Bring Barnet Back
An afternoon at the Underhill screening
On Sunday afternoon I was one of the privileged few to attend the Underhill Screening at the Everyman cinema in Barnet. I hadn’t previously seen it, so I was very keen to take it in and of course the now much wider context of the Bring Barnet Back campaign.
Like quite a few others I know I hadn’t been back anywhere close to the old ground since we left for The Hive back in 2013. I had no reason to living so far away, there has been the odd time over the years I felt I should but not enough of a lure to do so.
However, having arrived early I had the chance. I went nostalgic on the way up, the train and the tube to High Barnet and the walk down the hill, all the same memories that started back in 1993 for me.
Past what used to be The Red Lion, a pub that died following the club’s move out of the borough, down the alleyway to a full blown school where a football club used to stand.
My first thought as I stood for a few minutes was ‘those residents who moaned at the football traffic no more than twice a week and rejected a new stadium now have traffic twice a day five days a week’, be careful what you wish for!
I didn’t need longer than that it was enough, and off to the pub for a pint with Ian Elliott. Familiar faces walked past, and onto the cinema for 2.45pm. Once there and upstairs into the bar area was a sea of people that looked like a Saturday afternoon matchday.
Handshakes, greetings, but best of all a lot of old faces I hadn’t seen for a great number of years, a reminder of that past Underhill had captured and seemingly wasn’t broken but only by residence in Harrow.
But, it wasn’t just that. People I’d previously only corresponded with on Twitter or other social media channels became an introduction, Peter Shaw and a chap named Daniel who I recognised from his Twitter account, Adam Blenford seeked me out to talk, I probably could’ve have held council all afternoon but this wasn’t about me, networking is all part of being able to do what I do.
So, to the main event. The screening was everything stored away in your mind. That very first time I went to Underhill, the first person I ever spoke to turned out to be John Cosgrove, selling the fanzine ‘Two Together’, and someone who became a great friend over the years and still is. Reckless another character inside the film is also within that circle and like a few of you gives me the critical feedback that allows for improvement.
Steve Percy. Many I know will think he’s just a ranter and a raver. Despite going all these years which now total 31 for me I think it is (I’m six months in front of the more esteemed TK) I got to know him much more recently, the last four years appearing at grounds in Sussex I’d least expect.
John ‘Village’ Adkins. If I remember correctly I first met Village in ’93, those dark days just after the point where my Barnet supporting career could have been limited to just two games. Instead it wasn’t and here we are today.
Many more of you have become friends in that 30 years, plenty more of you I know and it’s all something you can’t ever re-create in a Premier League club. Sure you have your close circle but extending that is near on impossible.
Introduced by the excellent orator Tom Watt (those of Capital Gold days will remember Tom’s phone in after the action describing the Bees as ‘the true giants of North London football’) the three Conference winners in Paul Fairclough, Barry Fry and Martin Allen.
While the three appear on a board at the side of the Legends Stand, they are in the minds of Barnet fans just that. Barry was just before the beginning of my time but I knew all about the previous, Paul and Martin producing championship winning teams I saw a lot of.
All three however have an intimate knowledge of Underhill. The Hive as a facility is excellent, it can’t be faulted, but it can be when classed as ‘home’. Their memories are your memories, my memories and there is room for more memories at a new Underhill as close as it can get to the original site.
The new Labour MP Dan Tomlinson spoke well, I reserve my judgement on how well to see how things progress. In my own opinion I am more confident than under Tory control but we wait to see.
I didn’t take a walk through the High Street but I have heard like most around me it’s in decline. I’m not going to say the return of the football club invigorates the town shops 100% but it would generate a lot of money through extra people coming for the football across the year. I believe it’s hugely underestimated how much a football club contributes to its local area, not just in terms of revenue but it’s presence to bring people together, young and old and those who want to be a part of their club.
Bring Barnet Back hasn’t just sprung up overnight, a four year thought out process by Tony Kleanthous ready to return the club to the borough once again and a thriving future.
I’ll end by taking you back to those first few paragraphs, we want our future to be the ones meeting friends and encouraging family to go to a game, the black and amber to be freely seen in Barnet and the club to have identity within the Borough of Barnet, bring it home!
PS It’s mentioned below the pic but what a great capture from one of my friends Duncan Young, I had to ask for its use!
Thanks for the mention!