a tremendous send off for the lad.

still recovering as i type.

Fair play to the pompy, wolves, leeds & walsall people who turned up.

 

RIP ferny.

yup most of us stood outside in the sleet as the church wasn't big enough, especially with people your size taking all the room....

there were faces I hadn't seen for years....

quite emotional to see so many bwfc tops and the coffin draped in a bolton st georges....

the ammount of money that was thrown into that collection drum would be enough to buy a fleet of guide dogs never mind one....

The numbers in the connie club were huge, I left at 6 and can only imagine the state some must be in this morning....

a fine send off

 

RIP

yup most of us stood outside in the sleet as the church wasn't big enough, especially with people your size taking all the room....

 

Ya cheeky bugger, wot ya mean by that.

 

toodle pip

It was a Beltin send off, Ferny would have been proud to see all those faces.

 

Only bad thing of the day was Pompey Westwood getting his cock out again! [-X

Only bad thing of the day was Pompey Westwood getting his cock out again! [-X

 

missed that bit, was it a biggun???

 

toodle pip

From Pompey Rivals site:

.... Big Bolton and England fan known to quite a few Pompey fans sadly passed away last week, his funeral was yesterday.

 

I can only say that he would have been chuffed to bits with the send off he received ....

 

Westie, Fingers and several others came up in a mini bus, left Pompey at 4am....... and there were fans from other clubs too.

 

When I got to the wake, held in Astley Bridge Conservative Club in Bolton, there were about 100 people in the bar. I met up with a couple of mates who had earlier been to the service and crem and had a couple of pints with them.

 

My mate Critch said ' have you been upstairs yet, come on'. So went upstairs to the function room and there must have been another 600 / 700 people there, most if not all in Bolton, England or club colours. A fine sight!

 

On stage there was a huge St George flag with Bolton Wanderers across it, and a signed England shirt.

 

Westie was already up on the tables, getting everybody going. '' We love you ferny'' We love you Bolton'' God save the Queen'' and not a ner ner der ner or badly played bugle in sight.

 

There were some brilliant Bolton terrace ditty's dating back to the 70's, including 'Born to be a Wanderer' and 'Bolton Fusilier' and a few others I hadn't heard before.

 

Westie and the Pompey lads were due to leave at 7pm to come home, so shortly before this a guy got on stage and a toast was raised to Ferny, another incredible sight this with 600/700 pints raised in the air.

 

Anyway this guy on stage says a special thanks to the Pompey lads for coming and to huge applause the Bolts break into a superb chorus of the Chimes, it was absolutely brilliant. Tears were never far away yesterday and this brought a huge lump to the throat, mine anyway.

 

So Westie and the Pompey lads say their goodbyes, into the Bolton night and into the first snows of winter.

 

30 minutes later, Westie is back on his own. ''What are you doing back here'' ''It's Ferny innit'' and with a shrug of the shoulders and to cheers from the crowd he was back up on the tables.

 

Sad day, very sad but a good day for the human race and for football fans in particular.

 

RIP Ferny.....

left westie about 10 in piny

 

how the fcuk did he get his teeth tattooed

A sad day for all of us.Many a tear shed,but wot a do.Ferny you brought footballs fans together in life and in your death.It was a pleasure to have met you and meet the fans you had met.THANXS TO ALL.AND YOU FERNY WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU.PROUD TO BORN A WANDERER

I took some pics with camera phone and some video clips of the singing in the AB connie club so I will try to post them on here so you can all see what a truly amazing event it turned out to be. I don't think I will ever experience a funeral like that ever again, Ferny was defo with us in spirit and he would of been so proud of the turn out. A big thanks to all those who attended and especially the ones from further a field, well done people you know who you are.

 

RIP mate you will be sadly missed but never forgotten.

 

And as he used to end his texts : GSTQ, KTK, BWFC PASSION NOT FASHION and PROUD TO BE BORN A WANDERER

 

See you soon mate.

 

 

Sorry about the quality.

 

Notice the pint placed in front of the shirt for the man, well I'm sure it was slowly going down!!!

A very emotional event. I've never seen a church packed out so much, all the seats taken, all the standing room in the aisles full and people listening from outside in the rain.

In the boozer afterwards there was a lot of reminiscing of the good old bad old days. I was sat with two Wanderers fans that I don't see much these days, one now lives in Scotland and one lives in Hampshire. Both had made the long trips to pay their respects.

Ferny will always be remembered for his loyalty to Bolton Wanderers, he re-arranged his work life and home life to fit every match in.

I think the idea to wear football shirts encouraged more people to come along that didn't know him on a personal level but respected him for his devotion to BWFC which was a good idea.

He also made many friends from his England trips and they turned up in force wearing their own club colours.

His sister spoke about him as a passionate fiery personality who lived his life to the full without wasting a minute. I will always remember him this way and he was a great lad to have on your side.

 

.............Craig

although we are half a world away, tears were being shed for our people hurting back home, all our thoughts were back in Bolton yesterday, it was wonderful to see so many people turning out for him, Ferny was Bolton to the bone, all our very best wishes to his family and his millions of friends

 

Steve and The Los Angeles Whites

left westie about 10 in piny

 

I got a taxi with westie & pompey kev they kipped at my mates house and went home fri morning. 2 top men & they are back up when we play pompey.