In 1999, I was invited by the editor of the Bristol Rovers programme, the Pirate, to write a piece for an upcoming edition. For 19 years, more on than off, I proudly wore the title of programme contributor. In recent years, I had fallen out of love with the club, but continued to write, I always felt, at a decent level. I was, I suppose, a volunteer helper, but I also saw it as my work. Each column, produced under the name ‘Eclectic Blue’, came about through a combination of inspiration but mostly perspiration. If I could not achieve my dream of being a published author and writer, I could at least see my work in print. As the 2017/18 season drew to a close, I knew that with my passion for the Rovers dwindling away, I would have to stop writing for the Pirate. It was with the heaviest of hearts that I sent an email to the editor confirming my decision.
The Pirate is not any old programme, it is a brilliant programme and it is a brilliant programme for once reason and one reason only: the editor Keith Brookman. Every season, Keith will strive to make the Pirate even better than it was the year before. Contributors would come and contributors would go, yet the programme won countless awards. I have rarely come across someone as hard-working, talented and committed as Keith. He stands for everything that is good about Bristol Rovers. He is a supporter, he is a consummate professional. He is as honest as the day is long, he is incredibly generous.
Keith Brookman became my mentor. I had always wanted to find somewhere to express my writing talent, such as it was, and Keith gave me the chance. He let me write whatever I wanted and rarely changed a word. He knew that I would somehow, whatever the subject, link it in some way to the Rovers, which was the whole point.
The contributors to the Pirate are all volunteers, which appears to be a dirty word at Bristol Rovers these days. They want to write and in return they get a matchday ticket for each programme in which they appear. However, the standard of writing is anything but amateurish. Which leads me to another point: professionalism.
There have been many arguments, boardroom bust-ups and all the rest of it over the years. In the early 2000s, the club almost went to the wall when the money finally dried up. The club, many of us felt, was being run on the basis of luck and chemistry, essentially boom and bust. There was no strategy, no plan, no vision. Even some of the so called professionals acted like amateurs. The owners made things up as they went along and eventually the chaotic mismanagement of the club took it into the Conference.
We used to say things like, “If only the club was as successful as the Pirate”. A high quality product at the top end of the market. No one seriously believed Bristol Rovers was at the top end of the market under the ownership of Nick Higgs. Literally the opposite was the case.
To learn that Keith Brookman has today left the football club fills me with great sadness. His work at the Pirate could not be faulted. He did a fine job in the media department which had been embarrassingly awful before he took over, his radio commentaries were the stuff of legend (of course he was biased: he’s a Gashead) and he never seemed to sit still. There was always work to be done.
From someone who has consistently urged for a more professional set up at Bristol Rovers, I see this as an enormous step backwards. I am not going to comment about what may and may not have gone on “behind the scenes” but surely within the massed ranks of hired hands at BRFC, surely there is room for someone who if you cut him in two would have blue and white quarters throughout his body? To me, Keith Brookman represents the heart and soul of Bristol Rovers. It is my sincere hope that this sorry situation can be resolved.
My declining interest in BRFC coincides with my concerns for the future. I am personally not in favour of the current ownership model or the way in which tradition is being set aside in pursuit of I don’t know what. The departure of a much-loved employee and supporter will be tomorrow’s fish and chip paper and minds will be focusing on who will replace the also departing and modestly talented (in my opinion) striker Ellis Harrison. And that’s how it should be, really.
My big mistake at the club was to have been too ambitious, to see the club move forward sustainably and to be run more professionally. Instead, I should have simply watched the football and left all the other stuff to the owners. Perhaps, I might still be in love with the football club at BS7. The golden rule at BRFC was always that when you got close to the inner core, you got chewed up and spat out. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
But I don’t look back in anger at BRFC; I look back with pride. Pride that I was there when the club was in crisis and pride that I provided the great Keith Brookman with adequate copy for his excellent organ. A truly great Gashead and a truly great man. Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. Let’s just hope they don’t pave paradise (the Memorial) and put up a parking lot.
