1938 Gater, Bill
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Biographical Text
Bill Gater, then a teenager, was an amateur on City's books who played at full-back for the reserves in the Southern League in 1938/39.
Known to have made his debut for the reserves against Swindon Town in the Southern League on 17 December 1938, Bill was a seventeen-year-old from Countess Wear. The register of the population taken in September 1939 following the outbreak of war gives his address as the Oddfellows Arms.
Bill Gater, his son, writing to the Grecian Archive in 2023 related that the promising young footballer knew Dick Pym (the former Exeter City, Bolton Wanderers and England goalkeeper) through fishing for salmon at Topsham. Dick arranged for Bill to have a trial with Bolton sometime in 1939 and they travelled to Lancashire together although, with war imminent, nothing came of the venture.
Then, with league football suspended in early September 1939 following the outbreak of war, Bill turned out a fortnight later for Torquay United in a friendly match against Plymouth Argyle. Again, with the Plainmoor club soon to be put into abeyance for the duration of hostilities, nothing more was heard of Bill's attempts to become aprofessional footballer.
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Bill Gater (son of Bill) 2023
"My Father, William Gater played for the Grecian reserves in 1938/39. He had a trial for Bolton Wanderers and travelled there with “Pincher” Pym of Topsham who played in goal for England.
He used to go salmon fishing with Dick( Pincher)Pym when they had nets across the Exe. I imagine that when my father was called for trial at Bolton, Dick was being kind in accompanying him on what would have been a long journey in those days. Sadly the War intervened so it came to nothing."