Blue Diamond Club Lunch

March 2025

Once again it was time for another instalment of the Blue Diamond Lunch saga and, once again, the venue for this long running series was the Seat Unique Stadium, better known as the County Ground, home of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club.

If you read my account of the Blue Diamond Christmas event, you will be aware that I ended that report by saying this; ‘If we are back at Gloucestershire Cricket HQ in the spring, we declare that there will be no more cricketing terms used in our report. We definitely won’t spin you another yarn. Honestly!’

Well, dear reader, I lied – played a very straight bat and told a whopping great fib! I should add, though, that there aren’t quite as many cricket references in the following account, so please read on.

Back in December the oasis of green was just that; on a cold and windy day there wasn’t a soul to be seen, other than Blue Diamond club members scurrying to the pavilion to escape the elements and get into the warm.

What a difference a few months make! The place was a hive of activity as, in case you hadn’t noticed, the cricket season is almost upon us and a team of groundsmen (or should that be groundspeople?) were busy tarting up the green space located just off the Gloucester Road.

The outfield was being trimmed with a mower or three and the square (not sure why it’s called a square as it looks more like rectangle to me), had been cut much shorter than the rest of the green space. This rectangle is where, I’m told, the match action takes place and bowlers and batters do their thing while their team mates have to make do with the longer grass of the outfield.

Anyway, I digress, and once again we were greeted by the very stern bust of WG Grace as we approached the pavilion, probably known as the Banqueting Suite, but you get the gist. On this occasion I wasn’t alone as I approached the great man, as I was accompanied by the Blue Diamond’s very own skipper, Tony Mills who insisted on photobombing my expertly composed snap of the great man. Actually, if you look closely at the photo, the two could well be related – perhaps WG is Tony’s great, great, grandfather!

Once again the skipper and his vice captain, Mo Bell, were in charge of the event and there was a great deal of meeting and greeting to be done as friends, old and new, arrived at the venue and prepared themselves for a few hours at the wicket or the bar, whichever took their fancy!

As the time for lunch approached, the skipper made the formal announcements, reminding everyone that the day’s raffle would be in aid of former Rovers player Ian Alexander, who is suffering from a rare brain condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

The skipper also introduced our guest speaker, a certain Geoff Twentyman who played with distinction at the heart of Rovers’ defence for some 252 league games. There followed a long career in broadcasting, when he was the voice of BBC Radio Sport, and a passion for playing golf, so he wasn’t that well prepared for an afternoon at the wicket and given that he was the sole speaker, he would have to carry his bat through the innings.

There were worried looks from the aforementioned groundstaff as he approached the pavilion end, for they had heard of his golfing prowess and weren’t looking forward to replacing the divots as he hacked his way around the County Ground demonstrating his swings and putting skills to a captive audience.

Fortunately for them, he’d forgotten his clubs and they were able to carry on with their pre season preparations which not only included never ending grass cutting, but erecting temporary seating and installing a new scoreboard (that will sound familiar to Rovers supporters!)

Following the skipper’s introductions, he once again neglected to say WG (Grace) and we all sat down to enjoy a sumptuous spread. Those of us who are meat eaters were served a chicken roast, while those vegetarians/vegans in the audience weren’t.

That was followed by profiteroles and coffee and whilst they were being devoured the selling of the raffle tickets took place with sellers moving Gracefully between tables and extracting cash from the audience (one day we’ll be able to afford a card machine and go cashless like everyone else!)

Before our opening, and only, batsmen stepped up to the crease, it was announced that the raffle had raised an astonishing £575 so a huge thank you to all of our 80 or so guests for contributing that amount to such a worthy cause.

And so, all padded up and ready to attack the Ashley Down End, our speaker strode out to the crease and calmly launched into what proved to be an entertaining speech to his audience.

With his football and broadcasting careers behind him Geoff has become a hands on grandfather, an after dinner speaker, author and golf tour leader, but not a cricketer!

He clearly enjoys his role as a grandfather to four, his after dinner speaking (pie and pint nights with former City player Gary Owers, loved writing his autobiography and still enjoys ambling around a golf course.

His anecdotes from his time in football only really scratched the surface and, speaking without notes, he took great delight in recalling some of the humorous moments from his career. He was at the crease for a good half an hour before being given out LBW (Leg Before Wine) and taking his seat back in the pavilion where he was happy to sign copies of his book (Top Man) and pose for photos and chat with our guests.

The closing event was the raffle and several familiar faces were once again amongst the prizewinners and the afternoon was over all too soon.

Making my way out of the pavilion and past our old friend WG, I wondered where the photos, or busts, of other former Rovers players and Gloucestershire cricketers were hidden. I’m thinking of Walter Hammond, Barrie Meyer, Ron Nicholls and Harold Jarman in particular and left the County Ground smiling at the possibility of a capacity crowd chanting ‘Harold, Harold, Harold’ as he sped between the wicket on his way to a top score. Didn’t happen, of course-the County Ground isn’t Eastville and cricket fans are a different breed to football fans, or so I’m told!

Thanks to Top Man for making a guest appearance, to all those who attended our event and for their magnificent fundraising efforts, to our captain and vice captain for another very special lunch and, of course, the excellent staff who looked after us so well.

Our skipper faces a serious operation in the next week or so and we wish him all the best for a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him at our next lunch.

More images can be found in the Gallery Section.

BDC Lunch March 2025 Gallery — BRFPA

With thanks to Keith Brookman for the report and photographs.