We recently spoke with Alan, Vice Chair, and life member of Brooks Bar, who has been involved in the branch for over 50 years.
“One of our founding members in 1949 was George Dutton who also sold the match day programmes,” began Alan.
“Our first branch president was Eric Alexander, followed by Roy Clarke and then Tony Book, who remains in the position today.
“I joined in 1969 when the meetings were held in the Whalley Hotel Brooks Bar, hence the branch name.
“We then moved to several locations before finding the Withington Bowling Club, Debry Road. One of our trips as a branch was to watch City play in the League Cup final in 1976 against Newcastle United.
“The Football Club had booked a room in a hotel for us to attend that evening with a buffet and they had the League Cup with them. It was a great night!
“Members from the branch also flew to Vienna in 1970 for the European Cup Winners’ Cup final against Gornik Zabrze. On our return, the branch president, Roy, had put on a special night at the social club where we all had a drink of champagne from the trophy we had just won.
“As we were a local branch, we had many people from the Club attending our meetings and functions over the years. Peter Swales, Bernard Halford, Ian Niven, Jimmy Frizzell, Paul Lake, Peter Barnes to name but a few. I feel it probably helped with our membership.
“The social club used to put on pantomimes at Christmas and some of our members took part, including me and the wife twice.
“The Club allowed players to take part including appearances from Francis Lee, Tony Book, Mike Summerbee and Joe Corrigan.
“We all had a great time and a good laugh with the players.
“The branch has had a full social calendar over the years with weekend trips to football matches or social events.
“We still hold our dinner dances annually with our 75th anniversary dinner taking place in June. We always have former players in attendance and our president along with Tommy Booth and Fred Eyre.
