Hatters Worldwide S2-5 Geoff Taylor ( USA)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first series of Hatters Worldwide attracted 3 contributions from USA which is now home for a large and growing number of County supporters.

One of their number has stepped up series 2, and I am sure you will be delighted to read his account of life as a County fan in Houston, Texas!

Read on:-

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  I am Geoff Taylor.

I was born in 1961, in Stepping Hill, and lived in Heaton Chapel, where I went to Broadstone Hall County Primary. Early memories were really about just going to school, and the excitement of my dad taking me to EP for the first time, about 69/70 season. County were in 3^rd Division and played in white with blue chest band.  I remember in particular the first two games I went to, two wins against Luton & Watford, both of whom were in (the old) 1^st Division within a couple of years, and I remember telling people at school that “County were better than both of them, cos I’d seen it!”.

We used to go in the Popular side, right at the front, where my dad sat me on the wall, and we got told off by a steward/policeman and told very gruffly to “get back in t’stand”. The only other things I remember from then, are that Alan Ogley was in goal and Johnny Price was the winger who lit up the crowd. Oh, and not being allowed to have any food in the ground because “it was too dear”….but it always looked so good!

My Dad  worked for Fairey’s in Levenshulme, and they moved him in about 1972 down to Dungeness Nuclear station in Kent, so we moved to Folkestone. But we used to go back to Manchester pretty regularly to visit relatives. I remember one year, going on the bus across from Salford to Stockport and going to a sports shop in Merseyway to spend my Christmas money on the new County kit, which was all white, with royal blue “V” and fold-over collar (would have been about 73/74). I remember being ridiculed by my school mates in Kent, but I wore it. It wasn’t very popular with my mum, because it always looked dirty, and never seemed to get properly clean in the wash.

Cajun Seafood lunch at Galveston

 

Growing up I maintained a remote interest in County, not easy in those pre-internet days, by following results and brief stories in the papers. Once I went on an educational trip to Crewe railway works and spotted that while I was there, County were playing a League Cup game against Sunderland, who were then top of a very early season 1^st Div table. I disappeared at 5.00 ran to the station, got the first train up and paid at turnstiles. Anyway, as I’m sure others will remember we beat them, I think it was 2-1, and (I think) Tommy Sword scored – I know I’d read about him and was very excited to see him play.

After that I left Uni and got a job in Surrey where I lived for 20+ years. Not many County trips & memories over this time, as cash was very limited, though I do remember being at EP to see a FA Cup game against St Albans, which was an easy win. One year I saw them at Portsmouth, and recall I had some mischievous banter with their Steve Claridge.

 I also remember when we were getting promoted one year, I got a ticket for the last game at Luton, thinking it would be confirmed there. I got it wrong, we were already up by then, but it was a great day anyway. Crap ground though!

Meanwhile, I got into working as an engineer in Oil & Gas projects (new rigs, pipelines, refineries etc), and spent more & more time away from home, eventually I took overseas postings and worked in several countries. In 2008 I was back in UK, and when we got to Wembley for play-off v Rochdale, I was able to surprise my dad by grabbing a bunch of tickets and taking a family group up there. Great day – I remember my dad, who was 80 at time, saying tearfully, “I can’t believe I’m watching County at Wembley!”.

A very short time after Wembley, I was approached to go work in Houston. Having become recently single it was a fresh start, so off I went, on a 6-month contract with visa, which got renewed several times, and I grew to like it, plus I found a little niche as a non-running prop in a local rugby team who (without me, haha) had a very lightweight pack. I loved it in Houston, despite the weather being incredibly hot & humid for most of the year, but I found the standard of living, to be good and the cost of many key items (housing, petrol, eating out) to be considerably less than I was used to in SE England. Soon I’d met and married a local lady and got a Green Card, so became resident. Not much UK footy to follow in the early days – you had to pay $10 at pub door to watch premier league games live on Sat morning - it’s so different now, absolutely wall-to-wall games. In my early years I used to go regularly watch the Houston Dynamo, who were then doing pretty well in the MLS. They had Brian Ching who played for USA, and a Scots lad called Graham Moffat, who seemed to run about more than the rest of the midfield put together. Pretty stupid timing for the season though, right thru summer – most home games were around 7.00pm, when it was still typically around 100F/35C and 95% humidity – brutal heat, can’t stop sweating even if you’re just sitting outside in it. Dynamo knew what to expect, but any European players in the visitors always got knackered by HT. I remember NY Red Bulls coming with Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill and they were both standing with hands-on hips – Cahill lasted longer than Henry as I remember.

Also remember LA Galaxy turning up with Steve Gerrard and Robbie Keane and getting turned over. Got a photo of the two of them kicking off for 3rd time in first 20 mins haha.

 

Then, to my surprise, I met a fellow Brit, Rob Barker, who worked for one of the other companies on my project, and I found out he was from Hazel Grove. He’s an active County fan, and though I think our meeting up would have been in the years of the decline, he rekindled my County enthusiasm, and I started being more of an active follower again. I remember us both not understanding the Jimbo dismissal, and being fearful of the future, but gradually we saw things coming together strongly.

We always talked County news after our regular project meetings, and he introduced me to the Saturday commentaries from JK on Strawberry Radio, which we could get online – and were truly excellent!! He got moved back to UK, but we kept in regular touch, usually messaging on matchdays.

                        A less-rotund me from the early days in Houston on Grand Canyon road-trip

I guess most recent County anecdote is the Lg 2 playoffs - the Salford games were available here on ESPN+, so I could see it all. My wife even got interested, bless her! Then when we got to the final, I said to her, rather nervously “Er, you know County are in the final, next week, at Wembley? Well, my friend Rob got me a ticket”. She replied, “Oh well, you better be going then”. Result!!!

Anyway, it was not the best of trips – it was first weekend of US schools summer holidays, so flight was crammed with loads of noisy kids, and prices were very high. When we landed at LHR, the e-gates were down and there were thousands queuing for immigration in tight spaces.

I got thru eventually, and had a great day at the game, albeit losing on penalties was utter agony. Started coughing on way back and found out I’d caught Covid (prob in arrivals queues), it hit me pretty hard, and Doc’s told me it might be a new variant from Europe, so I had to isolate, even from family, for 10 days. Ugh!

 

 

Play-off final at Wembley, with my great pal Rob Barker. Great seats he got us!

So, enough boring bits about me, let me do a word or two about life in Houston. We live about 20 miles due West of Downtown Houston, along I-10, the main highway/motorway to San Antonio. We live in a nice leafy development, which we chose mainly for the school catchment area as we have a daughter, now 11. Like most, our neighborhood has a very well-kept common area with a huge pool, playground and tennis. Also, everyone here pays for a 24hr dedicated and armed security patrol, who tour the streets all day and night, keeping us very much crime free – a novelty compared to some other parts of town! We have a very local pub, ½ mile from my house, which, appropriately is British-themed. “Dr Watson’s House of Ales”, part of a local chain of British themed pubs known as the Sherlock’s Group. We (or at least I) go 2 or 3 times a week. In the days of glory at the end of this season, I took to wearing my County shirt up there on Saturday’s. We have quite a few locals become interested in County stories, albeit largely because they’ve seen the Wrexham shows on TV but are delighted that someone is beating them at their own game.

 I have toyed with the idea of asking Watson’s to let me call it the Stockport County Supporters’ Base, but as I know of no other fans in area, it would be a little transparent.

 

                                             Goodness me, how this shirt has shrunk over the years!

So, in general terms, Houston is a pretty massive city, about 50 miles across. Traffic can be bad in rush hours but is very manageable rest of the time. Shopping, food, recreation all great, and it’s nowhere near as expensive as New York or California. However, you do have to fit in with the locals, and Texans are pretty firm-minded. One invaluable lesson is not trying to convince the locals that you know more than them about…well, anything really! Just “go along with it” is good guidance – which I did learn after some negative experiences, haha!.

For tourists, Houston has the Space Center where NASA missions are controlled from, and the battle site where General Sam Houston defeated the Mexicans to establish the original Republic of Texas. Not too far away is the Alamo at San Antonio, and going east, New Orleans. Plenty of nice country and small towns with historic sites for doing road trips.

 

We did road trip through Arkansas last year and even found a town named after me.  

 

I’ve been here in Houston 16 years now, have become a US citizen and intend to stay here. I do miss certain things – notably foodstuffs: proper bacon, proper pies, black pudding, and real ale. Alternatives exist to all of these as local products or in import shops but they’re just not of same quality. One real plus of late, is that a Scots guy opened a proper UK-like fish’n’chip shop, called The Chipper in nearby Katy, serving cod & haddock. I can get Bachelors’ mushy Peas in a place called British Choice which imports lots of craving-type foods for us, and the whole family loves it – see below!!

        Proper fish & chips from The Chipper, in Katy next to Houston

 

I must mention how much I appreciate Marionsboard as a way to learn about what is going on at the club. I’m not a poster, I just scroll thru, but to those of you who do post – a big big thank you. It’s very useful to those of us who are away from the action. I also love Hedgey’s reports (got to say that in here, I guess!!), the Youtube clips of highlights with JK commentary, and of course the DC interviews we get on there. Work & family prevent me from watching all games, (they’re on at 9am on Saturday here), but I can keep up with things and indeed, these days, look for updates most every day.

So, in closing, I’m not sure I’ll be the most dedicated of County fans to feature in this series, as my fanaticism seems to have waxed and waned a little over the years. However, I have been happy to write a few lines, and would welcome hearing from any other nearby County fans or anyone passing thru.

 

Geoff Taylor

Houston, Texas.

 

Massive thanks to Geoff on behalf of County supporters everywhere for this superb account of his life across the pond!

If you have enjoyed Geoff`s story, and you are a County supporter living outside, or at a far flung outpost somewhere in, the UK, tell County`s worldwide fan base about it!

Write as much or as little as you feel OK writing, and email it to hedgegrower@gmail.com along with a few photos -thank you!