Fantastic memories of some great people

I moved to Warwick from Birmingham in the early seventies and soon started to play for West End, alongside Ron’s adopted son Ollie. Ron along with Ivan and several other people had worked extremely hard building the club, and his enthusiasm and total selfless commitment was amazing. Ron was always ‘giving’ -giving his time, his effort, his energy - even his money.

He worked tirelessly at making West End a first class club for youngsters, taking training, organising anything and everything that needed organising. It was a happy club with some very good players -in fact it felt more like a family than a club. We gathered in the Foresters after the games every week to analyse and dissect every aspect of the match, Irene, Ron’s wife used to take all the kit home to be washed and ready for the following week, we trained in the week and then it was back to match days - and the same cycle - what fantastic times they were.

It has been nearly 40 years since I played for the club, and during that time I have traveled a lot, met many people from all sorts of life but I still remember Gassa like it was only yesterday. He earned the love and respect of everybody he met - even when he shouted good hearted abuse from the touchline during a match (I was on the receiving end of that many times)!!!

I was very disappointed at not being able to attend Ron’s funeral a few years ago - but I still have fond memories of Ron, which is something that cannot be taken away, and reading Jane’s letter made me realise that if some of these councilors and politicians possessed the same undying selfless commitment and foresight of Gassa and Ivan, not only Warwick but the whole country would be a far better place.- Brian Moore, Solihull