NO BULL AT HEREFORD
The Hereford United pitch will always be remembered for the 1971/72 third round FA Cup replay against Newcastle United when both teams played in a sea of mud in a much postponed replay. Ronnie Radford’s 35 yard ‘screamer’ and an extra time winner by Ricky George secured a famous 2-1 victory, the first time a non-league club had beaten a first division side in over 30 years. In the same season, Hereford United gained promotion to the football league for the first time in their history. Since then their fortunes have ebbed and flowed.
H
ereford United Football Club was formed by the amalgamation of two local sides, St Martins and RAOC in June 1924. The club’s home has always been Edgar Street which, back then, was owned by the Hereford Athletic Ground Co. The newly formed club played its first ever competitive fixture on August 30th 1924, losing 2-3 to Atherstone Town in the Birmingham Combination League.
In June 1931, the city council bought the Edgar Street ground for £3,000 from the Hereford Athletic Ground Co. and rented it back to United. After the war, they set the rent at just over £100. In March 1952 the council granted United a 14-year lease at a ‘peppercorn’ rate of £1 per season. From 1966 onwards the council set a revised and realistic rent each year.
In 1972 the club fulfilled its dream by being elected to the Football League. Mixed fortunes followed with the club gaining promotion within the space of three years, but also suffered the ignominy of finishing bottom of the league on three separate occasions and had to apply for re-election. With Hereford’s supporters hopeful of an assault on Third Division promotion, the 1996/97 season could not have been
more different and remains the darkest time in the club’s history. Severe financial problems forced the manager, Graham Turner, to part with his best players. He had no money available to strengthen the squad and United struggled throughout the campaign. A mid-season slump of thirteen games without a win saw them sink to ninety-first place in the Football League and then fell at the last hurdle when they lost to bottom club, Brighton & Hove Albion, and were relegated from the league. It took nine years before Graham
Turner, the Football League’s longest serving manager, finally got them back into the league. They are currently riding high in Division 2. The pitch management has gone
through almost as many changes in recent times. From having its own groundsman based at the club, to the local authority being in charge to the present day with a local contractor undertaking the work. The contractor, Highground Maintenance, was started up in 2000 by Gareth Jenkins along with Mike Lewis and Desmond Parry. Gareth and Mike began their association over twenty years ago maintaining cricket pitches at Talgarth Cricket Club.
Following on from this they began offering a service to local clubs and schools around the Welsh Marches bordering with Herefordshire and, from somewhat humble beginnings, they have grown to hold contracts at a number of sports grounds, including Abergavenny Cricket Club, a 12-hole golf course at Hay-on-Wye and well over forty school grounds. The company is still fairly small, with just six dedicated, full-time staff, topped up with a variety of seasonal workers and helpers.
The company have a policy of
reinvesting any small profits into buying quality equipment, their most recent purchase being a Beamrider laser guided linemarking system, a substantial investment for them at over £5,000. This is used for initial marking out of all pitches and tracks at the secondary schools, and regularly at Luctonians RFC and Hereford United FC, which is the company’s most high profile venue. The Edgar Street pitch takes just under an hour to mark out, with the 5” lines being laser-straight even in the worst conditions. Gareth and Mike are looking forward to the day when the mowers will also be laser-guided as the mowing with an Allett Buffalo, cut at 25mm during the playing season, takes a good one and
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