In an effort to make the website as entertaining and varied as possible, I decided that it may be a good idea to get some interviews with some Hullbridge personalities. To follow up the interview with Stokesy and as we celebrate 75 years of Hullbridge football, what better way to continue than with a chat with someone who’s been involved with Hullbridge football for many years and in various capacities? The Petre family have been involved with The Bridge for many, many years and, fittingly, for our celebration season, the covered stand behind the goal is now known as The Petre End.

Despite telling me she wouldn’t remember much, and it wouldn’t be very interesting, we chatted for an hour and 15 minutes, and we even forgot the tea until neighbour Belinda arrived and put the kettle on (thanks Belinda)!

So, it's time for a cup of tea with TMT and Beryl (and Belinda!)…..
Here’s our chat…

TMT – Just following onto our previous chat, we talked about family history and even before you got to Hullbridge…
Beryl – Oh yeah but that’s nothing to do with Hullbridge…my first knowledge of the club was when Matt came home from school when he was about 8 and said there’s a man down the park playing football with us, can I go down?
And I went…noo!
Next week he came home, same thing, anyway third week after me and my husband discussed it, I thought, I’ll go down there and find out what’s going on and it was Tony Clare starting a team for Hullbridge Sports.
TMT – How old was Matt then?
Beryl – He was 8 I think because the first year there was nothing. It was the under 9’s and it was a rogue league, it wasn’t a proper league so they couldn’t call themselves Hullbridge Sports, they were Hullbridge….
TMT – United?
Beryl – No, I’ll think about it!
The next year they went into the Southend Junior League, and I had Justin come up then, he’s 15 months younger so he’s the next age group so we were always going in different directions to different games.
TMT – Traveling here, there, and everywhere!

Beryl – They played down the park, with the black hut and that’s still up the club. The old black container, it was on the right-hand side along the hedge there and that was their changing rooms. And that was where they played, they had a little pitch on the other side of the park.
TMT – Which Park are we on?
Beryl – The one down here, the Rec.

The Rec pictured in 1965 just waiting to become home to Hullbridge Hurricanes

And how it is today.

TMT – Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, this was way back before Lower Road?
Beryl – Oh yes, my boys were 9 and everybody played down there. They had the 2 pitches, one nearest the river, so you had to have a big net to get the ball when it went in the river.
TMT – See, that’s great stuff, anecdotes like that you can’t make up!
Beryl – Well it happened!
TMT - Just true to life.
Beryl - Yeah, and of course, we were fund-raising like barmy trying to get enough money for the club because I think we had got permission for the 16 and ½ acres. It belonged to the Ministry of Agricultural & Fisheries actually, who looked after it because it’s wartime stuff. So, we were all fund-raising, sponsored walks, and all sorts. Used to have a sports day down the park, used to have fun days down there with sideshows and everything. Anything to drum up the money until they got the field up there.

TMT – That’s probably my next question, when did you get involved? But that was that!
Beryl – Yes, that was that. One of the best things we used to do….you know where the Chinese restaurant is?
TMT – The first one?
Beryl – The first one, well that was the old village hall, behind that is the village hall before the Commy was built and we used to do auctions in there and the old truck used to go around the village picking up stuff from people, then have an auction in there. That’s where we held all the functions and everything.

TMT – So you moved into Hullbridge…
Beryl – 1966.
TMT – World Cup Year!
Beryl – Yeah it was.
TMT - Was that Keswick?
Beryl – Yes, Keswick, then we moved to Grasmere, then here so I’ve not exactly lived many places.

TMT – I’ve lived in 3 different places, moving around isn’t much fun, too much hassle.
Beryl – Well both my boys live in the village so why would I want to move about?
TMT – They’re still in the village?
Beryl – They’re still in the village, my sister lives in Keswick.

Beryl – And then of course they got the ground, they got the building from the old Gas Board, and they were all up there all hours.
TMT – Yeah, putting it all together.
Beryl – And then my husband got involved then with that as well. Then, of course, it was getting the pitches and I can remember the boys when we were all up there cutting the first hay and they were all on the tractor.
All the kids were great because it was going to be their club. All these boys up there now don’t appreciate what hard work the younger generation put into it.

TMT – And then you got involved with fulfilling some of the roles?
Beryl – I got talked into being the youth secretary because there were two sections then. It was the youth and the adults, and I did the youth and did that through until my boys moved to senior. And it just so happened that the senior secretary, can’t remember his name now, was stepping down so I went from one, up to the next one.

TMT – So did the boys both get through to the first team?
Beryl – Both of them played for the first team. I mean Matt did leave the club. He went off and he played for…he went to Chelmsford, not 1st, he played for Chelmsford reserves. He did once play in the first team, but he was only 15/16.
TMT – Not a bad level then.
Beryl – No and he got Chelmsford young player of the year. And that’s when my husband died and Matt decided that it wasn’t fair me taking him over there all the time…I think he went to Stambridge because there was a Stambridge in the senior league, but they couldn’t stay because they didn’t have the facilities because it’s a public park as well and they couldn’t fence it off. They dropped out, he played for Wakering and he went to Thurrock, one of the Thurrock teams, then he came back to Hullbridge, it might have been Southend Manor and then he came back to Hullbridge but Justin’s always been at Hullbridge. He had a couple of months over at Southend Manor.

TMT – So was this pretty much Essex Senior League?
Beryl – Mainly, 1990 was it when we went Essex Senior. You didn’t then have to win the league; it was having the facilities.
TMT – This is non-league football, even to this day.
Beryl – You have to win the league now I think or at least come pretty high.
TMT – Yeah, I think you’ve got to be 1st or 2nd to be considered, and then it depends on facilities, etc.
Beryl – Yeah, we had a fenced-off field, but we didn’t have the floodlights in those days.
That happened to Stansted the year we went up. Stansted can’t go up because they’ve got the cricket there on the far side. We were first & second going through, and it was whoever won would be the ones that went up and we did, we won and Stansted lost their game.
TMT – Was that the Essex Senior League win when they went up to the Isthmian? Then we got the pandemic.
Beryl – Yes, we didn’t do too badly but the shutdown in March stopped the season, so it didn’t get finished that year.
TMT – The following season, we did about six games.
Beryl – The beginning of the season, I think it was November it was all shut down again.
TMT – It was ironic, the three seasons Hullbridge have been in the division, they were 16th, 16th, and 16th.
That last one was miraculous, still not quite sure how that happened.
Beryl – How we did it, no I’m not sure either!
TME – When you looked in December you thought, it’s impossible, but they had such a good run….
Beryl – Yes, amazing run.

Beryl – And I think getting the floodlights was our big thing as well. We could do night games.
TMT – Yeah and then there was the big game against Blackburn.
Beryl – Blackburn!
TMT – 800 or more
Beryl – Yeah, or more!
TMT – And they nicked all the money!
Beryl – They had their half, you thought, it’s a little club, they’ll let us keep it.
TMT – That’s quite disappointing really.
Beryl – It was.
TMT – That was Jack Walker’s time I think, and he had pots and pots of money.
Beryl – I can’t remember now…even if he had said cover the boy’s hotel bill down here…It was Hullbridge Hurricanes they played as!
TMT – Oh, in the rogue league…you knew it would come back!

Beryl – They came up there in the morning, training, the boys. We were worried it wasn’t going to happen, the pitch was very wet. And we had one of the boys playing, his uncle then, David…can’t remember the surname, was chief of police and he came down to see me as secretary then and he arranged all the police presence, especially outside getting the cars in. We used the overflow; we used the breakers yard, and he didn’t charge us or anything. We had another game where we had lots up there, it was arranged by, is it Headway, the head injuries people. There were a lot of the Southend United players played against our boys. We had a lot up there for them.

Beryl – What else did you want to know?
TMT – Well, I’m still on the roles… Junior Secretary?
Beryl – I was and Senior Secretary, Treasurer…
TMT – Behind the bar!
Beryl – Oh, I did the bar for 20 odd years, volunteer. Run the kitchen and I’ve been a Trustee…I think that’s all.
TMT - That’s all, just enough, I think.., Just to run the bar for 20 years…
Beryl – Well one of my friends and I did it, it used to be club night Thursday night and we’d get 400 boys in. Drink driving wasn’t such a problem then and they would stay and drink and turn up even if they hadn’t trained and drink, and we’d take some 400 behind the bar which in those days when a pint was something like under a pound a pint….
TMT – I remember when it went up to a pound a pint and everyone was like…a pound a pint!!
Beryl – What’s it now?
TMT – This is an extreme case but at the London Stadium it’s like 7 pounds 30 a pint!!
That’s not fixed by West Ham, it’s the catering company but…
Beryl – I’ve not been to the new stadium. I’ve only ever been to the Boleyn.
They’re not doing very well at the moment…
TMT – No. three defeats, no goals…I’ve got mates who are cutting their wrists already!
I’m still going but I’m balancing it out with Hullbridge as well. I said to the wife it takes up so much time…
Beryl - Yes, of course, she’s a West Ham supporter as well…
TMT – That’s where we met, in the pub,… two things close to my heart, West Ham/ football, and the pub. And the wife of course!
If I go and watch Hullbridge down the road, I’m out for a couple of hours not all-day.
Beryl – No, it’s not all day…
TMT – But I always liked the non-league stuff and used to watch Dagenham & Redbridge when I lived near there and when we came here, we found there was a club just down the road.
Beryl – Justin used to have a box at the Boleyn and my boss had four seats, so we did the game with a meal a few times, that was nice.

TMT – So you have done all those roles and what’s the current involvement…just a fan now?
Beryl – I am just a fan; I help Lesley on match days at home with the hospitality. I go in the boardroom and pour the cups of tea out which is quite nice because a lot of the clubs I’ve known them for years, so I still see them. My granddaughter is going out with one of the senior league linesmen, so he comes to the club sometimes.
TMT - Connections all along the line!
So, Lesley’s helper...
Beryl – I’m Lesley’s helper, yeah.
TMT - She does a cracking job, always up there.
Beryl – Lesley? Yeah, when she couldn’t go up there during the pandemic, I think that nearly finished her off!
TMT – Is Lesley… She’s in Hullbridge?
Beryl – She lives in Mayfield, down in Mayfield. She’s worked at the club for quite a number of years.
TMT – Is she the only paid employee?
Beryl – No they do pay the other bar stuff but that’s ad-hoc. When I was Treasurer, I did try to get her on a set salary, but she still only gets paid for the hours she does.
TMT – I guess that’s non-league clubs and tight budgets. That’s why they like volunteers like me!
Beryl – It was all volunteering; I mean everybody behind the bar. Each section had to supply somebody to do the bar one night a week which is how I did it for football or the youth section in them days and we just, Jackie & I, a friend just had such a laugh up there. We had Bingo in the hall, in the early days it was keep-fit, then Bingo in the hall and the boys all in the bar, so you know it was a good laugh.

TMT – Making enough money to keep it all ticking over.
Beryl – And then you had the slot machines until they weren’t earning the money, people just stopped playing them and in fact, it was when I was Treasurer that I got rid of them.
TMT – Yeah, they used to be very popular…
Beryl – People used to be queuing up to play on them and arguing over who was next…
TMT – Yeah, the working men’s clubs used to be like that.
Beryl – Yeah but it just died off, maybe people didn’t have the money to do it.
TMT - Nowadays people are too busy looking at their phones!
Beryl – I mean that used to bring in a good revenue.
TMT – Like you say, people used to queue to get on it and look daggers if someone won after they had been on…
Beryl – Used to know the old boy who lived across the road, and he used to be waiting outside when you opened up and he’d run out of money and say “don’t anybody play on there, I’m ‘gonna go and get some more money”
TMT – That’s what people would do…that rolls nicely into the next question really. Tell me about the Hullbridge characters’’ – Past and present there…Jason Mole’s probably present!
Beryl – He’s a character, his boys are always the best, he can always beat the first team...
TMT – I like Jason, he’s good because I put stuff out for the management of the teams, reports, etc. and he does now, sends them in, so it’s quite nice, I don’t have to write everything. It’s quite good to get the other teams on here as well, the first team is obviously the main thing, but you do appreciate that there’s the whole club there.
Beryl – Yeah, I suppose the one I remember is Mick Norris who lived in the bungalow next door, and when they were building it was his electric that they plugged into...
TMT – He volunteered in some way!
Beryl – I remember he stammered...but he used to help on the ground and everything and when he died he wanted his ashes in the middle of the first team pitch.
TMT – Did they allow it?
Beryl – You can do it actually and our groundsman who was Alan Sobey had it all marked out and a cross ready to do it and his wife refused to part with the ashes, so they never did go there!
TMT – Is that the same Alan that’s just stopped …
Beryl – No, no a different Alan…He used to get paid, Alan Sobey, quite a bit actually but if you upset him, god help you and I can remember once, he put a load of top soil on the first team pitch that somebody had donated. It was full of glass, stones, screws and we spent hours and hours getting it off again. The topsoil had been donated and sat there for ages and of course, somebody upset him, and he got his own back and chucked it on…

Beryl – And of course we got the tractor stolen, you know about the tractor being stolen?
TMT – No, no, tell me about the tractor getting stolen!
Beryl – Yeah, we got a nice new tractor and I suppose we had it a few years, and ‘em, one lunchtime someone walked in and just drove out with it.
TMT - Just had it away with the tractor (so to speak!).
Beryl – The table tennis was in there playing and nobody gave it a thought, they thought somebody was just driving it.
TMT – Did you get it back?
Beryl – No, it went past, didn’t go the garage way, it went the other way. We think they had a low-loader waiting at the breakers yard and it was gone! Which is how we’ve got the tractor we’ve got now and we got the insurance for it...
TMT – The famous Hullbridge tractor story which I didn’t know but I do now!
Beryl - It just got driven out.
TMT - I suppose like, unless you really know you’d just watch it and think...
Beryl – Nobody really, the groundsman was obviously not where he saw it happening and the table tennis people didn’t give it a thought. They weren’t interested in what was happening out on the football field you know. There was always a them and us with the table tennis.

Did you see that tractor?
What tractor?
TMT – Oh was there, a bit of a clash with the table tennis crowd! Are they still there?
Beryl – They’re still there, they’re very good actually. A very strong side, they had some top England players.
TMT – Hullbridge is famous for a lot more than I realised!
Beryl – Can’t think of anybody else, there have been characters obviously, they come and go don’t they?

Beryl – I went to a funeral a few weeks ago of our first chairman up the club, you know from when the ground was built, Pete Wood who was instrumental for getting the ground and everything. He died a few weeks back. He was a good chairman, hard-working.
TMT – Have there been many?
Beryl – Peter was chairman when I started, yeah there have been quite a few…
Beryl – Have you met Dave? Chatty Dave who does the outside pitches.
TMT – I think so, was he the guy in the bar the other night?
Beryl – Yes.
TMT – He doesn’t say much, does he?!
Beryl – He’s all right once you get to know him. He worked at Fords and retired. He does the outside pitches…Pat Hayes used to do it and Fred who used to come up there to do the pitches. Yeah, people come and go…

TMT – Any great memories I have written down here….there must be some…winning the Essex Senior League…
Beryl – Yes. Winning the Essex Senior League..and the Gordon Brasted, my boys played in that. The History Makers.

Michael Edgar got the winning goal. He was a black boy, Michael. I remember we were over at one of the London clubs playing in the east end there. Somebody came up and said, “is he your token black player”
TMT – Really!! When was this?
Beryl – Well, not as long ago as you’d think..2014/15 so not that long ago…
TMT – That’s what I mean, you’d think it was the 1970’s. Things have changed in a short space of time…
Beryl – Yeah, in the early days of the Senior League it was more local boys, not boys from London or anywhere like that...
TMT – Now it’s a bit more spread out I would guess.

TMT – I suppose another great memory was last season – The Great Escape.
Beryl – I didn’t see that coming, I could see us going down, like six weeks before the end I thought this is it…
TMT – Yeah, I think the first game we went to was Coggeshall.
Beryl – Was that when Olly Murs was there, I got my photograph with him. Actually, I weren’t bothered, the girl who was doing the kitchen at the time wanted a photograph taken with him and I met him in the corridor. I said, “the girl in the kitchen would love her photo with you”. He said well, don’t you? And he took my phone off of me and said, “well come on then”.
TMT – My daughter would have loved it; she’s got a nice picture with him.

A picture with Olly, Beryl's not bothered!

TMT - I think that was the first game we went to, Coggeshall, and after that, we lost a couple, Brentwood, and unlucky against Grays but other than that they were all pretty much wins and draws.
Beryl – Yeah, it was good, wasn’t it? It was us and Wakering wasn’t it, now it’s us and Wakering down the bottom.
TMT – Yeah, although it’s early days. So that was great memories...
Beryl – I’m trying to think of a few more. We used to have some brilliant Christmas dinner dances that used to be at the airport there. The function suite at Southend Airport. Not sure it’s even there now.
TMT – Southend airport has changed a lot.
Beryl – They used to be really good nights and then they’d do the presentations and all that sort of thing, and we did do one up at the club, it might have been the year we won the Gordon Brasted, we did a dinner dance up at the club.
TMT – My mate said he used to see some good bands down there.
Beryl – Oh what down The Touchline?
TMT – Yeah, I think so.
Beryl – That’s how I stopped being a… Brian Sangwin who was chairman of the social and used to arrange all that, Jackie & I always did the bar on a Thursday night and he had some function on, on a Thursday night, I think it was a wedding or something and he didn’t think…he said we were too old to be behind the bar!!
TMT – What!
Beryl – So we thought right… that’s it. The fact that we could add up umpteen pints in our head and not have to write them on bits of paper or have a calculator was beside the point!

TMT – I’ve only got one more question left but we’re doing well. We’ve gone on longer than the Stokesy one and he did his whole career!!
Beryl - What’s the one that’s left?
TMT – What do you think of this year’s squad and how do you think we’ll do?
Beryl – It’s a bit too early days, isn’t it?
TMT – It is a bit.
Beryl – And I don’t know all of them, obviously I know Luke, Hornsley, who’s been at the club for ages, and Luke Wilson who has been at the club when he was younger, the goalie I know but most of the others I don’t really know that well.
TMT – I looked at the team and I was getting quite excited.
Beryl – Somebody said that to me…
TMT – Probably me!
Beryl – They said, they must be paying out good money up there because you’ve got a good squad, but I think they’re paying less this season. It’s early days, I hope we at least finish up halfway. I don’t think we’ll do better than that.
TMT – I did the Pitching In predictor and I went for 6th and I thought that was definitely achievable... It’s hard though as there’s a lot of new teams. I don’t know much about the Norfolk teams or New Salamis.
Beryl – Where are they from?
TMT – Tottenham way, I think they share with Harringay Borough.
Beryl – I know Harringay’s ground, you been there?
TMT – No, not been there...
Beryl – It’s up high, you look down on it.
TMT - You will have been to way more grounds than me.
Beryl – Not many I haven’t been to actually. I think I haven’t and then I walk in and “oh yeah, I recognise it”. Because I did follow the under 18’s when they had their cup run and there was quite a lot of grounds then.

Beryl – I remember we were in a cup game, and we should have been at home, and we were playing Aveley and it got called off and they insisted we go to Aveley and play it. I was going with Terry Scourfield, he’s an old-timer there, and we were going down the A13 and halfway down it started snowing and it got thicker and thicker and we just about got to Aveley, and you couldn’t see the pitch and we thought it’s going to be called off. No, the ref started it, they had to roll to find out where the lines were, the ball would hardly move. He played long enough to get his money and then he called it off. We didn’t think we were going to get out of the ground because the old Aveley ground had a slope to get in. We got halfway down the A13, not a bit of snow anywhere. We came that way and some of the others went towards the 127 and they got stuck and didn’t get home until the early hours of the morning.
TMT – Localised weather!

Beryl – It’s like Wakering, Colin Webb who lives down Grasmere was insisting there had been no rain, but I came down the road and my windscreen wipers wouldn’t cope with it.
TMT – I know, that was disappointing. It was a lovely evening. I didn’t realise that it was off.
Beryl – No, did not enter my head, and Colin went across there. I’m thinking “what’s he doing” and then all the officials were still out there. I’m sure they didn’t believe us that we put all that topsoil on.
TMT – So, varied…
Beryl – Sorry about that Dave, I’m too old to remember all these things.
TMT – It’s alright, no worries, I think there’s plenty in there...
Beryl – I’ll probably think of things afterward, I should’ve told you.
The boys did, my boys, their age group. We used to be twinned with a German town, can’t remember the name of it now, used to be a sign as you came into the village and they got invited out there because, at that time they were Southend Junior League winners, they must have been 14, 15, 16 that sort of age group and they got invited out to Germany to represent Rochford. Mind you they had a whale of a time; I dread to think what went on…
TMT – Football tours, loads of fun!

Beryl – And we had a team from LA come over and we all put them up. Los Angeles, yeah, nice kids. That was before the clubhouse because we had to find places to take them to.
TMT – It would have been easier now with all the facilities and all the pitches, 16 acres…
Beryl – Yes, just over 16 acres, I know they were going to move some of the pitches, turn them round…
TMT – Yes, they are doing something with that and when they marked them out, clever technology, they used drones to do it...the lines and that. And they realised how much out of square the pitches were. One kid was taking great corners on one side and rubbish on the other and they realised they were different lengths!!
Beryl – Don’t tell Fred that ‘coz he used to be most particular about his lines. We’d go to away games, and he’d say “look how wonky they are, how can they have a line like that”

TMT – Well, that’s it we’re done, but we’ve got one more bit. This is the fun bit, I hope…
Beryl – Oh Yeah, go on.
TMT I’m doing this with everybody, it’s called Hullbridge Hit & Miss.
Beryl – Yeah!
TMT – Ten random quick-fire questions, there’s no right or wrong. Stokesy got 7 out of 10, so that’s your aim. All you do is say either/or and if it matches my answer, you get a hit, and if not it’s a miss, and there’s a league table…

So, ten questions...
The first one is:
Sky Sports or BT Sports?
Beryl – I don’t have either these days...if I got one back it would be Sky Sports though.
TMT - OK, I won’t tell you now, I’ll do the answers at the end...

TMT – Red River Country Park or somewhere else?
Beryl – Red River Country Park, of course. Unless it’s my son’s villa in Menorca!

TMT – Dog name…Biscuit or Shep?
Beryl – Oh, Biscuit of course! Except I keep calling him Zack which was my previous dog!

TMT – Blue & White Stripes or Yellow & Green Quarters?
Beryl – Blue & White, got to be Blue & White. You should have seen the pink-away strip!
TMT – My daughter would have loved that!
Beryl - That was Enrico, when he was manager.
TMT – Oh, yeah, we’ve been in contact on Twitter, he saw the history video.
Beryl – Yes, he’s very into all the local stuff.
TMT – I think he said he is Hullbridge’s longest-serving manager.
Beryl – He was there quite a long while and then he got silly. We were playing over at Tower Hamlets, and we won, and he absolutely had a go at the boys and some of them walked and that was it. He went after that, so he wouldn’t talk to any of us, and then one day up there he came up hugging, kissing me as if nothing had ever happened.
TMT – Yeah, football’s like that, things happen…
Beryl – In fact, I was Enrico’s champion, he stayed on because of me when others would have had him out ages before. Can’t remember who took over from him, that might have been Robert…
TMT – Were there two of them?
Beryl – Oh yes, Rob and Aaron.

TMT - Question 5 – Essex Senior League or Isthmian League North?
Beryl – Hard question because I had a lot of time with the Essex Senior League and I don’t really know the Isthmian League, but I wouldn’t want to go back to the Essex Senior League, so do I say the Isthmian League?
TMT – You’re leaning towards the ILN as I call it.

TMT – Club official or just a fan?
Beryl – Just a fan now, yeah.
TMT – You’d rather be a fan than an official.
Beryl – No, all those years, obviously, I was an official anyway.
TMT – So, we’re going official?
Beryl – Yes, official.
TMT – I guess you can be both!

TMT – Club or country?
Beryl – Club or country?
TMT – Yeah, what’s your favourite, would it be Hullbridge or would it be England?
Like, some people are big England fans and others only watch their club play.
Beryl – I mean, I always watch England if they play although I’m not sure about this coming World Cup, I’m not sure about that.
TMT – I think we could be in trouble.
Beryl – Yeah, those last games I saw. We seem as if we need a bit more oomph there don’t we?
TMT – Stokesy says Graham Potter, I couldn’t disagree.
Beryl – I think Southgate has nearly run his run.
TMT – He’ll probably do World Cup and that might be it.
Beryl – They tend to stick with the same old players, and you want somebody new coming in...
TMT – So we’re going club, aren’t we?
Beryl – Yes.

TMT – Here’s a weird one, they are very random these questions.
Beryl – Did you make them up?
TMT – I do, yeah. Neighbours or Home and Away?
Beryl – As in Neighbours the television…I’ve never watched either of them, that doesn’t help does it? I mean I don’t watch Eastenders or Coronation Street...
TMT – We’ll put no answer on that one!

Kylie - a neighbour Beryl has never seen.

TMT – Oh, this is a good one, Grass pitches or 3G pitches?
Beryl – I prefer a grass pitch because it seems more natural but because of the weather in England, an artificial pitch you can play anywhere anytime. No, grass, I think I still would prefer grass.
TMT – Old traditionalist!

TMT - And the last one, which is always a weird question. Who would win in a fight, A hedgehog or a bat?
Beryl – Hedgehog or a bat!!
TMT – Yeah!
Beryl – I wouldn’t have a clue.
TMT – Tony’s one was a badger or a polar bear!
Beryl - Oh, it’s always different. Hedgehog probably because he would roll up and the bat wouldn’t be able to get him.
TMT – Good answer!

TMT – I’ll tell you how you’ve done, pretty well actually.
So, Sky Sports was a hit. I go Sky because it’s better commentary. I don’t like the BT commentary team. HIT

TMT – Red River was obviously Red River. HIT

TMT – Dog name was obviously Biscuit.
Beryl – My dog…
TMT – How can you go wrong with Dog, Biscuit? HIT

TMT – Blue & White Stripes. HIT
Beryl – Got to be.

TMT – I went with the Isthmian League North as I don’t know the Essex Senior League really.
Beryl – We had some good times there.
TMT – That’s a HIT.

TMT – Club Official or just a fan? I went official.
Beryl – I suppose in a way it would be official because I agreed to go in the boardroom and do the teas and coffees and all the other roles.
TMT – I think you can be both…
Beryl – Yeah, I will always be a fan.
TMT – I’m ‘gonna give you a point – HIT.

TMT – Club or country, we’re going club. HIT

TMT – You didn’t know Neighbours or Home & Away so no answer, so that’s a MISS.
Beryl – I’m not a soap fan.
TMT – I went Neighbours because Kylie is in it.

TMT – Grass, we both went grass. HIT
Beryl – I can see the advantages of 3G/4G whatever. Have you been to Harlow, the boys would get covered in black, it’s an old one.
TMT – No but I remember QPR in the early days, nightmare pitch, it was like basketball!
Beryl – I don’t know what the surface was…
TMT – They used to call it Astroturf, I think.

TMT – You went Hedgehog, and I went Hedgehog as the bat wouldn’t see them as they are blind as bats. HIT.
Beryl – LOL, good answer!

TMT – So you got 9 out of 10, so you’re top of the league mate!

TMT - I’m going to try to do that with as many people as I can.
Beryl – Who else are you going to do?
TMT – Probably Jay.
Beryl – Oh, Jason Mole.
TMT – Yeah, well both Jay’s actually. Coss & Mole if possible and it depends on who I meet as I don’t know the players yet.
Beryl – Luke, Luke’s’’s been there a long while.
TMT – Luke Hornsley?
Beryl – Yeah, Luke’s been playing there a long while, I don’t know how old he is, must be in his thirties. I remember him getting married, having the baby…
And Matt Rose, it’s a shame he… what made him leave?
Because he was being subbed a lot last year.
TMT – Not sure, maybe that….
Beryl – He used to get forward a lot and he could put a good cross in.
TMT – And he got an offer from Wakering and he went there…
Beryl – He’s family is a nice family.
TMT – Yeah, he was in the bar the other night, he seems a nice fella.

Well Beryl, one hour and fifteen minutes later…
Beryl – I don’t think it will be very interesting but never mind.

Far from being not very interesting, I hope you’ll agree that this is a fascinating insight into football and its people. For me, this is a football story about Hullbridge but also a story about family and friends and many of you will recognise how Beryl became involved with the club because of her sons who just wanted to play football. I’m sure that sounds familiar to you all, doing what you can for your family and helping them fulfil their dreams and cope with their disappointments. In this case in football, but it could be anything really.

The interview is written in ‘real time’ to capture the conversation as close to how it actually was, the only bit missing is the laughter as I didn’t want to put LOL all over it but there were a lot of LOL’s!!

Thanks again Beryl and next time I’ll just ask for tea as soon as I get there!
Or I’ll invite Belinda!!