Read all about our visit to Hendon FC, of the English seventh tier, at their home ground, Silver Jubilee Park, London.
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Where:
General Info:
Date of Visit: Saturday, 31.3.18, 15:00
Club Name: Hendon FC
Nickname: The Greens
Founded: 1908
Stadium: Silver Jubilee Park, London, Capacity: 1,990 (298 standing)
League and Rank: Isthmian League Premier Division (7th Tier) Rank: 6/24
Official Site | Wikipedia
The Visit
Hendon's artificial pitch, known as Silver Jubilee Park, was one of the only grounds where football could be played that rainy weekend. The club we'd originally arranged to visit was actually sixth-tier Wealdstone, but the match was called off because of the heavy rain. Despite the huge disappointment of not making a visit that had already been all set up, we recovered quickly, and after a short Facebook chat with a Hendon representative, we arranged to come along. No plaque, no flag and no speeches – but with great joy in our hearts at getting to see a match after all, despite all the difficulties.
Before we reached the ground of the Greens – sitting pretty in fourth place (heading for the promotion play-offs) and hosting Metropolitan Police that day (from 10th place, heading nowhere) – we stopped at a local branch of William Hill (the English bookies). There we proudly sacrificed a few shillings on a home win. It took the man at the counter almost an hour to find this obscure fixture on the computerised betting system, which said it all about how insignificant the occasion was, and lifted our already high morale even further.
After a walk of less than ten minutes from the main road in Kingsbury, not very far from the rebuilt national stadium, Wembley, we found ourselves at a well-kept artificial pitch with a pleasant covered stand and a busy lounge with at least 100 people who had already drunk themselves silly while watching Liverpool turn things around against Crystal Palace on the big screen in the middle of the pub. Since nobody was expecting us, we didn't expect any favours, and paid £10 each to get in, plus a pound for each child. Our declarations that we'd come from Israel, and that Yoav and Ilai, the bar mitzvah boys with us, had chosen to watch this match instead of going to Camp Nou with Dad, apparently didn't impress anyone, and we didn't even get a discount – but never mind. Let them buy a player or two with the money.
After kitting ourselves out with a stunning green match shirt (made by Adidas), a scarf and pin badges as proof that we'd been here, we fuelled the kids and ourselves with burgers, beers and the crisps left over from our previous trip to England, and waited for kick-off. Slowly, the who's who of the local golden-age generation arrived. Even the old boy with the giant dog and his buxom blonde wife, pushing 65 winters, turned up and squeezed in with us on the green and black seats overlooking the artificial wonder.
The match kicked off. I always try to imagine seventh-tier English sides playing against our flagship clubs. For example, how would a match between the Hendon we're watching today and teams like Hapoel Be'er Sheva or our Maccabi Tel Aviv end? I still haven't reached a definitive conclusion. I'd argue the match would end in a win for our teams, but not a thrashing. Maybe a narrow 2-0. The power, speed, physical strength and fitness of English players (even at this level) are enormous. And you see it when you watch matches really up close, as we did. There's not a minute's rest. Always running, always opening up the play – it doesn't always look good and not every pass is accurate, but the players are always on the move. All of them. Anyway, the match didn't rise to the level of telling your parents you'd been to it. Perhaps the most interesting anecdote here is that one of the opposition Metropolitan Police players, Brandon Diau, a Congolese born in Germany, played for Hapoel Afula in 2014, in our small National League. What a man. A shame that a few minutes after we'd discovered this, all 190 cm of him fell on his shoulder, dislocated it and was carried off on a stretcher, with all 200 pensioners in the stand and us applauding him and wishing him a happy and kosher Passover in A&E.
During the half-time break, a lovely man named Simon Lawrence came over to us. Simon was the person we'd been corresponding with before the match, and as it happens he's also one of the club's officials. Simon – or by his original name, Shimon – who is already past 60, is an active player in the veterans' team of Maccabi London, and he told us about his team's many visits to Israel for training camps and matches against veteran sides of local Israeli clubs. Simon was extremely friendly and told us a bit more about the club, saying that Hendon is a very Jewish club, yet also very Irish – a winning combination, you have to admit. A young Israeli player (whose name we've since forgotten) played for Hendon until recently, and Simon said most of the crowd we could see in the stand were Jewish. We thanked our new friend Simon very much for the minutes he spent with us, and he in turn was very proud to host us and the kids on their bar mitzvah trip.
As the minutes went by, the Greens began to string together better football, and in the 71st minute they scored the first through Sprague, with Walker adding another in the 82nd to seal the result. The result sent Hendon on to keep chasing promotion through the play-offs in a great season, and Metropolitan Police off to plan their summer coach trips to the seaside, as they're buried deep in mid-table with nothing much to play for. We said goodbye to our green friends with wishes for a happy and kosher Passover – despite the leavened bread and pork we'd all experienced that day – and with a see-you-soon: in two days we'll see Hendon again – away this time, against Wingate & Finchley – our next destination.
