By Niall Gartland

THE life of the trusty scoreboard operator. On paper it’s an unglamorous, even thankless task – and God forbid you dilly-dally or worse yet, make a mistake.

We’re sure it has its charms though, particularly in the big leagues. That’s certainly been the case for Terry Lennon, the man behind the remote on the biggest days in Clones since 1992.

Do the Math and he’s kept the score of over 35 Ulster SFC finals and replays at the spiritual home of Ulster football.

Time waits for no man, though, and he’s decided the time is right to retire – and while he harbours many positive memories from his front-row seat on Ulster final days, Terry cautions that it was much more than just a bit of craic. He had a job to do, after all.

Lennon is a native of the Latton club in Monaghan – and while he was no relation, he spent plenty of time hanging about and going to dances with Michael Lennon, father of former Monaghan captain Eoin and a fine footballer in his own right.

Then, whisper it quietly, a few years across county lines in Cavan town Shercock before setting down roots in Clones. And one thing led to another, including a role supervising young rapscallions on community service, for whom he had plenty of sympathy.

“I started my football career with Latton. think I’ve a couple of medals, but I don’t remember what years they were. I actually played with Shercock as well – I worked in Shercock at the time. From Latton to Shercock is only about seven miles.

“I was doing bar work for ten years at different places and that’s what brought me to Clones. I came to Clones in ’66 to work in the Creighton Hotel, and I stayed there for four years. Then I went on to work in CPV [Containers and Pressure Vessels] and I was there for 23 years.

“After that, I went to work for the Probation and Welfare Service. What I was doing there was supervising young lads — no age limit on it though. Lads who got a bit of community service. Forty hours was the minimum, for being bad boys!

“A lot of the lads, I found, just wanted someone to talk to. They came from broken homes, drink problems and stuff like that. Ninety-nine per cent of them were good lads.

“A lot of those lads were doing community service up in the Gaelic pitch as well. I got a lot of work out of that. I’d have been supervising them up there again.”

Work certainly wasn’t the only shown in town for Lennon. He was a playing member of Clones’ Junior League-winning team of 1973, as well as the team of 1975 that clinched a league and championship double.

Terry later moved into coaching and, alongside the late Eamon Kelly enjoyed great success during a golden era for juvenile and minor football in Clones.

In addition to his work on the field, Terry was heavily involved in many club committees over the years. He served as joint Treasurer of the club from 1992 to 1995.

And yes, all that scoreboard stuff. It’s easy to forget that there’s a man (or woman!) behind the scoreboard and it’s not necessarily the easiest task in the world either. Terry leant early on that club football in particular was more hassle than it’s worth.

“I started doing the scoreboard in 1992. It must have been then. I think they’d put in a new system at that stage. There were two scoreboards, but the way it operated then, it was run with two different remote controls.

“I would have been up there always, doing bits and work, being involved with different things. I was asked would I do the scoreboard at some match, and that’s the way it continued.

“There was never anybody too willing to do it. It happened on a few occasions that different ones would be doing the scoreboard, they’d be watching the match at the same time and forget to put up the score. You had to focus. You had to concentrate on the game.”

He continued: “Umpires were very important to me. They’re the ones I watched all the time. I did two or three club matches, very few, maybe a few more, but very few because you’d always have bad umpires.

“You’d have one from the away club and one from the home club, and half the time they wouldn’t put up the flag, they’d just put up the hand, which is a 45. Sure, Christ, you couldn’t keep head nor tail of it, so I quit club matches altogether and just did the county matches.”

While it was an important task – the eyes of 30,000 spectators gazing back and forth on the scoreboard – Lennon found it rewarding in the main.

“I enjoyed doing it. You got a decent seat at the match, you were treated well, and I concentrated on the game the whole way through. A lot of times you’d have a score that was disallowed, so you’d be careful watching out for that again. I always checked with the referee at half-time if I had any doubt at all, to see if I had the score right.”

Lennon’s vantage point varied over the years – in the early days, he was sat among the supporters, then he was moved between press boxes, and then when a new scoreboard system was implemented last year, he was perched behind the goals. Wherever he was, he maintained a neutral disposition, though that wasn’t always easy.

“There were some great games. The 2013 Ulster final between Monaghan and Donegal was a great game, it had been a long time since we’d won an Ulster final, but you had to concentrate on the scoreboard.

“It was hard not to get excited at times and I’d be disappointed when Monaghan lost. You’d be tempted at times not to put up the score, but you had to do it and that was it. That was your job. You had to stay neutral.

“I would never wear a Monaghan cap or anything like that when doing the scoreboard. Not that anyone would have passed any remarks, but as far as I was concerned, you had to be neutral.”

Lennon says he found it difficult to grapple with the new system, now in its second year of operation. That’s one of the reasons why he’s decided to call it a day, though he’s thoroughly content with his decision.

“The new system has given a lot of trouble. The software has been updated time and time and time again. It gave serious trouble for the last two Ulster finals. They’re tampering around with it all the time.

“For the Ulster final there, I brought my son with me because I’m getting on in years. At one stage, if Monaghan had scored a point and a two-pointer, I couldn’t get it up on the scoreboard with the remote control and I had to wipe the whole thing off again. We got it going again, but it did give serious trouble. At times you couldn’t get the score up, there was a big long delay and all the rest.

“That, to a certain extent, would have encouraged me nearly to say, ‘I can do without this hassle.’”

Lennon plans to take it fairly easy in retirement. Golf and Gaelic Games – that’ll do rightly.

“I’ve made a lot of friends through the GAA. The marvellous thing about the GAA is that you’ve all the supporters mixed together and you get the odd bit of banter, but very seldom anything serious.

“I play a bit of golf and watch a lot of games. It’s a great spell of matches at the moment and it’s brilliant Monaghan are in an All-Ireland quarter-final.”