Pic: Robert Walkley
By Richard Parsons
COMEDY scriptwriter Alan Simpson, who died last week aged 87, brought together the worlds of showbusiness and football, particularly the Non-League game.
But, for those who met him at his spiritual home of Hampton & Richmond Borough FC, you would never know it.
Alan liked nothing better than to merge with football folk, and he was never more comfortable than discussing the game over a glass of red wine at The Beveree, where the team played and he was the club president.
Captivated
Of course, numerous people wanted to hear about his other life amid radio and TV celebrities and he could eventually be drawn out on the subject. But it was not one he would raise.
Football would come first and particularly the game that flourishes beneath Football League level. It’s ironic that, for a large part of his life, he never considered Non-League.
He was a Brentford follower, largely unaware that football existed beyond the four divisions of the professional game.
Then, one Saturday in the mid-60s, he was running late for Brentford’s home match and, instead, drove the mile or so from his Thames-side home to Station Road in Hampton.
He’d heard that football was played there, but didn’t know what to expect. What he found was a Spartan League match played with spirit and endeavour, in pleasant tree-lined surroundings amid some lovely people.
He was particularly taken by an ongoing appeal to raise funds for floodlights and it was that, together with the ethos of the Non-League scene which captivated him.
He never returned to League football. He returned unannounced several times to The Beveree before club officials learned who he was.
One bold committee man then summoned the courage to telephone him and ask him to become club president.
As Alan recalled, he thought it might involve him turning up once a year to present some awards – but not a lot more. He could never have imagined how the role and the involvement could turn into a passion.
He quickly immersed himself in the club, attending home and away matches, making the clubhouse his ‘local’ and blending seamlessly into the team of volunteers who kept things running.
He was able to persuade Steptoe & Son, i.e., Harry H Corbett and Wilfred Brambell, to open the club’s summer fete and – such was the popularity of the TV series – that they drew a vast crowd and helped swell the club’s coffers.
Donation
But Alan was loathed to bring his work and his passion too close together. Certainly, his scriptwriting partner Ray Galton had little interest in football.
Instead, he would be persuaded to give after-dinner speeches at clubs up and down the country and would ask just for a donation to the club, instead of a fee. He even spoke at the PFA Awards dinner.
Alan, a widower with no children, became known to thousands of people across Non-League and many visiting teams would say a trip to The Beveree was never complete without a chat with him.
The last game he attended was shortly before Christmas, but he became ill around the turn of the year and died last week in St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey.
To the end, he retained his interest in the game and his friends ensured he continued to have The Non-League Paper brought to him.
