A Sparkling Return?? Developments on and off The Pitch

I haven’t posted in ages, but it's not as bleak as it seems. That reminds me of a song lyric, but I can’t think which one. If it comes to me, I’ll let you know. On with the show.

On the pitch, after the autumn slump things have stabilised somewhat with progress being made in the two county cups, and a place just outside the play-offs being maintained in the league. Frank Sinclair has departed the scene, joining Colwyn Bay in the Blue Square North, a club which is an awful lot closer to his Bolton home than Vale Farm. That he commuted so far shows the measure of the guy, and he leaves with my very best wishes. Replacing him is Lewis Hunt, who has more than 250 league appearances under his belt following his release from Bradford City. One suspects that Junior Lewis’ contact list on his cellphone had something to do with this addition and reports suggest that he looked the part on his debut at Met Police. The big loser in all of this seems to be Michael Peacock who in spite of a decent start to the season, has had to be content with grabbing the odd piece of action at Northwood and Chalfont St. Peter to maintain match fitness.

The injury situation is easing, both Elliott Charles and Greg Ngoyi have returned to the fray in fine form, the latter having taken his tally to 13 goals for the season in just 17 starts. It’s quite a few seasons since we have had a player showing that kind of an eye for goal. It was noticeable against Bury Town, when he went through on goal just before half time to equalise that I expected him to score. Not just hit the target, but to find the net. Although since the days of Whitmarsh and Lewis we have seen decent strikers in the shape of Eugene Ofori, Dominic Gentle, Brian Haule and Wayne O’Sullivan, I don’t think any of them match the clinical edge that Greg has shown this term when fit. Not only that, but his response to being left on the bench for tactical reasons at Imber Court recently was outstanding. Given a start in the London Senior Cup tie at Barking, he grabbed his chance by netting the winner in fine style. Further back, Jamie Busby is back in action, James Fisher is beginning to settle in quite well either in midfield or more recently at centre half, and Jerome Federico and Michael Lewis’ return to fitness has given us an extra dimension out wide with a bit more pace and trickery.

With 17 matches remaining, we sit 8^th in the table just 3 points behind Cray in 5^th place. As time has gone on it has become clear that there isn’t a side that is obviously a class above the rest of the division as Dover or Dartford and to some extent Sutton have shown in recent years. There is all to play for and if we can sort out our home form (1 win from our last 10 matches at Vale Farm) then everything is in place for a genuine tilt at the play-offs. If pushed to say now, I suspect we may finish just short of them, but if we are able to find the consistency that we had at the start of the season again, then there is no reason why our season couldn’t conceivably last for another week.

Claremont Road

Of as much interest to events on the pitch have been recent developments in the sale of the freehold of the site where the Claremont Road lies has been put on hold following an intervention from Liberal Democrat Councillor Jack Cohen who has called for alternative uses for the land. As I explained in the summer, Barnet Council approved plans to sell the freehold to Montclaire Developments Limited amidst much opposition from local residents, who have cited a historical covenant dating from the 1920s protecting the site from such a move in their objections. More information can be found in this Hendon Times article, and this piece here from BBC London News.

Setting aside my thoughts on Barnet Council in particular, and many Conservative led councils in London (they have no place here), I truly hope that the covenant is upheld and the land protected because the knock-on effect if the sale of the land to Montclaire could have a severe impact on similar open spaces throughout London. In a year when London is hosting the Olympics and the Government are falling over themselves to talk about the legacy of the games, cases such as this lead one to wonder whether or not these words are nothing but hot air.

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have seen a familiar face in the photo on the Hendon Times article in the shape of current club chairman Simon Lawrence. Which perhaps begs the question, why weren’t the Supporters Trust, or fans, more vocal in their opposition to the ground situation. Afterall, we knew long before we were eventually kicked out that the end of our time at the famous old ground was nigh. The answer is simple.

A couple of years before the ownership of the club transferred into Trust hands, the previous owners  had made it abundantly clear that they would no longer fund the football club. That was entirely their prerogative and as such, the Trust agreed to finance the playing side of the operation to keep the club alive. The only alternative was extinction. In spite of this, the previous owners of the club held all the aces. They were sitting on the goldmine that the lease on the ground provided. Although presumably the lease was in the name of Hendon Football Club Limited, they were separate from the Trust. As such, the owners were happy not to call in the alleged £3million (ballpark figure) that the club owed knowing that the sale of the lease, as and when it went through, would more than cover what they were owed. Hence, the agreement was made with the Trust to hand the football club over debt free once the freehold on the ground was sold. At any point in that period, powers that be behind the scenes could have closed Hendon Football Club down. They had no interest in whether or not the club survived, their names were on the lease. Hendon Football Club was an irrelevance.

When the announcement of discussions being opened on the sale of the freehold of the land was made in the summer, Barnet Council was opening negotiations with Hendon Football Club Limited. Who then were Montclaire Developments and how did they arrive on the scene all of a sudden? Again, the answer is simple. A quick google search divulged that the registered director of Montclaire Developments is Andrew Landsberg and that Hendon Football Club Limited is listed as a subsidiary of Montclaire Developlments. They are one and the same. Quite what transpired to bring about the sudden eviction of the team from the ground in September 2008 is unknown and would be mere conjecture, but one does wonder.

I don’t think for one minute that any halt on the sale of the freehold suddenly means that there is light on the horizon for anyone harbouring hopes of a return to Claremont Road. One only has to see the state of the site in the BBC London report to understand the level of investment that would be required to return the ground to a level fit for senior football, never mind Ryman Premier Level. Even if the deal between the council and Montclaire fell through, any hopes the club had of returning to the ground would be based on us receiving planning permission, support and funding from the council, as well as various other foundations as well as what the club could raise itself. The club on its own cannot hope to fund a new ground. Whether in these austere times individuals can find significant amounts to donate to any fundraising effort for a new ground remains doubtful. That is before we even begin to think about garnering the necessary approvals and support from Barnet Council. It doesn’t take a genius to predict how difficult (or perhaps impossible) that will prove to be. Nonetheless, it will be very interesting to watch how things develop.

Oh, by the way. The lyric I was thinking of? It was from this.

Goodnight 

Claremont Road. Finally RIP.

This Charming Stand: Happier Times

On Thursday evening last week, the wonderful powers that be at Barnet Council voted in favour of a proposal to conclude negotiations for the sale of the freehold of Hendon’s old Claremont Road ground to Hendon Football Club Limited. On the face of it, this sounds like fantastic news. Hendon’s spiritual home being owned by Hendon Football Club Limited, just imagine the possibilities…. Oh, there’s a snag. Hendon Football Club Limited do not own Hendon Football Club anymore. It’s been a year or so since the transfer of ownership to the Supporters Trust and even longer since anyone involved with the limited company showed any interest in the Club beyond the resale value of the site for potential housing developments. There was a bitter irony that the timing of the vote came less than 18 hours before the publication of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee’s report into the governance of Football, which includes a recommendation that provision by the FA is made against the sale of grounds by owners unless it is in the club’s interests.

The ground has been lying empty for the best part of three years now, ever since the slightly underwhelming, anti-climactic and embarrassing 4-1 defeat at the hands of Wealdstone. The first I heard of the news was after coming through the turnstiles. It was all people were talking about – those with camera phones readily available were taking photos for the last time. There was a sense of disbelief amongst the fans, the moment that we all knew could come at any moment, but until then still seemed slight unlikely, was finally upon us. The game was crap, we were very crap (as we always are at home to the Stones) but for once, I didn’t really care. I lingered on for a while after the final whistle, not really wanting to leave the ground because I knew that once I did, I would find it very difficult to come back and see what had become of the place.

In my time as a Claremont Road regular, I don’t think I would ever have described the ground as cutting edge, modern or particularly attractive. Towards the end of the club’s time there, it had become slightly tumbledown if anything. What it did have though was character – something that is sorely lacking in nearly all newly built stadiums these days. There was something oddly comforting approaching the stadium on match days and seeing the 4 large floodlight pylons on top of the hill – clearly visible from the Northern Line, Thameslink, the A41, the North Circular, the bottom of the M1 – almost drawing me magnetically towards them. Particularly on cold winter evenings, with the prospect of a guaranteed extra time defeat in the Middlesex Senior Cup at the hands of Hanwell Town, it’s all strangely romantic to me. The covered terracing that covered the length of the pitch was famous throughout the country, and even when only the middle third was left standing after extensive demolition due to asbestos, it was one of the more impressive pieces of cover in the league. The height of the terracing gave you a great view over proceedings on the pitch from the top. I remember the first time I looked through the fence at the Park End and saw just how far the drop down to the hockey pitch was and being suitably awed. Ok, so it wasn’t quite the Camp Nou, but it was better than those grounds I’d been to as a kid where terracing amounted to two steps behind each goal. And I always found the rickety old wooden stand somewhat charming (Hitchin Town’s Top Field ground is another old favourite, and shares the wooden feel about it). It wasn’t especially big, and the view wasn’t always great, but it had a real homely feel about it.

I saw enough through reports and photos on the web to know that the ground was being left to fall apart. Squatters moved in and used the changing rooms to sleep in, the stand to hang their washing, the overgrown pitch for their dogs and kids to run around on. Then, before long to deter such dwellers, bulldozers reduced the charming wooden stand to nothing more than a huge pile of rotting timber. In the end, following the news of the Council’s decision last week, I made a decision of my own to take a bus along Claremont Road from Brent Cross, get off at the bus stop that still bears the football club’s name and take some photos.

Gone: After the bulldozers

As the 102 crossed the North Circular fly-over from Brent Cross towards Tilling Road I saw the floodlights still standing in the distance and a little murmur of excitement rose inside me again, just like old times. The bus turned onto Claremont Road, drove past the school and leisure centre, towards the edge of Clitterhouse Park. Up the hill and finally, the ground came into view. I was momentarily dumb-struck by what I saw. The entire site was boarded up by tall wooden fencing – the kind you see around all sites that have been earmarked for development. From my seat upstairs, I could just about see into the ground, the covered terracing still standing but with the roof falling off. The changing rooms also still there, backing onto the pavement but the stand no more. What was the pitch had become a barren wasteland and what I could see of the clubhouse looked like a bomb site. No more than an empty shell with windows broken, roof tiles removed. I couldn’t bring myself to ring the bell and take a closer look at the ground, so I put my camera away, and continued on to Golders Green.

Little more than another barren wasteland.

I don’t mind admitting that I felt a little heartbroken at what had been allowed to happen to a ground which gave me so many memories – both good and bad. International sides playing at Wembley had used the pitch for training, the ground had hosted Olympic qualifying games. In later years it was regularly featured on television, most notably staging numerous Phoenix From The Flames re-creations on Fantasy Football League with David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, the BBC women’s football drama Playing The Field, a TV Licensing advert and more infamously, as the base for Bravo TV’s Fash FC. If you mentioned you were a Hendon fan to many knowledgeable football supporters and the chances are that they would know Claremont Road in one guise or another. I can’t help thinking the old place deserved a better send off than it was able to be given.

Any lingering hopes that any fan may have held for a sensational and sentimental return to Claremont Road has now been extinguished forever with the decision made by Barnet Council last week and a huge piece of local footballing history is now lost. Hendon will survive, for the short to medium term at any rate due to the hard work and commitment of the comparative handful of fans who still attend week in week out. Vale Farm is a more than adequate ground at which to be staging home games for now but things don’t feel the same somehow. Crowds have dropped and matches generally lack atmosphere. That’s not to say that those who do attend games don’t care – I think if anything they care more. But perhaps priorities have shifted over the last four or five years. Rather than craving success above all else, the survival of the club is paramount and any success that comes with it is a distinct bonus. I couldn’t imagine what my Saturday afternoons would be like without Hendon or livescores – I don’t know if I could ever form such an attachment to another club were the club to disappear altogether.

Survival would be difficult enough to achieve at Claremont Road, I think it’s doubly so whilst ground sharing a comparatively fair distance away from the area with which the club shares its name. What the future holds for the club, I don’t know. A return to the Borough of Barnet is unlikely under the current administration, and that limits the clubs options severely. Perhaps it will come to having to make a choice between trying to sustain a club whilst ground sharing and maybe risk losing all identity with Hendon the place, or accepting that to return to somewhere near the area we all grew up watching football, we may need to accept a relegation or two. If push comes to shove, I know which I would prefer.

That though, is for another time. Tomorrow, we go to Harefield.