PETE FLETCHER

To say I planned to joined the Hedge End team would be a lie…. But to say I’ve ever regretted it, that would be an even bigger one.

What brought me to the team was my friendship with Dave Nichols. I had been invited down to spend a weekend with him and his wife, and after a few beers and a pizza on a Friday night, Dave said he was playing football in the morning and I was welcome to come and watch. “why not?” I thought! Knowing my alcohol tolerance, the few beers I’d had my body would probably welcome the fresh air in the morning.

Saturday morning came, and off we went…. I was wrapped up warm for what I thought was going to be 90mins of standing beside the pitch…. Oh how wrong I was.

Once we were in the changing room, a quick head count and we released that they only had 10 players. Questions soon came my way of “Do you play?” I replied “well yes… but I’ve not played in years or have any kit with me… sorry!” This is where I found that this doesn’t stop the Hedge End players from trying to get someone to play when they are short team members.

A shirt was thrown my way, a pair of shorts, socks, and a pair of football boots, with half their studs missing landed in front of me.

I was asked what position I normally play, and thinking back to my primary schools days, I said I would play right wing.

It was a cold morning, and the rain from the night before had left the ground a little sticky underfoot. We were playing Portsmouth Family, and they started the brighter of the two teams.

After 20mins, I was feeling the strain of not playing in 7 years and I was huffing and puffing my body as much as I could up the right wing. The odd slip on the mud (which I still say was down to the missing studs) brought much amusement to the rest of the team, and they were asking how I was falling over with no one around me. Not knowing at the time that this would become my trademark of playing for Hedge End.

35mins in… and I was pretty much spent of energy, so I came off and ran the line for rest of the half. We came in at 0-0 and the team sprit in the half time talk just hit me. This wasn’t a team that was going to yell at each other, this was a team that would pick on each other (in a nice way of course) and encourage each other. I came back on for the second half (thanks to rolling subs in this league – trust me, it helps a lot!) and we started well. But two quick goals in less than 2mins apart, one of them I still think was an absolute class goal, all but finished our hope of getting a result in our favour.

I manage to last to the end of the game, which I was proud of. I was very tired, hamstrings were sore, but glad I played. The team all had a smile on its face and was praising each other for the effort they had put in. Typical, as I was to find out of the Hedge End team, the result wasn’t the be-all and end-all of the match. It was how we played and for us to enjoy ourselves.

I thought this would be the end of my involvement with the team, but I was wrong again. An email from Dave a few days before the next game said they were short of a player again, so I did the 90mile drive to join up with the team for another game. I enjoyed the match again so much that I said I would play for the rest of the season if they would have me. My fitness improved and I have to say that I count myself lucky that I’ve been able to make some really good friends through playing.

With the last two seasons, I’ve only managed to play about half the games in the season as I go to America for the winter to be with fiancée. She comes to watch us when she is in England, and somehow (and even more impressive for an American who thinks football is played with an oval ball) has even learnt the offside rule. Although, she still thinks that our kit is a little on the pink side! As she just corrected me “A lot on the pink side!” …personally I blame Keith for washing it with the red socks!

As the next season looks to be my last, as I hopefully will be moving to America full time to be with my soon to be wife; it does make me sad that I will have to say goodbye to Hedge End. I have a lot of great memories of the team, and the laughs we have reminiscing over past games, things that were said, and the general “classic moments” that always come with Hedge End games.