 |
It was only a matter of time before my obsession with Thanet and love of writing would collide in the creation of my own kind of teenage diary. Not for me the chronicles of adolescent fumblings and unrequited lusts. No, it was the yeoman efforts of Alan Fagan, Lennie Lee, Karl Lloyd and many others that provided the inspiration for my very personal record of the lowest period in Hartsdown history. Think of me as Hartsdown's Anne Frank - but without the hiding in cupboards and typhoid. It all started with a flimsy exercise book bought from Superdrug. The first season was merely a statistical record. A list of defeats (and the occasional victory) with scorers, a goalscorers bar chart and final league table. Against those matches I attended I put a big red blob. I can see from this that December saw me go to my first away game - a 2-1 defeat at Canterbury. Optimistically my goalscorers chart went up to 20 - but our top marksman for 82/83 turned out to be Lennie Lee with a princely 10.
Narrowly avoiding relegation encouraged me as the following season saw the introduction of match reports. The first was for a 2-1 friendly win over Gravesend on a blisteringly hot day. Weather seemed to be an obsession. Each report would list an estimate of the crowd, man of the match and climatic conditions. Remarks such as "a swirling easterly wind" will no doubt prove invaluable to future generations of meteorologists hoping to track climate change throughout the 80s.
My blinkered view of all things Thanet is apparent. A 7-0 FA Cup thrashing at home to Tooting prompted the comment that "4-0 would have been a fairer scoreline". A report from a match at Kingsmead said the crowd of 140 was "good for Canterbury, but nowhere near Thanet's average". Er, is 140 "nowhere near" 160? But I was not totally blind to the wrongdoing of my heroes - a grudge match with Dover brought the revelation that "in one off-the-ball incident Norton kicked Lee on the ankle!" Another narrow brush with the drop to the Kent League was lovingly recorded.
With positive noises made in the local press in the summer of 1984, it was time to invest in a new exercise book. Fatter and bright orange, I hoped to record the emergence of Thanet as a footballing force to be feared. And it almost happened. In easily the most successful season under the Thanet moniker so far, we challenged for promotion. The striking triumvirate of Lloyd, Pugh and Medus forcing me to extend the goalscorers' bar chart on to a new page (each bagged more than 20). Match reports were getting longer and away trips more frequent. This season also saw the introduction of marks out of ten for players and a monthly award for the best performer. Precision was everything - Marcus Newton's seasonal average was 7.2464. Still, at least he did better than Dave Rouse on 5.7875. Reports became more opinionated. A Bill Dellow Cup tie with Folkestone saw Chris Hamshare described as a "gorilla look and thinkalike". Cheriton Road was said to be "pleasantly cramped" and the setting obviously resembled the Andes to my young eyes with "mountainous hillsides" surrounding the ground. But I was less enthused by Chatham's home which was "a sort of Legoland, landscaped garden". I dabbled in some agitprop polemic after a game at Dover. "The tycoons and chairmen had nowhere to go at half-time because Dover's boardroom had been flooded. So it was cheeseburgers in the cold for Dennis Lazell." I also chronicled an angry exchange between a Thanet supporter and Waterlooville's Kim Mann - "shut up you twat" being the considered response of the visiting player.
The following season saw me switch from exercise books to foolscap. I had been given a typewriter for my birthday. No doubt my parents had an inkling of my glorious future career as Thanet's premier pub pundit. I earnestly kept records, making particular use of the red part of the ribbon. The A4 sheets were kept in a folder but, alas, it seems to have been lost.
Rather than fiddling around with a typewriter, I reverted to the exercise book format for 86/87 - and with great success. I gave headlines to my reports, my favourite being "There's Only One Team in Thanet - United Rout The Rams" for the Gazette Cup showdown.
I continued keeping records for 87/88, but gave up halfway through 88/89. This was partly due to Thanet's appalling form, my A-levels and, er, hormonal distractions.
But 1989 marked the end of Thanet United and the revival of the name Margate FC. A flood of hype (well, a positive write-up in the Thanet Gazette) greeted the change and I bought the most expensive book yet to keep my records. With a marbled blue cover, it felt like a fitting way to detail our inevitable surge to glory - well, mid-table anyway.
But this was the last book. It was time to communicate with a wider audience than just one. Entering the world of fanzines and, later, local papers meant I could reach, ooooh, dozens of people...
Added to the site in 2005.