Saturday 1 December, 2001

City Gent 100

On Saturday the 100th issue of the Bradford City fanzine The City Gent will hit the Valley Parade terraces.

Now the oldest fanzine in Europe, The City Gent was founded in October 1984. From its inception it has had a non-profit making policy, all proceeds are poured back into the football club and causes related to it. A staggering £13,000 has been raised from sales of the 100 issues.

A 100 party is being held in Bantams Bar, under the Kop, Valley Parade from 1.30 till 6pm on Sunday December 2nd. Exhibitions, sales, readings and players past and present will be present.
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On a personal note BfB would not exist without the support and inspiration of the likes of Dave Pendleton, Mike Harrison, Richard Halfpenny and many, many more who all deserve much credit for what is a awe inspiring achievement (100 issue over more than ten years. BfB has only been going for three and already that seems like forever).

The City Gent was the first football publication that I, and I suspect many other City fans, read that spoke to City fans on a intelligent level about our club and taught me and the other BfB contributors, other web site producers, T&A column writers and anyone glanced on it's pages, that football talks could be smart as well as witty and could be praising and not fawning.

In tribute to City Gent BfB presents, with apologies to visiting Millwall fans, this is an internal thing:

Five random excellences of The City Gent
  1. Getting banned from the club shop by chronic manager John Docherty for daring to speak the fan's mind
  2. The half time penalty shoot out against Phil From Frizinghall which, if I recall, featured famed but anonymous tall City Gent seller wearing a pair of ludicrous shorts.
  3. Bringing future Premier Minister Darren Slingsby to the attention of the nation. His diplomacy and coolheadedness are a credit to us all.
  4. Managing to get a match report for the league cup tie at Norwich in 1996 despite the fact that the those who would form the BfB team had to carry the reporter through the turn styles cause we had been drinking around Naar-which pubs since 12 and he could not stand up, and slept through the game.
  5. Getting onto the desk of Geoffrey Richmond as the authorities source of Bradford City followers opinion.

City Gent, we salute you.