Today many of us will head to the Swansea dot Com Stadium with heavy hearts. This afternoon the whole club will join together to remember Vic Gomersall, one its true legends who sadly passed away earlier this week.
For as long as I have been a Swans fan there has been Vic Gomersall. I’m pretty sure he was playing full back that first time I saw the Swans in 1969 on a school trip together with the rest of the Brynhyfryd school football team. By the time I was old enough to become a regular on the North Bank Vic was back and instead of being on the pitch he was on the ‘Tannoy’.
As a boy I went to the Vetch Field to watch the Swans for lots of different reasons. It was the thrill of catching a bus on my own and the camaraderie of meeting my mates by the turnstiles. It was buying a pie and the smell of the woodbines. It was evening games under the floodlights and a pitch that started green in August and was muddy brown by the end of October.
You have to remember that football was a very different game back then. The only live games we saw were World Cups and FA Cup Finals and highlights on Match of the Day. Everyone played the same way, well everyone except Brazil. This was a game where the strongest survived, players would ‘get rid of it’ and wouldn’t ‘mess around with it’. With that in mind I think we thought the football we saw was pretty good. We had Big Herbie Williams at the back and Big Dai Gwyther up front. The least we expected was for our team to get stuck in and then we would hope for the best.
But through it all, those dark days of Division 3 and Division 4 and occasional relection to the Football League Vic was there and Vic was funny. In fact I’m pretty sure Vic and his observations on the team and the game were one of the major reasons we enjoyed home games so much. He was real, down to earth, one of us, with a quick wit and a great turn of phrase.
I think that’s why Vic was so successful in the commercial team of the Swans. He knew everyone in the city. They trusted him and knew he only wanted the best for the club.
When I was asked if I would like to join the Match day team at the Stadium I could hardly believe that I would be working alongside the likes of Alan Curtis, Lee Trundle and Vic. As we used to arrive nice and early Vic and I would have a catch up in the car park before heading to the lounges. When I would deliver the team sheets he would always joke about whether either of us had made the team. I could only dream, he would be able to remember.
At the stadium Vic settled into the role of hosting the LT10 Lounge, co hosted by Lee Trundle. It was so funny to see their double act entertain that lounge every week with most of the same jokes but always making people feel welcome and part of their family.
That all ground to a halt during the pandemic. As the grounds opened up again I got to sit within a few seats of Vic at the homes games that we were allowed to attend socially distanced. As I used to listen to him talk it took me straight back to being a teenage fan at the Vetch Field.
In recent months Vic had started to suffer from ill health and we were given 2 seats right outside the main entrance in front of the director’s box usually reserved for those who might not be able to access the stands. As the people would pass us he would keep on telling anyone who would listen that the reason he was sat next to me there was because he was my carer!!
For many years Vic was a host at various working men’s clubs, and he had a great interest in the world of entertainment. He would always ask me about how my musical career was going and was always so encouraging if I’d had some good news.
If Vic wanted to talk to me about the music business all I ever wanted to chat to him about was football. Who was the greatest Swansea player you played with Vic.? Easy answer, without a hesitation Ivor Allchurch. And then Vic would tell a story or 2 or 3 about why Ivor was so good.
I wanted to know about Vic’s career at Manchester City. You could see his eyes light up as he told stories of being a young apprentice at Maine Road. Legends of the Game I had only ever seen in black and white had been his friends and colleagues. As a young apprentice he had cleaned the boots of legends like Bert Trautmann, the ex-German Prisoner of War who broke his neck in the 1956 Cup Final but still carried on playing until the end of the game.
Who was the best player you played with at City I would ask? Again no hesitation… Colin Bell or Nijinsky as people called him. I had seen Colin Bell on tv in back and white on pitches that looked as if they had been trampled by herds of overweight wildebeests and from my settee in Brynhyfryd all those years ago he looked ok. But then Vic would describe how he would glide across the pitch and past players as if they weren’t there. Vic said because it appeared so effortless you couldn’t believe the speed at which he was actually running past you …and what an engine. Colin Bell could keep going for 90 minutes no problem…pal!!
And that’s how he used to refer to me and I think most people he knew as Pal. In a game that so often has become bland and soul less Vic represented a time when characters ruled the dressing rooms. The only thing I wish I had done is to ask him to tell me more stories because I’m sure I only ever scratched the surface.
Today we will honour the memory of Vic Gomersall. We will pay tribute to his talent as a player and his commitment to the club and the city off the field. I think its fair to say Vic loved Swansea and we loved him back.