On This Day: 29th January

Greensnet Editor
Fri 29 Jan 2021, 12:27

We move our retrospective onto 29th January and begin in 1910, the club’s second season, when they suffered a setback in their pursuit of a second consecutive title in the Finchley & District League Division 2, going down 3-1 to local rivals Totteridge.

Things went rather better in the Athenian League in 1921, however, as a couple of goals from Cecil Burrage saw a visit to West London Old Boys end in success, Hampstead Town coming away with a 2-1 win.

The opening fixture of a double header against Redhill, albeit with the two legs 11-years apart, saw the 1927 version end in a 5-3 win at Claremont Road. Jimmy Smy netted a hat-trick, Harry Shearcroft and G.H. Smith added the other goals. In 1938 however, also at Claremont Road, Redhill levelled things up on aggregate with a 2-0 Athenian League win.

29th January 1944 saw the US Navy’s final battleship, USS Missouri launch and 285 German bombers attack London en-masse. There was a blitz of goals at Claremont Road as well as Clapton were beaten 6-1 in the Herts and Middlesex County League, F Barker leading the way with a hat-trick, J Ingram grabbing a brace and George Bucci the other.

1949 saw the club make the long journey to Poole Town in the Amateur Cup and return with a 1-0 win thanks to a strike from Roy Stroud and then in 1955 neighbours Wembley were beaten 4-1 in the Middlesex Senior Cup thanks to Eric Beardsley, Eric Parker, Erwin Bahler and Cliff Nock.

There was a warm-up for the eventual Amateur Cup Final on this day in 1966 as a visit to Lower Mead saw the Greens beat Wealdstone 3-2, Laurie Churchill, John Evans and Pat Howard scoring the goals to clinch the points in the Isthmian League. Former Hendon man Fred Titmus had earlier spent most of the day toiling against the Australian openers in Adelaide, finally breaking the opening partnership of 244 between Bob Simpson and Bill Lawry by bowling the latter.

It was back to the Amateur Cup in 1972 as a trip to Highgate United ended 1-1, Peter Deadman scoring to seal the replay for the Greens back at Claremont Road and five-years later in 1977, it ended all square again, this time in a goalless draw against Tooting & Mitcham United in the Isthmian League.

A trip to the south coast in 1983 ended in defeat as Bognor Regis Town won 2-0 at Nyewood Lane and the winless run was extended to a cool quarter of a century in 1991 as Hayes won a Middlesex Charity Cup tie at Claremont Road, Colin Tate and Sean Baker’s strikes in vain for the Greens.

That run was ended in 1994 as Dulwich Hamlet were beaten 1-0 away from home, Barry Blackman with the strike and 6-years later a rare goal from John-Simon White sank Slough Town by the same scoreline.

2001 saw the first leg of another double-header at Claremont Road, this time Braintree Town providing the opposition in an Isthmian League Cup tie. With the game looking set for penalties at 2-2, former Nigerian international David Adekola with both Hendon goals, Jon Daly crashed a shot into the net off the hands of Braintree’s stand-in goalkeeper – Dean Mahoney having been sent off a minute into extra time for deliberate handball outside his penalty area. That was the Greens’ only match between 15th January and 15th February.

The second leg took place four years later against George Borg’s promotion hopefuls and although Mark Nicholls coolly put the Greens ahead, Braintree gained revenge with three goals of their own to further sink Gary Farrell’s side into the mire.

2008 saw a trip to Corinthian Casuals in the London Senior Cup and two goals from Lubo Guentchev and another from Casey Maclaren saw the Greens to a comfortable 3-0 win before a game at Vale Farm against Cray Wanderers in 2011 ended 2-2 in the Ryman League. Danny Dyer and substitute Greg Ngoyi salvaged the point for Gary McCann’s side.

Of 18 matches to date on 29th January, 10 have been won, 3 drawn and 5 ended in defeat. 36 goals have been scored and 26 conceded.