professional, 1.7.11); 1.8.11 Nantwich Town (loan); 8.11.11 Luton Town (loan); 27.1.12 Tranmere Rovers (loan) [11+4,1]; 17.7.12 Orient (loan) [8+10,3]; 23.1.13 Bristol Rovers (free) [26+3,5]; 30.9.14 York City (loan) [5+1,0]; 27.11.14 Stevenage (loan) [3+2,0]; 20.1.15 Plymouth Argyle (free) [21+29,11]; 28.6.17 Exeter City (trial); 1.8.17 Exeter City (free) [0+1,0]; 29.6.18 Bath City (free; retired, 29.7.20); 9.10.20 Chippenham Town (free). “A hard-working target man”, striker Ryan Brunt arrived at The Mem as Rovers sought to avoid the drop into Conference football in the spring of 2013 and made his début in a morale-boosting 3-1 win at play-off-chasing Rotherham in the snow. Unable to make the first-team at Tony Pulis’ Stoke, a career which had included cruciate knee ligament trouble had involved five Conference games at Luton, all as substitute and including a 5-0 win at Kettering, as well as one fixture in Nantwich’s colours, a 6-0 FA Cup defeat against MK Dons. Following his Tranmere début against Huddersfield, Brunt played alongside Mark McChrystal and registered his first League goal after 33 minutes of a 1-1 draw with Charlton Athletic at Prenton Park in February 2012 and a loan spell with Orient included goals in the home matches with Brentford, Yeovil Town and Hartlepool United. As Rovers strove to extract themselves from the drop zone at the foot of the basement division, Brunt proved immediate popularity is possible, when his 93rd-minute winning goal defeated Edgar Davids’ Barnet side on his home début in February 2013 and propelled Rovers away from the bottom two in the table, en route to retaining their League status. He then scored the only goal of the next home game as Wycombe Wanderers were defeated, and twice from Oli Norburn’s pin-point corners as high-flying Port Vale lost 2-0 in Horfield, before missing almost all of the 2013-14 campaign after undergoing a minor knee operation. A rehabilitatory loan spell at Stevenage was then cut short by an injury accrued during the December 2014 defeat at Cambridge United. After 4(+2) Conference games during Rovers’ 2014-15 promotion campaign, his move to Plymouth proved popular with the Devon crowd, Argyle easing into the League Two play-offs, Brunt scoring against both Hartlepool and Cambridge. However, despite Brunt’s second-leg goal at Adams Park, Argyle lost a two-legged play-off semi-final to Wycombe Wanderers and he played in both fixtures against Rovers the following campaign, where braces against Carlisle and Mansfield helped steer the Janners to a play-off finish once again. By the time they lost to Wimbledon at Wembley in May 2016, Brunt had once again been ruled out through injury; the following campaign, despite missing out on the League Two title on the final day, Argyle returned to League One. His Exeter career encompassed just one substitute appearance against Cambridge United, and he later added nine goals in 19(+14) Conference South appearances with Bath City, but was sent off against Wealdstone as the play-off semi-final was lost. After Brunt had played four times for Chippenham Town, the 2020-21 National League South was declared null and void amidst the coronvirus pandemic |
No 149. Clifford Samuel Bryant. 1930-31.
Born, 21.5.1913, Kingswood, Bristol. Died, 2.12.1997, Kingswood, Bristol. 5’ 10”; 12 st. Début: 14.3.31 v Fulham. Career: Two Mile Hill School; 1926-27 Bristol Schools; 1929 Bristol Gas; Wesley Rangers; October 1930 Bristol Rovers (professional, May 1931) [1,0]; 10.6.32 Blackburn Rovers [4,0]; May 1936 Wrexham [8,0]; 1937 Cheltenham Town; 5.9.38 Glastonbury (to 4.9.39). Just seventeen years of age when he played his sole game for Rovers, Cliff Bryant had made his début for the reserves the previous week against Metropolitan Police. Although he “showed considerable promise, [was] tenacious and took trouble with his passes” [Bristol Evening Post], this England Schoolboy international of 1927 never appeared for the first-team again. At Blackburn, where he played alongside Eastville names in Ernie Coombs, Ronnie Dix and Frank Britton, he made his First Division début at Newcastle United in April 1933 and went on a club tour to Sweden and Denmark. After World War Two he combined scouting for West Bromwich Albion with work in the family off-licence and bakery in Queen’s Street, Kingswood, before being employed by British Road Services and later Rolls Royce. Believed to be the third of eight children to Herbert Bryant (1886-1937) and Alice Beatrice Parker (1886-1958), he married Vera Dark who, after over fifty years of marriage and a son Richard, predeceased him by a fortnight. |
No 642. Simon Christopher Bryant. 1999-2004.
Born, 22.11.1982, Bristol. 5’ 11”; 12 st 11 lbs. Début: 28.8.99 v Wrexham. Career: Hanham High School; Longwell Green Juniors; Deerswood; 1999 Bristol Rovers (professional, 11.1.00) [65+22,2]; 11.12.03 Tiverton Town (loan); 3.7.04 Kidderminster Harriers (trial); 10.7.04 Forest Green Rovers (free); 2004 Nicholas Wanderers (coach); May 2005 Team Bath; 1.7.06 Hanham Athletic; 20.7.08 Mangotsfield United; 10.10.08 Cadbury Heath; 1.8.10 Oldland; 11.10.11 Longwell Green Sports (assistant manager, to April 2012). When Simon Bryant appeared in Rovers’ game at the Racecourse Ground, he became, after Ronnie Dix, Rovers’ second youngest player during the Football League era. Although Scott Sinclair has since relegated the tall midfielder to third place, Bryant remains the youngest man to have captained Rovers in League action. An England Under-16 trialist, he won two caps in the autumn of 2000 for England at Under-18 level, his first being a 5-0 victory over the Faeroe Islands. Having made his club début in the League Cup-tie against Luton, Bryant soon showed he had a mature approach to the game and slotted into a successful side, registering his first goal with a 25-yard crisp shot after twenty minutes of the 3-0 win at Cambridge in September 2000. However, injuries took their toll too and he had missed a significant amount of the 1999-2000 season in this regard before, out of favour towards the end of Ray Graydon’s tenure, he enjoyed a revival under the management of Phil Bater. Ten minutes from time at York in September 2003, Bryant became the first Rovers substitute to be sent off, subsequently repeated by Richard Walker, Oli Norburn and Eliot Richards, and he later played six times alongside the Rovers full-back Graeme Power at Tiverton. Simon Bryant’s brother Matt played for Bristol City and Gillingham. |
No 675. Alvin Ryan Bubb. 2001-02.
Born, 11.10.1980, Paddington. 5’ 4”; 10 st 3 lbs. Début: 27.8.01 v Darlington. Career: St Gregory’s Catholic Science College; Queen’s Park Rangers (professional, 1.8.00) [0+1,0]; 18.6.01 Bristol Rovers [3+10,0]; 28.7.02 Sheffield United (trial); 17.8.02 Billericay Town (free); 4.9.02 Slough Town (free); 15.8.03 Aylesbury United (free); 19.9.04 Wealdstone (free); 7.9.07 Hanwell Town (to September 2007); AFC Wembley (youth coach). Diminutive striker Alvin Bubb stepped off the bench to come within a fraction of heading a last-minute goal at Darlington, only for his header to be brilliantly saved by the former Rovers keeper Andy Collett. It was to be the closest the Arsenal supporter, who had played in the final nine minutes of relegated QPR’s final-day 1-1 draw with Wolves in May 2001, would come to a goal. He then made three substitute appearances before being sent off on his first start for Billericay, after half an hour at Hendon, and moved swiftly on. Joining Slough Town on the same day as his relative, Byron Bubb, formerly of Millwall, Bubb played 5(+11) times, scoring twice, before adding 25(+8) games and six goals for Aylesbury and two substitute appearances with Hanwell Town. Noted at Aylesbury for his “pace and trickery”, “Chipmunk” was top scorer in 2003-04, his meagre tally of six goals, playing alongside Tom Ramasut, including an “excellent” strike in the 1-0 victory against Bognor Regis Town and a spectacular shot in the final-day 4-2 defeat at Maidenhead United. A qualified electrician with Asgard Electrical and Level Two coach living in north-west London with his partner Shevonne and their sons Shay and Tyler, Alvin Bubb is a first cousin both of Byron Bubb, who won ten full caps for Grenada, and Hendon’s Bradley Bubb. |
No 219. Edward Colston Buckley. 1935-36.
Born, 13.9.1912, Trethomas, Glamorgan. Died, 1971, Trethomas, Glamorgan. 5’ 11”; 12 st. Début: 18.9.35 v Gillingham. Career: Trethomas Bluebirds; Sunderland (trial); January 1935 Wolverhampton Wanderers; 22.8.35 Bristol Rovers [8,2]; Bournemouth (trial); 1936-37 Bath City (loan); May 1937 Tranmere Rovers [35,12]; 1941 Birkenhead Fire Service. Having scored twenty goals for the reserves, Ted Buckley earned his call-up to the League side and responded with goals against Gillingham on his début and in the 6-1 victory over Exeter City. He also scored the winner in extra-time as Rovers defeated Bournemouth 2-1 to retain the Allen Palmer Cup over Easter 1936 and, despite a missed penalty against Plymouth Argyle reserves, helped Rovers’ second string win the Western League championship for 1935-36. Against Frome Town at home that April he scored a hat-trick in a 5-3 defeat. Despite an injury in an FA Cup-tie at Warminster Town in November 1936, the foul securing a penalty fired past the former Rovers custodian Foster Windsor for the only goal, Buckley was top scorer at Bath City in 1936-37 with 28 goals. Prenton Park had seen nothing like it when he arrived, as he scored in his first eight League and Cup games, helping Tranmere to the Division Three (North) title for 1937-38, before he retired to join the fire service. Indeed, Welsh selectors had allegedly watched him at a Tranmere reserve game with Nantwich, as they looked to replace the injured Birmingham forward Wilson Jones (1914-86), but no international call-up followed. The eldest of five children to Edward Colston Buckley (1883-1965) and Lucy Powell, Ted Buckley married Mabel Brown in Caerphilly in 1931 and they had a daughter Elizabeth (who married in 1959 Lionel Robert Stuart-Watt and adopted a daughter Janet) and a son Edward, who married Maureen Palmer in 1960, with children Philip and Karen. |
No 359.David John Bumpstead. 1961-64.
Born, 6.11.1935, Rainham, Kent. Died, 26.8.2017, Upminster. 5’ 10”; 10 st 4 lbs. Début: 2.12.61 v Walsall. Career: Grays Primary School; Essex Grammar Schools; Briggs Sports; 1954 Tottenham Hotspur (amateur); Ashford Town; 1956 Hitchin Town (trial); 1956 Uxbridge (trial); 1956 Luton Town; 1957 Tooting and Mitcham United; June 1958 Millwall [84,8]; 28.11.61 Bristol Rovers [40,0] (retired, October 1963); 1966 Brentwood (manager, 1967-70); 1970 Chelmsford City (manager) (to 1974). An England amateur international at inside-right, Dave Bumpstead was converted to right-half at Millwall and was a reliable and dependable figure at Eastville. The ninth of ten children and sixth son to Ernest Bumpstead (1899-1972) and his wife Lilian Bertha Leek (1900-59), he followed his elder brothers into football, Bob reaching an Amateur Cup semi-final with Briggs Sports in 1955, George joining Bob as an amateur at Millwall, Dennis playing for Rainham, Bert at Brentwood and Ernie and Ray with Dagenham. Dave Bumpstead helped Tooting and Mitcham secure the 1957-58 Isthmian League title before making his League bow in Fourth Division Millwall’s 2-1 win at Gillingham in August 1958. His England amateur cap had come against France and he toured Holland and Germany with the itinerant Middlesex Wanderers side. Having appeared in the May 1961 Kent FA Challenge Cup Final, which was lost 5-1 to Charlton Athletic, Bumpstead joined Rovers but was transfer-listed after a contractual dispute. He had conceded an own goal after 74 minutes at Roker Park in January 1962, Sunderland’s fifth goal in a 6-1 victory. Out of football for three years, during which time he worked for the car company Ford, he signed Rovers’ goalkeeper Ray White for Brentwood and led his side to the Southern League Division One championship in 1968-69. Briefly manager at Brentwood and Chelmsford simultaneously, his FA Cup journey at the former included a 10-1 thumping at Southend United in 1968 and a 1-0 home victory over Third Division Reading twelve months later. Having studied accountancy earlier in his life, Dave Bumpstead later ran an off-licence for many years in Crow Lane, Romford and lived in the village of Ingatestone, near Chelmsford. |
No 206. William Newman Bunce. 1934-35.
Born, 17.4.1911, Pill, Somerset. Died, 29.5.1981, Pill, Somerset. 6’; 15 st. Début: 16.1.35 v Northampton Town. Career: Pill; May 1932 Bristol City (amateur); September 1932 Leicester City; 28.6.33 Bristol Rovers [2,0]; 18.1.36 Bath City; 1936 Bristol City; 1938 Crockerne United (Pill). Tall, strong and fit, Newman Bunce made his Rovers début in goal in a 7-1 home victory. The last amateur to play for the side until Jim Allaway in 1950-51, he had played for the reserves against Plymouth Argyle reserves four days earlier and later appeared in a Welsh Cup-tie which was drawn 3-3 with Port Vale. His Bristol City career amounted to a match for the “A” side at Warminster Town in April 1932 and the trial game prior to the next season. Bunce made his Bath City reserves début in January 1936 in a 1-1 draw at home to Weston-super-Mare in the Somerset Senior Cup, but never made the first-team. An adept cricketer with Lodway, he played in fourteen matches for Somerset in 1936 and 1937 as a lower-order left-handed batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler; his highest score was 46 against Kent at Bath in June 1937, before being out to a catch from the England player Les Ames (1905-90), and he took 3-81 against Surrey at The Oval in May 1936, as well as claiming five career catches. The son of William Charles Bunce (1881-1942) and Mary Eveline Malpas, born in 1880, Newman Bunce later ran the family butchering business in Pill; he married in 1951 Margaret Hockridge, the daughter of Reginald Hockridge (1896-1983) and Evelyn Ray, and they had a son Richard. |
No 891. Jonathan David Burn. 2016-18.
Born, 1.8.1995, Darlington. 6’ 1”; 11 st 6 lbs. Début: 18.2.17 v Port Vale. Career: 2009 Sunderland (26.3.11 schoolboy); 17.12.12 Darlington 1883 (loan); 26.3.13 Middlesbrough (free); 10.8.15 Oldham Athletic (loan) [12,1]; 24.6.16 Kilmarnock (loan) [6+2,0]; 26.1.17 Bristol Rovers (free) [2+1,0]; 28.11.17 York City (loan); 22.6.18 Darlington (free); 17.10.19 Whickham (free); 8.8.20 Whitby Town (free); 2.11.22 Northallerton Town (loan). One of only two League One sides to have conceded fifty goals at that stage in the season, Rovers strengthened their defence with the January transfer window signing of Jonny Burn. Described on social media as “an aggressive defender”, Burn added height, strength and class to the back line. Top scorer for Sunderland’s Under-18 side in 2011-12, he managed ten goals in 27 games across two seasons and then played in three Northern League fixtures on loan at his home-town club, before enjoying further loan spells at Oldham and Kilmarnock. His time with the Latics included a 24th-minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Doncaster Rovers in September 2015 and a red card in the home draw with Sheffield United the following month, whilst he was voted Man of the Match as Killie drew 1-1 with Rangers at Rugby Park in August 2016, his Scottish tally also featuring two League Cup-ties. One appearance as captain for the Boro Under-23 side in a goalless draw at Aston Villa in January 2017 preceded his move to the Memorial Stadium. He was to score three goals in 17(+3) Nationwide North matches with York City ahead of 13(+4) matches with Darlington, many as a team-mate of Alex Henshall, and 30(+3) Northern Premier League matches for Whitby over two seasons. |
No 78. Albert Edward Burnell. 1925-26.
Born, 28.12.1901, Bristol. Died, 4.6.1991, Tavistock, Devon. 6’ 1”; 12 st 6 lbs. Début: 31.10.25 v Plymouth Argyle. Career: Barton Hill Sports; October 1925 Bristol Rovers [9,3]; 26.9.32 Dockland Settlement no 3 (Bristol); 23.8.34 Prewett Street Mission (Bristol) (player-manager). Having made two appearances for the Rovers reserves side on trial, Albert Burnell scored in the reserves’ 8-1 victory over Bath City in October 1925 to earn a call-up to the League side. On Boxing Day that year, Rovers thumped Bournemouth 7-2 at Eastville, with Burnell scoring twice in the first five minutes; 4-1 ahead at the interval, Rovers won comfortably with Jonah Wilcox scoring four goals, including two penalties. Brought up at 13 Gloucester Place, St Jude’s, Albert Burnell was the middle child and only son of a labourer, William Burnell and his wife Emily Coyle. At the age of twenty-one he married Elsie Mary Hughes, a Bristol girl (1900-86), and they had four sons and a daughter between 1922 and 1931, Albert, Iris, Dennis, Roy and Leonard, before settling in Devon. |
No 734. Liam Burns 2004-05.
Born, 30.10.1978, Belfast. 6’ 2”; 13 st 10 lbs. Début: 30.10.04 v Boston United. Career: Port Vale (professional, 2.7.97) [94+25,0]; 16.7.04 Bristol Rovers (free) [3,0]; 10.12.04 Shrewsbury Town (free) [1+1,0]; 24.12.04 Kidderminster Harriers (free) [0+1,0]; 7.1.05 Forest Green Rovers (free) [2+1,0]; 17.3.05 Sligo Rovers (free) [54,2]; July 2006 Bohemians; 19.1.09 Dundalk; 2.8.10 Shamrock Rovers (trial); 16.2.11 Bohemians [87,3]; 26.1.12 Dundalk (2015 Community Coach) [60,3]. Softly-spoken North Irishman Liam Burns made his Rovers début on his twenty-sixth birthday. A Northern Ireland Youth international, with thirteen Under-21 caps to his name, he had made his League bow in Port Vale’s 4-2 defeat at Sunderland in January 1998. After playing in Vale’s embarrassing 1-0 FA Cup defeat against Canvey Island in November 2000 and scoring after 64 minutes when they defeated Ford United in the same competition in November 2003, not to mention playing in goal for 28 minutes against Wigan Athletic, he arrived at Rovers simultaneously with German trialists Thorsten Dinkel and Bernd Gagstätter, all three playing in the goalless friendly with Bath City at Twerton Park. With Jon Beswetherick at Rovers, Forest Green and Harriers, Burns picked up yellow cards on his débuts with both Shrewsbury and Kidderminster, played in 2(+1) Conference games at Forest Green, made his Sligo début in a 2-1 victory over Kildare County and scored his first goal for Bohemians in a game against his former side, Sligo, in March 2008. Liam Burns was a League of Ireland champion with Sligo in 2005 and with Bohemians in 2008, playing as they beat Derry City in the Cup Final, before captaining Dundalk. |
No 289. Bryan Bush. 1947-55.
Born, 25.4.1925, Bristol. Died, 25.8.2008, Bristol. 5’ 8”; 11 st 8 lbs. Début: 28.4.48 v Ipswich Town. Career: Kingswood School; Longwell Green; Oldland Juniors; Bristol Boys; 20.12.45 Bristol City (amateur); 1946 Soundwell; October 1947 Bristol Rovers [113,20]; 4.8.55 Trowbridge Town; 3.8.56 Bath City (trial); 1.11.56 Wells City; 1958 Bitton. Every successful team requires unsung heroes and, as unfashionable Rovers moved from mid-table in third-tier football to the upper ranks of the second-tier, Bryan Bush certainly played his rôle. Rarely a regular, deputising for George Petherbridge on the right or Josser Watling on the left, Bush nonetheless played in 35 of the 46 League fixtures as Rovers secured the Third Division (South) title in 1952-53. Geoff Bradford and Vic Lambden relied on the accuracy of his crosses for the goals which achieved this feat, although Bush himself scored twice in a game on one occasion, in a 5-3 victory over Walsall and added one goal in the Second Division, a penalty in the defeat at Forest in October 1953. Following his League bow at Portman Road, his Rovers career included an appearance in the FA Cup quarter-final against Newcastle United in February 1951 as well as the unlikely 2-0 shock FA Cup victory over Preston North End in January 1952. The third child of Harold Bush (1892-1959) and Alice Carter, who had married in 1917, Bryan Bush made his Bristol City reserves’ début against Chippenham Town three days before Christmas 1945 before joining Rovers and, with his Rovers career disrupted by a leg injury, his final League game was the 8-3 defeat at Blackburn in February 1955, in which Tommy Briggs’ (1923-84) seven goals included six after half-time. Under manager Harry Haddon, another former Rovers player, Bush helped Trowbridge win the Western League title in 1955-56 (although he scored just once, in a 4-3 defeat at Frome Town in the FA Cup in September 1955), before making his Wells début against Salisbury City in November 1956. An engineer and mechanic in the Fleet Air Arm, he later worked as a butcher in Bitton and then as a salesman. Married to Anne Brown, with three children, Geoff, Jane and Steve, and several grandchildren, Bryan Bush suffered a stroke and died a week later, at the age of eighty-three. |
No 238. Albert Butterworth. 1936-39.
Born, 20.3.1912, Ashton-under-Lyne. Died, January, 1991, Ashton-under-Lyne. 5’ 8½”; 11 st 6 lbs. Début: 14.11.36 v Luton Town. Career: Ashton-under-Lyne; 1930 Droylsden; August 1930 Manchester United (amateur); January 1931 Hurst; May 1931 Blackpool (joint deal with Fred Letchford) [22,5]; April 1934 Preston North End [14,4]; 13.11.36 Bristol Rovers [95,12]; July 1946 Stalybridge Celtic; November 1946 Hurst; August 1947 Hyde United. Albert Butterworth, a moulder, and Elizabeth Ann Glover, who married in Ashton-under-Lyne in 1905 and lived at 13 Glebe Street in Ashton-under-Lyne, had a son Albert and a daughter Martha. Albert junior, who was baptised on 14th April 1912 at St James’, Ashton-under-Lyne, carved out a decent footballing career for himself, although the tail end of it was lost to the war. His forty goals helped Droylsden secure the 1930-31 Manchester League title and drew the attention of larger clubs. Arriving at Eastville with a strong reputation, he was able to forge a powerful right-wing combination with Welsh international Tommy Mills and he remained with Rovers long enough to play in all three games of the aborted 1939-40 season and score in Wally McArthur’s benefit game against Newport County that summer. Wartime football with Bath City and Bristol City, as well as one game for Accrington Stanley, a 6-3 defeat at Bacup Borough over Christmas 1941, proved the end of the career for a winger who was “useful and industrious [and] could take hard knocks”. “Much in evidence” (Western Daily Press) as City defeated Cardiff City 3-2 in March 1940, his cross had been headed home after twenty minutes by Dick Armstrong (1909-69) for the opening strike. Out for several weeks in 1945-46 with a foot injury, he scored twice in the 4-2 home victory over Port Vale in February 1946 before leaving Bristol and returning nearer home. |
No 555. David Stuart Byrne. 1989-90.
Born, 5.3.1961, Hammersmith. 5’ 8”; 11 st. Début: 10.2.90 v Preston North End. Career: Brentford (schoolboy); Southall; 1980 Hounslow; Chiswick Albion; 4.8.81 Harrow Borough; September 1981 Hounslow; October 1983 Kingstonian; 15.7.85 Gillingham [18+5,3]; 4.8.86 Millwall (£5,000) [52+11,6]; 8.9.88 Cambridge United (loan) [4,0]; 23.2.89 Blackburn Rovers (loan) [4,0]; 16.3.89 Plymouth Argyle (free) [52+7,2]; 1.2.90 Bristol Rovers (loan) [0+2,0]; 15.11.90 Watford (£50,000) [16+1,2]; 21.8.91 Reading (loan) [7,2]; 15.1.92 Fulham (loan) [5,1]; January 1993 Shamrock Rovers (free) [4,0]; 8.3.93 St Johnstone [12,0]; August 1993 Partick Thistle (free) [32+3,0]; 11.2.94 Walsall (loan) [5,0]; February 1995 St Mirren [6,0]; 19.6.95 Tottenham Hotspur (loan); 24.8.95 Ayr United (player-Under-18 coach) [8+2,0]; 11.1.96 Albion Rovers (exchange with Martin Scott) (player-coach) [46,1]; August 1997 Armadale Thistle; 1998 Plymouth College of Further Education (football coach); 19.9.06 Plymouth Argyle (youth coach); 28.11.06 Swindon Town (youth team coach; caretaker manager, 14.11.08-26.12.08; head of player development, 16.6.09-1.8.10); 10.7.15 Yeovil Town (Head of Coaching, to 24.5.16); 23.3.19 Dundee United (Head of Recruitment). Much-travelled midfielder David Byrne, who now lives in Plymouth, managed 26 minutes on the field for Rovers during the 1989-90 Third Division championship campaign, troubling in particular the Preston defence with his speed. Having appeared seven times for Harrow Borough, his two goals coming against Woking and Chertsey, he represented a huge number of professional clubs, making his Watford début against Rovers in November 1990 and scoring against Middlesbrough with his final kick in a Hornets shirt. The son of Edward Byrne and Margaret Lightfoot, David Byrne was sent off in the colours of Plymouth, Watford, St Mirren and Albion Rovers, the final occasion as one of three Albion men sent off in a 4-0 Scottish Cup replay defeat against Forfar Athletic. He also conceded an own goal just eight minutes into a Scottish League fixture with Rangers, whilst on the books of Partick, whilst his first two appearances for Ayr ended in defeat and the departure of manager Simon Stainrod. In September 1991 he scored for Reading in successive Third Division games, against Swansea City and Birmingham City. Perhaps his most unlikely move was to Spurs in the close season of 1995, where he helped out his brother-in-law Gerry Francis, a former Rovers man himself who had also brought him to Twerton Park in 1990, by appearing in four Inter-Toto Cup matches. A long stint with Albion Rovers included a goal in the 1-1 draw at Ross County in March 1996, a run of twelve consecutive winless games and the unlikely scenario of the game against Cowdenbeath in August 1996 being held up because of “crowd congestion”. Martin Horsell, a goalkeeper he had trained, joined Rovers in October 2004, and Byrne, appointed by Paul Sturrock at Swindon, was later caretaker-manager for the Robins’ 2-2 draw at the Memorial Stadium in November 2008. |
No 646. Shaun Ryan Byrne. 1999-2000.
Born, 21.1.1981, Taplow. 5’ 9”; 11 st 8 lbs. Début: 8.1.00 v Colchester United. Career: 1989 West Ham United (professional, 2.7.99) [0+2,0]; 7.1.00 Bristol Rovers (loan) [1+1,0]; 21.2.01 Huddersfield Town (trial); 28.1.04 Swansea City (loan) [9,0]; 21.8.04 Dublin City (free); December 2004 Wycombe Wanderers (trial); 21.1.05 Chesham United (free); 5.12.05 Burnham (free); 6.3.06 Hemel Hempstead Town; 7.3.09 Slough Town (to May 2009). Assuming a new century starts when the first digits change, Rovers’ first débutant of the twenty-first century was midfielder Shaun Byrne, who replaced Ronnie Maugé, away on international duty. Byrne played the first 75 minutes of an astonishing game in which Rovers led 3-1 at Colchester before falling to a 5-4 defeat. He also scored the crucial penalty to defeat Northampton Town in an Auto Windscreens Shield tie the same month, the club’s fifth successful spot-kick after the match had been drawn. A Republic of Ireland cap at Under-19 and Under-20 level, he had captained the Under-18 side in his four games and represented Republic of Ireland Under-16s in a UEFA tournament in 1998. Living in Romford, he made his Hammers début as a substitute for Marc Keller at Newcastle in January 2000, before becoming a team-mate of Danny Boxall at Dublin City, where he scored once in four games. Sent off when Swansea lost at Macclesfield in March 2004, Byrne wore the blue-and-white quarters of Burnham, added four goals in 29 games for Hemel Hempstead and scored on his sole appearance for Slough. |