Cliff Bulbrooke
Mr City Transport himself...... Cliff relaxes on his 80th birthday
Tim Dunkley reports.....
He first played for
Southampton Corporation Transport’s snooker team 54 years ago in an air-raid
shelter in Belmont Road.
Now,
on the eve of his 80th birthday, Cliff Bulbrooke may be forced to try something
new as the Portswood bus depot site, including the social club, is close to
being redeveloped by supermarket giant Sainsbury’s.
A
keen footballer, Bulbrooke maintained airframes including Spitfires during RAF
National Service in 1947/49.
For
44 years he was a conductor and then a driver on the buses.
In
1953 he joined the cribbage side and has been a regular for a staggering 55
years.
“I’m
the only one left from the original team,” he said, perhaps not
unsurprisingly.
Bulbrooke
formed the club’s second snooker team in 1954 but admits to being only an
occasional player nowadays for the City Transport C side.
Now
chairman, he has served the club’s committee for 44 years.
During a recent Summer Bonanza match, Bulbrooke told his young opponent: “My cue is older than you are.”
