by bunburygills » Fri Jan 01, 2021 9:05 am
A good sum up Gillsfan. I've just seen Les Riggs has just died. I used to love him as a kid with his long throws. I moved to Gillingham in 1956 and started watching the Gills straight away under Archie Clark. I've still got all the programmes from those games. We used to get great crowds then as well, regularly over 10,000. I remember a cup game I was at, I'm guessing it was against Swansea, though my memory is not what it used to be, when we had over 18,000. The place was jumping. The relationship with the players helped to foster the enthusiasm. I remember the second league game I ever saw when I lived in Somerset, it was Bristol Rovers v Liverpool in the second division. After the game we used to buy the Pink'un, it was pink, to get all the results. Then a bag of chips followed of course. Then I'm waiting at the bus stop only to stand next to the Rovers player Harry Bamford who was catching the same bus. Needless to say, I've still got his autograph to this day. Sadly, not long after that, Harry was killed in a traffic accident.