A Lifetime of Watching the Blues - Hertford Town Football Club

I first started watching the Blues or I should have said Hertford Town Football Club way back in the early part of the Swinging Sixties as a twelve year old schoolboy. It was my second year of secondary school. I was at that time living in the Hornsmill part of Hertford with my parents. Hertingfordbury Park the home of Hertford Town Football was only about ten minutes walk away from where I lived. It was nineteen sixty-two to be precise.

The Blues at that time were in the Delphenian [Delphian¹] League. We had no floodlights back then so evening fixtures were I believe played on a Tuesday if not a Thursday evening with the kick-off time being six-thirty. In fact one such game was against Wingate FC and I was there at that game. I remember the clubhouse at that time was a wood hut with a licenced bar. The Wingate game was later on in the mid-sixties and I was coming on fourteen by then. Hertford Town Football were still possibly in the Delphian League: I don’t think we had moved onto the Athenian League² by then.

The Blues were a great side and had one of the best, if not the best managers in the league, Alex Massey³ who was a Scottish International in his playing days. Under his management the Blues went from strength to strength and also moved on up the league, first as I said earlier, from the Delphian League to the Athenian League and then some years later but not under, I believe, Alex Massey management, on to the Isthmian League⁴. We did have a season although in the Eastern Counties League⁵: that was in 1972. Our manager then was Maurice Walby⁶.

To finish going back to nineteen sixty-two when I first started watching The Blues I remember Telstar being played, I believe, by the Tornadoes before the game. Well it was the swinging sixties after all, wasn’t it?

By Anthony Powell, Hertford Town Football Club honorary member, then of 235, Hornsmill Road, Hertford, now 70 years old.

Notes:

1. Delphian League Delphian League 1951-1963 (nonleaguematters.co.uk)
2. Athenian League Athenian League 1969-1984 (nonleaguematters.co.uk)
3. Alex Massie Alex Massie | Scotland | Scottish FA
4. Isthmian League The Pitching In Isthmian Football League
5. Eastern Counties League Eastern Counties League 1935-1975 (nonleaguematters.co.uk)
6. Maurice Walby St Albans City F.C. History & Archives – Maurice Walby | St Albans City F.C. History & Archives (saintsstatistics.co.uk)