The Rovers returner

Bristol football fan who went to first match on a steam train in 1954 still goes along to every home game at age 103

WHEN she started following Bristol Rovers in 1954, Kitty Thorne would arrive for matches by steam train and a bucket was passed around the crowd so the players could be paid.

More than 60 years on much has changed, but not Kitty – at 103 she still turns up for every home game.

And she has no plans to stop, saying: “I love the atmosphere too much.”

The devoted fan has been to more than a thousand matches, travelling over 75,000 miles from home in Trowbridge, Wilts, where she has lived since being evacuated from London during the war.

Husband Leslie, a Spurs fan, began taking her to local football matches in the region that became their home – occasionally watching Trowbridge Town play Chippenham Town.

He took her to her first Rovers game with their son Peter, then aged nine, on October 23, 1954 – the year after the Queen’s coronation, when Winston Churchill was Prime Minister.

They set off on the lunchtime train to the club’s former Eastville Stadium ground, bringing a packed lunch of corned beef sandwiches and a flask of tea.

The family were among a crowd of 24,000 who saw Bristol beat Leeds United 5-1 – and Kitty was instantly hooked.

She said: “We used to go by steam engine. I remember one game when they were shaking buckets in the crowd. I didn’t know what it was for, but then found out it was to pay the players and for the match.”

When Leslie sadly died five years later, she continued to take Peter to matches. Over the years she has seen any number of thrilling games, but she particularly recalls one memorable clash against Manchester United nearly 50 years ago. “It was 1972 and we were playing Man United in the League Cup,” Kitty said.

“I went to the match, but I wasn’t feeling very well. We were all packed in really tight at Eastville for the match.

“There were more than 34,000 in attendance, so to get to the St John’s Ambulance people at the front I was carried over everyone’s head.”

Kitty has seen 25 managers come and go since she started supporting Rovers, and in 2015 she celebrated her 100th birthday at their current home, the Memorial Stadium in Filton.

There she met manager Darrell Clarke, who she described as “very nice”. Son Peter, now 73, still goes to matches with her – making it a long-standing family tradition.

Kitty said: “We’ve made a lot of friends over the years, that’s my favourite part.”

But she admits many aspects of the game are very different to how they were when she first started attending matches all those years ago.

“It’s not the same in recent years, there is something missing,” she said.

“A lot of the people who knew us have gone. And the crowd is not as raucous as it used to be.

“But I still love going.”

She said that the biggest change she has seen over the years is the money surrounding football.

“It’s got too big really,” Kitty said.

“The money – I think it has got a bit out of hand. But that’s how things are these days I suppose.”

The crowd is not as raucous as it used to be, but I still love it KITTY THORNE DEVOTED FAN FOR OVER 60 YEARS