Over the past few months, long-time Rocks supporter and programme collector Alastair Finn has been putting together a collection of Bognor special match programmes for the club.
They go back to when the club joined the Southern League in 1972.
The collection, totalling around 120 programmes, includes all the big FA Cup matches with Swansea City, Exeter City, Reading, Gillingham and Peterborough United, FA Trophy matches, key promotion matches, high scores, record attendances and so on.
Alastair, who lives in Surrey, is a member of LASERS (London And South East Rocks Supporters) group and at the recent home match against Walton & Hersham, which was sponsored by the LASERS, he presented the collection to the club.
It is hoped that with the help of his LASERS colleagues he will put them on display at times at Nyewood Lane for supporters to view.
After discussion with Jack Pearce, Alastair has also taken on the mammoth task of collecting for the club all programmes for all seasons going back to 1972 – some 2,200 programmes in total.
Going through the club’s archives, and with programmes recently donated by supporters, he estimates that the club now have about 1,700 of the programmes.
Most programmes from the year 2000 to date have been tracked down but there are big gaps in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, particularly away, and there are very few from the 1972-73 and 73-74 seasons.
So Alastair is appealing to supporters, especially older ones, to check attics, spare rooms and garages for copies of these programmes.
Younger supporters can ask dads and granddads to do the same. If you find any, contact Maurice Warner at the club on 01243 822325, Alastair Finn on 01737 373026 or hand them in to the office at Nyewood Lane.
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