Rams fan Ian in cash-boost for Steve Bloomer memorial

Plans to provide a permanent memorial to Derby and England soccer legend Steve Bloomer have been given an official final leg kickstart by Pride Park businessman and self-confessed Rams fanatic Ian Hodgkinson.

The long campaign to honour Bloomer, a sportsman many assert was Derby's greatest-ever player, will end in January when a large bronze bust of him is unveiled at Pride Park.

The ceremony will be an important part of celebrations to mark County's 125 years of sporting service to the community.

Ian, managing director of Hodgkinson Builders (Midlands) Ltd, helped launch the final fund-raising push for the memorial project by donating £857 for a large oil painting of Bloomer produced in Toyota car spray paints by artist Andrew Edwards, the man responsible for the striking bronze statues at Stoke City's Britannia Stadium of Sir Stanley Matthews and Gordon Banks.

The amount of the donation represents the number of appearances Bloomer made for Derby (525) and the number of goals he scored for the Rams (332).

Ian received the Bloomer painting from Derby County President and Chief Executive Tom Glick in a ceremony at Hodgkinson's new headquarters building at Pride Park. It will be hung in the boardroom there.

Andrew Edwards will produce the bronze bust of Bloomer which will be set on a plinth incorporating bricks from the old Baseball Ground. Ian's company has agreed to carry out the installation work.

Ian Hayes, who has led the campaign to honour Steve Bloomer, said this week: “It's particularly fitting that a link will be forged between the new stadium and the ground on which Bloomer scored most of his goals”.