Series of artistic 2-D footballer cutouts wearing historic kits help Banbury team mark 90th anniversary

To honour the anniversary (1931 – 2021) one of the club’s ground staff volunteers, Roger Davis, has created 2-D cutouts of footballers wearing the various team colours and style of kit worn over all those years.

Last season Roger produced 2-D silhouettes in the form of cats and foxes to deter rabbits and crows from damaging the pitch.

They proved very popular (and effective) so he extended his “menagerie” to include crocodiles, lions, monkeys, penguins and even a kangaroo! The animals were made using redundant advertising boards and subsequently they were all sold raising over £300 for the club.

Faced with the lockdowns of recent months he decided to create more cut-outs in his studio - this time using the pitch-side perimeter timber boards (now being replaced with modern wire-mesh panels.)

He created footballers in the different colours and style of kit worn by players of initially, Spencer Sports Club (the genesis of the present football club) which was started in 1931 by The Spencer Corsetry Company of America when it established a factory in North Oxfordshire. Very quickly the sports club gave way to Banbury Spencer FC and became a very successful and well-known non-league football club from 1934 until 1965 when it became Banbury United.

The cut-outs will be placed around the ground and hopefully will be of interest to visitors and supporters alike, once the team can host supporters into the stadium.

It is a fitting tribute to all those players, coaches, managers and officials that have provided regular football in the town for so many years. There have been good times such as going to Shrewsbury in the FA Cup in 1961 and playing at Colchester United in 1948 in front of 8,500 spectators. Unfortunately, there have been poor times when the crowd numbered in the low hundreds and the very future of the club was in doubt.

Each cutout footballer carries a football stating the team, year and league the team colours are associated with.

Undoubtedly there will be some puzzlement as supporters wonder when did the team ever play in green and white? Did the team really play in silky blue and white striped shorts against Northampton Town in the FA Cup? And why did a more recent Banbury team play in purple shirts winning one-nil away to Slough Town?