Jim’s Jottings
These notes were penned before last Tuesday’s Chekatrade Trophy tie here against West Ham United’s under-23 side. Hopefully there was a big improvement that evening on last Saturday’s showing at Kenilworth Road, described as ‘abysmal’ by the Manager. If you were one of the five hundred or so packed into the uncomfortable away enclosure at Luton you will not have disagreed with that description of a second consecutive away game without a worthwhile shot at goal and a defensive error presented the home team three quite easy points.
It would have been an even easier task for the ‘Hatters’ had it not been for another great display by on-loan goalkeeper Jack Bonham and he really did not deserve to be on the losing side. The previous two League games had yielded a couple of valuable points thanks to a rather fortunate penalty at Shrewsbury and, considering the relegation-zone status of the two participants, a quite exciting goal-less draw here at the Memorial Stadium against bottom of the table Plymouth.
Hopefully we can have as much excitement again this afternoon against another promoted side but with three points for the ‘Gas’ as we do not want to fall any further behind if the season is to be what we all want it to be. It certainly won’t be easy as the ‘Sky Blues’ are bound to be confident on the back of promotion last season but we surely have the players in our squad to be better placed than we currently are.
Keep the faith and get behind the lads as you always do here at the ‘Mem’, (the noise and atmosphere was brilliant against Argyle, and I’m sure the team can turn the corner and score some goals. Up the Pirates!
Proud Sponsors
You may remember that the Supporters Club committee agreed to sponsor the shirts of Rovers’ three new-year signings back in the January transfer window, this being in addition to our usual seasonal commitment to the Youth Academy and Development Squads. These three shirts, the ‘home’ pairing of Kyle Bennett and Bernard Mensah, and the ‘away’ top for Tony Craig, are now in our possession so we intend to draw these out to three lucky members who attend our autumn Annual General Meeting.
Meanwhile both the Academy and Development sides have made winning starts to their respective League campaigns, the latter in defence of the Central League title won in their first season last year. Keep buying the 50/50 tickets and more success can come our way.
Plymouth 50/50 Draw winners.
1ST PRIZE: £900.00
WINNING TICKET NUMBER: 79735
WINNER: Mary Fudge-Curran from Cornwall,
2ND PRIZE: £100.00
WINNING TICKET NUMBER: 79627
Prize UNCLAIMED at the time of writing. Can be claimed from BRSC Matchday cabin in the car park on any matchday within six weeks
3RD PRIZE; £50.00
WINNING TICKET NUMBER: 79620
WINNER: Dave Woodland from Radstock.
Many thanks to Gloucestershire Cricket players for drawing the tickets from the drum.
Committee Clips
The many changes that have been made to the bars around the Memorial Stadium during the summer break have mostly brought great improvements that have been overdue for some time but several have caused problems and these, combined with the closure of the Supporters Club’s shop at Kingswood have affected our membership.
The Committee is fully aware of all the problems and several of us met with Rovers’ recently appointed Chief Executive Officer, Martyn Starnes, last week to try and resolve those problems that are causing difficulties. Our Club membership is an area of particular concern to us as, with no employed staff since the closure of Kingswood, we are totally reliant on the Football Club’s new ‘Superstore’ and our own matchday-only cabin to take payments and issue cards. It was intended that we would use the Football Club’s BOSS system which would have enabled Sam Parsons, our Membership Secretary, to keep track on those joining but, for technical reasons we understand, this has not proved possible, hence long delays in sending out cards to members and for this we apologise. Also, we have not been permitted to take memberships and coach bookings in our bar. This has proved to be another frustration that we hope to get resolved shortly. Please bear with us whilst negotiations on these problems continue and we will inform the membership as and when we get things sorted, thank you.
We have not yet agreed a date for the A.G.M. as our books are still with the Auditor but we expect to get the ‘go-ahead’ from them soon and we will then advise members through this column and on our website. We will certainly hold a ‘fans forum’ for members (only) to follow on immediately after the A.G.M. and both Chairman Steve Hamer and Manager Darrell Clarke will be invited to give answers to questions from the floor so sign up this afternoon if you have not done so far.
Away the Gas
Bradford City, Saturday, 29th September. Kick Off 3pm.
DEPART: Kingsway, Kingswood 8.15am, Memorial Stadium 8.45am
FARE: Members £24, Non-Members £29
Ticket Bookings from the Club’s Superstore, our matchday club shop or online at www.brfctickets.com
For the Sat Nav: BD8 7DY
Rochale, Tuesday, 2nd October. Kick Off 7.45p DEPART: Kingsway, Kingswood 1pm, Memorial Stadium 1.30pm
FARE: Members £22, Non-Members £27
Ticket Bookings from the club Superstore, our matchday club shop or online at http://www.brfctickets.com
For the Sat Nav: OL11 5DR
A Bid on the Side
108 packets of 1990/91 “Pro Set” Collector cards.
Here we have a collection of Pro Set collector’s card packets containing 10 cards each. Though most are opened it looks to me like this is mostly where the glue has aged rather than them being physically opened by the previous owner. I have looked into just one packet and the cards are in perfect condition. I have NO IDEA if they are all different cards or not. If you still need a few to complete your 90-91 set then this could be the way to finally do it.
This item has been auctioned on Ebay since Thursday the 20h of September and will be available for 10 days. The minimum price is just 99p and the highest bidder wins. A link to these auctions will be found at http://bristolroversmemorabilia.weebly.com/
If any other Rovers fans have any rare or interesting Rovers related items that they would be happy to donate, please pass the item(s) pop in to the Supporters Club matchday cabin in the car park.