The Old Bordenian Association

Old Bordenians to Veterans to Geriatrics – the boys done good

As early as 1926 it was hoped to start an Old Bordenian Football Club, but nothing materialised.  The first match (apart from the annual game against the School) was played against the Old Anchorians (Gillingham County School Old Boys) on November 5^th 1927, and the return game in March 1928.  The next effort was in the spring of 1930 when three friendly matches were played.

During the 1930-31 season three friendly matches were played against the Kent Farm Institute and two against the “East Kent Gazette” F.C.  At the Annual Meeting on 4^th July 1931, it was confirmed that an Old Boys F.C. had been formed at a special meeting on 25^th June when H .E. Smith was elected secretary and Ango Ponton captain.

The first minutes available are of a meeting held at the School on 20^th July 1931.  There was an attendance of six and various propositions were made which put the Club on a competitive footing.  A further meeting held at the George Hotel on August 21^st and attended by eleven members really got the Club moving and from that point it was an active member of local football.  At the 1932 Annual Meeting Roy Cole was elected captain, a position he held until 1958.  In 1935 Roy became secretary and from then on was the main prop of the Football Club.

Throughout these years the playing record of the Club had gradually improved and the 1936-37 season was the most successful the Club had had.  They won Division II of the new Brompton and District League, the East Kent Secondary Schools Old Boys’ League and the Sittingbourne Charity Cup.  The full playing record was Played 35, won 27, drawn 6, lost 2.  The New Brompton League table was as follows:-

The East Kent Gazette of May 8^th 1937 carried a three column spread of a report of the Sittingbourne Charity Cup final when the Old Boys beat Minerva 4-1 together with details of the season and the photograph which appears below.

The 1937 Team.  Standing: S.Callaway, J.G.Overy, K.C. Foster, E.L. Bush. E.J. Bush, C.W. Harris.  Sitting: L.Luscombe, F. Knowles, R.G. Cole, L. Lukehurst, W.G. Taylor.

A regular player missing from the photo was C.G. Cole who was playing cricket for Kent, the first time in the Club’s history that it had been honoured in this way.

The following season the Old Boys won the Sittingbourne Charity Cup and this proved to be the last pre-war effort of the Club as hostilities put paid to football as an organised Club until 1946-47 when the Cup was again won.

For the next few years the playing record was just average until in 1952-53 the East Kent Old Boys Cup was won to be followed with the Sittingbourne and Milton District League Championship in 1953-54.  This successful run was maintained in the following season when the Old Boys were runners-up in the Sittingbourne and Milton District League and the New Brompton League.  This season saw the Club awarded the New Brompton League Sportsmanship Cup.

The 1960-61 season was also reasonably successful, winning the East Kent Old Boys’ Cup, reaching the final of the Sittingbourne League Cup and being awarded the Sheppey League Sportsmanship Cup.

At the annual meeting on 29^th September 1961 Roy Cole relinquished the office of secretary after 25 years.  Jeff Spice was appointed and carried out the duties until 1967 when he was succeeded by John Collins.  From 1961 onwards fortunes were of a varying nature with the Club awarded the Sittingbourne and Sheppey Combination Sportsmanship Cup in 1965-66.  From this point on difficulties in keeping the team going gradually increased until at the annual meeting in 1971 it was decided to call it a day and after 40 years of varying fortunes the Football Club closed a very interesting chapter of Old Bordenian history.

Much of the early success of the Football Club was mainly due to Roy Cole as Hon. Secretary, player and captain for over thirty years – a truly wonderful record.  The Club was also fortunate to have had several players who turned out regularly for periods of from ten to twenty years.

Only two years passed before the efforts of Mike Pack, Greg Pope and Peter Lusted saw the Club reformed and entering the Combination division of the Medway Area Sunday League in 1973.  The squad consisted of mainly Old Boys, a couple of boys from the School and a few friends.  Finishing third in the division the Club was promoted and within a couple of years a second team, under Roger Goodger, was started which played in the Sheppey Sunday League.  Many memories exist including one game where due to a car breakdown the opposition started with only seven men.  Almost immediately an Alan Snelling tackle reduced them to six and we went into a quick 5-0 lead.  The missing players arrived and we hung on to win 5-4.

The first team continued moving up through another four divisions before winning Divisions 3 and 2 in consecutive seasons, remaining unbeaten in the League for both those years.  As a result of this success the team was promoted to the Premier Division.   After several years finishing in the top half of the Division the second team also moved across to the Medway Area Sunday League to seek new challenges. We were grateful to Bryan Short for allowing us to use the School pitch and for some of us it brought back memories of school and those early Latin lessons from Ken Booth where we learnt those important football verbs – vasto, vastare, vastavi, vastatum, and jingo, jingere, squeaksi, smackbum.  The first, often used by the Julius Caesar First XI , meant to “lay waste”, whilst the second loosely translated meant “ the half back passed the ball to the winger who rounded the full back, centred and the centre forward rose in the air and nodded home”.   Whilst we were not averse to following Caesar’s tactics on occasions, we preferred the more poetic route to goal.

Local football is very dependent on referees giving their time in what appears an often thankless task.  We generally enjoyed good relations with our refs who ranged from bad to excellent.  One did leave us lost for words however after a particularly physical affair in the Kent Cup against one of our former mining villages.  In the very first minute our goalie, Andy Mattocks, comfortably collected a cross only to have an opposing forward throw himself at him a good ten seconds later, leaving him requiring attention.  This set the scene for the match and we eventually lost by one goal.  In the changing rooms afterwards the referee said to us “you were doing really well until they started kicking you about”.  Was this the start of the current “Respect” policy being preached by the FA?  Clubs were expected to provide their own reports of matches to the local press although the League Secretary always provided full scores and league tables.   They were not without the odd misprint, and one away game which ended 0-0 although we did everything but score, was reported in the paper as  0-¹/8, a meagre return for our efforts!

Near the end of the season, previously postponed matches had to be played mid week, and it was not unusual to find a group of smart, refined young men in suits assembled at a changing room in the backwater of the Medway area, having made all sorts of excuses for leaving work early so that they could embark on a mystery adventure with British Rail from London or elsewhere.  Changing into football kit saw changes in character akin to Clark Kent into Superman, and no doubt also fuelled by often being greeted by the opposition as “Old Bordonians”, many points were won in these encounters.  The young men never looked so refined in their suits afterwards!

The 1976  squad.  Rear: Nigel Snelling, Alan Snelling, Colin Hills, Lee Orgill, Brian Nottle, Steve Jarman, John Jonstone, Peter Webb.

Front:  John Keys, Mike Pack, Greg Pope, Jamie Henley, Rob Wiberg, Peter Lusted

Over the years, natural turnover in players occurred with boys going to University or job changes meaning moves away.  It was rare however for players to move to other local clubs and many remained with the Club for their entire playing career. Fortunately agents had not made an appearance at this level and no unreasonable demands were therefore made on players to open boutiques, write biographies or be caught in flagrante delicto.  The main concerns were trying to get up on a Sunday morning after a lively Saturday evening, paying the match fee and putting up the goalposts!  We actually started one away match and after ten minutes had to stop and dismantle our goals, as apparently the several sets of posts and bars had become mixed up and the teams on one of the other pitches had just been unable to assemble the remaining pieces into real football goals. Clearly MFI produced more than just household furniture.

Unfortunately an influx of new players had seen the percentage of Old Boys in the first team drop and success had been to the detriment of club atmosphere and team spirit.  It was felt that this needed to be resolved so it was decided in 1981 that the Club would continue as one team only in Division 6, leaving those players that wished to continue in the Premier Division under another name.   The move was the right one and the team, comprising mainly Old Boys with other long standing club members won Division 6 that year.

In 1983 a friendly match was arranged between two teams of players who had played for the Club.  On this occasion it was “Young” Old Boys against “Old” Old Boys, but the concept of a reunion match continued for many years, usually on Boxing Day.  In this same year, after running the Club since its reformation Peter Lusted handed over the reins to Martin Graham, but had to step in again as Martin’s work took him out of the area.

Paul Chappell then took on this role for three years before Nick Gimson stepped into the firing line for the next five years.  The team again moved through the divisions and having finished second in Division 1 was promoted to the Premier Division once more.   The next few years were tough and relegation was only just avoided twice.  Phil Griffiths then took the hot seat in 1992 and the team had some good finishes only missing out on promotion to the Senior Section by 4 points in 1995.  Phil stayed in charge for 5 years before Kevin Irwin took over for a short while but problems attracting sufficient players were causing difficulties on the field and the Club again finally came to an end just before the new millennium.

You will be forgiven for imagining that the story ends here, but although you cannot teach old dogs new tricks they can certainly put on football boots and race, well OK amble, around a football pitch.  Due to the efforts of Alan Snelling, the Old Boys played occasional games as a veteran team and although an old copy of the Maroon indicates that these were to end in 2001, enthusiasm dictated otherwise and the latest one was played on the school pitch in September 2008, involving just former players in both teams. Tony Clayton who had taught PE to many of the players came down to watch and claimed credit for the quality and longevity of his “boys”.  We recall that he was less complimentary during lessons!  Keith Shea is equally responsible for refusing to let players hang up their boots by organising 5-a-side teams, which included Old Boys, in the Faversham and Sittingbourne leagues during the last 20 years.  In more recent years these teams have taken on the name of Old Bordenians so the Club still lives on.

Throughout the last 35 years the Club has reached high levels of football winning various trophies but readers will be pleased to know that it equally won the Sportsmanship Trophy many times showing that success and sportsmanship can go hand in hand.  No doubt the obligatory after-the-match analysis at the nearest hostelry also paid dividends.

Thanks are due to far too many people to name in full but mention should be made of everyone who took on the role of running the Club, Bryan Short for his support and allowing us to play again on the School field, the School staff who helped us with access to the School, pointing schoolboys our way, or by playing, particularly John Weekes, John Macrae and Neil Redmond.

2008 Veterans.  Rear: Paul Bedelle, Matt Morris, Kevin Cope, John Kingsnorth, Andy Bushell, Alan Abery, Cliff Cork, Peter Thompson, Peter Lusted.   Front: Alan Irvine, Mark Spree, Keith Shea, Neil Redmond, Alan Snelling, Mike Pack, Rob Kemsley, Jamie Henley

This is only a short factual report of the Old Bordenian Football Club and it is the intention to add more details, names and photos to the website so that these records and memories are there for posterity.  The early years of the Club are taken from an article by Charles Harris in a previous Maroon, and the details after that have been compiled by Peter Lusted, Alan Snelling and Keith Shea.  We do however encourage everyone who played for, or had involvement with, the Club to send in your memoirs and photos – remember the performances get better with each telling of the story!  As a starter we have added a few thoughts of our own.

Peter Lusted’s comments – I feel privileged to have played firstly with the Saturday team from 1968 and then to have been involved in reforming the Club in 1973.  Particularly pleasing is that I know and have played with Old Boys from all the different eras right up to the last veterans game in 2008 , and likewise all the Club secretaries from Jeff Spice’s time in charge. The camaraderie of all the different age groups has been exceptional which is why we can still organise such games and get such a good response from former players of all ages. We are in the process of asking the FA to allow zimmer frames to be used in football matches!

Alan Snelling’s comments – The best thing about playing for the Old Boys was the use of the large School pitch. Most of the team had grown up with the pitch from schooldays in the 1960′s. The pitch was always in excellent condition (I spent of lot of time sliding along it) and in the 1970′s it was one of the largest pitches around and visiting teams were surprised at the size and also the slope. We were never the fittest nor the most skilful of teams but we had a terrific spirit. In the late 1970′s most players were roughly the same age and there was a real competition for places and the outcome of team selection meetings on a Tuesday (after training) was eagerly awaited. I have discovered some old photos and will be putting them on the website soon.