Harold Jarman E-Book

Mike Jay

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Seitenzahl: 254

Beschreibung

Harold Jarman is a Bristol-born sporting legend. A highly talented winger for Bristol Rovers, he made almost 500 League appearances for the club, scoring over a century of goals. Although he has taken on many different roles for clubs in the UK and the United States, his heart has always belonged to Bristol – he returned initially as youth team manager, then caretaker manager (saving the Rovers from relegation) before coaching and managing the youth and reserve teams During the summer months between 1961 and 1972, Harold also enjoyed playing professionally for Gloucestershire County Cricket club, delighting crowds with his skill and particularly his astute fielding. In this book, Mike Jay and Ian Haddrell explore a remarkable life, accompanied by fascinating pictures, many unpublished from Harold's own collection.

Leseprobe

Acknowledgements

Bath Evening Chronicle, David Blackmore, Bernard Brain, Bristol Evening Post, Bristol Evening World, Bristol Rovers Football Club, Keith Brookman, Stephen Byrne, Richard Cecil, Dean Dursley, Downend Cricket Club, David Foot, Football Club History Database, Roger Gibbons, Eddie Giles, Bernard Hall, Steve Holroyd, Tom Hopegood, Jamie Howarth, Alan Lacock, Mangotsfield United Football Club, Kevin Marsh, Robin Perry, Neil Palmer, Matt Proctor, Chris Shingler, Andrew Taylor, The Cricketer, Ron Walker, Chris Wellman, Western Daily Press, Nick Wilson.

This book is compiled from contemporary newspaper reports, published sources, match day programmes – there’s nothing more evocative than an old football programme – along with former players’ and fans’ personal recollections. We are indebted to Stephen Byrne, a fellow Rovers historian, for his input and proofreading, as we are to Bristol Rovers’ programme editor Keith Brookman, who kindly allowed access to the many images collected over the past fifteen years and the Bristol Rovers records in his possession. The late Alan Lacock was always an excellent source of statistical details relating to Rovers players.

Of the many people who have contributed to the production of this volume, we are particularly indebted to members of the Jarman family for their input and loan of photographs and Harold himself, for providing unrestricted access to his sporting collection and willingly giving his time to answer a myriad of questions.

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the details included in this book are as accurate as possible, errors are inevitable in a work of this magnitude and the authors apologise for these in advance. Every effort has been made to identify copyright holders of illustrations from published materials, but the authors apologise to anyone overlooked in our search, or to photograph owners, should their names be omitted from the above list. We are also keen to point out that any opinions stated are the views of the authors, reflecting on the statistics to hand, and not necessarily those of Bristol Rovers Football Club.

Courtesy of Brian Tonks, official photographer for Millwall FC.

Contents

Title

Acknowledgements

Foreword

1

The Jarman Family

2

The Young Sportsman

3

Professional Footballer

4

The Summer Game

5

Cup Adventures

6

From Newport to New York

7

Rovers’ First Bristolian Manager

8

Family Life

Statistics and Records

Copyright

Foreword

It is a pleasure to be able to contribute some words to this publication on one of Bristol Rovers’ true legends – Harold Jarman. As a young Kingswood lad, I grew up watching Rovers at Eastville and while I was too young to have seen him play, I heard many stories of his skilful wing play and wonderful goals. As a young impressionable schoolboy, after I signed for Rovers, ‘H’ was my youth team coach; he was well respected by everyone. In 1979, Harold was promoted to become first team caretaker manager. He galvanised the whole club, getting enough points to ensure relegation did not happen. Despite not getting the permanent manager’s job, ‘H’ remained as coach and reserve team manager at the club, and I thoroughly enjoyed his training sessions and his outlook on football. He really was a wonderful inspiration to me and many hundreds of Rovers players, and we all thank him for his help and guidance.

PS Harold and I are the only two Bristolians to manage Rovers.

Ian Holloway, 2014

1

The Jarman Family

On 4 May 1939, Harold James Jarman, the fifth child of William Percival Jarman (born 27 July 1894), and Catherine Alice Jarman (née Harris, born 24 June 1901), was born at No. 13 Ambra Vale South in the Clifton Wood area of Bristol. Little did the family appreciate that their newborn son, Harold, would be destined to be one of Bristol Rovers’ most famous footballers.

Harold’s proud parents were married in Bristol in 1927, although his father William had been previously married – in 1925 – to Victoria Creedy, who had sadly died a year later, aged just 25 years old. William and Catherine’s first child, Ronald William Raymond (known as ‘Bill’), born 10 September 1928, was followed by sons Herbert Kenneth, John Samuel and daughter Eileen Rita, who was 5 years old when Harold was born. Harold’s father, William, was at that time employed as a carpenter, having spent twenty-five years working for the firm of William Cowlin & Son Ltd, the well-known Bristol construction company, whose head office and works were located in Stratton Street, St Paul’s. One of his last jobs for the company was working on the construction of the Council House in College Green, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1938 (the building opened in 1956). Bill Jarman had been a keen footballer in his youth, playing for Ashton City at Ashton Park.

The Jarman family had lived in the Clifton area of Bristol from the mid-nineteenth century; John Alfred Jarman (Harold’s grandfather) had been born there in 1853, whilst John’s father, John Jarman Sr, hailed from Taunton in Somerset. Between 1851 and 1871, the Jarmans resided at Haggetts Cottages, Clifton Wood, before moving to North Street in the St Andrews district of the city. Sometime during the 1870s, John Alfred Jarman left Bristol and joined the 2nd/4th Regiment of the British Army, in which he was recorded, on 3 April 1881, as serving as a private as part of an Army contingent on board HMS Serapis in the Red Sea. A Euphrates-class troopship, HMS Serapis was commissioned for the transport of troops to and from India, spending most of her time plying the route between Britain, Alexandria and the Indian subcontinent. Following his marriage to Millicent Reynolds in Bristol in 1886, John – his occupation now recorded as carpenter and joiner – and his young family were enumerated in the 1891 census as living in No. 5 Ambra Vale South, a small terraced house in a row of mid-nineteenth century properties, which they shared at the time with a family named Wilcox. Ten years later, in 1901, John Jarman, Millicent and their four offspring (Gertrude, Herbert, Minnie and Willie) were living at No. 13 Ambra Vale South, in a property described in the census as a six-room tenement. By April 1911, Millicent was a widow aged 50 (her husband John had died earlier that year) and working at home as a laundress, with son William – Harold’s father – recorded as a 16-year-old apprentice joiner in the census returns of that year. During the First World War, William worked at Charles Heal’s dockyard.

• • •

Misfortune struck the Jarman family just months after the birth of Harold in May 1939, when his father suffered a serious virus infection, which resulted in the loss of his sight at the age of 45. This disability unfortunately prevented him working again, which meant that Harold’s mother took on work as a cleaner, holding down several jobs to ensure the family survived. As well as bringing up her young family and looking after her now blind husband, Catherine worked from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at government offices in Apsley Road. After the Jarman family moved to West Town Lane in Shirehampton in the late 1940s, she worked as a cleaner at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Offices (now a Free School) in Westbury-on-Trym.

One of the earliest photos of a young Harold Jarman taken at Hotwells Primary School.

The Hotwells Primary School football team in 1948/49. From left to right, back row: Terry Britton, Willie Thorne, Bruce Bakehouse, Keith Wood, Terry Pocock, Ken Melksham, Ivor Chard. Front row: Bobby Woodward, Harold Jarman, Peter Buffery, David White, Tony Rosewall. Harold was the youngest player in the team.

The young Harold attended Hotwells Primary School between 1944 and 1950, which was a short walk from the family home in Ambra Vale South to Hope Chapel Hill, Hotwells. The Jarman family lived in an impoverished area of the city and were deprived in terms of money, but that did not prevent Harold and his siblings enjoying a happy childhood. In September 1950, aged 11, Harold transferred to Penpole School, Shirehampton, until Easter 1951, when he moved to Portway Boys’ School, finishing his secondary education in July 1952.

2

The Young Sportsman

From about the age of 6, Harold showed a real interest in sport and enjoyed joining in kick-about football games with his older brothers and friends. Despite his lack of size, Harold always had a real passion for the game and constantly tried to improve his football skills. Harold, along with his brothers, was a frequent visitor to Ashton Gate to watch Bristol City; his first recollection of watching them was around 1946, against West Bromwich Albion. ‘I don’t remember the score but I do remember the crowd and the atmosphere even at that young age,’ he recalled years later. On occasions Harold would duck under the turnstiles at the ground to get in to watch the match for free, but his mother, in an attempt to prevent this practice, used to take his shoes away to stop him from doing it. As a child he was full of energy, and his mother described him as being a bit of a handful when he was little. Once he climbed on top of a bus shelter and she couldn’t get him down!

Harold played for Hotwells Primary School football team from the age of 7, travelling by bus to various parts of the city to play other schools, with just one schoolmaster – who also refereed the game – to accompany them. Interviewed in 1988, Jarman recalled, ‘We didn’t have parents on the side then and these days there seems to be so many of them watching. They have bigger crowds than our old reserve games! I remember one year we scored 43 goals and I scored 35 of them. I was a good kicker of the ball. If we lost 11–3 I would score the 3 – but we still lost 11–3! I thought it was fantastic and really enjoyed myself’. However, on one occasion, Harold was brought swiftly down to earth by the master when he turned up for school one day without his football gear, yet still expecting to play. ‘Who do you think you are, Tommy Lawton? You’re not playing,’ advised Mr Warford, the schoolmaster.

Too wrapped up in the fun of the game to contemplate the prospect of being paid to do what he loved best, Harold was also showing talent for his other great love – cricket. For Harold, both sports came naturally. ‘In those days when you went back to school after Easter you just started playing cricket in the playground. It was an enclosed area and they would draw the wickets on a wall and then have frequent arguments about whether you had been bowled or not,’ he recalled. Harold was quite small in stature but ‘they would have trouble getting me out’. Mr Warford noticed his cricketing ability and treated him well by encouraging him in the game.

The Bristol Boys’ cricket team photographed before a match against Somerset Boys at Knowle CC in 1953. From left to right, back row: ? Machin, ? Tooze, Bill Redwood, ? Hutchings, ? Baker, ? Fry, Harold Crook (coach). Front row: ? Emery, R. O’Callaghan, Harold Jarman, ? Courtney, ? Henderson. Mr Crook was a truancy officer in Bristol.

Harold was recognised as one of the most promising youngsters in Bristol and, between the ages of 13 and 16, received cricket coaching paid for by his former schoolmaster, Mr Warford, in a scheme organised by the Bristol Evening Post, who invited local schools to submit the names of promising youths from the age of 10 for coaching. Harold’s family were unable to afford the annual fee of 21s (£1.05), but Mr Warford stepped in and paid the fees for three years. The coaching sessions, at Cotham Grammar School playing fields in Kellaway Avenue, Horfield, were run by West Indian cricketer Len Harbin, a Trinidadian who had played for his native island and for Gloucestershire between 1948 and 1951. Harold continued to improve so much that, at the age of 14, he was promoted to the Evening Post senior class held at the Gloucestershire indoor nets.

After Harold left primary school, Archibald Warford sent him two cricket score books (which are still in his possession) that had been used to record the school’s matches from 1944. ‘I played 43 football matches and 44 cricket matches and he watched every single one of them,’ declared Harold. In the letter that accompanied the score books, Mr Warford had this to say to his former pupil and cricketing prodigy:

I joined the school in April 1946 and you came the following September. Your first cricket match for the school was on 18 May 1947 when you were still 7 years of age. You scored 1 run and took 2 wickets for 0. For the next 4 seasons we were both ever presents – you playing while I umpired. I should think that would mean about 44 matches. Incidentally in 3 seasons you missed one football match. We lost that one 6–1.

In fact, Archibald Warford, who served in the RAF during the Second World War, had the dexterity to both umpire and score the school cricket matches. His involvement was the principal reason young Harold played cricket and enjoyed it so much. At the age of 12, Harold was picked for the senior cricket team at Portway School and selected to play cricket for Bristol Boys, captaining them during his final two years at school. Although recognised as a cricketer, somewhat surprisingly, Harold was never selected for Bristol Boys football team, despite having trials for the representative side between the ages of 12 and 15, as he was considered too small and was ‘getting walloped about by the big kids’.

As a schoolboy, Harold dreamed of becoming a county cricketer, and the first step to fulfilling that ambition was achieved when, in 1952, he joined Bristol Optimists Cricket Club aged 13, whilst still at Portway School. The chairman of Optimists CC was also heavily involved with Hotwells Boys’ Club. Harold’s first game for the club, in the ‘A’ team, was an away fixture against Old Bristolian’s ‘A’ on 6 June at the new Bristol Grammar School ground, and by the end of the 1952 season, he had made his first team debut in a Sunday match at Shirehampton in September. Optimists practised in the nets at Bristol University’s sports ground, as there were none at Blaise Castle, where the club played home matches. However, Harold’s family had little money to provide cricket equipment for the budding star. He had no pads, gloves or bat of his own, but did possess some whites, and it was Jack Bessant, the pre-war Gloucestershire all-rounder, who provided the enthusiastic youngster with a brand new top-quality Gradidge bat of his own, which Harold used until he was 15. In 1954, Harold was awarded the Martin Hooper Cricket Cup and medal, an annual award presented by the Bristol Evening Post to the most promising young cricketer in Bristol. Harold, the last holder, was presented with the cup at the County Ground.

Tuesday 8 May 1956 was a red-letter day for Optimists as, for the first time in their history, they were granted a match with Gloucestershire. Played at Blaise Castle, the visitors scored 118–7; Optimists promptly responded with 50–7 (H. Jarman 2 not out). The Bristol Evening World account of the match reported that, ‘Harold Jarman and J.R. Bernard, a great-grandson of Dr W.G. Grace, have been receiving coaching at the County Ground from “Sonny” Avery and George Emmett.’ Harold’s coaches were the experienced former Gloucestershire County cricketer George Emmett and Alfred Victor Avery, who had played for Essex for twenty years.

Harold’s cricketing talent, which had been nurtured at school and improved with his practice at the Hotwells Boys’ Club and Optimists’ Cricket Club, was such that at the age of 16 he was selected for Gloucestershire Seconds to play against Hampshire II in a two-day match at the County Ground, Southampton, on 21 and 22 June 1956. The match at Hampshire proved to be a baptism of fire for the young Jarman, as Gloucestershire were bowled out in their first innings for just 28, with Harold top scoring with 8 not out! He nicked 4 twos behind the wicket. Gloucestershire won the toss and elected to bat with Jarman, batting at number five, coming to the crease with a paltry 8 runs on the scoreboard. His maiden innings for Gloucestershire lasted 44 minutes, when he was dismissed by Derek Tulk, a right-arm medium pace bowler. Hampshire made a more respectable 122 all out in their first innings, after which Gloucestershire rallied in their second innings to declare at 273–3. Coach Sonny Avery, furious about the inept first innings debacle, led by example, scoring 164 not out. Promoted up the order, Jarman went in first wicket down when Barrie Meyer was dismissed for 35, and hit 1 four before being caught by Colin Roper off the bowling of Tulk. The match ended in a draw.

Harold had to wait until the following summer for his second appearance for the county, which came in May 1957 against Bristol University at their Coombe Dingle sports ground. Gloucestershire won by an innings and 60 runs, having declared their first innings at 370–8, with Jarman scoring 12 runs before he was out lbw to Neil Fitton. His next appearance was in a Minor Counties Championship game against Cornwall on 14 and 15 August at the County Ground at Ashley Down in Bristol. Initially known as Ashley Down Ground, it was bought in 1889 by W.G. Grace and has been home to Gloucestershire Cricket Club ever since. The home side won by 45 runs, with Jarman batting only in the first innings when he scored 9 before being bowled by Harold Watts.

• • •

Clifton Villa Football Club was formed in 1949 by a collection of Hotwells boys who were unable to get a game with A.G. Farmers Reserves, a team who played in the Downs League on Durdham Down in Bristol. Harold’s brothers Bill, Sam and Ken, helped form the team, with cousin Johnny Pearson and brother-in-law Ray King also playing for the Villa. The large expanse of grass, ‘The Downs’, has staged competitive football since the 1880s – in the early days of Bristol Rovers their team had played there before eventually moving to Eastville in 1897. The organised Downs League was established in 1905 and remains one of the oldest leagues in the country; even today, many hundreds of footballers enjoy their Saturday football on the windswept area close to the iconic and historic Clifton Suspension Bridge. There are some thirty football pitches set in 247 acres of open parkland, with barely five yards between touchlines and goals backing on to one another. Much time is spent retrieving balls from the adjoining pitches.

Even the best games are considered to be low-quality football, although this was not always the case. Eddie Hapgood played his last amateur matches – before briefly joining Kettering and then Arsenal – on the Downs for the same club as Wally Hammond, who joined Bristol Rovers and captained England at cricket. Kenny Stephens, who played for West Bromwich Albion in the First Division and an FA Cup semi-final, started his career on the Downs, as did Jarman and Rovers half-back Terry Oldfield. Bristol journalist David Foot described the Downs League as ‘the grave yard of the frail and the weak hearted’, and considered that Harold’s football was undoubtedly nurtured by this experience.

The league was expanded from three divisions to four in 1949/50, and Clifton Villa joined the sixteen-team Division 2 at the beginning of that season, when they finished as runners-up. Early results included an 8–0 victory over Bristol Electricity, 5–2 against B.M.P. Ltd, and a 3–2 win over Eastville Old Boys in the Norman Hardy Cup in September. Further success came the following season, with the Villa winning the Division 1 championship.

Clifton Villa FC, c.1951; the Bristol Downs League team founded by Harold’s brothers and their friends. From left to right, back row: Ted Hancock (trainer), Nobby Arnold, Ron Staples, Reg Prosser, Sam Jarman, Dennis Healy, Jimmy Doull, Harold Jarman. Front row: Johnny Pearson, Bill Jarman, Jimmy Wort (stand-in for Ken Jarman), Jack Barnes, Cliff Snooks.

On finishing at Portway Boys’ School in July 1952, Harold sat and passed the entrance exam for Bristol Technical School (Building), located in Jarvis Street, Barton Hill, and started there in August. Pupils were fitted up with a uniform and sports kit, plus a white apron for practical work by local outfitters Messrs Smart Wear (these had to be bought by the students themselves). Most new pupils wore the school’s distinctive black and green cap, but after an initial outing, they rarely saw the light of day again. Harold did not enjoy his time at the school, and was pleased when it came to an end in July 1955, after which he commenced a four-year carpentry apprenticeship with C.H. Pearce & Sons of Ashley Down Road, attending the College of Technology on day release for the first two years and then evening classes four nights a week during the winter until Easter. Although Harold was not particularly keen on a career in carpentry, his father informed him, ‘That’s what you’ll do’, as he followed the same profession as his brothers and several generations of the Jarman family.

Jarman shyly made his Downs League debut for Clifton Villa reserves in 1953, when he was still a 14-year-old schoolboy. The team won 11–1 and the young Harold – who barely came up to the chests of his burly opponents – scored four that day. Downs League football had found an emerging star. Short of kit, Harold’s first pair of football shorts was a carefully starched pair of women’s drawers that his mother borrowed from a neighbour. By the time he was 16, he was a regular in the Clifton Villa first team, partnering brother Billy on the right wing, whilst older footballing brothers Ken and Sam were close on hand to watch their progress. Plucky goalkeeper Sam could have gone to Leeds United as a professional, but preferred ‘courting’ in Bristol.

Well established in the first team by the start of the 1956/57 season, Harold was a key player during a successful season which saw Villa triumph in the Norman Hardy Cup final and finish as First Division runners-up. Towards the end of the campaign, an Evening World headline proclaimed ‘Jarman Brothers Play Big Part in 7–1 Victory’ as Southmead United were defeated on 20 April, with the paper reporting that ‘… [the team] went further ahead when H. Jarman scored the sixth goal for the Villa. Just before the end W. Jarman headed a picture goal from his brother’s centre to complete the scoring’. Five days later, Harold and Bill were in action again as Clifton Villa completed a great season, winning the Norman Hardy Cup final when they defeated Clifton St Vincents in front of 2,000 spectators on a bitterly cold Thursday evening. Bill Jarman scored the opening goal, as the Villa won 2–1 in a hard fought match. The following season, Clifton Villa were beaten in the semi-final of the Norman Hardy Cup competition, losing to Sneyd Park by four goals to two. Sneyd Park were two down inside 5 minutes, as the Villa scored in their first attack, Bill Jarman heading a neat goal with hardly an opposition player touching the ball. ‘Staples was always outstanding in the losers’ half back line, while the brothers Jarman worked hard in the attack,’ reported the Pink ‘Un newspaper. During the Jarman era, the now-defunct Clifton Villa won the championship twice and was runner-up on five separate occasions.

The four Jarman brothers were no mean footballers and all had trials or offers of trials from league clubs, including both Bristol clubs. Bill could play anywhere in the forward line, although he usually played at outside right, and had the distinction of playing on the Rovers ground before younger brother Harold when he helped Hotwells Boys’ Club win the Federation of Boys’ Clubs cup final at Eastville, just after the war. The boys’ club, founded in 1937, played a prominent part in the youth service of the city, and maintained a very high standard of work among the boys in the Hotwells and Clifton areas. In 1949 it had a membership of some eighty lads, aged 14–20, with separate schoolboy and senior clubs bringing its total membership to around 130, as well as a high reputation for its keen encouragement of handicrafts, sport, drama, P.T. and other club activities. Having operated from the Hotwells Primary School for a number of years with the help of Bristol Education Committee, in 1949 the Club Committee acquired the Grenville Chapel hall, in the very centre of their area. Harold maintained a long association with Hotwells Boys’ Club, playing for their under-18s team when aged 16 in the Federation of Boys’ Clubs League. He was twice selected for the Bristol Federation’s representative team, against Gloucestershire and Hereford at Forest Green and Hampshire at Bovington.

The Hotwells Boys’ Club under-18s photographed at Portway playing fields, c. 1954. From left to right, back row: Ivor Chard, Peter Catermole, John O’Neil, Dave Wilkes, John Higgs, Jimmy Dyer. Front row: Bruce Bakehouse, Harold Jarman, John Rosewall, Peter Buffery, Colin Spencely.

The slight little winger aroused a good deal of interest with the instinctive skills he showed whenever the ball came in his direction, but surprisingly, as a youngster, Jarman had not harboured ambitions of a career in the professional ranks:

No I hadn’t really – I just wanted to enjoy myself. Expectations in those days weren’t the same as they are today where it seems parents are looking at their kids as potential high earners – which is a pity and just piles the pressure on them. I must have had talent, but it never occurred to me to play professionally – I was just enjoying life.

In 1955, Jarman was spotted by Bristol-based scout Bert Marshall and signed amateur forms for West Bromwich Albion when he was 16. Harold played for Albion on three separate Saturdays, travelling from Bristol Temple Meads railway station on the 9.00 a.m. Saturday train at a cost of 7s 6d (37p), but a persistent groin injury meant that he wasn’t able do himself justice in his limited appearances. Despite the interest shown by West Bromwich, Jarman had become disillusioned by the prospect of a career in professional football, despite having had trials with Albion. ‘I unwisely played with a groin injury and did badly. They said that they would let me know when they wanted me again … and I’m still waiting’, he recalled, many years later. Jarman began to tire of his journey to the Midlands each week, so he returned to Clifton Villa, where his play was impressive. It was there that he was first spotted by Bristol Rovers’ chief scout Walter Jennings. Harold and Sam, his goalkeeper brother, were asked to sign for the Rovers, which Harold did not fancy doing at the time. ‘I got a visit at home from Rovers’ scout Wally Jennings. Looking back it was quite funny, really. He turned up at our house and my dad was rummaging down the back of the settee for half a crown he had dropped. Wally came in and asked my dad if “Harold would like to come to Rovers” and my Dad replied, “What does he want to do that for? He could play for Arsenal or Portsmouth”, and Wally just went away.’ Harold himself did not feel inclined to play in Rovers ‘A’ team, as the standard was no higher than that of his current team, Clifton Villa. Sam, too, decided against it and went to play for Western League Chippenham United, where he spent four years before moving to Minehead. Sam had been offered a trial with Rovers, but on his arrival at the Eastville ground there was nobody there to meet him, so he kept on walking, out of the other end of the stadium, and made his way home. Harold also eventually turned out for the Wiltshire club, signing as an amateur in August 1957 and making his first-ever appearance in the FA Cup, playing alongside brother Sam in the side that were beaten 2–1 by Wells City in the first qualifying round. He also played in a local derby testimonial match against Chippenham Town.

Harold photographed during his School Certificate Art I examination in July 1955. The picture was taken by a master at Bristol Technical School, Reginald Batterbury.

Clifton Villa FC, photographed in April 1957 before the Norman Hardy Cup final against Clifton St Vincents, which they won 2–1. From left to right, back row: Brian Fouracre, Bill Jarman, Ken Excell, Reg Prosser, Jack Barnes, Colin Brown. Front row: Cliff Snooks, Don Perrin, Ron Staples (captain), Keith Howse, Harold Jarman.

Jarman’s talent was being noticed and recognised in many footballing quarters. Selected for the Downs League representative team in the 1958 final of the Inter-League competition against the Suburban League at Bristol St George’s ground, Harold didn’t score in his side’s 3–1 triumph, although he did provide an opportunity to one of the goalscorers, ‘… while Rampling went close with a nice header from Jarman’s centre’. The Downs League had defeated the Wednesday League 5–2 in the semi-final of the competition in February.

On Easter Monday 1958, Jarman – just one month before his 19th birthday – played one match in Bristol St George’s colours against Worle Old Boys in the inaugural season of the Bristol Premier Combination. The league consisted of two divisions chiefly made up from the top Bristol District League sides, including Bristol St George, Bristol Rovers ‘A’, Hambrook, Hanham Athletic and Soundwell, among others. Premier Combination teams played on the Friday, Saturday and Monday over the Easter period, whereas the Downs League had no fixtures. Bristol St George thus required a plentiful supply of players to fulfil all of their holiday period fixtures and signed Jarman and Clifton Villa team-mate Jack Barnes. Harold wrote to Bath City requesting a trial, but got no response from the club and for the 1958/59 football season joined Victoria Athletic, linking with full-back brother Ken at the club. Sam Jarman had departed Villa for Chippenham United three years earlier and Bill had retired from football aged 28. The Athletic were a Premier Combination side, and Harold’s move was considered by the local press to be one of the surprise changes of club at the beginning of the season. Harold had been keeping fit during the summer, playing cricket for Optimists first eleven and Gloucestershire II, and was considered by local sports journalist David Foot ‘to be one of the most important young cricketers in the Bristol area.’ On 6 September, the Bristol Evening World