As most people will be aware, during these times when we are unable to watch our local team play football, Tony Rouse has been busy speaking to many guests who all have connections to Whitstable Town and Kent football. The list so far includes many former and current Whitstable Town players, no fewer than eight managers of the club, a number of club officials, coaches and supporters, and familiar names from football across the county. They cover a number of years and bring back a lot of memories for many of us.

Here is a list of those published to date:
Dan Eason, Richard Tennant, Steve Clayton, Scott Porter, Steve Growns, Mark Lane, Ian Pulman, Les Biggs, Sam Denly, Lloyd Blackman, Simon Halsey, Darryl Farley, Josh Algar, Geoff Record, Jim Ward, Justin Luchford, Steve Sodje, Jason Bragg, Andy Constable, Stuart King, Keith McMahon, Mark Munday, Andy Kier, Adrian Burroughs, Kevin Fewell and Marlon Button.

This is an update from Tony:
Belmont Banter Podcast has become really popular over the last few months with more and more guests giving up their time to chat with us. We started after a few supporters and I were talking on-line during the ‘first lockdown’ and together we came up with the idea of a video chat with our manager Lloyd Blackman. Our Chairman Steve Clayton and Lloyd fully embraced the idea which started off as the club’s way of updating the supporters, as much as Lloyd was able regarding players and the prospect of playing football. If you want to check them out on YouTube just type in WTFC Quarantine Chat and you will find about a dozen.

The ‘Quarantine Chat’ gained us a lot of attention and requests to interview more people started to come in from supporters which is where the germ of an idea to start a podcast originated. On the Oysterboys’ forum we asked them to come up with a name which is where Belmont Banter came from: based on our club who play at the Belmont Ground and Banter, as we don’t take ourselves too seriously.

Primarily we are happy to chat with anyone who has a connection to the club, in some cases just passing through and others who stayed with us for many years. It soon became obvious that everyone has a story which hit home to me after we spoke to Les Biggs, the club’s photographer. I received an email which basically said, “I didn’t think this one would fit in with all the players and managers, etc., but I had a listen and have to say I really enjoyed it. What an interesting life Les has had.” This really said a lot to me as it goes to prove that everyone has a story and that’s all we are doing, letting them talk and tell you about their life and time in football, and more often you think what a big part we… that is anyone connected with the club, and I mean ‘anyone’, play in all the people’s lives that visit The Belmont Ground. They leave with memories that last for years.

If you have any questions drop us a line… Tony
questions@whitstabletownfc.club

Many thanks to Tony for organising these podcasts.

If you wish to listen to any of the podcasts while we await news of the possible conclusion to the current season, there is a link at the top of the club website or you can find them here:
https://belmontbanter.podbean.com/