BIG BAS IS STILL IN FULL SWING!

Entertainer carries on playing starring role

- Matthew Nash

MY mate reckons he's still got it somewhere, tucked away in a wardrobe. "Got it! A Bas Savage moonwalk t-shirt," he exclaims.

This is not the novelty item it might seem. Back in 2007 these were all the rage on the Sussex coast when the 6ft 3in striker was banging in the goals in at Brighton, becoming an Albion cult hero in the process.

The man with the blue hair (or red, or Spider-Man design depending on the occasion) was one of the most colourful in the game in recent years, his career taking in Reading, Bristol City, Gillingham, Brighton, Millwall, Tranmere, Dagenham, Northampton and Thai side TOT, as well as loans at Wycombe and Bury, before hanging up his boots in 2017.

But it all began in rather more low-key surroundings, when Savage was an up-andcoming player in Non-League.

"I used to love the old Stompond Lane ground! I remember going past defenders like we were just playing in the park in those days," he recalls of his first club Walton & Hersham, now playing in the Southern Premier Division South at their new Elmbridge stadium.

"Six or seven of us went together to Walton to try and get in the team. We did have aspirations of making it in the pro game but really we didn't know what would happen.