(Not) On This Day: 14th March

Greensnet Editor
Mon 15 Mar 2021, 14:58

Following a couple of days of comparative struggle the 14th March sees a resounding return to form throughout the history of the club with two-thirds of the 18 matches to have taken place on this date resulting in success.

We begin in 1914 when the 2nd Battalion Scot’s Guards were beaten 4-0 in the Middlesex League Premier Division with ‘Chummy’ Parker on target alongside the ever-reliable Arthur Humphreys who grabbed himself a hat-trick. 11-years later in 1925 the club reached their first Middlesex Senior Cup final after a 3-0 semi-final win over Uxbridge Town in which Bob Wardlaw, Freddie Young and Cecil Wise scored.

Half a dozen years later, in 1931, the club reached their second Middlesex Senior Cup final after a 6-1 win in a replay against Barnet in which Freddie Evans scored twice along singles from Frank Dean, Bill Morton, Harry Walsh and A Potter in front of a crowd of 3,000. Five years on in 1936 and Barnet were once again the opposition, this time in the Athenian League. Johnny Browne and Fred Boston netted in a 2-1 win for Golders Green.

Roy Stroud and Les Fontana scored in a 3-2 1942 Herts & Middlesex County League defeat against neighbours Enfield and Stroud was on target again 11-years later in 1953 along with Maurice Potten in a 2-1 Athenian League success at Sutton United.

Moving ahead to 1959 and another Athenian League match, this time at Southall, goals from Jimmy Quail, Micky Moore and Miles Spector secured a 3-1 win and on the day that Jack Ruby was sentenced to death for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas (1964), David Hyde helped the Greens to a third semi-final win on this day with a hat-trick in a 4-2 win over Kingstonian in the semi-final of the London Senior Cup, Tony Knox grabbed the other Hendon goal.

In 1970 Leytonstone were held to a 2-2 draw in which Peter Anderson and Bobby Wilson netted before a 1981 trip to Woking ended, predictably given how closely the two sides were matched in yesterday’s round-up all-square with neither side managing to fashion a breakthrough.

A fourth cup semi-final in 1985, this time a local derby in the Middlesex Charity Cup against Wembley, saw strikes from George Duck and John Palmer secure a 2-1 win and passage to the final against Feltham and two-years later in 1987 Bromley were comfortably beaten 3-0 in the Isthmian League thanks to strikes from Iain Dowie, Colin Tate and Neil Wolstenholme.

A visit to Grays Athletic in 1992 saw neither side amongst the scorers, something that even the Soviet mouthpiece publication Pravda, which suspended publication on this day, would have struggled to spin positively. That lack of goals was rectified three-years later in a 1995 Middlesex Senior Cup tie at The Warren where Yeading blew Mick Browne’s side away winning 6-1, Uche Egbe grabbing the Hendon consolation.

Three-years later in 1998, a stunning volley from Freddie Hyatt from just inside his own half was the highlight of a superb 4-2 win over Sutton United. Steve Bateman and a pair of Paul Whitmarsh goals also did the damage to the Ambers. In 2007, Bontcho Guentchev scored his final Hendon goal at the tender age of nearly 43, however that wasn’t enough to prevent the Greens from bowing out of the Middlesex Senior Cup at the hands of Conference South side Hayes.

In 2009 strikes from Jamie Busby, Glenn Garner and Sam Collins laid the platform for a 3-1 win over Ramsgate back in the Isthmian League and we finish in 2015 as the play-off charge continued to build-up steam with Kezie Ibe’s goal securing a rare victory over Tonbridge Angels, the game ending 1-0 at Earlsmead.

Of the 18 matches to have been played on 14th March so far, there have been 12 wins, three draws and three defeats. 43 goals have been scored and 23 conceded.