We are Tamworth, from The Lamb

For someone who hates hearing their own voice through a microphone, I’ve done some pretty amazing public speaking feats.

 I’ve been on the readers’ rota at church since I became a Catholic ten years ago; I’ve twice hosted a quiz night in front of 300 naturists (on the second occasion, the microphone didn’t work so I had to run up and down the room, repeating the questions); and now I can add something to that list about which I am just as proud.

 For the past nine months, I’ve been a committee member of the Tamworth FC Supporters Club Heritage Project.

  Begun during the 75th anniversary of the club in 2008 and backed by money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the project was designed to tell the story of the club, its’ players, managers, officials and most importantly, the fans.

 Volunteers toured Tamworth recording the memories of fans young and old, collecting memorabilia and organising a poll of supporters which resulted in the unveiling of a series of 30 cards recording ‘The Lambs’ Legends’, the club’s all-time greats.

 The scheme ended this week with two spectacular events; first, there was the launch of a free commemorative 60-page full-colour book ‘We are Tamworth, from The Lamb,’ compiled by project leader Dave Clayton and featuring contributions from supporters, club officials and a number of former Tamworth Herald sports reporters (including yours truly).

 The book, of which 4,000 copies have been printed, was enough of an achievement in itself. But the project committee wanted to do something more; to seek out past players, officials, managers and supporters and bring them together again.

 Our initial ideas seemed daunting enough; but after nine months of hard work, countless meetings, phone calls and emails and, yes, a fair amount of teacup-throwing, what we ended up with was beyond our wildest dreams.

 Last Sunday, 300 people - former players, officials and managers, relatives of former players who are no longer with us, as well as modern-day fans - came to the Assembly Rooms in Tamworth for a three-hour festival of football nostalgia.

 We had screens showing rare pictures from the club’s past and television footage of the historic days in 1989 when Tamworth won the FA Vase, beating Sudbury Town in a replay after a 1-1 draw at the old Wembley; we had presentations to the Lambs Legends who were able to attend and we had bucketfuls of memories.

 Originally, I wasn’t due to compere the event, but after the starting line-up was hit by late availability problems, I came off the bench to join former Herald sports editor Rob Tanner at the microphone - and we had an absolute ball.

 We interviewed Jean Tregaskis, who was the Supporters Club secretary back in the 1950s while still in her teens and who could have talked all night about her memories; we met the daughter of the late Percy Vials, No 1 on our Legends list from his days playing for the club in the 1930s; we met Charlie Coggins, John Bayliss, Dave Seedhouse - all names synonymous with the ups and downs of Tamworth through the years.

 And we met the Wembley Eight - the eight members of the FA Vase-winning team who were voted into our Legends line-up and who looked ready to turn the clock back 20 years as they came forward to collect their awards and looked as proud as they had done that spring day in 1989.

 Yet it wasn’t just the formal part of the event that was fun. We deliberately left 45 minutes after opening the doors before we began the show and 30 minutes at half-time for people to share their memories - and to walk through a seething, smiling, mass of people talking football was to feel a real sense of achievement about what we had done.

 The book will be widely available throughout Tamworth and it is hoped to show DVD recordings of the event in the near future - details to follow.

 I wouldn’t have missed it for the world and it’s one of those things I will always say I was proud to be involved in.