Text at top (next game etc)

Next Game: Rushall At Home In The League On Saturday 30th November At 3.00pm

Monday, February 12, 2018

HUST Chair Tomkins Has Lifetime Association With Hereford




BN recently caught up with Richard Tomkins, chair of HUST, the Hereford United Supporters Association.

Richard has been involved in supporters organisations firstly with Hereford United and more recently with Hereford FC.

In an interview, which BN will cover in two articles, Richard was first how he came to be a supporter.

"I first watched Hereford back in about 1963," said Richard.

"My dad dragged me down through the turnstiles into the old Southern League ground and into the old grandstand made of railway sleepers.

"I would go for one half then I would be picked up or perhaps the second half and be picked up at the end of the match.

"64/65 was a big season, the team won the Southern League first division and won it in some style.

"I remember as a nipper putting the broadsheet Hereford Times onto the floor and looking at the league table for about three hours working out who could do what.

"That gave me the bug. Once you are a Hereford fan then I think you are a Hereford fan for life."

Were your roots in the county?

"I was born in Hereford, brought up in Weobley and Kington.

"Left the county for college and have lived outside the county since.

"But always within driving distance of coming to the match which was always very important.

"My first game was, may be, Worcester City. Dad might have got me into a quieter match!

"One of the first players I remember was Ray Daniel, a centre-half with Welsh caps.

"And then of course we had John Charles and the rest is history!

"There are several seasons that stand out. The 71/72 cup giant killing season. We would have won the Southern Premier Division that year had it not been for the cup interfering with fixtures. But we got elected to the Football League in place of Barrow.

"Then promotion again with Colin Addison, and a few years later promotion with John Sillet.

"Apart from a Welsh Cup win and briefly regaining our League status, the rest is misery until the reforming Hereford FC!

"To see smiles on faces and a younger generation coming through who, at the moment, know nothing but success.

"You need seasons like this because, all being well, they will stay with us."

The best players you've seen over the years at Edgar Street?

"John Charles, Dixie McNeil, and the Irish guy who went to Everton, Kevin Sheedy.

"I've submitted a piece to Talking Bull about Dara O'Shea, not the same position, but a young Irish international with some prospects.

"I think back in the day we thought Sheedy was going to go places, he was snapped up aged 18. 

"Importantly for the now if we can demonstrate to young players that we are a good ground for anybody who has got a career in football.

"Beadle seems to play good football and he gets players sent here to join our team so that's good."

In the mid-nineties, HUISA (Hereford United Independent Supporters Association) was born.

"I came on board relatively early. People like Mike Quarrel and others started HUISA. At the time there was a bit of an impass building. 

"The football club board of the day were not very forthcoming and supporters were not really getting to the heart of the matter.

"They were dark days and we felt a new way forward was needed.

"It was formed about 1995 but the Brighton match I think Mike Quarrell was the first chairman by that time.

"He was chairman for the first season in the Conference and I remember taking over from him at the end of that season.

"I had been a board member for about a year, that first year in the Conference and I took over from him in a dusty car park in Woking where he gave me, it was pre-computer times, a big file of stuff and that was the handover. In time I handed that big file of stuff onto the next person.

"Of course times have changed since then as it's all electronic now.

Whilst Richard was HUISA chairman, manager Graham Turner bought out chairman Peter Hill's stake in the club.

"That kind of stimulated us.

"We had a vote, should we now have a supporter on the board or should we buy shares in the club. That was difficult to do because it was a closed shop really. The vote was in favour of buying shares which we did subsequently. We didn't want a supporter on the board because of what had happened previously."

Why was that?

"HUISA didn't have a member on the board. It was Peter Hill's idea to have an Associate Director, a supporter but that person was not a HUISA nominee. The individual got 'turned' into Hill's spokesman. That was a great shame as the man was a genuine supporter.

"I was one of the very small shareholders in Hereford United, 30 shares, enough to get us into the boardroom.

"I with Mike Quarrell and others stood up in succession at AGM's expressing no confidence in the board of the day. By about the 15th person they got the message.

"I'm also sure I probably upset Turner on more than one occassion!.

"If you are a supporters association of any kind you need to be able to talk to the club and have a working relationship. Doesn't mean to say you should be best pals but you all need to get along because at the end of the day we are all trying to further our club.

"Starting out now everybody, everywhere is a fan and so what we are trying to do now is lay the foundations so that in another twenty years we will not have a fiasco, we will have a good club going forward."

HUST was started towards the end of the David Keyte era.

"The Supporters Trust, I was member number 181. So I didn't start the Supporters Trust by any means."

What made you get involved for in effect a second time around?

"It became obvious with events at the club that things were not going well and the supporters trust was the way forward to try and get some say in our club.

"With great regret I joined the boycott against the final regime. It breaks your heart to do these things but they had made things crystal clear, they had got us relegated two leagues without kicking a ball. We could not have been promoted from the Southern League Premier Division unless we then paid our debts back from the Conference days.

"The writing was on the wall.

"We had to change things. Thankfully there were people working in the background to replace the club if the need arose.

"I didn't go to any home matches. I went to one away match, at Frome Town, when it was clear Hereford United was going to fold. I went to say I saw them.

"But in the background there were new plans. I wasn't involved in those new plans but I heartily endorse what they did.

"Things happened so quickly with the new club and the board of the Supporters Trust, some went across to the new football club board, thereby leaving vacanies on the Supporters Trust and in March 2016 we held some elections to form the new board and I went on board.

"A few people knew me and the board asked me to be chairman."