Bristol Rovers were saddened to learn that former goalkeeper Bernard Hall has passed away at the age of 83.
Bath born Bernard joined Rovers in 1958 from West Twerton Youth club and signed his first professional contract in September 1959 and, following his signing he made 14 appearances for Rovers Colts and also appeared for Salisbury City in a Wiltshire Cup semi final after their regular keeper had been called up for jury service.
It wasn’t until April 20 1962 that he made his Rovers league debut, against Charlton Athletic, in a 2-2 draw at Eastville when he became the 361st player to represent the club in league football and was the first of his 163 league appearances.
Described as courageous and strong, he appeared in 115 consecutive League fixtures (and 134 in all competitions) for Rovers, being an ever present in both the 1963/64 and 1965/66 campaigns.
However, tragedy struck 54 minutes into a New Year’s Eve match against Middlesbrough at Eastville in 1966 when he collided accidentally with Boro’s John O’Rourke and was stretchered off the pitch. He remained unconscious for 16 days in Frenchay Hospital before recovering, though his footballing career was ended on medical grounds.
Rovers staged a Testimonial Match for Bernard in October 1967 and a crowd of 9,000 saw West Ham register a 4-3 win against a Combined Bristol XI, with Harry Redknapp and Geoff Hurst on the scoresheet for The Hammers.
He always said that the highlight of his career was playing for Rovers in a Fourth Round FA Cup tie against Manchester United at Old Trafford, in January 1964. The 55,722 crowd saw Denis Law score a hat trick as United ran out 4-1 winners, but the Scottish goalscoring genius ran to shake Bernard’s hand at the final whistle and praised his performance afterwards.
Bernard was also a keen cricketer, becoming an accomplished wicket keeper and opening batsman. He had captained Somerset Schools at the summer game and played club cricket for St George.
Following his enforced retirement from the game, Bernard spent seven years as groundsman at Imperial and 26 years as a store keeper for Rolls Royce, before retiring to Whitchurch.
He later lived in a care home in Weston-super-Mare, but there was one final appearance for him at a Rovers game when, on 24th February last year he attended our game against Carlisle United, as a guest of Rovers’ Community Trust, when he was presented with his cap to commemorate his Rovers league debut.
Our thoughts are with Bernard’s family and friends at this sad time.
