Billy Bonds

William Arthur "Billy" Bonds MBE (born 17 September 1946) is a former professional footballer and manager, who is most often associated with West Ham United with whom he spent 27 years as player and manager. He played 793 first-team games for West Ham in a career spanning 21 seasons.

Background

Born in Woolwich, south-east London, Bonds grew up in nearby Eltham, where he played for a Sunday boys' team, Moatbridge, and Kent Schoolboys and joined the groundstaff at Charlton Athletic after leaving school at 15. He played in the youth and A team and occasionally in the reserves before joining the playing staff shortly before his 18th birthday in September 1964.

Playing career

Club career

West Ham

Coordinates: 51°32′05″N 0°00′28″E / 51.5347°N 0.00769°E / 51.5347; 0.00769

West Ham is in the London Borough of Newham in London, England. In the west it is a post-industrial neighbourhood abutting the site of the London Olympic Park and in the east it is mostly residential, consisting of Victorian terraced housing interspersed with higher density post-war social housing. The area has been one of the most deprived in the country and as part of the New Deal for Communities programme it forms, with neighbouring Plaistow, a regeneration area. The place lends its name to West Ham United F.C. and West Ham Church School.

History

Toponomy

A settlement in the area named Ham is first recorded as Hamme in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 958 and then in the 1086 Domesday Book as Hame. The earliest recorded use of West Ham, as distinct from East Ham, is in 1186 as Westhamma. It is formed from Old English 'hamm' and means 'a dry area of land between rivers or marshland', referring to the location of the settlement within boundaries formed by the rivers Lea, Thames and Roding and their marshes.

West Ham United F.C.

West Ham United Football Club, commonly known as West Ham, is a professional football club in Upton Park, East London, England, that competes in the Premier League, England's top tier of football. They have played home games at the Boleyn Ground since 1904.

The club was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United. The club has traditionally played in a claret and blue home strip with white shorts. West Ham competed in the Southern League and Western League before joining the Football League in 1919; they were promoted to the top flight in 1923, when they also played in the first FA Cup Final at Wembley.

In 1940, the team won the inaugural Football League War Cup. The club has won the FA Cup three times, in 1964, 1975 and 1980, and been runners-up twice, in 1923 and 2006. In 1965, they won the European Cup Winners Cup, and in 1999 the Intertoto Cup. They are one of eight clubs never to have fallen below the second tier of English football, spending 58 of 90 league seasons in Division 1, or the Premier League. The club's best final league position was third place in the 1985–86 First Division.

Kitty Kitty Corporation

The Kitty Kitty Corporation is an English defunct record label, which continues to have offshoot activities.

Notable artists

See also

External links

Billy

Billy may refer to:

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