Nigel Strofton, who turns 80 on 22 January 2022, began his hockey-playing career for St Albans HC when he was 17 years old, and he’s never retired. In September 1959 he attended ‘Trials Day’ at the club because, although he played rugby at school, he didn’t have the means to travel to a local rugby club - and rugby’s loss was our hockey club’s gain.

Nigel - born in 1942 in King Harry Lane - played in his first match the week before Christmas 1959, on the grass pitch against Hampstead HC. At that time there were three men’s teams at St Albans, increasing to four in the holidays when the university students and boarding school boys returned home to the city. His father and older brother Roger also played at the club. Nigel remembers his father, a shopkeeper and wine merchant, helping out his team during the Second World War (he had petrol coupons) by taking them to the matches in the back of his van - although he always had to be back in St Albans by 6pm to open up the shop in the evening.

In 1967 Nigel was appointed captain of the 1st XI, a position he held until 1971, and again in 1975 - 6 when the team entered the newly-formed London League - the first organised hockey league in the country. He led the club’s transition in 1989 from grass to astro-turf at the Clarence Park grounds and was President of the club from 1996 - 2005. He was a key figure in the hockey club’s relations with its neighbour, St Albans Cricket Club and their joint use of the pavilion at Clarence Park. Nigel says, “The Cricket Club wouldn’t let hockey players use the bar, so we went over the road to the Crown, who had to apply for a special license to open at 5pm instead of 5.30, as was the law in those days.” Eventually, Nigel smoothed over the teething problems with the Cricket Club and the two clubs agreed a combined usage of the bar and pavilion facilities.

St Albans HC was founded in 1898 as a club for ‘gentlemen’ and joined up with Abbeyside Ladies HC in 1989, moving from Clarence Park to Oaklands in 2013. These days, Nigel plays in the men’s Centurions and 10th team, where he helps out with the development of the younger players - some of whom are more than 65 years younger than him!

One thing you might not know about our club colours - they haven’t always been tangerine and navy. Nigel says, “We used to play in washed-out blue shirts, blue shorts and blue-and-white striped socks. But we found that many other hockey clubs used similar colours, and we wanted to have our own, unique club colour so we never had to play in away kit. At that time (in 1969), no other club in the country played in tangerine, so that decided it. Once, our shirt stockists ran out of shirts at the beginning of the season, so we asked a favour of a friend who sent 12 tangerine shirts of different sizes to us from Dundee United Football Club.”

Nigel takes everything in his stride, including organising extra games for the men’s 9s, 10s, Praetorians and Centurions (“youngsters and old farts” - his words) when the pandemic caused the hockey leagues to be cancelled; and a tour to Toronto he organised in 1975 after a chat in a bar with a Canadian hockey player. He’s happy in theory to use WhatsApp and Pitchero, but remembers a simpler time: “We used to meet up in the King William IV pub on Monday evenings, select the teams and send out postcards that evening which instructed everyone where and when their game would be the following Saturday.”

Nigel was a full back for most of his playing career, variously described by colleagues in the 1st XI of the 1970s as “reliable” and “wielding a laser pass at the 16 yard hit”. He captained by example, never giving up, and was a tough man to pass at the back. Peter Beard, who played with him in the 1st and then 2nd XIs, always referred to him as 'Number One'.

St Albans HC and all of its members would like to thank Nigel for everything he’s done for the club he loves. We wish him a happy 80th birthday and will raise a glass to him in the clubhouse next time we see him.

Here you can find an article in the Herts Advertiser and here you can find an interview Nigel did for Radio Verulam.