Trevor

I had a sad start to the week this morning when I found out Trevor Kingham had died after a long illness. My first meeting with Trevor was a salutary one. It was sometime in the early 90s at a Maidenhead United match. We talked about a Reading game I had recently attended and so next time we met he called me "Royal". On both occasions he made me feel really welcome in his presence and, due to him being on the MUFC committee at the time, by extension welcome at Maidenhead United Football club.

These first encounters told me the sort of person Trevor was, a football supporter. This may seem a simple thing to say but in my eyes its a hard test to pass. Firstly Trevor loved watching football anywhere and everywhere. Secondly, and more importantly, he loved watching football in the company of fellow afficianados whatever their allegiance. Finally, and most importantly, he loved doing anything he could to improve the experience of everyone watching the club.

The last point was self evident by the way he threw himself into the cause at York Road when he arrived about twenty years ago. His detailed account of this time can be found in the five issues of the first ever Maidenhead United fanzine, The Shagging Magpies, which he co-produced with Steve Beard and proudly told me made the top 10 fanzines list (albeit in the Sunday Sport!). The story of the day he went to Millwall to claim some unwanted seats from the Den to install in the main stand at York Road gives a flavour of what must have been hundreds of hours that he spent working to improve the ground. In addition he did anything he could to help the club run better from Youth team secretary to chief steward and, for one day only, cameraman (pictured right).
I got to know him properly during the 1994/95 season which began with the first ever visit of Aldershot to York Road. It meant so much to Trevor to see a four figure crowd watching a Maidenhead home game that he disappeared from his daughter's wedding to catch the action before heading back to the reception. Aside from games I also spent plenty of evenings over the next two years with Trevor helping to produce the match programme on the club photocopier. This included his regular column "Terrace Talk" which was always reproduced in a tiny font as he had so much to say in every issue. These evenings provided a great opportunity to hear some of his tales of the terraces particularly watching QPR and England. I can remember one tall story about QPR fans' innovative use of walking sticks in the late 60s which seemed extraordinary until  I read a northern club's fanzine article recounting a visit to Loftus Road about the very same. Another topic was Euro 92 when he was accompanied by a journalist from 4-4-2 magazine and delighted in showing him things from a fans eye view. Then there was the epic saga of his trip to Italy to see England earn the point to qualify for the 1998 World Cup.

Sometimes I came across tales of Trevor quite unexpectedly. For example one Christmas I opened a present in the form of a history of the English game to see a picture of Trevor being escorted off the Loftus Road pitch by a policeman after leading a pitch invasion during a game as part of a successful protest campaign against the farcical plan to merge the Rs with Fulham. Another time I was in a pub in Bloomsbury after a political meeting and got chatting to someone who used to play for Trevor's Sunday team. He was that kind of guy, well known and well loved by all.

Tartan at Barton

Above all though I remember some great days out at the football with Trevor. The pictures on this page give a flavour of these times, a trip to Bognor (top) when we smuggled him and Chairman Logic into Butlins, Trevor sleeping under his QPR blanket, and a mad day at Barton wearing tartan (pictured right) which took the edge off the first and worst of many Magpie defeats at that strange place.
A football match was always the only excuse required to get away from it all which I found out when Trevor picked up on my Preston North End connection to invite me to join him on a trip to see another club who he spent many hours watching and in this case organising supporter coaches for, Plymouth Argyle. Trevor had lived in Devon for a time and thought nothing of driving down for a Friday night fixture at Home Park.
As the century turned Trevor became a less frequent visitor to York Road and eventually moved abroad. He last returned, all the way from Turkey for our 2007 appearance in the FA Cup first round at Horsham. He hung around for the next home game on the following Tuesday, the last time I saw him.
Early this year, on hearing he was seriously ill I sent him a card and was bowled over to get a reply from his daughter Denise. She told me he still wore two Maidenhead United T shirts with pride, speaking with great fondness about the club and I gladly sent him some Magpie posters to decorate his room.
Perhaps its fitting that he survived through the summer until his beloved QPR kicked off in the top flight of English football again. As for Maidenhead United I can think of no bigger tribute than if anyone says the name "Trevor" those of us of a certain vintage automatically think of Mr Kingham: gentleman, loyal supporter, friend.