My father George Prout was one of the senior officers of the old Supporters’ Club at Elm Park. One of his duties was to sign guests into the Supporters’ Club bar in the Norfolk Road (north) stand. When the visitors’ book was full he kept it and passed it down to me.
Flicking through the pages from 1965 and 1966 you can find the names of well-known local supporters like David Downs and Alan Sedunary, groups of visiting supporters – a lot from Sheffield Wednesday for the FA Cup tie – many visiting players, some obviously on scouting missions or maybe secret transfer talks, and here and there famous names like Ray Clemence, Ron Atkinson and Rodney Marsh. There’s even a very young Gordon Cumming who, despite being an Arsenal player at the time, signs as coming from Glasgow.
On this page you’ll see signature of the famous BBC broadcaster David Coleman and Joe Broadfoot, the Ipswich winger.
This piece of memorabilia is from Tarquin Prout
David Coleman watched Reading beat Mansfield Town 2-1 and Joe Broadfoot watched Reading beat Southend United 5-1.