The Gonfalon
THE CLUBS FLAG OR GONFALON
In the clubhouse set high up in the roof trusses in that section that the membership use as the seating area, is the dismantled club flag or what is traditionally referred to as a Gonfalon.
What is a Gonfalon you may well ask, well it is described in good dictionaries as a noun:
The Gonfalon is a type of heraldic flag or banner, often pointed, or with several streamers, and suspended from a crossbar.
It was first adopted by Italian medieval communities, then later by local Guilds, Corporations and Districts.
A gonfalon can include a badge or coat of arms, or decoration, and nowadays, every Italian municipality, will have a Gonfalon sporting its coat of arms.
Gonfalone, the word Gonfalon derives from, was originally the name given to a neighbourhood meeting in medieval Florence, each neighbourhood would have its own flag and coat of arms, leading to the word Gonfalone eventually becoming associated with the flag.
Well the clubs flag is just that, it is a Gonfalon.
The Gonfalon that we have in the club house today is not wholly original, having been modified around the time of the London Olympics in 2012, the original however was manufactured completely by an ex member, Peter Gregory, and comprised of the following parts.
THE SHAFT
This was manufactured from a fluted timber pole, which was divided in half and both sections painted brown. These were then joined together with a large brass ferrule, with a steel rod inserted in the center of the poles, to form a seven foot high shaft. The top of the shaft was capped with a large ornate spearhead painted gold.
The bottom of the lower shaft section is fitted with a short, centrally fitted ground spike.
The upper section of the shaft is pierced through with a hole, about 30 cm beneath the spearhead, which allows a cross member to be slid through.
This cross member is made of round section timber, painted brown and fitted with an ornate spear head, similar to the main shaft only small, on both ends which are painted gold, one of which is removable for the fitting of the member through the main shaft.
The upper section of shaft is also fitted with three small hooking points equally spaced about the circumference, for the fitting of small guide ropes with ground rods for supporting of the pole vertically when is use
THE FLAG
The original flag for the Gonfalon was manufactured from a green silk material, on which was embroidered a large copy of the clubs present logo.
The flag was secured onto the crossbar with wrap over straps fitted with Velcro tags.
This original flag was lost during a shut-down weekend. Iit was presumed someone had decided to take it home and clean it, but unfortunately It never came back.
The flag that is display now, was sourced by Kay Simpson, and was manufactured by her talented friend in such away to faithfully replicate the original, however, that was not wholly possible as we did not have the original programme for the embroidery of the club's logo.
To solve that problem, Terry Gregory (who happened to have a club sweatshirt with an original logo embroidered on it), was persuaded, by smooth talking club members, to volunteer the Sweatshirt.
The logo was carefully cut out off the sweatshirt, and then sewn centrally onto the new flag by Kay's friend.
ON WHAT OCCASIONS DO WE DISPLAY THE GONFALON
The club displays the Gonfalon at any tournament or event club members compete in, it is also proudly displaced on occasions such as club celebrations, Have-a-go events and Corporate events.
