Brian Pilkington

[Holkerbird]

Please can we have a tribute to Brian at our next home game? I thought there would have been a minute's silence/applause at last night's match.

Yes, we definitely should have a tribute to Brian. He played an important part in the promotion winning side, and although to, I guess, the majority of our current supporters he is just a name in the record books, to us who were around in the sixties he was one of our heroes.

Sadly this tradition appears to have disappeared (well at Holker St anyway) I am afraid. A mention over the tannoy
at half time is the nearest you get nowadays.
This applause on so many minutes is the latest idea. I often pray as we are doing it that the opposition do not score.
Are we so busy in our lives that we can't spare just one yes ONE minute to give respect and thanks to someone who has played or given service to the club?
I remember years ago the wonderful tribute paid to Joan Goodson? who worked tirelessly to fund raise to keep the club afloat, spending her own money doing so. The magnificent banner of thanks made and held aloft by the Ultras group.
Have those days gone forever or can we get back to being a club who cares?
RIP Tony Lewis.

[Wintergreen]

Great little player for us without a doubt. Couldn't the players just wear a black armband to commemorate such losses as Brian and Tony Lewis with maybe a brief dedication in the programme and on the PA?

[Holkerbird]

Great little player for us without a doubt. Couldn't the players just wear a black armband to commemorate such losses as Brian and Tony Lewis with maybe a brief dedication in the programme and on the PA?

And that is what I mean. Anything but a minute of OUR time.

[Jim]

It is a difficult one. There was a time two or three years ago when it seemed there was a minute's applause almost every week and I think it loses its significance if it becomes routine. I agree that former players and supporters who have contributed a lot should be honoured in some way, but where do we draw the line.
As an old-fashioned chap, I am not all that keen on applause and prefer a minute's silence. And I am especially not keen on applause during the game at some stage deemed significant. ( If I last a bit longer, perhaps you might be doing one for me in stoppage time - though I'm not suggesting I have contributed like many of the excellent supporters on here).

[Suffolk Blue]

My first memories of the club were in the 64-65 season. Brian stood out to me then partly because of his name - Pilkington - a name that sticks in the memory of a small boy. Also my father told me he had played for England (albeit just the one cap). This, in my mind invested him with the status of a God and was at odds with what I remember of him in that season and the next (which admittedly isn't much). I remember him as a relatively small and rather stocky figure (he was at the very end of his career) with slicked black hair which was by then receding. By the mid sixties, shorts were beginning to get shorter and hair longer. So Brian even then seemed a bit like a relic from a more golden age of football. More Nat Lofthouse than Bobby Moore. As such he represented a link between two generations of footballers, both long since gone. Ironically the last two generations of BAFC footballers to feature in the Football League. At this time of such great hope I think a minutes applause for Brian and his ilk would be more than a little appropriate.

[BAFC_98]

It is a difficult one. There was a time two or three years ago when it seemed there was a minute's applause almost every week and I think it loses its significance if it becomes routine. I agree that former players and supporters who have contributed a lot should be honoured in some way, but where do we draw the line.
As an old-fashioned chap, I am not all that keen on applause and prefer a minute's silence. And I am especially not keen on applause during the game at some stage deemed significant. ( If I last a bit longer, perhaps you might be doing one for me in stoppage time - though I'm not suggesting I have contributed like many of the excellent supporters on here).

This. I agree people deserved to be honoured and remembered but we would end up doing a minutes silence every home game.

[Wintergreen]

Great little player for us without a doubt. Couldn't the players just wear a black armband to commemorate such losses as Brian and Tony Lewis with maybe a brief dedication in the programme and on the PA?

And that is what I mean. Anything but a minute of OUR time.

I'm sorry if that read as direspectful but the question is and as Jim intimated, how do we do this sort of thing properly. Would we have a minute's silence for Brian Pilkington followed by a minute's silence for Tony Lewis, then a minute's applause during the game for someone else? We need a recognised and appropriate procedure I think; not that the rank and file supporters decide what that would be, it should come from the top.

[Jim]

A dignified way of solving this dilemma might be to have an announcement asking supporters to share in a minute's silence to remember the following good servants (find a better expression) of the club who have died recently. As long as it is reserved for people who have made a significant contribution on or off the pitch, and not done every week, I think this might work.

I think the applause thing came in because people didn't respect the minute's silence. I definitely wouldn't want applause after 11 minutes just because Pilky wore that number on his back, or something equally contrived.

Returning to the topic, Pilkington was a joy to watch - but the whole team was a joy to watch. Happy days, I can still picture in my mind the goals in the game v Crewe one night in the pouring rain, where we won 3-2 to put us on the verge of promotion, then the joyful day when we beat Brentford to clinch it (only 8,000 or so there, by the way). Hopefully, there will be a similar memory for younger supporters at the end of this season.

[Barra Marra]

Surely common sense dictates that a minutes silence in memory of those who have passed between home games, an announcement beforehand, and the players to wear armbands would be appropriate?
I am not a fan of the applause. I get that its supposed to be a positive thing but as mentioned, what if someone scores during it? If it must be applause rather than silence, do it before kick off with the players around the centre circle as a mark of respect.

[Barra Marra]

A dignified way of solving this dilemma might be to have an announcement asking supporters to share in a minute's silence to remember the following good servants (find a better expression) of the club who have died recently. As long as it is reserved for people who have made a significant contribution on or off the pitch, and not done every week, I think this might work.

I think the applause thing came in because people didn't respect the minute's silence. I definitely wouldn't want applause after 11 minutes just because Pilky wore that number on his back, or something equally contrived.

Must type faster than me!

[Bigfathoss]

Without trying to be disrespectful to anybody on the subject of recognising a bereavement, in recent seasons it has been a (sometimes lengthy) memorial summary over the tannoy, with the teams and ref already standing in the centre circle, and then followed by a minutes silence or applause on the referee's whistle. I think the timing could be better handled.

[Wintergreen]

Maybe someone from the Trust could run with this and get some clarity and implementation from the BoD.

I remember one particular minute's silence when there was a boisterous group entering the ground on the Pop Side when it had just started. Someone shouted down to them from the terrace to be quiet and then they they were shouting back along the lines of 'what's your problem pal'. Then the supporters following them were still laughing and carrying on, so it was a bit of an undignified mess.

My proposed send off is well documented: A brief chorus of 'You're Not Singing Anymore' initiated by the motley crew I have had to endure all these years. My final ephitet could be: 'He was on the pitch after Barrow gained promotion to Division 3 and again when they returned to the football league whereupon he was promptly arrested and banned for life. He was never the same man after this and could often be seen forlornly walking the streets of the (Contd. Pg.94)

[Holkerbird]

Stop exaggerating B-98 we are not dropping like flies. Unless you are going on a weekly killing spree.

[Holkerbird]

And that is what I mean. Anything but a minute of OUR time.

I'm sorry if that read as direspectful but the question is and as Jim intimated, how do we do this sort of thing properly. Would we have a minute's silence for Brian Pilkington followed by a minute's silence for Tony Lewis, then a minute's applause during the game for someone else? We need a recognised and appropriate procedure I think; not that the rank and file supporters decide what that would be, it should come from the top.

We always had a recognised procedure for years. A minutes silence before the game. Any names would be mentioned in the eulogy.
Scenarios mentioned are just trying to complicate a simple one minute silence.

[TaylorBAFC]

Those who have contributed to the club, especially in a significant fashion, deserve to be remembered through a minute's applause or silence. A minute is nothing at all. I understand it can become a regular fixture to matchdays, but it's always nice to pay respect to those who have contributed to the football club we love.