Re: International Experience

By ChrisHFC22/5/2020 11:56Fri May 22 11:56:07 2020In response to Re: International Experience

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Warning - lengthy post!

Clarification on some already named:

- Michael Bryan is from Northern Ireland, not the Irish Republic;
- Rod Haider is the England amateur record holder with 65 caps (10 Kingstonian, 55 Hendon);
- John Swannell is the England Amateur record holder for most caps at one club with 61 in total, all for Hendon, and is second to Rod Haider on the England amateur all-time list;
- As well as his 2 NI amateur caps, Jimmy Quail reputedly missed out on a full NI cap by the odd vote in nine in a meeting of NI selectors;
- Rajnar HVIDSTEN (not Nvidsten) gained 22 fulll caps for Norway, scoring 2 goals (source: Wikipedia - List of Norwegian football internationals playing between 10 and 24 matches);
- Raphael Garcia was Costa Rican;
- From memory, "Shoehorn" was the nickname of Wallace Johnson, who played 1 match for the first team in September 1951 (and a number for our reserves) - he was from the Gold Coast (now Ghana), but i don't know if he was an international;
- Cecil Wise was playing for Hampstead Town when he won his England amateur cap(s), but the FA records show his club as "Kildare";
- Tony Jennings only became an England amateur international after he left Hendon - don't know if this matters - this also applies to a few players named below.

Others I can think of - all are amateur caps unless otherwise specified

Leslie Compton (England full international at the age of 38 - still the oldest outfield player to be capped as a full international by England)
Bernard Joy (England amateur international AND England full international)
Erwin Bahler (Switzerland "B", i.e. one level below full international)
Tony Know (England)
Tony Harding (England)
Tony Bass (England)
John Connell (republic of Ireland)
Erik Hagen (Norway)
Roger Connell (England)
Kieron Somers (Republic of Ireland)
Jeff Harris (England)
Micky Cooper (England)
Mike Candey (England)
Terry Howard (England)
Paul Bates (England)
Miles Spector (England)
John Payne (England)
Peter Terry (England)
Roger Day (England)
Paul Clements (England)
John Brooks (England)
Derek Gamblin (England)
John Ashwoth (England)
Jim Ward (Scotland)
Gerry O'Rourke (Scotland)
Laurie Churchill (England)
Danny Uchechi (Nigerai U20 and U23)

and no doubt others I can't think of at the moment.

Cricket internationals who played (or are reputed to have played) for Hendon under that or earlier names:-

Fred Titmus (Middlesex, Surrey (one season) and England) played a London Challenge Curp match for Hendon in November 1950;
Micky Stewart (Surrey and England, sometime England manager, and father of Alec Stewart) played 10 matches foe Hendon between March 1954 and October 1954, scoring 5 goals.
John Murray (Middlesex and England wicketkeeper) was on Hendon's books, but never made a first-team appearance for the club.

Denis Compton was an England international at both cricket and football, though the latter was only in wartime internationals. He was born in Hendon in May 1918, and is reputed to have played for the club, though I have yet to find a first team competitive appearance for him - his elder brother Leslie made 41 known appearances for Hampstead Town.

Denis's Wikipedia entry shows that he played youth footbsall for Nunhead between 1933 and 1935 (age 15-17), and he is known to have signed as a professional for Arsenal in 1936 at the age of 18. He may have signed youth forms for Arsenal as eaarly as 1933, in which case Arsenal would have sent him to Nunhead, who were, I think, a nursery club for Arsenal at the time.

I have seen a report somewhere - but cannot find the reference at present - that Denis played for Nunhead in a London Senior Cup match against Golders Green at Claremont Road in Januaey 1935, when he would have been 16. It appears that he scored one of Nunhead's goals in a 3-0 win. The match is on the club archive, but only shows the result and Golders Green's line-up.