Meet our new Vice Chairman – George Thom

Background

Born in Fraserburgh, brought up in Strichen, attended Secondary School at Fraserburgh Academy. Joined Royal Bank in Fraserburgh 1978 – enjoyed a 38 year career at Royal Bank/NatWest....left in 2016 an RBS Pensioner. Worked and lived in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Perth over the years.....away from North East for over 25 Years .

PERSONAL: RECENT

VT Wealth set up by George’s wife Vee, and George joined the business in January 2021 to manage the Practice operations.

VT Wealth opened a 2nd office in Fraserburgh in August 2018, at which time the business became Sponsor, Advertiser and Hospitality Lounge Season Ticket Holder at the club.

George invited and joined the Board in May 2022

INVOLVEMENT/ENJOY as Club Director:

1. Matchday: Hospitality in Boardroom – meeting and looking after Board and Committee Members of visiting teams and others guests.

2. Working with an incredibly passionate group of individuals from Board & Committee Members, to an army of volunteers and part time staff, all in the interests of the Club we love.

FUTURE: Looking forward to.....

Adding value to the Board/Club in Financial Governance and Commercial Management through learnings and experience built up in my Banking career and also building & running our own business, and:

1. Ensure the Club is ready, financially and structurally, to take advantage of opportunities as they arise, eg promotion from the Highland League and meet any new SFA requirements.

2. Support the ambitions of Mark and James to deliver more Highland League trophies and silverware.

3. Enhance our Fan experience, in terms of safety and comfort, to ensure a superb “Match Day” experience at “Bellslea”.

Comments....

1. “It was an honour, privilege and a humbling moment to be given the opportunity to become Vice Chairman of the Club I support, and I’m determined to repay the faith Finlay and my fellow Board Members have placed on me.”

2. ”Running a Football Club is very different than it has been previously and I see my contribution being more Commercial and Financial, in the operations of our Club as a business as well as involvement on Match day.....I am a fan after all.”

3. “My personal ambition is to leave a legacy of making a lasting impact and positive contribution to the growth and success of our Club. From a Club point of view, it’s important that we build on the success of recent seasons on the park, for local lads to continue to be the backbone of our Club and continue the great work of all at FFC in the Community.

Starting the season as Highland League champions, we knew that it was going to be a difficult task to retain the trophy, “everyone wants to beat the defending champions”.

In July the Bellslea has never looked better, after all the upgrades on and off the park during the close season.

A massive thanks go to Martin Gray and Bobby Cowe and all the people who have helped them in make the Bellslea look so good.

The season started off without the normal pre-season friendly’s, we had qualified for the Premier Sports Scottish League Cup for the first time, games against Kilmarnock, Montrose, Stenhousemuir and Partick Thistle gave us a tough start to the season, we failed to gain any points, but it gave Mark a chance to shuffle the pack and give some of the young players their debuts for the club, it also brought some much-needed revenue to the Bellslea.

We started off well enough in the League, but our first big test was a 2 goal to 1 defeat away from home to Buckie Thistle.

August was a good month for us, we won all our games apart from an early exit from the SPFL Challenge Trust Cup at the hands of St Johnston B. September was a mixed bag of results, the highlights were a 2 goals to 1 victory away in Edinburgh against Civil Service Strollers in the 1st round of the Scottish Cup, September also had a great finish to it as we defeated Formartine United by 3 goals to 2 on penalties in the Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup Final at Turriff, the game finished in a 1 all draw after 90 mins, we have now won the Aberdeenshire Cup 3 times in the last 4 years. October was fabulous for us as we went undefeated from start to finish, the highlight was a 2 goals to 1 victory at home to Stranraer in the 2nd round of the Scottish Cup.

November brought a mix of results, the worst parts were a 2 goal to 1 defeat by Inverurie Locos in the Highland League Cup 1st round, we also lost by 2 goals to nil against Montrose in the Scottish Cup 3rd round, the highlight was a 1 goal to nil victory at home against Buckie Thistle in the League. Much of December was wiped out because of the weather, Bryan Hay had a testimonial game against St Johnston on the first Sunday of the month.

Bryan has now played 510 games for the Broch, he is now sixth equal with Michael Stephen in the all-time appearance charts, Derek Milne in 5th place is next in his sights at 519.

The New Year saw a break in the fixtures due to the weather, the best part was a 4 goal to nil victory away to Inverurie Locos in the Highland League. February was brilliant apart from a home defeat to Turriff United, we defeated Brora Rangers 1 nil away in the League, we also defeated Buckie Thistle by 2 goals to 1 in the Aberdeenshire Shield Final at Kynoch Park Keith. In the under 21 League the Broch finished in 1st place for the first time since 1999, the team won 7, drew 1 and only lost their last game against Dyce. They scored 30 goals and conceded 15.

Zaine Laird was their top scorer with 11 goals from only 6 games played. All at the supporter’s club would like to congratulate everyone in the coaching staff and all the players who took part in the league winning season, it’s great to see the Aberdeenshire League Trophy back at the Bellslea.

The under 18’s finished in 4th place having won 8, drawn none and lost 6. Inverurie Locos won it and well done to them. They scored 32 goals and conceded 23.

Callum Kelly was their top scorer with 8 goals from 13 games played. Paul Leask has decided due to work commitments to immigrate to Australia, All at the Broch supporter’s club would like to thank Paul for all he has done for the club during his long career, we thank him for the past and wish him, Chelsea and the family all the best for the future.

March was once again a mixed set of results, a 3-nil loss to Banks O’ Dee at home was the worst part of it.

April saw Brechin City crowned as the new Highland League Champions after a last gasp win at Buckie, we received our worst defeat by 5 goals to nil away at Brechin who were worthy Champions, we finished the campaign with two victories at the Bellslea.

Well done to everyone involved with Brechin City on winning the League and commiserations to Buckie Thistle who ran them so close.

On behalf of all Broch supporters, we would like to thank Mark, his coaching staff and all the players for another fantastic season which resulted in winning the Aberdeenshire Cup and Shield, we played a record 51 games whilst scoring 119 goals in all competitions for the season, Scott Barbour was top scorer with 27 goals from an incredible 50 appearances.

Scott has now scored 228 goals for the Broch and he is closing in on Michael Stephens record of 237, a record that hopefully will be broken next season, “the earlier the better Scott”.

Thanks must go to Alice and Amber and their staff in the sponsors lounge for providing many Sunday morning “sare heids”.

Thanks, must also go to Bobby and the lads who help in producing a playing surface, which every year gets better.

We would also like to thank Finlay, the Broch committee and the many other people who help the club in any shape or form, without your tireless efforts we would never be as successful as we have been, we hope that next season is half as good as this one was.

As far as the Broch Supporters Club goes, after winning the league last season this was a very successful season for us, with a record number of over 200 members, we also ran a record number of 22 buses to 24 away games, the committee members often took fans in cars to save the cost of an additional bus.

The club is not run for profit, so the buses that make money go to offsetting the ones that lose money, a highlight was running a bus to Brora who put on soup and sandwiches for us, all fans had an excellent day out, though the win may have helped!

We also ran an almost full bus to Brechin on a Wednesday night, so hopefully we will manage a Saturday game next season against them. The buses have been very well supported by fans with an average of 40 fans per bus, this meant we did not have to put up travel costs in these extremely difficult times.

We must thank Ian and his staff at Kineal Coaches for providing us with excellent transport to all our away games during the season. We look forward to another successful season next season with our AGM being on Saturday 27th May at 6PM in the Elizabethan Bar.