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Those who love sport will surely be missing it in these unprecendented times. As a bit of light relief I wondered which teams members support and why. I've selected what are probably the three most popular team sports in the country for my favourite clubs, but it doesn't have to be football (whichever code including rugby union and rugby league) or cricket. It could be perhaps ice hockey or basketball.
Coming from the West Country where top professional sport rarely reaches the heights, certainly not at football, I'm probably more easily pleased than those who reside in a sports-rich area.
Because this peripheral region of the country is something of a sporting backwater I will back any West Country club, even Bristol Rovers, when they are not playing one of my favourite clubs.
I'm one of those people equally interested in association football (soccer to rugby men, Americans and Australians), rugby union football and cricket. My particular favourites are:
Association Football - Bristol City
I grew up in two villages in Somerset (Somerset proper in those days, not the unitary authority of North Somerset that now governs that area) a few miles to the south of Bristol, just down the road from what is now Bristol Airport, although it didn't attain that status until I was in my early teens (and not interested in aviation in the slightest then).
Traditionally Bristol City draws much of its support from the south of the city and its region, whereas Rovers fans come predominantly from the north and the east. The west is home to several well-off suburbs where interest in football is not sky high. In the council estates that have stealthily sneaked into the west mainly since WW2 support is evenly divided amongst the two football clubs. All this of course is a generalisation.
In fact, my first visit to a professional match was to watch Second Divison Bristol Rovers beat First Division Portsmouth 2-1 in the FA Cup in the mid 1950s at the old Eastville Stadium, now home to Ikea and other retail outlets (In today's terminology that would be Championship club against Premier League club). I was around 9 or 10 at the time and was taken by a neighbour who was once a Falkirk goalkeeper and whose brother was playing for Pompey that day.
I sensed I was a City fan at heart. They are never 'Bristol' as some national commentators insist on saying or writing - that is apt to give most of their fans apoplexy. If they are not 'City' they are 'Bristol City'. It also helped that they were running away with the Third Division South title that season, so I used to take myself to their homes games by bus as their winning run continued. I doubt that many 10-year olds would be allowed to travel on their own into the city from the countryside to a match these days.
I've never been able to follow them at matches as often as I would have wished. I played regularly from my teens and after that work commitments made it impossible to habitually go to matches. When our son began to play football in local leagues I followed him and the same applied to his son (our grandson) when he took up the game.
I still hope but not expect to see them in the Premier League. At least I watched quite a number of their matches when they were in the old First Division for four seasons from 1976.
Rugby Union - Bristol FC
I try to forget they have now been saddled with the sobriquet 'Bears' - makes them sound like a cuddly nursery group.
Although I grew up in Somerset Bristol was the place many people from my area of the county worked, and most resorted to the city for leisure, sport and shopping. Having gone to a rugby-playing grammar school at Weston-super-Mare my interest in the game grew alongside my round-ball affiliations.
Until the advent of professionalism towards the end of the last century Bristol FC was consistently one of the top English clubs. The mid-1950s John Blake era (he was captain) saw them as the unofficial best club side in the UK. Blake's team is reckoned to have pioneered 15-man running rugby in this country.
In those days there was no league or cup competition. All games were 'friendies' except they weren't. They were challenge matches. Bristol used to have regular matches against the major South Wales clubs as well as against the top English sides. Some Sunday newpapers ran unofficial league tables based on the results of these 'challenge' matches. Although all top rugby union players then were amateurs, it was a loose interpretation of the word. Boot money was prevalent and many top players were drawn to a club by the promise of a well-paid job by wealthy committee men.
When professionalism dawned towards the end of the 20th Century for some unaccountable reason no-one with any real money took on Bristol. They slumped and spent much time in the second tier (Rugby Championship) although their suffering was nowhere near as dire as another leading club of the 20th Century - Coventry.
Steve Lansdown the Bristol City owner bought Bristol Bears about ten years ago, and also owns Bristol Flyers basketball team, Bristol City Women FC and other sporting interests all under the umbrella Bristol Sport. His aim and that of coach Pat Lam is to make Bristol the top club in Europe within five years. They share the revamped Ashton Gate with Bristol City and, until this season was halted by the virus, stood third in the Premiership table. Lansdown said last week that the virus effects will have no bearing on his continued commitment and investment into his sports clubs.
I have watched the club sporadically for the past 60 years but, as with Bristol City, other commitments often intruded to prevent regular visits.
Cricket - Somerset CCC
My first acquantance with this most inconsistent of all county sides, at least until the early 1970s, was attending the annual cricket festival at the dilapidated but characterful Clarence Park ground at Weston-super-Mare. It was not a club ground so the wicket at best was usually 'sporting' and the pavilion little more than an enlarged garden shed.
Somerset usually finished bottom of the County Championship but they would suddenly have a good season before reverting to type. They always had big hitters who played like village cricket club blacksmiths. They would rather score 150 all out in a couple of hours than graft to 300 all day. Very entertaining but as we didn't expect them to win anything we went for the enjoyment of watching the slogging.
Everything changed in the early 1970s when a famous Yorkshireman came west to eventually captain the Somerset odd balls. Brian Close played to win and within a few year his legacy turned the side into the most exciting in the country - at least in limited over cricket. They suddenly found themselves with international superstars - Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Joel Garner with England players (West Countrymen at that) in Brian Rose and Vick Marks, and a plethora of solid county pros all in support. They won one limited over competion after another but never what true cricket fans consider the most important - the County Championship.
They still haven't although they have finished second on six occasions this century, including the last two seasons.
For many years in the 1970s and 1980s I was a member of Somerset CCC and followed them all around the county. Actually then they played some home matches outside Somerset in Bristol at such grounds as Imperial and Brislington. Bristol is neither in Somerset nor Gloucestershire (nor in the short-lived and mostly unloved county of Avon either) but for cricketing purposes the River Avon that flows through the centre of the city divides the counties. Everything to the north of the river is regarded as cricketing Gloucestershire and everything to the south cricketing Somerset. The city has two football clubs and effectively two cricket teams because many in south Bristol are Somerset supporters.
Sadly for us in the north of the 'county' commercialism dictates that Somerset now play all their home matches at their Taunton headquarters - no more rustic soujourns at Glastonbury or the annual Bath and Weston cricket festivals, or those suburban Bristol grounds. The memories can never be removed though and I still watch them occasionally 'in the flesh'. I like Taunton as a town too so it's always a double pleasure to visit.
Coming from the West Country where top professional sport rarely reaches the heights, certainly not at football, I'm probably more easily pleased than those who reside in a sports-rich area.
Because this peripheral region of the country is something of a sporting backwater I will back any West Country club, even Bristol Rovers, when they are not playing one of my favourite clubs.
I'm one of those people equally interested in association football (soccer to rugby men, Americans and Australians), rugby union football and cricket. My particular favourites are:
Association Football - Bristol City
I grew up in two villages in Somerset (Somerset proper in those days, not the unitary authority of North Somerset that now governs that area) a few miles to the south of Bristol, just down the road from what is now Bristol Airport, although it didn't attain that status until I was in my early teens (and not interested in aviation in the slightest then).
Traditionally Bristol City draws much of its support from the south of the city and its region, whereas Rovers fans come predominantly from the north and the east. The west is home to several well-off suburbs where interest in football is not sky high. In the council estates that have stealthily sneaked into the west mainly since WW2 support is evenly divided amongst the two football clubs. All this of course is a generalisation.
In fact, my first visit to a professional match was to watch Second Divison Bristol Rovers beat First Division Portsmouth 2-1 in the FA Cup in the mid 1950s at the old Eastville Stadium, now home to Ikea and other retail outlets (In today's terminology that would be Championship club against Premier League club). I was around 9 or 10 at the time and was taken by a neighbour who was once a Falkirk goalkeeper and whose brother was playing for Pompey that day.
I sensed I was a City fan at heart. They are never 'Bristol' as some national commentators insist on saying or writing - that is apt to give most of their fans apoplexy. If they are not 'City' they are 'Bristol City'. It also helped that they were running away with the Third Division South title that season, so I used to take myself to their homes games by bus as their winning run continued. I doubt that many 10-year olds would be allowed to travel on their own into the city from the countryside to a match these days.
I've never been able to follow them at matches as often as I would have wished. I played regularly from my teens and after that work commitments made it impossible to habitually go to matches. When our son began to play football in local leagues I followed him and the same applied to his son (our grandson) when he took up the game.
I still hope but not expect to see them in the Premier League. At least I watched quite a number of their matches when they were in the old First Division for four seasons from 1976.
Rugby Union - Bristol FC
I try to forget they have now been saddled with the sobriquet 'Bears' - makes them sound like a cuddly nursery group.
Although I grew up in Somerset Bristol was the place many people from my area of the county worked, and most resorted to the city for leisure, sport and shopping. Having gone to a rugby-playing grammar school at Weston-super-Mare my interest in the game grew alongside my round-ball affiliations.
Until the advent of professionalism towards the end of the last century Bristol FC was consistently one of the top English clubs. The mid-1950s John Blake era (he was captain) saw them as the unofficial best club side in the UK. Blake's team is reckoned to have pioneered 15-man running rugby in this country.
In those days there was no league or cup competition. All games were 'friendies' except they weren't. They were challenge matches. Bristol used to have regular matches against the major South Wales clubs as well as against the top English sides. Some Sunday newpapers ran unofficial league tables based on the results of these 'challenge' matches. Although all top rugby union players then were amateurs, it was a loose interpretation of the word. Boot money was prevalent and many top players were drawn to a club by the promise of a well-paid job by wealthy committee men.
When professionalism dawned towards the end of the 20th Century for some unaccountable reason no-one with any real money took on Bristol. They slumped and spent much time in the second tier (Rugby Championship) although their suffering was nowhere near as dire as another leading club of the 20th Century - Coventry.
Steve Lansdown the Bristol City owner bought Bristol Bears about ten years ago, and also owns Bristol Flyers basketball team, Bristol City Women FC and other sporting interests all under the umbrella Bristol Sport. His aim and that of coach Pat Lam is to make Bristol the top club in Europe within five years. They share the revamped Ashton Gate with Bristol City and, until this season was halted by the virus, stood third in the Premiership table. Lansdown said last week that the virus effects will have no bearing on his continued commitment and investment into his sports clubs.
I have watched the club sporadically for the past 60 years but, as with Bristol City, other commitments often intruded to prevent regular visits.
Cricket - Somerset CCC
My first acquantance with this most inconsistent of all county sides, at least until the early 1970s, was attending the annual cricket festival at the dilapidated but characterful Clarence Park ground at Weston-super-Mare. It was not a club ground so the wicket at best was usually 'sporting' and the pavilion little more than an enlarged garden shed.
Somerset usually finished bottom of the County Championship but they would suddenly have a good season before reverting to type. They always had big hitters who played like village cricket club blacksmiths. They would rather score 150 all out in a couple of hours than graft to 300 all day. Very entertaining but as we didn't expect them to win anything we went for the enjoyment of watching the slogging.
Everything changed in the early 1970s when a famous Yorkshireman came west to eventually captain the Somerset odd balls. Brian Close played to win and within a few year his legacy turned the side into the most exciting in the country - at least in limited over cricket. They suddenly found themselves with international superstars - Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Joel Garner with England players (West Countrymen at that) in Brian Rose and Vick Marks, and a plethora of solid county pros all in support. They won one limited over competion after another but never what true cricket fans consider the most important - the County Championship.
They still haven't although they have finished second on six occasions this century, including the last two seasons.
For many years in the 1970s and 1980s I was a member of Somerset CCC and followed them all around the county. Actually then they played some home matches outside Somerset in Bristol at such grounds as Imperial and Brislington. Bristol is neither in Somerset nor Gloucestershire (nor in the short-lived and mostly unloved county of Avon either) but for cricketing purposes the River Avon that flows through the centre of the city divides the counties. Everything to the north of the river is regarded as cricketing Gloucestershire and everything to the south cricketing Somerset. The city has two football clubs and effectively two cricket teams because many in south Bristol are Somerset supporters.
Sadly for us in the north of the 'county' commercialism dictates that Somerset now play all their home matches at their Taunton headquarters - no more rustic soujourns at Glastonbury or the annual Bath and Weston cricket festivals, or those suburban Bristol grounds. The memories can never be removed though and I still watch them occasionally 'in the flesh'. I like Taunton as a town too so it's always a double pleasure to visit.
