We would like to advise our supporters of an event being held at The Memorial Stadium on Tuesday 1st August.
Hosted by the Bristol Rovers President’s Club, an evening with Mike Procter will appeal to many local sports fans, given the South African cricketer’s connections with Gloucestershire Cricket Club.
Full details of the evening can be found below;
Bristol Rovers President's Club invites football and cricket supporters to "An Evening with Mike Procter", the Gloucestershire and South African cricket legend. Mike will talk about his life and the many challenges he has had to face during his very eventful career, not just as a player but also as a coach, an administrator, a commentator, an ICC referee, a test selector and now as the founder of a sports Foundation that he runs for extremely disadvantaged children in his home city of Durban. There will also be a Q&A session with the audience.
All of the profits from the evening will go towards this Foundation and its work. The evening will include a two course dinner with wine and followed by tea and coffee. Our special guest for the evening is Harold Jarman who, as many will know, played for Gloucestershire while playing for Bristol Rovers - one of the few players left who played both sports at a professional level. In fact, his cricket career overlapped with Mike Procter's at Gloucestershire.
The event is being held at Bristol Rovers' Memorial Stadium in Bristol on Tuesday 1st August, starting at 7pm with doors open at 6.30.
Mike has recently had a book published aptly called "Caught in the Middle" and he will be signing and selling copies of the book on the night. In addition the evening will have a distinctly South African flavour in honour of Mike's origins and of his stand against apartheid. Not many know that he walked off the pitch at Newlands in 1971 in protest at the then Government's refusal to allow black South Africans to play alongside white players in a representative match.
Mike has had an eventful and fascinating career and it promises to be an entertaining evening. An invitation to the event has been extended to South Africans living and working in the Bristol area and there will also be a short tribute to Nelson Mandela in the proceedings, one of the icons of our time and a man from whom Mike took inspiration in setting up his Foundation.
So, the evening will be a coming together of supporters across different sports and across our two great nations and a celebration of the diversities within our two cultures and the long and rich history that binds us together. The South African Chamber of Commerce in London is co-promoting the event as part of their drive to engage with South Africans living in this country but outside the capital. They will be represented at the event and looking to engage with UK companies wanting to invest in or trade with South Africa.
Tickets can be obtained from the President's Club or from Bristol Rovers' club shop or via Roger Cooper, email address roger.cooper@bristolroverspresidentsclub.com or by phoning 07767 643600.