It is with great sorrow we announce the death of Alistair ‘Bear’ Blythman who died on Sunday 18 October.

Alistair was born in Newcastle in 1952 to Grant and Elspeth. Educated at Merchiston School in Edinburgh and Glasgow University, Bear worked as an accountant before being head-hunted by one of his clients, the fledgling snacks manufacturer, Phileas Fogg, to be part of their logistics department in Consett, where he worked for most of his working life before taking early redundancy after KP Foods took over the company.

Bear came to Novos straight after university and quickly established himself as a hugely likeable character and a formidable winger with all the necessary attributes of speed and size but with one failing in that he didn’t like to hurt people so tended to slow down before contact. To the surprise of the opposition, he would sometimes switch to prop mid-game for several of our teams but really showed his true calling and prowess as a tourist of truly international standard – foreign visits to notably Paris, Amsterdam and Prague were the stages for the Bear to star where his story-telling would become the stuff of legends.

It is rare to meet a man about whom absolutely no-one has a bad word to say and whose very name brings a smile onto people’s faces but such was Bear. Novos benefited hugely from not only his presence on the pitch, in the bar and on the balcony, but also his early retirement spent in untold hours cutting the pitches whilst his skill as a wildlife photographer was highly successfully transferred to terrific shots of players and matches. The club also gave back in sorts in that Bear met his future wife, Gill, on a blind date at the Novos Ball in January 1975.

Our thoughts and deepest condolences now go to Gill and their son, Chris.

Following a private cremation and in accordance with Gill’s wishes, the club will open from 4.00pm to 11.00 pm on Friday 30 October for friends to remember Bear and we hope you can join us there.