Saturday afternoon saw Bristol City draw 1-1 with Hull City at Ashton Gate but away from the pitch, BS3 played host to another important event as the Reds’ new women’s supporter group, Robyns Round hosted their first meet-up in the Lansdown Stand Concourse ahead of kick-off on International Women’s Day.
Launched last week and backed by the club itself, founder Leah Davis is hoping that the new group will help bring female Bristol City supporters from all different backgrounds and experiences together on matchdays and beyond.
“Today is all about celebrating women in sport but for Robyns Round, it’s all about bringing people together,” Davis told Bristol Live on Saturday afternoon. “The group is all about supporting women who maybe haven’t felt comfortable to come to a game for the first time on their own, or it can be for women who come on their own, have been coming on their own for 15 years and want a support network of people who are like them.
“It’s a social group, a bit of a community for women at Bristol City. There’s obviously been great support and backing at the club, we’ll be working closely with them to help develop something really special. Today is our first meet-up in the Lansdown Concourse so we’re really excited to meet some new people and tell them all about what we’ll be doing.”
City took to social media to announce the new group last week with a video shot inside Ashton Gate featuring Davis, the Reds’ head of strategic operations Michelle Dring and Robyns Round member Sophie Giltinan. The Robins’ tweet has since amassed over 35,000 views with the ovwhelming reaction being one of positivity.
Having been one of the co-founders of Her Game Too back in the Spring of 2021, an organisation which aims to celebrate and promote women in sport along with helping make football an inclusive space for all, Davis knows a thing or two about starting a campaign with a bang and she is hoping that Robyns Round can have a similar impact on a more local scale in the coming weeks and months.
“Her Game Too started in May 2021 and to start with, it was just 12 female football fans who had had enough of sexist abuse,” she explained. “We posted a video online and it got a few million views and went viral.
“None of us expected it to get this far but me and Eve Ralph are co-founders and that is what inspired us to create the Robyns Round community. Obviously, we’ve created a really great community with Her Game Too but we wanted to create that with something a bit more localised for women at Bristol City.
“We’ve been really encouraged,” Davis continued when asked about the response. “It has just all been really, really positive and I’ve been a bit wowed really. It was an idea that I just had six months ago and I obviously discussed it with Eve and the club quite early on but lots of people have come together to help this grow and develop so it feels like everyone has had a really lovely say in it to help it grow into something really special.
“Hopefully, we can get some women involved and start to develop this further.”
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With their first meet-up held inside the Ashton Gate concourse ahead of Saturday’s draw with Ruben Selles’ Tigers, plans are now being put in place for future events as the Robyns Round look to establish themselves as part of the matchday experience for female supporters in and around Ashton Gate.
Although nothing is set in stone at this moment in time, founder Davis is hoping the group can conduct similar events at Bristol City Women’s matches while also finding a regular home for future men’s fixtures in BS3.
“We’d love to meet up before every home game,” she said. “Today is all about signing people up, getting people to know all about it and then hopefully, we can find a space whether it’s at the ground or at a cafe on North Street where we can meet up, have a sit-down and chat a couple of hours before the game and hopefully, we can do that as well before the Women’s Games as well because we want to involve the whole club.
“As well as matchday, it would be quite nice to do events as well so that people can make friends and things like that because we all have football in common, but it’s quite nice to build a bit of a community.
“Football is a brilliant place,” Davis continued. “We’re here to welcome you in and you can come join us, feel supported, share your football opinions and be passionate. So come and join.”
For more information on Robyns Round, you can follow the group on X: @robynsround or email them at: [email protected]