One thing that was
typical of the old Dulwich Hamlet players from yesteryear was a reluctance to
harp on about their colourful careers, especially to their own children.
Several sons of past Hamlet greats have told me that their dads rarely
mentioned their footballing days. One of these is Robin Hill, son of HHC Hill,
the Dulwich goalkeeper of the 1930s. I corresponded with Robin some years ago
when he was considering selling some of his late father’s mementos. “Dad was
very reticent about his career and did not speak much about it, possibly
because I never inherited his skill or ability.” Having said that, Robin had a
very good knowledge of his father’s playing days and was very proud of his
achievements.
Haydn
Hill joined Dulwich on trial in December 1936, just a few months after
competing for Great Britain in the Berlin Olympic Games. The British football
team were knocked out in the 2nd Round by Poland.
Despite
this disappointment on the field, Hill always said that his greatest triumph on
that trip was to have stood on Ribbentrop’s foot at a reception. Joachim Von Ribbentrop
was Hitler’s Foreign Minister and was hanged for his war crimes following the
Nuremburg trials.
Twelve
months before arriving at Dulwich Haydn Hill was playing in the English First
Division, where he made a handful of appearances for Sheffield Wednesday between
April and December 1935. Wednesday won the FA Cup that year and Hill was the
understudy to Jack Brown. Were it not for Brown’s recovery from injury just days
before the final, Hill would have been in the line-up at Wembley.
It
took just three games in the Hamlet Reserves before he secured the goalkeeper’s
position in the first team, making his debut in January 1937. He quickly began
to display all the brilliance which had gained him five Amateur Caps while with
Sheffield University, Sheffield Wednesday, Yorkshire Amateurs and Corinthian.
He soon became a great favourite at Champion Hill.
Hill
added a further three England caps during his spell at Dulwich, including the
England v Scotland international at Champion Hill in March 1937. This match, in
front of his own supporters, took place just weeks before the Hamlet’s fourth
Amateur Cup Final victory, and must have been a very proud moment.
The
programme for the England Scotland game states that Hill was the first Hamlet
player transferred from another Isthmian club – he had played once only for the
Casuals in an emergency.
After
his eighteen games for Dulwich in the second half of the 1936/37 season, Hill
made a further sixty odd appearances for the club in the years leading up to
the war. His honours included winners’ medals in the FA Amateur Cup and the
London Senior Cup. He was then elected by his fellow players to captain the
side for the short-lived 1039/40 season.
Oddly, he kept goal in a solitary appearance for Weymouth FC in September
1937 in a Western League Championship match against Swindon Town Reserves.
Haydn
Hill was also quite adept facing a cricket ball. After the war he was opening
bat for Weymouth Cricket Club – where he eventually rose to the position of President
– and he also made a small number of Minor Counties Championship appearances for
Dorset between 1948 and 1952.
By
the 1960s Hill was assisting Frank O'Farrell, the manager of Weymouth FC, then of
the Southern League, and was joint manager of the club’s Colts side. When
O’Farrell left for Torquay United in 1965 Hill went with him continuing in a training
and scouting role.
Hill’s
day job was as a schoolmaster teaching mathematics at Weymouth Grammar School,
where he finished his career as Senior Master. But it seems he was always ready to
put aside his slide rule and Pythagoras’s Theorem for a match. Robin Hill told
me, “He spent a lot of his spare time involved with teaching schoolkids football
skills, and was, I think, Chairman of the Conference of English Schools FA.
They ran week long coaching courses at Skegness in the Easter holidays. One
name I remember that came through was Liverpool’s Steve Heighway.”
Haydn
Hill passed away on 3 November 1992, having suffered a heart
attack.
Note:
Haydn Hill’s first name is often spelled in a variety of ways, but the correct
way is the same as that of the classical music composer.
Original
article from HH19 Autumn 2007
Copyright © Jack
McInroy
