LIFESTYLE-Magazine-Winter-2016

BUMBLE

makes a beeline for memory lane...

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ricket legend David Lloydwas bowled over by his true sporting love at the tender age of seven. Siing on the doorstep of his childhood home - 134Water Street, Accrington - the young Bumblewatched eagerly for his teamof heroes to appear at the top of the road. But it wasn’t the likes of Ashes stars Len Huon andTyphoonTyson the ladwas waiting for . . . but Accrington Stanley’s 1954 line-up of footie stars. Revisiting his old house and fondmemories, Bumble says: “This is where it all started; I used to sit on this step as the crowds were coming up from town.The football groundwas way up there somewhere, andmost importantly, I used towait for the footballers who actually lived in the next street. I still vividly remember the lads walking up this street with their football boots under their arms.”The teamof the day was even closer to home for Bumble’s auntie Edith, who had themammoth task of managing themall . . . OFF the pitch. “My auntiewas Accrington Stanley’s housekeeper at this huge place on Avenue Parade,” he recalls. “You can imagine the scene – lots of young chaps - and all in need of being properly kept with food, washing and cleaning. It was a bit like Upstairs, Downstairs.” Bumble adds: “Even today at the age of 69my first love is football. “My business of course is cricket – that’s what people knowme from– but nothing takes the place of my beloved Accrington Stanley.” These days, aer a long and illustrious career playing, coaching and commentating on cricket, ‘Bumble’ as he is affectionately known, admits not only is he an ‘Accy Stanley’ super-fan - hewould have bought the club if he’d had the cash. Now an unofficial brand ambassador at ASFC, he likens his undying passion for ‘The ClubThatWouldn’t Die’ to the famous football magazine series and subsequent book, ‘When Saturday Comes’. “That’sme,” he laughs. “When Saturday comes, nothing elsemaers. I’mwatching football wall towall. My work takesme out of the country for long periods, so if I’mnot at thematch and inMumbai or CapeTown, the first thing I do is get out the laptop or iPad to see howStanley has gone on.” Established in 1891, Accrington Stanley played in the Football League between 1921 and 1962, when the club became only the second ever to resign from the League mid-season. Says Bumble: “I remember vividly going out of the league. It was heart breaking for me and for lots of people in the area.The clubwas dormant for some time – but stubbornness brought it back into existence. “Accrington people are stubborn, determined and get things done.There are a number of people herewhowere instrumental in geing things going for the club again; nonemore so than EricWhalley, former chairman andmanager Jimmy Hinksman who had a vision.” In 1966 the clubwent into liquidation and the former management and team took their painful departure from the Peel Park ground.Today the pitch is a primary school sports ground. Surveying the former field of dreams, Bumble sighs. “Thememories come flooding back,” he says. “I’ve seen 15,000 people on here. And the fabric of the old place is still here; the skeleton of Accrington Stanley Peel Park.” Pointing to the far part of the former pitch Bumble adds: “You’ve got the old railings here now, but years ago and back in the day there’d be turnstiles all theway along here, your changing rooms, pie huts, you could get a bag of chips and then therewere the changing rooms and opposite, where the bank of trees are, that was the old stand. It was a huge thing, an enormous stand, which they’d bought froma racecourse and it actually crippled the club; they couldn’t recover financially frompaying for it.”

Sowhat are Bumble’s thoughts on the club as it lives and breathes today in theWhamStadium at Livingstone Road? “What we are up against at Accrington Stanley in that the ground is piecemeal,” he says. “There’s a bit here, there’s a bit there and it’s not a collective.We need to bring it up to date; the players need beer changing facilities.We need to be in a position that we can offer beer facilities for the supporters, and perhaps we can get beer players – bringing us closer to that dreamof moving on to division one.” Plastic box boss and ASFC fan Andy Holt came to the rescue in 2015 aer discovering club coffers were so drained they couldn’t afford to stock the bar with beer. Having heavily invested in the club Holt has steered finances from red to black. Yet, there is still a longway to go in terms of investment admits Bumble: “Finances are really tight, and that’s where it needs a kick start. “Just talking about the facilities of the ground and the changing rooms, they’re verymodest. Whenwe had a cup game against Fulham in 2010, the thenmanager Roy Hodgson took one look at the changing rooms and decided to go back to the hotel and change there.Therewasn’t enough roomand hewas dead right. We need to improve that, and it’d be nice ifMr. Hodgson could help in someway!” With supposedly the Football League’s smallest budget, second lowest average aendance, and in a constant bale to keep its best players – you’d think it would be tough for the club to hang on to themanager too. “I can’t praise John Coleman enough,” says Bumble. “He’s brought us fromnon-league football, through all the stages, back in to the football league. “It is astronomical is that - to do that for a lile town like Accrington. It ismy passion and I passionately believe that a town needs a football team that they can identify with. “With Accrington Stanley the community shares in the good times and also shares in the heartaches. You know, the real poor times when things are not goingwell - we all pull together.”

My first love is football...my business is cricket

Main Picture: 134 Water Street, Accrington. Inset top: Bumble looks

out over Peel Park. Inset bottom: John

Coleman, Andy Holt and David Lloyd at the Wham Stadium.

Next Edition: The rst 18 months of Accrington Stanley Football Club under new ownership will feature an exclusive interview with Andy Holt.

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