Palace Detectives have been an amazing success
story. Formed in 1990, primarily as a small luncheon club for Police Detectives
who support Crystal Palace FC, we have since gone from strength to strength.
We received a tremendous boost initially by
having Steve Coppell at our inaugural lunch held at Strikers’ Restaurant,
Selhurst Park on 11th January 1990, with about 20 officers in attendance. Steve
has attended subsequent functions and as someone who is not over-enamoured with
public speaking, has often stated that he feels most comfortable in the company
of ‘Detectives’
There is no doubt that the FA Cup Final in 1990
was a massive coup for Palace Detectives as we suddenly discovered that there
were considerably more than 20 of us. Having advertised for members throughout
the country, we were delighted to take around 200 supporters to Wembley. After this
the Club was officially constituted, and membership quickly grew to a fairly consistent
75.
Whilst we can afford to congratulate ourselves
on 35 successful years, there is no doubt that we would not have achieved so
much without the wonderful assistance of our two good friends and associate
members, Barry Williams, and Steve Kember.
Barry the well-known after dinner speaker, avid Palace supporter and a
man with family police connections, hosted a number of our early lunches and
helped to increase our popularity. With our original plan to have 3 – 4 lunches
a year and to invite various Palace connected guests, a number of our early
functions were held at the Croydon wine bar owned by Palace Legend Steve
Kember, who also had Met Police Detectives in his family. Thanks to Steve, we
have had the privilege of entertaining and being entertained by nearly every
Manager since our inception, not to mention a number of Chairmen as well as a
long succession of players and ex-players.
It was Barry, with his considerable sporting
and show business connections, who suggested an annual ‘Sports Evening’ which
has been a popular and highly successful concept. All of our lunches throughout
the years have guested numerous stars and speakers from various walks of life,
including Roger de Courcey, Malcolm Allison, Jimmy Greaves and John Conteh, to
name but a few. Our final lunch of the season always honours the ‘Palace
Detectives Player of the Year’ and we have been delighted to welcome them all
from Geoff Thomas through to our current trophy holder, Jefferson Lerma.
Unfortunately, when Barry sadly passed away on 24th December 2021, we
lost a true friend.
Our original aim, in our own small way was to
assist CPFC, and especially the Youth Teams by supplying much needed equipment
during the early days of administration. Then, as the Club once again grew stronger,
we turned our attention to other local charities and in 1980 began our
association with ‘Crystal Palace Supporters Children's Charity’ (CPSCC), for
which we are now one of their main benefactors. In total we have had the
pleasure to donate in excess of £120,000.
We always welcome new members who must be CPFC
supporters as well as serving, or retired, police officers who have had
Detective experience.
As a small club we are proud to be associated
with the CPFC and look forward to continuing our close relationship for the
next 15 years and into our next half century.