http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/localnews/4668552._Wonderful_bloke__fondly_remembered/
My memories of Terry Challis’ work go back almost as far as my memories of Watford FC itself. Even as an 8 year old it didn’t take me long to realise that part of being a Hornet involved browsing the back pages of the Watford Observer on a Friday.
It would be a while before I truly appreciated the brilliance of Ollie Phillips. At that age the amount of text was rather off putting. So the bit that caught my eye was the cartoon, always in the corner of the page which gave me a review of the previous Saturdays action in words and pictures I understood.
Again, it would be a while before I fully got the wit and wisdom of what I was reading but, even at that age, I could appreciate the brilliance of Terry as a cartoonist. The pictures were funny in themselves, they bore a real resemblance to the feelings on the terraces and I particularly liked the way Terry always highlighted the most noteworthy player or person of that week in the final frame.
I especially remember the ongoing theme in the run up to the 1984 Cup Final of people searching for old ticket stubs in ever more unlikely places in the hope of being able to secure their place of watching the ‘Orns at Wembley.
As the years passed I never did alter my routine of searching out Terry’s cartoon first before reading the rest of the paper. He’d always make me smile even in the wake of a heavy defeat and I look forward to him doing so again on Friday when the WO publish some of his cartoons as a tribute.
In their own way Terry’s drawings were a part of what made Watford FC and the Watford Observer what they are to me today. He and his work will be much missed.
