They`ve Played for Your Club…..Berkhamsted

Continuing the series on players who have represented the current clubs in the Southern Football League.

Or in this case, Berkhamsted and Berkhamsted Town.

In January 2009, after more than 90 years in existence, Spartan South Midlands Premier side Berkhamsted Town had to close their doors.

The decision was made at a public meeting after the club had their electricity supply cut off in December.

However, a group of supporters moved quickly to re-establish the club under the name of Berkhamsted Comrades - a name last used by the club in 1922.

However, in the end, the `new` club was simply called Berkhamsted FC and they won the Spartan South Midlands League Division Two title in its first season, losing only once each at home and away.

The team were Division One champions in 2010/11, this time by 15 points and were unbeaten at home in the league.

This earned a second successive promotion and movement up to the Premier Division, where the club stayed for six years.

The team won promotion to the Southern League under Steve Bateman by finishing as Premier Division runners-up in 2018.

The 2019/20 season saw the club leading the division when it was abandoned due to a pandemic.

The club nickname is the Comrades, after Berkhamsted Comrades which was the name of the football club formed in the town by servicemen returning from the First World War. It later changed its name to Berkhamsted Town.

For the purposes of this feature, players who represented both Berkhamsted Town and Berkhamsted FC have been included.

Berkhamsted Town`s most famous player was Frank Broome.

A speedy, tricky winger with a fierce shot, he was born in Berkhamsted and first played football for Boxmoor St John’s, and it was there that he was spotted by Berkhamsted boss Arthur Gomm, who offered the teenager the chance to join his home-town club.

Broome signed for Berkhamsted in November 1933, joining elder brother Reg, who played at inside right.

When he joined, the club was second-from-bottom and had scored 12 goals in 8 games. By the end of the season, Berkhamsted’s fortunes had improved dramatically, as they were then fifth with 80 goals from 26 games and Broome set a club record that season with an astonishing 53 goals in the Spartan League.

The following season, Broome carried on where he left off and it’s not surprising that representatives from League clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur and Luton Town were soon seen at games.

When Aston Villa came to watch him playing against Marlow, Broome had an awful game and did not score, but Villa still decided to sign him on in the Autumn of 1934.

No fee was involved but Villa agreed to send a first team to play at Broadwater. This did not materialise, so the club received a £25 donation instead!

In 1936/37, he was Villa’s top scorer with 28 goals and the following season he helped gain Villa’s promotion from the Second Division (the club had been relegated in 1936) and was again top scorer with 19 goals.

He stayed at Villa Park until 1946, after scoring 90 goals in 151 League and cup appearances.

He also won 7 England caps, the first coming in 1938 during England’s 6-3 beating of Germany in front of a 100,000 crowd, where the ill-advised English players gave the Nazi salute.

In 1946, Broome was transferred to Derby County for £5,000 and averaged a goal every three games.

He joined Notts County in 1949, where he paired up with Tommy Lawton and later played for Brentford and Derby again.

After hanging up his boots, he served as manager at Exeter City and Southend United and also had a spell managing in Australia with Bankstown and Melita Eagles until returning to the West Country where he died in September 1994, aged 79.

One of Berkhamsted Town`s most memorable triumphs came in 1952/53 when they won the Herts Senior Cup against Isthmian League side St Albans City.

Berko won 4-2 with Maurice Cook bagging one of the goals.

Cook was transferred to Watford soon afterwards, signing initially as an amateur before turning professional in May 1953.

A hard-running, no-frills centre-forward who went on to become one of Watford`s major players of the mid-1950s.

He was the only Watford player to represent the Third Division (South) against its northern counterparts.

After making 218 appearances and scoring 77 goals, he was transferred to Fulham for a then club-record fee of £15,000 in January 1958.

However, he was cup-tied and missed out on Fulham`s run to the FA Cup Semi-Final that year. He did, though, score 17 goals in Fulham’s promotion season of 1958/59 and played in every game of the FA Cup run of 1962.

He once asked Fulham manager Bedford Jezzard for a transfer because he did not think he was good enough to play for the club! In reality, he was an integral part of the Fulham team of the early 1960s, a regular rather than prolific scorer whose bustling style was the ideal complement to the more subtle skills of Johnny Haynes, Graham Leggat and, later, Rodney Marsh.

Scorer of the first-ever goal in the Football League Cup at Bristol Rovers in September 1960, the arrival of new manager Vic Buckingham led to Cook’s departure in May 1965 for Reading after totalling 221 games and 89 goals for the Cottagers.

He moved to Reading where he stayed for just one season before signing for Banbury United as player-coach under the management of his former Watford boss Len Goulden.

Cook helped Banbury reach the Southern League for the first time in their history after gaining promotion from the West Midlands (Regional) League.

He died in December 2006, aged 75.

Two cousins played together at Berkhamsted Town in the late 1980s and early 1990s and both went on to enjoy good careers in both League and non-League football.

Keith Ryan was one of the first players signed by Martin O'Neill for his Wycombe Wanderers side in August 1990 when he was spotted playing alongside cousin Steve Whitby at Berko.

He went on to play in all three of Wycombe's Wembley visits in the 1990s and, but for three major injuries, would have been challenging for a place as the all-time appearance makers for the Chairboys.

Despite the injuries, he still managed to clock up over 500 appearances and although midfield was his regular position, managed to bag 50 goals, including a memorable late goal against Liverpool in the 2001 FA Cup Semi-Final at Villa Park.

He took the caretaker manager role in November 2004 following the departure of Tony Adams and was subsequently made an assistant to new boss John Gorman.

He signed another one-year playing contract in May 2005 to take him into his 16th season with the club. However, a further knee injury at the start of the new campaign meant another long lay-off and despite making his comeback for the reserves in February 2006, Ryan eventually announced his retirement from professional football in March 2006.

He was promptly appointed by John Gregory - another of his former managers at Wycombe - as a youth team coach at Queens Park Rangers and was promoted to reserve team manager in July 2009.

It was a double deal for Martin O`Neill as he also brought full-back Steve Whitby at Adams Park at the same time as his cousin.

He signed for fellow Conference side Slough Town in October 1991 for a fee of £8,000 and went on to make almost 100 appearances for the Rebels.

He departed Slough in the summer of 1994.

Gary Harthill was a regular goalscorer over many years.

He first played for Berkhamsted in the 1970s and netted in their 1974 Herts Charity Shield winning side.

Most of his career was spent with Aylesbury United in the Southern League where he scored over 80 goals in 301 games and represented the Southern League.

He moved to Tring Town and netted 180 times in 284 games before returning to Berko in 1991.

He also played for Chalfont St Peter, Hitchin Town, Boreham Wood and Aston Clinton.

Ray Jeffrey made a total of 612 appearances for Berkhamsted and helped to win several cup competitions for the club after signing from Bedmond in 1983.

Voted player of the year on a number of occasions, he started out with Rushden Town, spent a season with Tring Town and also had a spell with Chesham United before returning to Broadwater for a second time.

Born in Welwyn Garden City, Paul Hobbs was a well-travelled midfielder.

He had three spells with Berk, two with Hemel Hempstead Town and also served Stevenage Borough, Tring Town, Chesham United, Hendon and Sun Sports.

It was his spell with Aylesbury United, for whom he made 74 appearances, scoring 16 goals after joining from Berko in 1994 that he caught attention during the Ducks FA Cup run when they invented their famous `Duck Walk`!

He entered management in 2008 with Bovingdon and then managed Kings Langley from 2009 to 2012.

He then guided Sun Sports to promotion as champions to the Spartan South Midlands Premier in 2013/14 and returned to manage Kings Langley in the Southern League from November 2016 until December 2017.

Connor Calcutt was still turning out in the Spartan South Midlands League with Leighton Town before lockdown.

He began his career at Hemel Hempstead Town and then joined Berkhamsted in 2011 and played around 80 games and scored 37 goals in the Spartan South Midlands League.

His goals caught the attention of higher-level clubs, and he was on dual-registration with St Albans City before signing for League Two side Stevenage in 2014.

He unfortunately suffered a broken leg whilst on loan to Wealdstone and was released by Boro at the end of the 2014/15 season.

He joined the Stones on a more permanent basis but was again loaned out, this time to Dunstable Town, for whom he played 30 games and scored a dozen goals.

Moves to Kings Langley and Dunstable followed before he found his form again with 28 goals in 33 goals for Barton Rovers in 2016/17.

That earned him moves to Farnborough and then, in October 2018, to Hendon where he played 51 times with 14 goals.

He moved on to Southern Division One Central outfit Bedford Town in November 2019 and then signed for Leighton Town in July 2020.

Another to have played for the `new` version of Berkhamsted was attacking midfielder Alex Campara.

He started his career at Watford's academy but made his first-team debut on in August 2005 against Notts County whilst still a first-year scholar in the League Cup.

Campana did not make a first-team appearance in Watford's 2006/07 Premiership season. However, he captained the club's under-18 side, and was a regular in the reserves.

He signed his first professional contract with Watford in April 2007 and his next first-team appearance came in August 2007, again in a League Cup tie at home to Gillingham and went on to head his first professional goal in Watford's 3–0 win.

He made his first start for the club in the next round - a 2–0 defeat away at Southend United.

In December 2007, Campana joined Isthmian League side Wealdstone on a month's loan, and he made a total of 8 league and cup appearances, scoring 4 goals.

He was released by Watford at the end of the 2007/08 season and joined then-Conference National side Grays Athletic at the start of the following season.

He had his contract terminated by mutual consent in October 2008 and signed for Eastern Counties League Premier Division side Wivenhoe Town.

A month later, he signed for then-Conference South outfit Thurrock and made his debut in November 2008 but terminated his contract in February 2009 and then joined Isthmian League side Enfield Town.

After initially joining Hemel Hempstead Town in 2009, Campara left the club to focus on his university studies and was selected for the Great Britain Universities Futsal team, representing the side at the World University Championships in Serbia.

Campana re-joined Hemel in July 2012, making 37 appearances and scoring 4 times before joining Kings Langley on loan for the 2013/14 season – where he netted 29 goals in just 23 games - before signing for them permanently following their promotion to the Spartan South Midlands Premier Division in 2014.

In November 2015, Campana left Kings Langley to sign for rivals Berkhamsted and helped them to promotion to the Southern League.

But in the summer of 2018 Campana left Berkhamsted, remaining in the Spartan South Midlands Premier Division with Tring Athletic.

Striker Terry Dixon joined Tottenham Hotspur at the age of 8, signing for the club six years later.

He was called up by Republic of Ireland to represent their under-16, under-17 and under-21 sides.

He, unfortunately, suffered three serious knee injuries before he turned 19 and left White Hart Lane to join West Ham United in 2009.

Dixon scored twice in 8 games for West Ham’s reserves before leaving Upton Park in 2010.

After short spells with Stevenage, Ware and Tooting & Mitcham United, in August 2011, he joined Bradford City on a one-year contract but the following month he was loaned out to then-Conference North side FC Halifax Town, where he scored once in 4 games.

He decided to move back down south in December 2011 and joined Dover Athletic where he made 27 appearances and scored 2 goals.

His next port of call was Hitchin Town, and he then played for Dunstable Town and was part of their promotion-winning team from the Southern Division One Central to the Premier Division.

His first spell with Berkhamsted came in the Spartan South Midlands League in 2014/15 before he switched to Aylesbury FC (now Aylesbury Vale Dynamos).

He was back with Berko in 2016 then had a short stint at The 61 FC (Luton) before returning for a third spell with Berkhamsted.

That was short-lived, however, as he was off to neighbouring Tring Athletic at the start of the 2019/20 season and then more recently with Essex Senior League outfit Walthamstow.

Louis Lancaster has had an interesting career.

He had a rather undistinguished playing career. After unsuccessful trials with several professional academies, he joined Wealdstone, then Hertford Town and briefly Berkhamsted and then Welwyn Garden City.

Lancaster enjoyed an extensive career in football youth development.

From 2008 to 2016 he spent time as an academy coach in the Arsenal, Portsmouth and Watford systems.

During his time at Watford, he supervised the development of Jadon Sancho, current member of Borussia Dortmund and the England national team.

Lancaster, who holds a UEFA Pro License - the highest coaching license in Europe – then spent a season as an assistant coach for Shanghai Shenxin of China League One.

Then, after three years with the Chinese Taipei national team which represents Taiwan in international football, he was promoted to head coach where he led the team to the second round of the Asian Football Confederation 2022 World Cup qualification.

In February 2020, Lancaster left Asia to move to the United States where he was appointed as assistant head coach at National Women’s Soccer League side Utah Royals.

Berkhamsted Web Site