Oldest Villan at 100?

10:01am Sunday 20th August 2006

A SPORTS mad football fan, who is one of Aston Villa FC's oldest supporters, has been offered a special present from her beloved club after celebrating her 100th birthday in Burnham this week.

Doris Smart, who lives in the resort's Towans Retirement Home, reached a century on Thursday with family who had travelled all the way from Canada to be with her.

And once the Weekly News got in touch with Villa Park to find out whether she was the oldest Villan on record, they immediately offered her a special gift to help her celebrate.

Club spokesman Claire Huggins said Doris and a friend would be welcome to see her beloved team play for free if they got in touch.

"She is definitely right up there with some of our eldest supporters," she said.

"We have had a gentleman who reached 100 last year, so it's her and this gentleman."

Nephew Martin Randle said the 100-year-old had originally been born in Birmingham before moving to Maple Drive in 1966.

She had married husband Len in 1955, but after he died in 1977 lived alone until March this year when she moved to Towans in March this year.

"She loved any sport and with her husband, a football referee, she was a regular supporter if Moor Green amateur football team and Aston Villa," he said.

"Her parents lived close to Edgbaston County Cricket Ground and Doris was taken there at an early age and soon loved to love the game and was and was a long time member of the club.

"She moved from a millinery shop just before WWII and begun work for British Small Arms when she was a secretary, having taught herself to type."