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Interview With Ricky George

By Phil Snow

When I was a lad, way back in the late sixties, I started going to Underhill to watch Barnet FC.

The team around then and into the early seventies was one of the best Non-League teams in the country and contained some excellent footballers. Jack McClelland, Gerry Ward, Ben Embery, Billy Meadows, Les Eason and Colin 'Paddy' Powell among others, are all names that conjure up great times.

But one name missing from that list is a man who grew up, lived in and played for Barnet. He went away, came back again, retired from playing, returned in a different hat some years later (at a very turbulent time) and also had a famous horse. He was also a boyhood hero of mine and goes by the name of Ricky George.

I was lucky enough to bump into him a while ago and he agreed to an interview. It actually turned into a couple of hours of Ricky reminiscing, along with his brother Mike and nephew Nick.

Here's an abridged version of that meeting...

Early Days

Ricky's elder brother Mike was part of the Barnet set up in the late 50's. He was introduced to Barnet FC and the cricket club through a master at Elizabeth Allen School named Jack Symms. He also had been responsible for the D'Arcy brothers coming to Underhill.

Ricky, who went to East Barnet Grammar School, says it was Mike that taught him how to play football, and they both have fond memories of watching Barnet from the terraces when they were children. The players of the fifties were as big a heroes to the young George's as the Tottenham players (their other team) were.

Ricky:
It was a much more community club then, probably half the side that played at Wembley in the Amateur Cup Final were from Barnet and they were very good players.

Mike was at Barnet before me. When I left school at 15 I went to Tottenham and became a professional, after a two year apprenticeship. I went from Tottenham to Watford and then Bournemouth.

When Barnet joined the Southern League I was probably at Oxford but then went to Hastings in about 1965 and played against Barnet. Dexter Adams was the Manager then and players like Les Eason, Roger Figg and Tony Turley were there. Gerry Ward had also just joined, but Billy Meadows and I were at Hastings.

Phil:
You've been at few clubs with him then?

Ricky:
Yeah, I've played in more games with Billy than any other player. Three clubs.

Barnet beat us at Hastings, they were a good side and at the end of the season Hastings had a clear-out. Billy and I were lucky enough to join Barnet; at the same time Paddy Powell came from Stevenage and Ben Embery from Exeter. When Dexter signed Gordon Ferry he said to us "I can't believe I've got Gordon Ferry here".

He was a really really good player. He'd been released from Arsenal, then went to Orient and then to America.

This was the makings of a really great side.

Phil:
How do you rate Dexter Adams as a Manager?

Ricky:
Best Manager by far, head and shoulders above everyone else. I played at Tottenham with Bill Nicholson, and others, but Dexter was so far ahead. People will say "that's because he likes you" because he signed me and kept me, but he had something about him that made the players respect him. He'd explain things to you clearly and in a serious manner, never shouted, slam doors or throw cups around and never used bad language. He was a straight, honest guy.

I always tell this story: when I first signed for Barnet, I suppose I wasn't terribly dedicated. That was proved by the fact that I'd been at so many clubs by the age of 22. So when Dexter signed me he said:

"Life's very short, if you want to do this, knuckle down, work hard and you can do it."

I'd just got married in '68 and he used to phone me up on Friday night at about 9 o'clock, and say:

"How do you feel?"

"I feel fine Dexter"

"Now this fellow tomorrow at right back, He's slow, do him on the outside, with your pace, knock it past him get to the by-line and get the cross in. How do you feel?"

"Fine Dexter"

"Okay good luck, good night, see you in the morning".

I'd say to Pat (my wife): "I can't wait to get out there. I feel great".

After a while she said "Don't you realise he's only phoning to see if you're in!"

He knew all the players and knew what made them tick.

Phil:
It was a very close team then?

Ricky:
Yeah, those guys, despite what happened at Hereford, that team - 68, 69, 70 - that was the best side I ever played in.

Phil:
The Newport County game when you scored the hat-trick and we won 6-1 in 1970, that's one of my earliest memories.

Ricky:
Yeah, they were a league side and I think we contributed to them going out of the league. It was the first round of the FA Cup and the Manager was Bobby Ferguson. Paddy Powell was playing outside right. I might have got three, but Paddy used to destroy full-backs. Poor old Bobby Ferguson got sacked after that game and believe it or not Ronnie Radford was playing for Newport that day.

When I first met up with him at Hereford he said: "You... you bugger, scored a hat-trick against us".

Hereford 2-1 Newcastle

Ricky:
Billy went to Hereford first in amazing circumstances. He asked for a rise after scoring 78 goals in two seasons and they wouldn't give it to him. Hereford had been in touch with him and he left, much to everyone's dismay.

During the November of that season he phoned me up and said they wanted me to sign. I said there's no way I'm leaving Barnet, I've been waiting to play for them all my life. So nothing happened.

In the January of '71 I had a really bad ankle injury against Poole at Underhill. Tommy Coleman (Manager) phoned me up and said Hereford wanted to sign me and they'd offered a fee and we're prepared to let you go.

I was a bit sensitive in those days and was really disappointed that they were prepared to let me go. So I went. They'd offered a fee, not a lot; I never found how much, they didn't tell you.

The first couple of months there I played terrible. John Charles the manager, a super guy who had done so much in his life, stuck by me and I stayed at Hereford. But in October he was sacked and replaced by Colin Addison.

In the second round of the FA Cup we played Northampton and it went to three games. We beat them after extra-time and by then we knew the winners would play Newcastle away, so our victory was amazing. The fans were fantastic.

The first game up there was postponed due to a water-logged pitch and it was played on the Wednesday night. There were 39,000 fans crammed into three sides of the ground because of refurbishment and we went 1-0 up after17 seconds. After 10 minutes Newcastle had scored two. Everyone thought the floodgates would open, but Colin Addison the player-manager equalised just before half-time.

I was a sub that day and with 20 minutes to go I came on and the one good thing I did that day was get past a player and cross to the near post. Billy Meadows came in with a diving header which looked like we'd scored but it was tipped around the post. Great save. I've often thought that if that had gone in I wouldn't have had the glory from the replay! It would have been Bill who got the glory! He probably deserved it more than me!

The third round replay was postponed so many times it was finally played on the day of the fourth round.

Phil:
You scored the winning goal in that, but they always play Ronnie Radford's goal. It was a great goal, but do you think you should get more credit?

Ricky:
It's a funny thing to be honest with you. I still feel I was lucky just to have been there. They'll always play Ronnie's goal, simply because how spectacular it was. It'll go down in history as one of the great goals of all time. We were only two minutes from defeat and he pulled that one out of the bag.

The funny thing is people think Hereford beat Newcastle 1-0 with a goal from Ronnie Radford. I've had so many occasions when people say to me:

"I know your name",

I say: "It may be Hereford - Newcastle".

They go: "That's it, big cup upset. Fantastic goal wasn't it?"

I say: "Not mine."

They go: "Who got the fantastic goal?"

"Ronnie Radford."

"What did you do then?"

"I actually got the winner!"

Phil:
I've heard John Motson drove down with you in the morning and you filled him in with all the players and that helped start his career.

Ricky:
I met John at the Barnet Press in the summer of '64 through Roger Jones. Motty was covering the Finchley games then and it was the only time in our lives when I was marginally more famous than him!

We were friends then in the sixties and we'd meet at various social things, especially EBOG dos. John covered the away Newcastle game for Radio. He then phoned me up very excitedly a week later and said he was doing the replay for BBC TV.

The game was only going to be at the bottom of the programme, but because we produced the greatest shock of all time it was at the top of the programme and they showed twenty minutes. I guess people would say that made his career - it definitely put him on the map.

We're still very, very good friends and the great thing about him is that he remembers where he started.

We lost to West Ham in the next round: 42,000 at Upton Park. I look back on that day and have to pinch myself. I started that day because Roger Griffiths was injured. It was a replay on the Monday afternoon during the three-day week, the atmosphere was great, and 10,000 were locked outside.

I missed an open goal which would have put us 1-0 up.

In the Bar afterwards my wife came in and someone asked her what she would like to drink.

"Champagne" was her reply.

They laughed and explained that traditionally it was beer for the men and grapefruit juice for the women.

Geoff Hurst wrote about it in his column for the Evening Standard the next day. He said "I've got to admit that Hereford team had some style!"

Phil:
This was roughly the same time that Barnet were in the FA Trophy final at Wembley. Would you rather have played in that?

Ricky:
I think if I was to have the choice I'd sooner have played at Wembley for Barnet.

Phil:
I think we would have won if you and Billy Meadows were in the team.

Ricky:
(Laughs) Certainly if Billy was there. Every player's ambition was to play at Wembley. It wasn't until the Trophy came in that players like us had the chance.

Jack McClelland took me to Wembley the day before and I did a tour with him, just him and I.

Everyone who played for the club fell in love with it. Jack, bless him, loved it. He was the happiest at Barnet that he'd ever been, including Arsenal and Fulham. He loved the camaraderie.

I remember when he first became ill. There was a spell at Barnet when Brian Kelly was Manager and he loaned me to Wimbledon until the end of the season. Alan Batsford was at Wimbledon and they had a backlog of fixtures. I came back to Underhill to play against Barnet on a Tuesday night and it was the only time I ever played against them there.

I'd played at Hereford and Hastings against Barnet, but never at Underhill. The fans were quite encouraging and I thought to myself 'Why am I doing this? I shouldn't be playing against Barnet'.

After the game I went down the tunnel and was about to turn right into the visitors' dressing room when Stevie Tom got hold of me and he went:

"Get in here, you don't belong in there. I want to talk to you"

I sat down amongst all my old mates and Stevie said:

"I've got something very serious to tell you, Jack's very ill".

That was the first time I heard how ill Jack was. Tragic.

Phil:
Did you play for anyone else after Barnet?

Ricky:
No, not really. I kept going and coming back.

In 1976 I'd already started my business buying and selling sportswear, travelling all over the world. I'd worked for Adidas for a couple of years whilst at Hereford. That's what I concentrated on while the kids were growing up.

My eldest son Adam played for Barnet Youth. There were 21 teams aged from under 9's to under 18's.We had a great time while he was there for 10 years.

They made me President in 1992 and we tried to link with Barnet FC, but Stan (Flashman) didn't want to know.

I said it's not going to cost you any money, we were self sufficient. It could have been an unofficial academy.

Back at Barnet

Phil:
It was just after that when you got involved with Barnet again.

Ricky:
It was my involvement with Barnet Youth that got me back into it again. What happened was that I went down at the end of the season with Neil Berry when we got promoted to the Second Division. At half time I saw John Skinner, who'd been the treasurer when I was playing. Stan and Barry had left and Eddie Stein was in charge, with a new board.

I've written about the saga of my involvement in a book called One Goal, One Horse. It tells my side of it, it was such an awful time. I'm not sure people want to be reminded of it.

Phil:
The club was in turmoil.

Ricky:
Yeah. I appointed Gary Phillips as Manager, I had all kind of opponents at the time and it taught me a lot of lessons. But in essence anyone who got involved was trying to make sure the club survived. There was a danger we'd do an Aldershot and go back five leagues to Diadora 3, but that never happened. But what happened is really academic now. I crossed swords with people I never thought I would like Derek Scott and Steve Percy for a while.

Phil:
I saw him the other day and mentioned this interview. I asked him if there was any animosity and he said no, it's all water under the bridge.

Ricky:
I have a great deal of respect for him because of his commitment, but we had words at the time. But at the end of the day I'd always shake hands with him. We were both seeking the same result, and the club's still there.

One Goal, One Horse

Ricky:
Since that time as far as football's concerned nothing much happened for me.

In 1992 I took a share in a horse. It was called Earth Summit and won the Grand National in 1998.

I was with a really old mate of mine, Keith Dodd, in Barnet one night after a drink and a Chinese, and he said to me:

"All I ever hear about you is that goal and that horse of yours."

I replied: "Well that sums up my life: One Goal, One Horse".

He said: "There we are, you've got the title for your book now"

So I knuckled down and wrote the book and it was published in 2001 and was reviewed by the Daily Telegraph. The deputy sports editor Keith Perry, who's a Barnet supporter, offered me a column in the paper. It's on the non-league and takes me all over the country.

I've done two pieces on Barnet. One about Peter Shreeves when he first came and the other about Grazioli who's a smashing kid, a really nice boy and he loves playing for Barnet.

Conclusion

That's about it. The tape finished after an hour and a half and we went our separate ways. I found Ricky and his family to be great company and I'm sure there were more stories to come.

Left to Right: Nephew Mick, Ricky and brother Mike

The book One Goal, One Horse can be ordered from Ottakers Bookshop in The Spires Shopping Centre in Barnet and costs £9.99. It's a good read for all Barnet fans.

ISBN 9-900796-44-9
Pen Press Publishers LTD