The Lincoln & District Football Supporters Club will hand over a £10,000 donation on Saturday but it comes tinged with sadness following the recent death of their chairman Mike Pryor.
Mr Pryor, a former director and vice-chairman of the Football Club, was the liaison director with L&DFSC during his time on the Board and was asked to join the L&DFSC committee in June 1993, a position he served until his sad passing earlier this month.His funeral will take place at 2.30pm on Tuesday 3 May at Lincoln Crematorium and a minute’s applause will take place prior to the Woking game on Saturday in his memory.
Brian Baldam, who recently marked 50 years’ of fundraising with the L&DFSC, has vowed that Monday night bingo in the Travis Perkins Suite will continue but he would be grateful of any help. If you’re interested in assisting in any way, please contact Brian via the Club Office.
The latest donation from L&DFSC will take its total fundraising donation to a staggering £1,643,329 since its formation in 1952.
Originally founded as the Lincoln City Supporters Club, the principal objective of the newly-formed supporters club was to raise money for the Football Club, and their first donation was £50 for a new playing kit in August 1952.
The supporters club handed over £1,500 for concrete terracing on the Sincil Bank side and, in 1957, they paid for a roof to be put on the ‘Spion Kop’ section of the railway end. Three years later they embarked on a campaign to raise £16,000 to install floodlights at Sincil Bank.
Although membership peaked at 5,700, a downturn the team's fortunes in the 1960s saw this figure decline, although their fundraising activities continued and by May 1959 more than £11,500 had been handed over to the parent club.
In 1961 former trade union official Ben Sullivan was appointed as a full-time organiser and this led to an increase in fundraising when he launched regular bingo sessions and took control of the lottery. In September 1965, Sullivan took up a similar role with Newcastle United and he was replaced by Brian Baldam.
Regular donations to the parent club continued, but a disagreement in the summer of 1973 saw the supporters club split from the parent club and renamed itself the Lincoln & District Football Supporters Club. A reconciliation took place soon after Dennis Bocock resigned as chairman of the Board in April 1974.
The club hired premises at the Drill Hall and the Lincoln Liberal Club, where the bingo sessions took place, whilst they also raise money via their Christmas Raffle and the very popular Grand National Sweepstake Draw.
Their total donation to the Football Club reached £1 million in April 1991 and in November 2003 their 'Double Chance Lottery' was combined with the Football Club's 'Birthday Lotto', which not only resulted in greater prize monies and the reduced running cost of only one lottery but it also brought in greater revenue to the Football Club.
In addition to their much valued fundraising, the Lincoln & District Football Supporters Club has also organised the ballot for the Football Club's "Player of the Season" since it conception in the 1969/70 season.
Photo – Brian Baldam (left) and Mike Pryor (right) hand over one of the many donations made by L&DFSC over the years to Club Chairman Bob Dorrian.
