RIP DAVE 'THE PROGRAMME' PEARCY

Printed in the FA Cup 1st Qualifying round game v Ardley United Saturday 13th September 2014. We lost 2-1 in front of 230.

It was fitting that Dave Pearcy should pass away on Non League Day. A day that is a celebration of everything that is unique about our level on football.

As my twitter feed filled up with tributes to Dave, the few of us who made a weekend in Weymouth raised our glasses to the man who everyone agrees was part of the 'Slough Town match day experience.' Especially Clubshop Sue who Dave would endlessly embarrass at grounds across the country, as he launched into his 'Super Sue' song! The forum was full of praise for the little man with the big bag full of God-knows what and an encyclopedic knowledge of bus and train times who supported his club for over 25 years.

Dave was known as Dave the Programme because, well, he sold programmes. But he did a lot more than that. He was an ambassador for the club. There was nothing clique about Dave, he would talk to old and new supporters alike and it seems everyone's earliest memories aren't just full of players names and games but of Dave flogging them a programme and asking how they were. Infact I sometimes wondered just how much of the game he actually watched, as he talked to everyone and their dog. He could drive me round the bend, when I was trying to watch a game and seemed more interested in what my train journey to the game was like!

But it's not really just about the football is it? Of course we want to see a good game but as the Weymouth weekend showed, its being part of a family of friends with a shared interest in a little football club with a very big heart.

What the club and its supporters did for Dave when it became clear how ill he had become, made me proud to support the Rebels. Paul Lillywhite organised the party in the Herschel that was packed with players and managers old and new and of course the fans. Somehow he managed to make it to the game the next day, coming on as the mascot, with Ian Lathey saying the last he had seen was Dave was late in the evening necking Tom Kings special shots while singing, '1-0, 2-0, 3-0...to the mighty Slough.'

The CAMRA rebels such as Alan, Ollie, Chris, Mark Bevan and Mark Carter would make sure he was part of the team in the quest for a decent pint before and after games and at beer festivals. Or there's the image of Jacko, who got to know Dave as a fan, a player and as a friend, sitting down for a long chat on his birthday on what was to be his penultimate visit to a 'home' game. The image of Dave waving his colostomy bag around a pub in Egham asking what he should do with it, is one image i'd rather forget!

When we beat Rugby in the play off semis, Sean Fraser got the players to run over to Dave to celebrate. When we won promotion at Kettering, they went one better and he was the only supporter invited into the sanctuary of the dressing room to continue those celebrations.

While everyone is so pleased he saw his beloved Slough win promotion after only 24 years, he never got to see us back where we belong. But that promotion has really put the club back on the map and the way our club is being run, I have no doubt that we will be back in Slough soon. 

So Mr.Chairman, how about a statue of Dave selling programmes outside the ground, as a reminder of one of the clubs most loyal supporters?

Dave's dad said Slough Town is the best thing that ever happened to Dave. Well I reckon Dave was one of the best things that has ever happened to Slough Town.

The outpouring of emotion on social media, shows just what people thought of the man. And I have to agree with Mark Bailey who wrote on the forum “For me Dave embodied everything that is brilliant about non league football. What a legend, glad he is at peace now.” 

Dave with Chairman Steve Easterbrook at the end of the Kettering game just after we got promoted

* A minutes applause for Dave before yesterdays game https://www.flickr.com/photos/horshamrebel/15236476015/