Forever West Ham raises a Christmas drink to a legend

It’s Christmas time so, for now at least, no more doom and gloom. I can’t take any more. You don’t want to hear any more. Hammers fans are built to take punishment. It’s a defence mechanism that has evolved over the years, almost passed from generation to generation, but after months of negativity, both on and off the pitch, it’s time to turn back the clock and return to the ‘swinging sixties’. 1967 to be precise, the era of The Beatles, Kings Road fashion, Mary Quant, Jimi Hendrix, The Small Faces. And more importantly than any of that, the start of a love affair between William Arthur Bonds, aged 21, and West Ham United.

Lets get the mind-blowing statistics out of the way first. For those of us old enough to have seen Billy Bonds in action, the guy is almost beyond legendary status. For the younger Hammers reading this, just digest the following details, compare them with the average player of the current era, and then you may realise just what this man means to us.

Billy played from 1967 to 1988; 21 years of solid, dependable, honest sweat and tears service. He spent a total of 27 years with the club as player, coach and manager. He played 793 first team games, most as skipper and scored 48 goals.

Billy Bonds played his final first team game at the age of 41 years and 226 days. He was outstanding as an overlapping right back in his early days before being moved into the midfield to look after West Ham’s diamond, Trevor Brooking. Five years later and Bonzo was dropped back to centre half. In all three positions the guy was a brilliant performer week in and week out.

And how about this for true consistency, a word that most of today’s players wouldn’t recognise if it bit them on the leg. Billy won the Hammer Of The Year trophy four times, in 1971,74,75 and 87 – that’s is a gap of 16 years between the first award and his last. Truly incredible, and testament to the man’s fitness and commitment.

So, they’re the indisputable facts, now what about the man behind them?

At 6”1” of solid muscle, Bonzo was the ultimate athlete way before six-packs were even thought of. Lean and powerful, with a fair turn of pace, his energy levels would have put the Duracell Bunny to shame.

His early days as an overlapping full back showed just how good he was on the ball, and it was as a converted midfield swashbuckler that I, and many other fans will remember him. Long hair flowing behind him, and full bearded, Billy was our enforcer, our renegade pirate in charge of the good ship Hammer.

Trademark crunching tackles, powerful lung bursting runs, great in possession and never wasteful with his passing, this guy was as good as the all round player could get. No player before or since could come close to committing body and sole to the cause like Billy Bonds. Never a backward step, never a shirked tackle, and never short of a carefully chosen word for the opposition hard men who dared take liberties with his silky-skilled team mates Trevor Brooking and Alan Devonshire. If you were foolish enough to cross Billy, then be prepared for a free flight into row H…or beyond.

So, at this festive time of year, whilst we put up with badge-kissing, high-earning mercenaries floating in and floating out of our beloved club, content to seek the better pay day and the easier life, lets raise a glass to Billy “Bonzo”  Bonds, a real throwback to the days when good old male pride meant that for every single 90 minutes he was out on the pitch, he was going to sweat and toil and put his head in where the bullets were flying and where the mud was thickest.

Perhaps if Billy were to be an integral part of the backroom staff today then we may see a few more kilometres covered on match days, a few more decent shifts put in, and a few more solid ‘over my dead body’ tackles made. Well, it is Christmas and I can dream!