Guest Post by Roy Stone
Why am I a Hammer? That’s easy.
November the 16th 1970 I am going to Upton Park for the first time with my dad. I am seven years of age and I am just about to be introduced to the West Ham family, a family that I am still really close to. A family that has been in my life for forty six years.
It was Bobby’s testimonial. He was the greatest player to ever pull on the claret and blue shirt and still the only English man to lift the World Cup. We were playing Celtic and as my dad walked me towards Upton Park my life was about to be changed forever.
I remember the crowds slowly filling the Barking Road pavements from the side streets … Holding my dads hand tightly feeling scared of so many big people around me … I had only known something similar at Petticoat Lane on a Sunday morning but this was different, this was exciting. Somehow i knew this night was going to be special.
As we entered the North Bank my heart was lost to West Ham already and it wasn’t even nowhere near kick off. The smell of the grass hit the nostrils as we made our way towards the front, my Dad setting my little home-made stall up just behind the barrier. He stood behind me holding back the swaying crowds as the Boleyn Ground quickly filled.
To be honest I cant remember much about the game but I know it finished 3 – 3 and apparently it was an exhibition of total football. But that didn’t matter to me. I was lost in a haze of colour, noise and smells. I still get that same buzz as I enter the ground to take up my seat today .
Through West Ham I have experienced all the emotions of being in a marriage … Happiness and sadness and of course loads of pain. West Ham have been the cause of so many many arguments with both family and friends. They have set my Monday morning working mood and I have had one or two good hidings in their name.
My first wife was going to name them as the third party party in our divorce and my second wife calls them my mistress. It’s love. As simple as that.
I have made lifelong friendships because of them and a lifetime of memories, which I never get tired talking about.
I really don’t know if the move to the Olympic Park will change my feelings, but it will be a big test of this particular relationship, I’m sure.
As I take up my seat for the last season at my beloved place of worship the Boleyn Ground, I will remember my first game " Bobby’s Testimonial " with a fondness only reserved for family members and all the subsequent ups and downs that go with any marriage
If you’re not one of us, you will never understand. “Up the Hammers!”