The phrase “pillar of the community” could have been invented for tonight’s Torquay United Community Champion, Ann Shepherd, writes TUFC Supporters Liaison Officer, Paul Bastard.
Ann has been helping out at the club for over 40 years and her wider family for five generations! Who, over that time, would not recognize the trim, spry, immaculately-manicured figure of Ann – hair perfectly sculpted, neatly attired in the latest team shirt – as she busily scoots up steps and along terraces encouraging people not to upset her by purchasing her 50/50 draw tickets?
Disarmingly forthright (she once sold three books of 100 tickets each worth a total of £300 to consecutive customers!), she is wholly committed to maximizing sales for her club and expresses joy that the season’s opener v. Horsham garnered a whopping booty of over £2,800 (half to the club and half to the winner of the draw) collected by Ann and her four male, equally stalwart, sellers.
Barely credibly (for she looks 20 years younger), Ann is 78 years old for she was born, a scion of South Devon huntsmen and hound kennel keepers, in Denbury in 1948. Later she would marry John, a keen footballer, whose own father, John senior, had gone from local football right up to representing Aston Villa! All Ann’s three children, Kevin, Joanna and Daniel (a mascot, aged 2) have inherited their parents’ love for the club, with Joanna (Harris) having also worked with honour for the club in different rôles over many years.
When Ann gets a moment on matchdays, she will join Kevin, his son Oliver and Daniel in their perch at the back of Bristow’s Bench to ruminate on the football and, probably, on their decades of following The Gulls up and down the country.
Ann has known personally and liked many United players over the years but picks out Shaun MacDonald and Kevin Hill as her particular favourites, recalling with a chuckle Hilly’s cheekiest goal when audaciously robbing the ball from behind the Stockport County goalkeeper’s (Neil Cutler) back in 2004. She and her family were there, of course, for all the great highs and lows of United’s recent history: the first visit to Wembley, “Bamber’s right foot”, Colchester, Southend, Cambridge, etc.
She recalls being interviewed live on T.V. one year at Gay Meadow but interlopers meant that a young Daniel was not allowed his say. She was upset about that because family is everything to Ann who, since her beloved husband John’s death on Boxing Day 2021, is more determined than ever as “Nan” to help out with grandchildren and great-grandchildren and to answer any call (Ann was “painting up Plainmoor” many years ago, as well as cleaning lavatories, removing stuck-down chewing-gum from steps, helping in the shop and at Reception, wrapping Christmas presents – you name it) that the club might make. Indeed, United’s current club shop and Reception head honcha, Lorraine Ross, was initially taken on by Ann as a 50/50 seller.
Ann, of Plainmoor, is no fan of the limelight but she deserves the hugest of rounds of applause as she leads the Torquay United team out onto the pitch this evening. This great survivor of régimes, from Mike Bateson to Bryn, declares no interest in club politics. She just wants to do her job for the greater good of the club. “I love the club”, she avers and adds, “I am wasting money if not running” for, in the past, owners and chairmen alike have beseeched her, “Slow down, Ann, slow down.”
All the Plainmoor faithful would agree that there is a fat chance of that happening any time soon!
