Hemel: Support your local — Terrace Edition

Words: Tom Reed

Images: Tom Reed

Shot on film.

A lot of people get on the train at Hemel Hempstead station on a Saturday. Not many people seem to get off.

In football terms, the Hertfordshire town is stuck in a wedge between Luton and Watford, with the myriad London teams just a short chug away on the next express.

And yet, Hemel Hempstead Town FC are enduring, and some might say thriving, in the National League South, pushing for promotion and giving those incoming trains something to think about.

Club owner Dave Boggins makes sure the club is an industrious one. If he was a footballer he’d be a full-back, up and down the wing all game and barely stopping for breath.

You’ll probably bump into Dave at some point during any match at Hemel’s Vauxhall Road, the Irishman not one of those owners who is only happy with the warming sun of double-glazed executive boxes at his back.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Club owner Dave Boggins.

Before the tussle against AFC Totton, he’s literally out the front of the ground, directing the away team coach into a parking spot. Dave’s wearing a high-viz jacket over his shirt and club tie, leading from the front, as you do.

Boggins, a trained chef, also cooks up the post-match food for the two teams and there is no chance of the gravy boiling over, given his house backs onto the stadium.

There is an element of “build it and they will come” at Hemel, with measured improvements to the facilities, creating a happy place to watch football, in a mismatched ground with character, away from the soulless bowls of the higher levels.

A young lad called Sam is there early doors with his mates and it speaks volumes that he’s at Hemel when the Hatters and the Hornets are nearby.

This is the essence of supporting your local. Shopping in your local corner shop where the owner knows you by name, rather than travelling to a supermarket and becoming one of a number bleeping away at the automatic tills.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Hemel Hempstead Town pre-match.

Various Hemel Hempstead Town fans walk to the game or get public transport and there’s a well-being element to enjoying a match-day that won’t leave you cream-crackered or out of pocket

The supporters’ bar at Vauxhall Road is sizeable and warm and you don’t have to queue too long for a pint. Attached is a palatial function room with Greek busts and flowing fabric, which obviously hints at a club thinking of income away from match-day.

Over the far side of the ground, McDonalds have sponsored one of the stands, a bit of a coup at the level and the yellow struts stand out in the Spring sunshine.

There’s a guy waiting for the game to begin with a smart Harrington jacket and his lad a well-placed flat cap. At the burger van, the youth team kids queue up and lark about and dream dreams of one day making it out onto the pitch.

A fan of cult band “The Jam” watches on quietly with a nice parka and he speaks contently about watching Paul Weller and co back in the day. He’s chosen to rock up to Hemel instead of getting his kicks in the city and bringing a nice link between football and subculture to this part of Hertfordshire.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. The Jam fan.

The Tudors looked as hungry for goals as they were one of Boggins’ post-match Moussakas.

Indeed, São Tomé and Príncipe international Mauro Vilhete was quick onto a dropping ball, finishing superbly with a left-foot screamer into the top corner, for the opener.

Vilhete is a one to watch but the rather less exotically named Gary Sippetts is the player they go gooey-eyed at, the cult legend having had a memorable and prolific spell at Vauxhall Road in the 2000’s

It was, funnily enough, Isiah Noel-Williams, son of former Watford forward Gifton, who completed a 2-0 win for the hosts with a tidy finish on ’54 minutes.

The win was Hemel Hempstead town’s fourth on the bounce and leaves the National League tantalisingly close.

There’s a feel-good factor here, built on kind-hearts, hard work and full stomachs and no-one is getting stuck in the car-park after, with the chairman on the case.