Tributes have been paid to one of Kent’s greatest football players.
John Ripley was the record goal-scorer with Dartford Football Club during a 12-year career that began when he was just 17.
He wore the number 7 shirt for the club from 1961 till 1967 when he took one season away to play for Tonbridge.
Ripley returned to Dartford the following year and was the club’s player of the year for 1968/69 and stayed on till 1973.
In total, he made 512 appearances for Dartford, scoring 175 goals and securing his place as a club legend.
In July 1973, he joined Hastings United as player/manager and finally moved to Ramsgate for the 1975/76 season.
But John’s talents went far beyond football and he was also a successful businessman, talented singer and entertainer, and a huge Max Miller fan.
Born in Dartford in 1943, during the Second World War, he was one of a family of five children.
His first job was as a car salesman in Gravesend, which gave him the incentive to go into business, initially with a partner, and later as the sole owner of Gravesend Motor Services – providing car body and motor repairs.
He had many regular customers and a reputation for sociability such that some would simply stop by for a cup of tea and chat. He was later joined in the business by his son, Lee.
Always the individualist, John decided he wanted to build his own home. He bought an old property in Chalk Road, Gravesend, knocked it down, and built a new one to his own design.
A fine singer, John’s passion in life was entertaining, and he joined the Dartford Operatic Society, which led to many appearances in musicals and plays at The Orchard Theatre, with his performance as Joe in Showboat, for which he received a standing ovation, being particularly well remembered.
He was also a great Max Miller fan and bore an uncanny resemblance to the “Cheeky Chappie” comedian.
Ripley was a proud member of the Max Miller Appreciation Society and sat as the sculptor’s muse when Peter Webster created a bronze statue of the comedian, which now sits outside the Theatre Royal in Brighton.
John personally entertained audiences with his Max Miller impressions at the London Palladium and the Grosvenor Hotel in London, but he also made many appearances singing and entertaining in care homes for the elderly, and fund-raising for charity.
His daughter Kim Hodder said: “Dad loved being the centre of attention.
“He very much enjoyed his football years, and I remember all the newspaper cuttings being shown and read to me as a little girl.”
Dartford Football Club posted a statemen following his passing. It read: “We are saddened to hear of the passing of one of Dartford’s greatest players.
“His honours included lifting the Kent Senior Cup, the Kent Senior Shield, the Kent Floodlight Cup, the Kent Floodlight League, the Metropolitan League and Cup double.
“Our condolences go out to the whole family from everyone at Dartford Football Club.”
Keith Morris was a friend and a Darts fan who wrote the book Celebration of Dartford F.C. Goal Scorers 1946/2023.
He said: “John’s contribution to the club was vast. It’s such a shame that John left when he was still only 29, I can visualise him gracing the Wembley turf the next year. Who knows if history could have been changed?”
John married Brenda Johnson in 1965 and the couple had two children together, Kim and Lee, though they later divorced in 1995.
Brenda died two years ago.
Their son Lee, who was himself a talented junior footballer with Tottenham Hotspur, died in 2020, taking his own life – something that Kim said her father never recovered from.
John died in Darent Valley Hospital on April 26 after a long illness. He was 81.
He leaves Kim and three grandchildren: his daughter’s children Alfie and Harvey, and his son’s boy, Henry.
