Garry Brooke, who passed away on 18^th January 2025, played 11 games for St Albans City between August 1991 and October 1992.

Garry joined the Saints from Wivenhoe Town when, in the summer of 1991, City manager John Mitchell cherry-picked the Essex club to bring Garry to Clarence Park along with Steve Clark, Jimmy King and Paul Price.

Garry didn’t score during his time at Clarence Park but his 11 games saw him play in six different competitions. He scored three goals in eight Friendlies and made two appearances for the City Reserves. One of the pre-match rituals City did back in the early 1990s was to see who could hit the crossbar most often from just outside the penalty area. Garry may have been small in stature but he was head and shoulders above everyone else in striking the woodwork

Garry will be remembered most fondly for his time spent with Tottenham Hotspur. Having joined Spurs as a ten-year-old – after a year with Arsenal - he made his First team debut ten years later and had a bit-part as a substitute during Tottenham’s F.A. Cup wins of 1981 and 1982.

During his time at Tottenham, he was involved in a serious road accident that led to him being given the last rites. Garry, however, made a full recovery although his lungs only worked to 80% capacity.

Garry left Spurs in 1985 to join Norwich City where he teamed up with future St Albans manager Ian Culverhouse. After a year-and-a-half at Carrow Road, he moved to Dutch club Groningen, and then onto Stoke City, Brentford, Reading and Wimbledon, the latter he descried as a ‘disaster.’ Moving into the non-league game he played for Baldock Town and Wivenhoe Town. After leaving St Albans, Garry signed for Worthing.

Once his playing days were over, Garry got the see Spurs every week when he worked for the Press Association. Having gained coaching qualifications he set up the Palace Soccer School and ran various Sunday Youth teams. He also turned out for Martin Chivers’ Tottenham Veterans team and for many years was landlord at a pub in Studham in Bedfordshire.

He was at Baldock at the same time as another future City manager, Ian Allinson, who paid tribute upon hearing of Garry’s death. “Garry was a lovely lad who could strike the ball beautifully, he could kick it miles.” John Mitchell also paid tribute to the player he had signed almost 34 years earlier, “Really sad to hear of Garry’s death, a nice guy, great player and will be sadly missed.”

Garry was born in Bethnal Green on 24th November 1960 and passed away on Saturday 18^th January 2025, following a long illness.