Bristol Rovers Centurions

Feb 5, 2025 | News

A couple of years ago I was asked, by the club, if I had a list of players who hade made 100 appearances or more during their Rovers career as they wanted to create a Centurions wall in the Hospitality Suite in the East Stand.

Well, I didn’t have such a list but set about compiling one and not being a statto (an anorak yes, a statto no!) I took the advice of those who specialise in statistical analysis and included only league games in my list, which is why some players, who appeared in over 100 games in all competitions aren’t listed.

As we are talking Football League (now the EFL) appearances, others also missed out because their total games played include our season in what was then The Conference.  Apologies, then, to Daniel Leadbitter, Mark McChrystal, Steve Mildenhall and Matty Taylor for their omissions.

Then a decision had to be made as to whether the players should be listed in alphabetical or chronological order. Having attempted an alphabetical one, I plumped for a chronological one which is why Jesse Whatley came in at number one as he made his league debut before any others on the list (September 9th, 1920 in case you’re wondering!).

The most popular date for centurions seems to have been August 31st 1946 when Harry Bamford, Vic Lambden, Jackie Pitt, Randell Burnell ‘Barry’ Watkins and Arthur Weare all made their league debut for the club and went on to make in excess of 100 league appearances. August 7th 2004 was also a good day for centurions as four players who made their Rovers debut that day not only completed more than a century of league games, but went on to be members of the squad that achieved promotion three years later; Stuart Campbell, Steve Elliott, Craig Hinton and Richard Walker.

Some who missed out were tantalisingly close to reaching their century. For example, Christian Edwards got to 99 before he left and so doesn’t appear on the list.

Substitute appearances are included in the total and the latest centurion is Connor Taylor, who made his 100th league appearance in our game against Peterborough United on February 2nd.

Of the remainder of the current squad, Luke McCormick has appeared in 96 league games, but is currently on loan at Forest Green Rovers so it’s not certain that he will make his century. Scott Sinclair and Luke Thomas are into the eighties and with 18 games remaining, could well reach the 100 mark before the end of this season.

Of the 1,022 players who have appeared in the league for Bristol Rovers to date, I make it that only 145 have gone on to complete their century. I thought it might have been more!

For what it’s worth, I thought the idea of a centurions wall was a good one so anyone from the club reading this might wish to resurrect it and include it in any revamp of The Memorial Stadium. It could even be a sponsored outside wall; I’d be happy to pay £50 to sponsor the next brick in the wall!

BRISTOL ROVERS CENTURIONS – CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

NAME DEBUT
Jesse Whatley September 9th 1920
Jerry Morgan October 30th 1920
James Haydon December 31st 1921
Harold Armitage August 26th 1922
Ernie Whatmore August 27th 1923
James Lofthouse December 8th 1923
Thomas Roberts September 26th 1925
Fred Bennett February 27th 1926
Ronnie Dix February 25th 1928
Bill Pickering August 29th 1931
Alec Donald August 27th 1932
George McNestry August 27th 1932
Wally McArthur April 29th 1933
Jock McLean August 26th 1933
Ray Warren March 14th 1936
Joe Nicholls August 29th 1936
Matt O’Mahoney September 23rd 1936
Harry Bamford August 31st 1946
Vic Lambden August 31st 1946
Jackie Pitt August 31st 1946
Barry Watkins August 31st 1946
Arthur Weare August 31st 1946
Len Hodges September 14th 1946
George Petherbridge October 5th 1946
Jimmy Morgan November 23rd 1946
Geoff Fox September 27th 1947
Josser Watling February 14th 1948
Bryan Bush April 28th 1948
Peter Sampson August 21st 1948
Bill Roost April 15th 1949
Geoff Bradford September 24th 1949
Bert Hoyle August 19th 1950
Barrie Meyer October 7th 1950
Howard Radford October 27th 1951
Paddy Hale November 28th 1953
Alfie Biggs February 6th 1954
Peter Hooper March 27th 1954
Dai Ward April 16th 1955
Norman Sykes December 26th 1956
David Pyle March 9th 1957
Ray Mabbutt September 4th  1957
Bobby Jones November 2nd 1957
Ian Hamilton December 6th 1958
Doug Hillard December 13th 1958
Harold Jarman December 26th 1959
Terry Oldfield November 5th 1960
Joe Davis February 25th 1961
Bernard Hall April 20th 1962
Gwyn Jones August 19th 1962
Dave Stone August 28th 1962
Alex Munro December 1st 1962
John Brown September 1963
Lindsay Parsons April 1964
Ray Graydon September 7th 1965
Stuart Taylor April 26th 1966
Wayne Jones February 25th 1967
Frankie Prince May 4th 1968
Tom Stanton August 31st 1968
Dick Sheppard August 9th 1969
Phil Roberts August 23rd 1969
Kenny Stephens January 2nd 1971
Gordon Fearnley March 16th 1971
Bruce Bannister November 9th 1971
Peter Aitken August 29th 1972
Jim Eadie February 17th 1973
Alan Warboys March 6th 1973
Dave Staniforth March 9th 1974
Phil Bater September 14th 1974
Graham Day March 11th 1975
David Williams August 16th 1975
Tony Pulis August 30th 1975
Martin Thomas January 3rd 1977
Vaughan Jones May 17th 1977
Paul Randall August 20th 1977
Steve White March 27th 1978
Gary Mabbutt December 16th 1978
Micky Barrett April 5th 1980
Aidan McCaffery August 19th 1980
Geraint Williams October 18th 1980
Neil Slatter April 11th 1981
Ian Holloway April 25th 1981
Tim Parkin August 29th 1981
Brian Williams August 29th 1981
Archie Stephens September 1981
Gary Penrice April 27th 1985
David Mehew October 26th 1985
Phil Purnell March 29th 1986
Ian Alexander August 23rd 1986
Geoff Twentyman September 6th 1986
Steve Yates March 3rd 1987
Nigel Martyn August 15th 1987
Andy Reece August 15th 1987
Devon White August 15th 1987
Billy Clark October 17th 1987
Brian Parkin November 25th 1989
Marcus Browning January 28th 1990
Carl Saunders February 10th 1990
Tony Pounder August 25th 1990
Marcus Stewart August 17th 1991
Justin Skinner August 31st 1991
Lee Archer September 4th 1991
Justin Channing October 24th 1992
Andy Tillson November 7th 1992
Worrell Sterling August 14th 1993
David Pritchard March 15th 1994
Andy Gurney April 2nd 1994
Paul Miller August 20th 1994
Andy Collett October 22nd 1994
Peter Beadle November 18th 1995
Jamie Cureton September 21st 1996
Steve Foster August 9th 1997
Trevor Challis August 8th 1998
Andy Thomson January 16th 1999
Nathan Ellington February 23rd 1999
Vitalijs Astafjevs January 29th 2000
Junior Agogo August 9th 2003
Lewis Haldane September 27th 2003
Aaron Lescott March 27th 2004
Stuart Campbell August 7th 2004
Steve Elliott August 7th 2004
Craig Hinton August 7th 2004
Richard Walker August 7th 2004
Craig Disley September 11th 2004
Chris Carruthers March 26th 2005
Chris Lines January 21st 2006
Steve Phillips August 5th 2006
Byron Anthony August 12th 2006
Rickie Lambert September 3rd 2006
Danny Coles November 3rd 2007
Jeff Hughes August 9th 2008
Jo Kuffour September 6th 2008
Ellis Harrison April 16th 2011
Ollie Clarke May 7th 2011
Lee Brown August 6th 2011
Michael Smith August 6th 2011
Tom Parkes February 11th 2012
Tom Lockyer January 12th 2015
James Clarke August 8th 2015
Stuart Sinclair August 8th 2015
Rory Gaffney November 28th 2015
Liam Sercombe August 5th 2017
Aaron Collins August 14th 2021
Antony Evans September 4th 2021
Sam Finley August 14th 2021
Connor Taylor August 7th 2021

If you find any errors, please let me knowI

secretary@bristolroverssc.co.uk