One or two surprises

5:23pm Monday 18th August 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

Life's full of surprises. One of my first duties as a Times reporter in the London Blitz early in the 1940s was to get called out to Elm Park Gardens, Hendon, following an air raid ... and tipping an incendiary bomb from a rafter into a bucket of water held by my editor, Barrett Newbery.

I am sure those of you who know me will be amazed that I managed to manoeuvre the bomb into a bucket ... but I took it in my stride as an unexpected part of my journalistic training.

One of my first duties as a Times reporter in the London Blitz was tipping an incendiary bomb into a bucket of water held by my editor

Dennis

"Good man", said Barrett - and, to be honest, I can't remember him saying anything different all the time I knew him. "I've got a good story" - good man. "I couldn't get him on the phone" - good man. "I've got a hangover" - good man.

The latest surprise was to be at Copthall Stadium on Sunday watching an extra preliminary round FA Cup tie between Kentish Town and Wellingborough Town who, for those of you who don't know such things, are nicknamed the Doughboys and are the sixth oldest football club in England.

It was an historic moment. Kentish Town, who now play at the stadium, are a recent club and were Up for the Cup for the first time as a Spartan South Midlands League Premier side.

A crowd of 179 turned their backs on Chelsea and Manchester United on TV to see this bit of history, a vociferous and enthusiastic bunch of them from Wellingborough having travelled South to cheer their heroes. The game finished 1-1 and moved on to a replay at Wellingborough.

This wasn't the most glamorous of FA Cup ties but the occasion filled me with nostalgia and brought back the days when Barnet FC wanted to build a new stadium at Copthall.

It was the ideal site, even these years later in hindsight, and would perhaps have given Barnet the chance to move up the football ladder in a modern stadium.

Opposition came from Mill Hill. There were lawyers brought in and glib talk about coachloads of Cardiff supporters - I don't know why they picked on Cardiff - coming in and wrecking our suburban haven.

I recall inviting Sir John Smith, the former Liverpool FC chairman who became chairman of the Sports Council, to Copthall to extol its virtues.

He arrived and walked into the stadium with his hefty briefing papers in his hand.

He look surprised. "Where do all these opponents live?" he asked. I gestured across the Green Belt in the direction of The Ridgeway, Mill Hill.

I lived in Great North Way, backing on to Copthall, for years. The only time you heard a sound was a loudspeaker from the stadium at an athletics event on a summer's day when you had the windows open or were sitting in the garden.

I was at the stadium when the Duke of Edinburgh was there with 1,500 others. I was there a year or two back when the Queen came - the old place looked a tad tatty that day.

Anyway, Labour Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, as the Secretary of State, kyboshed Barnet's dream of a new stadium in the borough and the club are still playing at 100-year-old Underhill.

I'm sure Mr Prescott wouldn't know the name Copthall if you waved a banner at him. The legal eagles cashed their cheques and moved on to deal with other problems.

So there I was, not quite misty eyed but wondering what might have been. No police presence. No Green Belt preservationists. And a happy bunch from Wellingborough who had a good day out.

What might have been? Well, Barnet wouldn't be playing in the extra preliminary round in August. We got to the fourth round proper for the first time in our history two years ago ... and again last season.

We would have attracted a mite more than 179 .... mind you, the way we've started this season I'd better keep quiet about the crowd.