Cyrille Regis

I was sorry to hear of the death of footballing legend Cyrille Regis today. 

Although he is best known as an England international and striker for West Bromwich Albion he spent the final year of his football career playing for Chester. Injury restricted him to 29 games in the 1995/96 season but he scored 7 goals and created a huge impact at the club. It was an honour to see him playing for the Blues.

In 2002 I was asked to contribute to the Smoking' Joe book that features in my blip. I wrote a page on his time with Chester which I was very pleased with and it still reads well after all these years. Although I didn't receive  a copy of the book from the author I did have a chat with Cyrille at a Chester game about 12 months later. I told him about the piece I had written and he was kind enough to send me a copy of the book with a personal message inside.

He was gentleman and will be sadly missed.