Academy

Inside the Big Green Lottery

16th August 2021

Throughout the season we will bring you stories of members of the Big Green Lottery, a superb initiative set up in 2008, which has raised thousands of pounds for the Argyle Academy.

Our opening BGL member is Ian Devine, who watched his first Argyle game way back in 1956.

“I originally joined in 2008 but then had a period of being unwell for a couple of years, re-joining the BGL in 2014,” said Ian. “My only motivation is to support the Academy and the BGL allows me to do that.

“I’ve lived in the Plymouth area all my life and it’s great to see young lads coming through at the club and we can say they are one of their own. In the current team, we’ve got players like Mike Cooper, Luke Jephcott, Adam Randell and more, who have all progressed through the Academy.

“As a fan, I’m delighted to see the progress. I realise things were very difficult for the club after administration and we weren’t able to promote as many players from the youth team.

“The difference now is amazing and you can see it from the owner, chief executive, manager, director of football, they are all geared up to get our Academy going and competing with some of the best around.

“It feels like we are in a golden period for the fruits of Academy labour showing on the pitch. I am so impressed with Mike Cooper and just hope we can hang on to him because he looks better with every game.

“When we played Sheffield United in the FA Cup, he was favourably compared with Aaron Ramsdale, who ended up going to the Euros with England.

“Aside from my love of football, I have always worked in figures and numbers. I do have a secret passion for collating all the BGL results and I keep an extensive of the prize winners, numbers drawn and compiling spreadsheets on the Lottery.”

You can support the Argyle Academy by signing up for the Big Green Lottery and also have a chance of winning big cash prizes. We are currently approaching 700 members in the BGL and it would be amazing to reach 1,000, allowing us to commit even more funding to the next generation of Pilgrim talent.