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Congrats to Chris Rogers
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60 years of loyal support is a great achievement and the amount of his work for the Club is second to none. Here's to more to come!
There are still one or two of us ancient supporters - for example I first went to Claremont Road in the early 1950s. I also remember watching the 1955 Amateur Cup Final on a neighbour's flickering 9 inch black and white TV. Happy days!
Re: Congrats to Chris Rogers
Views: 8930
Congratulations Chris. Sixty years is an amazing achievement and I am proud of almost 53 years (my debut was early Feb 1967).
Chris’s work on stats and results on the website has been an absolutely crucial part of all the things I have written for and about Hendon.
Edited by David B at 17:07:16 on 13th January 2020
Re: Congrats to Chris Rogers
Views: 2443
Many, Many congratulations mate, I have supported the club since the 1958/9 season, Derek Dawson in goal and Tommy Lawrence, and Roy Thomas, banging in the goals. However my contribution to the club has been no where near at the level that Chris has provided and continues to do so.. I went to every match in the 59/60 cup run all accept the away game at West Auckland, but went to the home replay, tough game against a gritty Northern side. The Wimbledon match was a classic and I think Hendon started as the under dogs, however a 2-1 win for the Greens, 2 penalties by Jimmy Quail, as I remember. I have some really great memories of games at the old ground and some really special games at Griffin Park, Highbury, Champion Hill, and of course at Brisbane Road. Great Days!, with more to come.
Re: Congrats to Chris Rogers
Views: 2389
I'd like to add my congratulations to Dad on reaching this anniversary of supporting the club - without his support of Hendon, I wouldn't have had many happy and enjoyable years volunteering around the club. As others have mentioned, without the many many hours Dad has spent pulling club result & playing records together, I then wouldn't have been able to spend many hours inputting much of it into the website archive which I know many supporters appreciate being able to browse.
Clearly Dad has many more memories than I do, having been around for many of the best years in the clubs history, but the day that always really sticks in my mind - more so than the win over Leyton Orient in 1997 - was the 2-0 win at Fareham Town in the FA Trophy in 1987 when Iain Dowie and Duncan Hardy scored. It was great to see Hendon win just 3 or 4 miles away from where we lived at the time.
I think its rather nice that Dad's anniversary game that he's sponsoring is against Gosport Borough - one of the other local sides we often went to watch when we lived on the south coast in the 80s and early 90s.
Re: Congrats to Chris Rogers
Views: 2354
"the 2-0 win at Fareham Town in the FA Trophy in 1987 when Iain Dowie and Duncan Hardy scored"
I think this may have been the game where I spent most of the 90 minutes playing with the steeplechase waterjump.
Re: Congrats to Chris Rogers
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My sole memory from that game is Erskine Smart being booked for kicking the ball away, quite possibly into the steeplechase area!
Re: Congrats to Chris Rogers
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I have a recollection of that game, not sure if I have invented this. It involves Phil Gridelet marauding up the pitch from defence and causing great excitement in the stand. I think this culminated in a disallowed goal which was a terrible anti-climax. Have I made this up, have I got it wrong or did it really happen?
Re: Congrats to Chris Rogers
Views: 2410
The match you are thinking about was at Worthing I imagine, when Phil Gridelet picked up the ball near his own goal line and proceeded to beat the entire opposition running the length of the field before sensationally scoring. However, a mean spirited linesman spotted another Hendon player in an offside position, probably nowhere near the action, and the referee duly disallowed the “goal”!
Re: Congrats to Chris Rogers
Views: 2317
So I got it wrong but it really happened in a different match! Marvellous, thanks for that...
Re: Congrats to Chris Rogers
Views: 2367
I think that something similar happened at that Fareham match.
If I recall correctly, Phil Gridelet made a similarly barnstorming run out of defence, got to the edge of the Fareham penalty area and slid the ball to Iain Dowie who went on to score his goal.
But back to the main reason for this thread ……. huge congratulations to Chris Rogers - thanks for the time and effort (not to mention the money!) that you have put in over the years to keep this great club of ours alive. Enjoy tomorrow.
Re: Congrats to Chris Rogers
Views: 2363
As Brian Clough may say, "Well played young man - Now go and get your hair cut, you're beginning to look like a girl" Why I added the last bit I have no idea! Hendon have turned my hair grey! Seriously, well done on reaching this particular milestone and thank you for all that you have done over the years. Top lad. That's from me.
Re: Congrats to Chris Rogers
Views: 2314
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!!!!!
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