“Gill with a G” is what Gill said to me when I asked for her name.
Meet Gill (with a G), who I met at the football on Saturday.
Gill is a Plymouth Argyle supporter, she made the very long journey from Plymouth to Bolton, to watch her team play my team, Bolton Wanderers. Google tells me the journey from Home Park, Plymouth to the University Of Bolton Stadium, Bolton is a 304 mile trip, a 608 mile round trip ! It makes my 242 mile round trip from Nottingham to Bolton and back rather insignificant.
I saw Gill taking some photos of Wanderers youths singing football songs, so it was a perfect chance to strike up a conversation with her. I was with my friend Alan, who I grew up with in my teenage years following the Wanderers, so we both engaged Gill with football chat.
Gill has been following Argyle since the 70s and attends all home games and most away games. She takes photos of her trips, especially Argyle fans on their travels. She posts them onto the Argyle fans website “Greens on Screen”. While we were talking to her many Plymouth fans acknowledged her and one couple said they had a photo to send her, they had had their photo took with “Lofty the Lion” and 8 foot lion who is the Wanderers mascot (named after the late Nat Lofthouse, probably Bolton’s greatest ever player, who was a prolific goal scoring centre forward for club and country). We asked Gill what time she left Plymouth in the morning, she told us the alarm went at 05.00 hours, so she could walk to the ground to get the coach to Bolton, I think she said the coach left at 06.30 !
Gill’s photos of the match can be seen in the link below ….
https://www.greensonscreen.co.uk/photos.asp?parm=2022-03-12M1
This is my first football stranger post Covid, I used to do several football strangers in round 1 of my 100 strangers.
Thanks for being stranger 304 Gill, it was good to meet you. Good luck for the rest of the season.
@happypat it was really nice to meet Gill, opposition supporters sharing a few words and photos :)
@carole_sandford thanks Carole, yes a nice smile on gill for sure
@delboy207 yes a top quality back story
@quietpurplehaze Haze, thanks, yes the Sony RX100 is a terrific little camera, ideal for the football as it just slips in my coat pocket. The images are outstanding too
@boxplayer thank you so much m the narrative back story is always an important part of each stranger shot
@gavj cheers Gavin, I thought so too
@pdulis thanks Peter
@bkbinthecity thanks for the continued support
@beryl thanks beryl , she does indeed :)
@marlboromaam pleased you think so mags :)
@ljmanning awww Laura thank you for the "stellar" comment, that means a lot :)
@cocobella for sure Corinne :)
@annied Annie thanks for your comment, Gill is a great supporter for sure
@corinnec Corinne , Gill was nice to talk too and her devotion to Plymouth can never be in doubt