TLA Sport

with Roger Jackson Please email full details to sport@thelocalanswer.co.uk

John Hunt is a lifelong football fan, someone who is more than happy to share everything he’s learned over the years with anyone who asks.

The current beneficiaries are the footballers of Bishop’s Cleeve A who play in the Premier Division of the Cheltenham League because, at the age of 60, Hunt can be seen on their touchline every Saturday afternoon encouraging, cajoling and shouting instructions as he tries to tease out a win.

“I’m assistant manager,” he told The Local Answer. “James Trigg is the manager but he’s also our goalkeeper so he asked me to help out. I’m there on Saturdays and I’m also at all the training sessions.”

And Hunt is not alone on the touchline because he’s accompanied by one of his great mates, someone who is a Cheltenham Town legend and someone who played 50-plus games for Wolves in the top flight of English football in the mid-80s.

Football fans of a certain vintage will recognise straight away that Hunt’s sidekick is the now 61-year-old Mark Buckland, who Hunt knew when they were young and who he has got to know very well over the past 30 years or so.

And the two of them still share a great love for football despite their longevity in the game.

“We keep saying we’re a couple of dinosaurs,” laughed Hunt. “We keep saying that the youngsters should be taking on what we’re doing but they seem to really like what we do.

“We give them the ball at training but they’re doing lots of running as well, the kids love it. The all-weather pitch at Cleeve is great to play on.”

Hunt and Buckland used to live next door to each other in

John Hunt, left, and Mark Buckland Clyde Crescent in Whaddon, Cheltenham, and their friendship is clearly one that is built on trust and respect.

“Buckie’s a great bloke, he had a great career and has got a really good pedigree,” said Hunt, “but he never undermines me. At half-time I’ll have my say, I might be explosive, but even if I’m wrong he won’t say so in front of the players.”

This isn’t the first time that Hunt has been involved with Bishop’s Cleeve’s Cheltenham League side. He was previously manager – Buckland was his assistant – and the team were successful too, winning a couple of charities cups.

And his time in football has certainly been successful.

Born and bred in Cheltenham, it was always going to be the sport of his choice as he grew older, although initially it was in Sunday football that he took his first steps in the adult game.

“I started playing for Bass Canaries” said the ex-All Saints School pupil. “They went on to become known as Lokomotiv Bass and Bassalona.

“I had a job working in a hotel so I couldn’t play Saturdays.” But once he switched jobs it meant he could also play in the Cheltenham League on Saturdays so he joined Gas Green, a club he stayed with for some 20-odd years, although most of that time was in a non-playing capacity. “I started off in their 3rds and then moved up to the 2nds but I smashed my knee while I was playing for Bass Canaries,” he explained. “I had to stop playing so I took over as manager of Gas Green 2nds before taking over the 1sts. We were in Division Four of the Cheltenham League and we won the title in 1999/2000. We also won the Charities Cup, we beat Tewkesbury Town 3-1 at Newlands.” Hunt clearly knew what he was doing when it came to running a football team and he was equally adept on the administrative side too because by now he was also secretary of Gas Green. It was also around this time he joined the committee of the Cheltenham Football League, taking over as the league’s fixtures secretary in 2003.