“I don’t want to be the older guy in the corner being in the way,” says Josh Smith, Richmond’s one-club player who finally tasted Premier Division hockey this season after 20 remarkable years of trying.
It was when Richmond and Hounslow merged in 2004 — 30 years after Richmond first entered the London League in 1974 — that Smith made his debut. Two decades and over 300 matches on, the 40-year-old ran on against Surbiton for their first home game in September.
It followed relegations and toil, with 2009 marking the club’s resurgence when Smith and Richmond mustered six league trophies from Hampshire/Surrey Regional 1 to the top flight.
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