Dennis Joseph Thomas Bond, born 17 March 1947, Walthamstow, England.
PART ONE
Walthamstow born Dennis Bond was first spotted by a scout named Harry Yeates who brought him to the attention of Watford manager Ron Burgess. And although Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United subsequently showed an interest, Bond signed apprentice forms with Watford in March 1964. Burgess had left Vicarage Road in May 1963 after taking the Hertfordshire club from the Fourth Division into the upper reaches of the Division Three, and Bill McGarry was the manager when Bond’s chance arrived during the opening weeks of the 1964–65 season. On Saturday, 29 August 1964, the seventeen-year-old midfield prospect played for Watford’s youth team in the morning and believed that his duties for the rest of the day would involve travelling with the senior side and helping to carry or check the kit, but McGarry pulled him aside and told him that he had better make sure his boots were among the equipment because he was playing.
Bond was placed on the right wing against Gillingham at Priestfield Stadium, and Watford suffered a heavy 5–2 defeat, yet the result did not strip the occasion of its importance, because he had crossed into senior football with scarcely enough warning to become nervous. He was young enough to enjoy the afternoon for what it was, and although McGarry left for Ipswich Town in October and Ken Furphy became player-manager the following month, the change did not close the door. Furphy recognised that Bond could become more than a useful winger and began drawing him towards midfield, where his touch, awareness and neat distribution could have a greater influence on Watford’s play.
The transition was made steadily rather than dramatically, because Bond was still learning the strength and pace of Third Division football, but he soon became an important member of a young Watford side in which Keith Eddy was developing alongside him. Furphy wanted football played with purpose from the middle of the pitch, and Bond suited that approach because he did not hold the ball merely to advertise his skill; he looked for a colleague, moved into another position and made himself available again. Watford finished seventh in the 1964–65 campaign and sixth in 1965–66 season, and although neither placing brought promotion, the side was moving closer while Bond’s reputation continued to grow.
The strongest push came in 1966–67, when the Hornets remained among the leading Third Division clubs and ultimately finished third, narrowly missing the two promotion places, but the team was already attracting attention from wealthier sides and keeping it together was becoming difficult. Bond had made 93 appearances and scored 17 goals during his first spell, figures which reflected an attacking contribution greater than the description of tidy passer might suggest, and Tottenham decided that the twenty-year-old was ready for the First Division. In March 1967 they paid £30,000 for him, then a record fee received by Watford, and the transfer carried a special pull because Spurs were the club he had supported from childhood.
White Hart Lane offered everything Bond had imagined when watching Tottenham as a boy, but it also contained a dressing room crowded with experienced international footballers, and breaking into Bill Nicholson’s side was never going to be simple. His debut came on 1 April 1967, only a few weeks after the transfer, when he went on as a substitute for Dave Mackay during a 2–1 First Division victory over Liverpool at White Hart Lane. Replacing Mackay would have been enough to tighten the nerves of a far older player, yet Bond entered a side containing men such as Pat Jennings, Alan Mullery, Terry Venables, Cliff Jones and Jimmy Greaves, and he later remembered surprisingly little of the afternoon because the whole experience passed so quickly.
On 2 December 1967, Bond made his first start in a 1–1 home draw with Newcastle United, and eleven days later he was involved in one of the wildest European nights White Hart Lane had staged. Tottenham had lost the first leg of their European Cup Winners’ Cup tie against Olympique Lyonnais 1–0 in France, and the return on 13 December produced seven goals, fierce argument and football played at a breathless rate, with Spurs winning 4–3 but going out on the away-goals rule after a 4–4 aggregate draw.
Elimination brought obvious disappointment, yet Bond always regarded the match as one of the outstanding memories of his Tottenham years, for he had been trusted on a European night when the ground was alive and the contest kept swinging from one side to the other. His difficulty was not proving that he could play at that level for an evening; it was dislodging established men often enough to remain there. Nicholson’s midfield choices included players of authority and international standing, and Tottenham could also call upon forwards capable of deciding a match without much assistance, so Bond moved between the first team and reserves, learning a great deal but rarely receiving the uninterrupted run that a young footballer needs.
The 1968–69 season brought further isolated appearances without establishing him as a regular, while Tottenham themselves finished sixth in the First Division, and by then it was clear that ability alone would not guarantee Bond a permanent place. His best sequence came in 1969–70, when he appeared twelve times and scored his only senior goal for the Lilywhites, converting a penalty in a 3–2 defeat against Everton at Goodison Park on 14 March 1970. There was no fairy-tale ending attached to the goal because the Toffeemen won the match and were moving towards the league championship, but for Bond it was at least a tangible return from an afternoon against the strongest side in the country.
Across three and a half years Bond played 27 first-team matches in all competitions, 23 of them in the Football League, and scored once, modest totals when placed beside the £30,000 fee yet hardly evidence of wasted time, for he had trained among first-class players, appeared in the top division and represented his boyhood club in Europe. Still, at twenty-three he required more than reserve football and occasional selection, and in October 1970 he left Tottenham for Charlton Athletic, carrying no bitterness towards White Hart Lane and later returning frequently to play for the club’s veterans.
PART TWO
Charlton Athletic were operating in the Second Division under former Republic of Ireland international defender Theo Foley, and The Valley gave Bond the regular football that had been unavailable at Tottenham Hotspur, although his arrival coincided with a difficult period for the club. He was no longer surrounded by internationals in every position, so more responsibility fell upon him to receive possession in congested areas, connect midfield with attack and help a struggling side maintain its shape. Charlton survived the 1970–71 season, but the 1971–72 campaign became harder as poor results pulled them towards the bottom of the Division Two table, and despite Bond making 37 league appearances and scoring once, the Addicks were relegated to the Third Division. Watford went down with them, a coincidence that linked his present club with the one at which his senior football had begun, but Bond stayed at The Valley for the opening half of the following campaign and continued to provide the composed midfield work upon which Foley had relied.
Bond´s Charlton spell eventually produced 75 league appearances and three goals, and even though those numbers showed how firmly he had re-established himself, the London club’s financial and playing difficulties limited what could be achieved. By early 1973 Watford were ready to bring him home, first on loan in February and then permanently during the summer, and Bond returned to Vicarage Road as a far more experienced man than the youngster sold six years earlier.
Bond’s return did not immediately lift Watford out of trouble, because the side lacked consistency and the difficulties ran deeper than one midfielder could correct. Watford finished seventh in the Third Division standings in 1973–74, which offered some encouragement, yet that promise disappeared during 1974–75 as defeats accumulated and the Hornets sank towards relegation. Bond continued to play his controlled, uncomplicated football while positions and personnel changed around him, and there was value in having somebody who could slow a frantic passage, keep possession and choose a sensible pass, but Watford finished 23rd in the table and dropped into the Fourth Division.
It was a grim fall for a club that had narrowly missed promotion to the Second Division while Bond was there eight years earlier, and Vicarage Road could be an unforgiving place when confidence ebbed, although he remained one of the senior figures willing to take the ball when hiding would have been easier. The situation did not improve quickly either, for Watford finished eighth in 1975–76 and then seventeenth in 1976–77, their lowest league placing, while three different managers—Keen, Kirby and Graham Taylor—worked with Bond during his second period at the club.
Despite those poor seasons with Watford, Bond’s contribution should not be reduced to the fact that he happened to be present during the club´s decline, because he continued scoring as well as creating and ultimately supplied 21 goals in 179 league appearances after returning from Charlton. He played in an era when lower-division pitches became heavy and uneven through the winter, when tackles arrived early and late, and when midfielders were given little protection, yet his game remained based on balance, control and selection of pass rather than physical intimidation.
Former colleagues remembered a skilful footballer who seemed to find time in crowded areas, but there was also durability beneath that easy style, for a man does not compile 301 competitive appearances for one club without coping with knocks, managerial changes and repeated demands to adapt. Bond’s second spell also showed his loyalty in practical terms, as he remained after relegation and continued through two disappointing Fourth Division seasons rather than seeking an easier move. By the time Graham Taylor arrived in the summer of 1977, Watford needed a complete change of pace and mood, and Taylor’s methods were built around exceptional fitness, direct attacking, relentless movement and a rapid rebuilding of the squad. Bond had helped carry the club through its poorest period, but he was now thirty and approaching the end of his full-time playing days.
His final Watford appearance came during the opening stage of the 1977–78 season, the campaign in which Taylor’s new side began the climb that would eventually take the club from the Fourth Division to the First, and although Bond did not remain in the team long enough to share fully in that success, his 301st match closed a substantial connection with Vicarage Road. Across his two spells he had made 272 league appearances and scored 38 league goals, with cup competitions raising the totals to 301 matches and 42 goals, and the distinction matters because the lower figures sometimes quoted relate only to league football.
He left Watford in 1978 and moved into the non-league game, where the surroundings were less grand but his feel for a pass remained useful, and he represented Dagenham, Highfield Sports, Boreham Wood, Waltham Abbey and Potters Bar Town. Bond did not treat non-league football as a brief farewell appearance, for he continued playing well beyond the age at which most former professionals had stopped and finally put away his boots at fifty-five. That long continuation said plenty about the uncomplicated place football occupied in his life: he had played before large crowds in the First Division and in Europe, but he was equally willing to turn out at a modest ground because the match itself still mattered to him.