YOUR CLUB NEEDS YOU!
Stewart Fort started up and sold not one, but two successful engineering firms, and now he’s focusing his attention on giving Clitheroe a football club they can be proud of, writes David Fearnhead
A few years ago a television crew were dispatched to Old Trafford to speak to fans about the price of season tickets. One fan stuck in mind. He bristled at the interviewer’s line of questioning. It was suggested football was being taken away from the working classes – that it was now the domain of what Roy Keane had so perfectly piqued as ‘the prawn sandwich brigade’. Summoning up all the indignation our fan could muster, he defiantly declared: “I don’t care how much they put the prices up, they’ll not stop me from coming!” It could have been satire, but instead it was a salient lesson in the skewed logic of the die-hard football fan.
Times are changing. The busted flush of the European Super League has re-awakened the feeling of detachment from football’s elite. A growing number of fans are now vocalising that the ‘emperor’s clothes’ are lacking in any real substance.
Less than 50 miles from both Anfield and Old Trafford is another type of football club. There are no emperors here. At Shawbridge you’ll likely find the Clitheroe FC Chairman Stewart Fort grafting away. The latest project is a system to reclaim rainwater and use it to water the pitch. Forty thousand litres of it can be stored, and what would normally take three days with two hoses can now be done by 20 small sprinklers in two hours. It’s just one of the many developments which have been taking place at the ground.
Stewart is hands on and has an impressive business pedigree and work ethic to match. He sold his first engineering company in 2008. Less than a year later he started up another which he then sold in 2016. “Well, there are only so many beaches you can sit on,” says Stewart, who retired for a second time at Christmas having served out his five years. It didn’t last long.
“I retired on the 23rd of December 2020 and I think I’ve been here nearly every day since. I enjoy it. I’ve had people coming up to me saying, ‘I can’t believe what you’ve done here’. We’ve only painted the place and they think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. There is a great buzz.”
If you’re already getting the impression that Stewart is a bit of a character, you’d be right. You’d have to be to take on a small town team in the eighth tier of English football, during the height of a global pandemic.
“In a way it’s kind of done us a favour,” says Stewart of the timing. “We’ve been able to do a lot of the groundworks which we wouldn’t have been able to do had the season have been played. The bar is now open four days a week rather than 20 times a year, which it used to be.
“We’ve had all these people queuing up to get a drink at half time. So we’ve put an external bar in with those bottom feed glasses that they have at Tottenham’s billion pound stadium. It’s eight-times faster than the normal method. Simple things like that. I just felt I could easily sort those things out and we have.”
A season ticket holder at Burnley, he was invited down to Clitheroe initially with a view to get him to sponsor a few games. He enjoyed the experience so much he became the new Chairman.
“I loved it. It was proper football, nobody rolling around on the ground,” he says of that first experience watching. “I took it on because I knew I could make the business better. As far as the football side of it I can’t do anything about it, but if we can make the business better, we can increase the money I give to the manager to buy more players and hopefully jump up a couple of divisions.”
Although his attachment to the current crop of players is causing his manager some issues when it comes to strengthening the squad. “They are a great group of lads, but the manager has told me off because I keep saying to the players I don’t want to see you going anywhere.”
Loyalty is a big thing with Stewart. “Some of my employees worked with me for 30-odd years, and even after that they are coming down here now.”
Clitheroe FC has a small battalion of volunteers which Stewart happily rolls off by name, saying: “They range in age, from lads in their late thirties to lads in their eighties.
“They are unbelievable. I’ve never really worked with volunteers before. It’s been a completely new experience for me and I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s humbling to be honest. We’ve got lads doing 50, 60 hours a week for nothing. They’ve all got smiles on their faces. During the pandemic it’s been an outlet for them and they come down every day. It makes you feel good to be fair. We’ve had a pizza van here on Saturdays – Susie and Blaire from Whalley started up Luna Pizza having been furloughed over Covid and all their customers have been coming and seeing the ground.”
The Ribble Valley has seen an unprecedented boom in new homes over recent years, and Stewart is hopeful that these new arrivals will become a part of the Clitheroe story.
“The town is growing so much and we need to tap into that. We need as many people to come and enjoy it as we can. Hopefully we can have families coming to watch and have the whole town backing us!”
