Re: Congrats to Chris Rogers

By ChrisHFC19/1/2020 19:51Sun Jan 19 19:51:14 2020In response to Re: Congrats to Chris Rogers

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Warning - long and rather rambling post.

Very many thanks from me to all who have passed on their congratulations for the 60th anniversary of my first Hendon match, whether in this thread, through Twitter, in the programme, or in person yesterday. All the kind words have been greatly appreciated, and I was rather chuffed to see the notice on the turnstile door acknowledging the support that the Rogers family have given to the club over the years, particularly since moving back from the south coast in December 1993 and starting to watch the club regularly again in spring 1994. The only problem with the position of the notice is that being on the outside of the door, I won't see it when I'm manning the turnstile!! Despite that, many thanks to Rob Morris for the official recognition notice in the ground.

The actual anniversary falls on Thursday 23rd January, but it made sense for me to sponsor the match yesterday as the nearest home match to the day. As Steve said elsewhere in this thread and John also said in his editorial in the programme, having Gosport as opponents was ideal as we probably went to their home ground more often than any other during our 13 and a half years of south coast "exile".

We haven't worked out how many years service behind the scenes we've given to the club overall, but if it's not in three figures it's got to be very close. John probably started it as a youth team player from 1995-1998, occasionally playing for the reserves in 1998-99.

Since 1995, between the four of us (Steve, John, Phil, and myself), we've manned turnstiles at four grounds, sold programmes, served the Supporters Trust as board members, as Secretary, and as joint Chairman, served on the Supporters Association committee, served as Matchday Secretary, acted as a scout at opponent's matches for the manager, provided copy for match programmes, researched over 55 seasons of matches and well over 1000 players - mainly in the British Newspaper Library at Colindale - all of which is on the website archive, and have maintained the club website, both in day to day updates and the software that drives it all, ever since Phil introduced his first version in 1999. Naturally not all of us have done everything.

That isn't an exhaustive list, as there's bound to be something that I've forgotten, nor is it an attempt to boast about what we've done - that's not our nature, and we're not unique - there are a number of volunteers at the club - some in official positions, some not, some paid, most unpaid - who are doing or have done as much behind the scenes as we have. It's possible, though, that there are supporters who only see us on matchdays and who may not be aware of the amount of work that is put in by volunteers at the club - our list above is only a subset of what goes on.

As most of you are aware, Steve has retired from club service, including match attendance except on special occasions, but John, Phil, and I will continue to serve the club for the foreseeable future. Several people said to me yesterday about continuing for the next 60 years; I won't, but with John's children Elsie and James attending matches from time to time, another 60 years family service might be possible?

To Rob Wakeley, your Brian Clough quote was relevant - my hair does need cutting!!! And thank you for your service to the club so far, both in travelling down from Telford to as many matches as you can, and for the amount of research you've done for the archive in discovering details of matches in the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s; I for one have greatly appeciated that.

Thanks to Lee, his staff, and the players for the performance and the three points yesterday - that for me was the icing on the cake.

I've only one more thing to say - COME ON YOU GREENS!!!!!