Hereford historian Ron Parrott looks back at the life of Billy Meadows.
Born Bushey 20th October 1942, died 5th December 2019
Billy was the youngest of seven football mad brothers and sisters, his elder brothers Tony played for Spurs and John played with distinction for Watford. As a youngster, Billy was an avid Arsenal fan and played for Harrow Schools and at County & District level, when he was spotted by Arsenal assistant-manager Ron Greenwood, who signed him at the age of 15. Billy was at Highbury for five years trying hard to make the grade at left-half. In his second season, he became a free-scoring forward and in December 1959, he smashed eight goals past Southend United in a South East Counties League game - the most goals ever scored by an Arsenal player at any level. Sadly for Billy, Southend withdrew from the league later in the season and all their results were expunged. In 1960/61, too old for the youth team, he was sent out on loan to Ramsgate Athletic in the Southern League and in the summer of 1961 he was released by Arsenal and joined another Southern League side, Yiewsley. Things didn't work out and Billy became disillusioned with football after effectively being rejected by his boyhood team, partly due to his youthful arrogance, so he took a break for a couple of seasons. He was then asked to join Hastings United and he fought his way back to fitness over several seasons before moving to Southern League Barnet in July 1968. He became a prolific goalscorer but was often on the injured list due to his rumbustious and no-nonsense style of play. He notched up 37 goals in the 1969/70 season and after a dispute over wages with Barnet, he was snapped up by Hereford United in July 1970 for £300.
His time at Edgar Street was an exciting one and he starred in the best ever cup run by a non-league side. Harry Redknapp frequently relates the story of Billy's "despicable and outrageous" verbal wind-up of Bobby Moore during the two FA Cup ties with West Ham "Meadows had more front than Sainsbury's but Moore took it all in his stride and never lost his cool". Billy only spent two seasons at Edgar Street but became a legend amongst United fans and went on to score a respectable 45 goals in 111 appearances before returning to Barnet for a second spell. However, his spell at Underhill was short this time and he moved to the continent to turn out for FC Ostend in Belgium, before returning to link up with Willesden, just down the road from Barnet. In 1975/76, Billy was appointed as player-manager back at Barnet and he steered them back to the Southern League Premier in 1977/78.He brought his overall tally with Barnet to 94 goals in 192 games, a phenomenal strike rate of almost 50%. Billy hit the newspaper headlines in 1976/77 when he signed the famous Jimmy Greaves, who it is fair to say, was then in the twilight of his career. However, results were not good enough and he was sacked in December 1978. He turned out briefly for Kingsbury Town in the summer of 1979 before deciding that enough was enough and he retired from the game to take up a new career as a cab driver. Billy spent his last days in a care home and passed away peacefully at the age of 77.
Ron apologies to readers that this obituary is a bit late appearing. As many will know he had a spell in hospital recently which resulted in him losing part of his one leg.
"My life has been hectic recently! I’m having to learn a host of new tricks and much of my time is spent attending all sorts of meetings with different people regarding rehab.," Ron told BN.
"Physio is going well although last week, I had my first fall and have a suspected broken rib but hey, who said it was going to be easy?"