It's trivial trivia time!
Feel free to print this poop out and read at your leisure.

OFF! – TFFC'S VERY FIRST RED CARD IRISHMAN Tom Flynn became the first Temple Fortune player to be sent off. Flynn, a firey red-haired winger, was one of the Club’s original players who took part during Temple Fortune’s pre-league days. Fortune were playing Leeville Town in an ill-tempered match at Hampstead Heath on 18 April 1971. The game was played with corner flags as posts and has never counted in the Club records. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a referee present and Flynn’s reckless tackle on an opponent late in the game almost led to Leeville walking off in protest. They only continued after Temple Fortune agreed to send off Flynn following a prolonged dispute. Fortune won 8-4 after a further dispute regarding the final score! One month earlier, Leeville had hosted a full 11-a-side match on a proper pitch in South Tottenham. Temple Fortune won 11-4. The first TF player to be sent off in a competitive match was Sam Benfreds during Fortune’s inaugural league season, 1976/77. Benfreds, a temperamental Frenchman, was dismissed twice in that season, the other coming in a friendly refereed by Temple Fortune Co-Founder Michael Rook. OFF! – MOST IN ONE GAME THE MOST players sent off in one game for Temple Fortune is three, in season 1989/90. The Second Team were drawing 1-1 with Scrabble ‘B’ in a Second Division fixture at Bethune Park. Neil Butters and Brad Scheffer had already been sent off for general swearing by Ronny Marlowe, a weak referee who badly over-reacted despite the game being played in a good spirit. The referee then sent off a third Fortune player, Neil Harris, again for swearing. Harris, completely incensed, threatened Marlowe and had to be restrained from approaching him. The referee panicked and abandoned the game. He ran to his car without changing, leaving his flags by the pitchside, and drove off at speed! Because the game had been played without problems, other than the awful ref, the teams agreed to continue with Scrabble manager Adrian Lewis refereeing. The dismissed players came back on and the match finished 2-2! However, the League counted the match as void but awarded the points to Scrabble. At the London FA disciplinary hearing, Neil Harris was suspended for 154 days and fined a massive £120, the highest disciplinary punishment any Temple Fortune player has ever suffered. The Club were also fined £90 in costs, again a record high thankfully never surpassed, and were severely censured. Due to this incident, the Club radically changed its membership policy so that all players joining the Club were required to sign a membership declaration form agreeing to abide by the Conditions of Membership and general Rules and Regulations. OFF! – TWO BROTHERS IN ONE GAME Temple Fortune had two brothers sent off on 11 October 1981 in the same game. Both Stephen and Richard Bourne were dismissed during a heated M(S)FL Premier Division match against Gants Hill. Worse was to follow with six minutes remaining when the referee abandoned the game because the brothers refused to return to the dressing room. The League let the score stand, which was 3-2 to Gants Hill, and awarded them the points. At a subsequent London FA disciplinary hearing, the Bournes were cleared of causing the match to be abandoned due to misconduct, although they collected suspensions and fines for the original sending off offences. The referee was reprimanded for over-reacting and the whole sorry affair made big headlines on the sports pages of the Jewish Chronicle. This match versus Gants Hill was goalkeeper Richard Bourne’s debut for the Club! OFF! – TFFC PLAYERS BY TFFC CHAIRMAN! SIX Temple Fortune players have been sent off by the Club’s Chairman Nigel Kyte. A qualified referee since 1975, Kyte has officiated many Temple Fortune games over the years and claims that, in games against other teams, Fortune have won as many as they have lost, just to prove his impartiality! Steve Feiger was the first to be red-carded during the infamous “wiggling cock” match in December 1985 at Bethune Park. Playing for the First XI against the Seconds, he swore loudly at Second XI players towards the end and was dismissed for foul and abusive language. The Second XI surprisingly won 3-1 to capture the Club’s Founders’ Shield. Several years ago, John Charles for sent off for kicking an Apex player at Bethune Park during an Old Boys match, the first dismissal in a Temple Fortune Old Boys fixture. Charles was suspended for two Old Boys matches for his efforts. Kyte’s third dismissal of a Temple Fortune player came in 1997/98 during the Second Team v Sorsky Accoutants friendly at West Hendon Playing Fields. With ten minutes or so remaining, the argumentative Avi Tvila saw red on two accounts, the first being his hostile temper after being fouled by an opponent. Dismissal number four was Tony Espinoza for deliberate handball in one of the recent Ralph Epstein Memorial Trophy matches at Whitefield Astroturf, the first and so far only dismissal in the REMT series. In the closing minutes, Tony handled high above his head as the last defender to stop Bushey Old Boys from scoring. Why he bothered nobody knows… Temple Fortune were 12-2 up at the time! Nigel's fifth sending off of a Temple Fortune player was a few years ago at West Hendon Playing Fields. Nigel Roth-Witty committed an awful flying tackle on Peter Kyte, of all people, during a Firsts v Seconds "friendly" and was red-carded. Dismissal number 6 was Lloyd Botchin who, as the Old Boys goalkeeper, brought down former TF player Henry Charles of North West Neasden who was through on goal during a Maccabi Masters League match in 2001. HIGHEST SCORES THE HIGHEST win by Temple Fortune is 22-0 against Elstree Eagles ‘B’ in a Cyril Anekstein Cup tie during the 1990/91 season, achieved by the First XI at Bethune Park. Marshside recorded Fortune’s heaviest defeat during an earlier Anekstein Cup match in 1984/85 under extraordinary circumstances. A mass walkout of most of the Club’s First XI squad left Fortune with a weakened team to play the quarter-final tie against the reigning M(S)FL Premier Division champions; the Club were forced to field mainly Second Team players as a result but a defeat of 1-17 was never envisaged despite the gulf between the two quarter-finalists. Temple Fortune's best league win came in 1977, a 16-0 thrashing of Marylebone Dynamo in Division Two, whilst the heaviest league defeat was 14-2 by the 2nd XI against Westway in 1979/80. Incidently, the Second Team’s best win ever was 13-1 versus AFC Scope in 1982/83 – Steve Feiger netted seven – and worst defeat, a 15-1 Minor Cup mauling by Athletico Neasden’s 2nd XI in 1980-81. The 12-1 win against AC Gants Hill in Div.5 a couple of years ago came very close! The most goals scored in one Temple Fortune match is 22 (the cup win against Elstree previously mentioned), followed by 19 in 1973 when Fortune beat Whitefields Grasshoppers by 15-4 in a pre-league friendly at Hendon College. In December 1993, the First XI beat a TF Guest XI by 17-2 at Bethune Park to equal the 19-goal aggregate. There have been two instances of the Club being involved in 7-6 scorelines, which is Temple Fortune’s highest result with a single-goal margin. In 1985-86 the First XI beat Bushey United 7-6 at King George V Playing Fields in Watford to win the Ralph Epstein Memorial Trophy. Two or three seasons ago, the Second Team overcame a 0-4 deficit at one time to beat the First XI by the same score. The Club’s highest draw was 7-7 in an inter-Club match at Hampstead Heath in 1992/93 which bettered the previous high, a 6-6 draw in a friendly at Whitefields Astroturf against Addison Lee in 1991/92. A few seasons ago Temple Fortune drew 5-5 with Pad United in a Division 2 game, the last competitive high-scoring draw. EXPENSIVE MATCHES THE MOST expensive match played by Temple Fortune was the 1987 Ralph Epstein Memorial Trophy encounter against Bushey United. The teams hired Queen’s Park Ranger’s old astroturf pitch at Loftus Road, costing £250. Adding to the expense of printed programmes, the two teams shared a bill of around £300. Fortune charged each player £11 which is the dearest match subscription fee ever collected! The most expensive competitive match was the Peter Morrison Trophy tie against Cardiff Maccabi in Cardiff in November 1990. The Club hired a minibus (costing £60 including insurance) and spent £40 on petrol for the return trip. Each player chipped in £5 which is the highest subs collected for a competitive Fortune match. Another game which proved to be quite expensive was last season’s pre-season friendly against Ebor Eagles which was played at Wembley Town’s ground. The Temple Fortune players paid a tenner each to cover the costs. TFFC EMBLEMS & CLUB BADGES TEMPLE FORTUNE's official emblem was designed in 1983 by Nigel Kyte and was based upon the badge of Sunderland Football Club. An original hand-drawn shield emblem had been used on the cover of Temple Fortune’s official handbook issued in 1973, but it wasn’t until 1987 that the ‘83 shield was modified to its present appearance. The only change between the ‘83 and ‘87 shields was the wording “founded in 1968” which had been typeset rather than hand-written. The logo appeared in mono form until several years ago when a new colour version (as shown on the HOME page of the TFFC website) was produced. In addition to the mono and colour versions, a tinted shield logo also exists. The shield emblem first appeared on TFFC jerseys in 1987, printed in white on the Second Team's maroon/sky shirts sponsored by Kersens. The Club's circular emblem, which incorporates the shield in the centre, was first used for a printed shirt badge in 1989, printed in black on the Ultratown-sponsored yellow/red kit. The circular emblem was revised in reversed form a year later, with an additional panel underneath carrying the Club's name and appeared in red on the Zoo Systems kit. The Salomon Boys shirts, nowadays used as part of a spare kit, depicts the 1989 circular badge, whilst the Kingsleys shirts carry the 1990 reversed version. To commemorate the Club’s 30th year since being formed in 1968, a new diamond logo was designed by Nigel Kyte in 1997 and used extensively on stationery and the newsletter during the 1997/98 season. The yellow, red and navy colours reflect the Club’s adopted colours as worn by the current teams. A line version of the 30 years diamond logo was adapted for printing on the Second Team’s Halton shirts currently in use by the Old Boys Team and previously worn by the Second Team for about three years. REPRESENTATIVE TEAM HONOURS RICHARD BATTEN was the first Temple Fortune player to win representative honours for the Maccabi (Southern) Football League in an inter-league fixture. Batten played during the 1977/78 season, which was only Fortune’s second in the League, and finished leading scorer. The last player from Temple Fortune to play for the M(S)FL representative XI was Jason Bookbinder in 1993/94. Prior to that it was Alan Mattey in 1988-89. In between, eight others won M(S)FL representative honours; namely, in selection order, Len Wyse, Gary Hyams, Steve Feiger, Neil Hart, Farley Conway, Stuart Hyams, Jeremy Fess and David Klahr. Batten, Wyse, G.Hyams, Conway, Mattey and Bookbinder played for the M(S)FL's Senior XI. Feiger, Hart, S.Hyams and Klahr played for the M(S)FL Under 19s, whilst Fess played for a League Divisions 2 & 3 combined team. The twelfth Temple Fortune player to gain Maccabi representative honours was Paul Squires who played for the Maccabi Union Great Britain XI in a Maccabiah Games trial representative game during the 1982/83 season. Sadly, he didn’t make the squad. Nigel Kyte represented a Maccabi Union Great Britain ‘B’ side which toured Israel in 1982. Then a serving officer on the Maccabi Union National Football Committee, Kyte went along as an organising official and refereed one of the games. But in the final tour match of three (all lost), the GB side were so depleted due to injuries that Nigel came on as a substitute for the closing twenty minutes! He’s the only TFFC player to have represented Maccabi GB abroad! LEAGUE FINES TEMPLE FORTUNE has always remained one of the best-run clubs in the League due to its strict “avoid-fines” policy, and in most seasons have kept the M(S)FL fines tally at a reasonable level. The Club’s best season came in 1985/86 when not one single fine was imposed on either league team, covering 45 competitive matches – a superb record which nearly (and ought to have) won Temple Fortune the M(S)FL Team Secretary of the Year award. And that came just a year after both teams had finished bottom of their respective divisions after the 1984 “mass walkout” of First Team players which left the Club in a dire predicament for the rest of that particular season. On a few other occasions, the seasonal M(S)FL fines total has remained in single figures, no mean feat in the least. There have been two or three seasons where the amount has strayed too high for the Club’s liking but thankfully not too often. GIANT-KILLING VICTORIES TEMPLE FORTUNE have produced a few shock giant-killing wins over the years, none greater than the epic Peter Morrison Trophy (Southern Area) semi-final success against high-flying Kenton Maccabi in 1982. Kenton, from the Hendon & District Sunday League (one of the strongest Sunday competitions in London at the time) were odds-on favourites to romp through to the Final. It was like Liverpool playing Lincoln but Temple Fortune defied all the odds to win 2-1. A year previously, Fortune, then in Division One of the M(S)FL, played reigning AJY Senior League champions Clayhall Alandra in a Morrison Trophy tie and won 3-1. In those days, the AJY was considered to be a stronger league than the M(S)FL so the result was big news. Temple Fortune again eliminated Clayhall the very next season in the same competition, this time on penalties, a game which was memorable for a most bizarre incident just before full time. With Clayhall losing 1-0, their goalkeeper, limping badly from injury, hobbled into the Fortune penalty area in a last-gasp attempt to save the match. It was he who headed home a corner to dramatically level the score as the full time whistle blew! However, Clayhall’s joy was short-lived; Temple Fortune won the spot-kick playoff thanks to the superb goalkeeping of Paul Squires. In the early eighties, Fortune also knocked out top M(S)FL side Gants Hill Ivri Maccabi from the prestigious AJY/M(S)FL Invitation Cup which was certainly a shock at the time. In M(S)FL Premier Division football, Temple Fortune's list of big scalps included beating the first teams of Athletico Neasden, Brixton Old Boys, Glenthorne United, Huntsman, Leytonstone Old Boys, Marshside, North West Neasden and West Coast Armadillos, all of whom were well-established and “elite” teams in Maccabi football at the time. FOREIGN PLAYERS THERE have been several non-English players to have pulled on Temple Fortune jerseys over the years. Massoud Karimzadeh, a Persian who was in Nigel Kyte's class at the Jews Free School, was one of the first to play for the Club in the 1970s. Fortune have fielded three French players, namely Sam Benfreds, Laurent Benhendu and Herve Lipack, and several Israelis. Jeremy Solnick, a cousin of the Kyte brothers, was from South Africa, as was Hilton Nathanson in more recent times. Nearer to home, and diversifying from the “foreign” heading, the Club have had four Scottish-born players: Phil Friend, Michael Peters, Alan Ross and Bryan Silver. Friend and Silver are still playing for the Club this season, both running the Second Team which rejoined the M(S)FL after a break of six years. There has been one black player to have played for TF in Maccabi football – Irving Soremeikin, who despite his appearance, was certainly eligible and made his debut during the 1976/77 season! HOME PITCHES THE CLUB’S first home pitch was at the Parliament Hill Playing Fields, where Temple Fortune played for one season only, which was the Club’s inaugural Maccabi (Southern) Football League campaign in 1976/77. After that, Temple Fortune were allocated West Hendon Playing Fields, the Club’s first pitch hire from the London Borough of Barnet. Home matches were staged on the first sloping pitch there – incidently a Grade C pitch which was the lowest rating under the Barnet Council's public parks pitch grading system – for five years. However, the Club were finally allocated a Grade A pitch at Bethune Park, the top parks rating and first played there in September 1982. Fortune’s pitch was located within a fenced-off athletics track and was one of the best in the Borough. Unfortunately, Council cutbacks in subsequent years meant that the pitch no longer received the care first given to it and it gradually worstened. With the cutbacks came the scrapping of the grading system and sadly the Club’s formerly excellent Bethune Park pitch became an inadequately undersized paddyfield. Prior to last season, following sustained complaints to the Council, the Club were offered another home venue, namely Childs Hill Park, which became first choice and was used primarily by the First Team. Childs Hill Park had a new drainage system installed during the previous summer and within a couple of months of Fortune’s debut there, the dressing rooms were refurbished as well. Problems still continued at Bethune Park which was being used by the newly-revived Second XI. Vandalism of the dressing rooms resulted in the Club finally leaving the Friern Barnet-based pitch after 15 years midway through the 1997/98 season. The Old Boys game against a M(S)FL Referees XI in December 1997 (drawn 2-2) was the Club’s final home match at Bethune Park. Temple Fortune were allocated West Hendon Playing Fields for the rest of the 1997/98 season and the Club have continued there for the past 2 seasons, in addition to using Childs Hill Park for the fourth successive season. Unlike the original allocation at West Hendon in 1977, Temple Fortune have use of a large flat pitch which is arguably better at the moment than the First Team’s pitch at Childs Hill. Over the years the Club have utilised Hampstead Heath Extention more than any other as an alternative home venue, mainly on occasions when the first choice location wasn’t available. Source: "The Fortune News" – official newsletter of the Temple Fortune Football Club, season 1998/99. My grateful thanks to my old associate Cecil Fettle for compiling all this information over the years and to the Club for permitting me to reproduce it here.

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