Is this football's greatest superfan? 1,503 matches in a row and still counting...
Thursday 14 May 2020 13:17, UK
The sudden hiatus imposed on football by the coronavirus outbreak hasn't yet endured quite long enough for QPR's very own 'superfan' Chris Kemp to be suffering withdrawal symptoms.
Right now, it feels like the close season, he says - but before long the R's fanatic will begin feeling the void of a prolonged period without football even more than most.
The 52-year-old civil servant has attended every one of his team's last 1,503 competitive matches - a run which stretches back more than 30 years to a 1-0 defeat against Manchester City at Maine Road in September 1989.
Of more immediate concern is the prospect of football restarting behind-closed-doors with Chris unable to attend, and therefore forced to break his incredible run, even if it won't be the first challenge it has faced.
"Do I legitimately remove those games from my run because they aren't games I can attend, and then resume as soon as football properly starts up again?" asks Chris.
"There have been a few other close shave incidents down the years which threatened the run.
"We had a blowout in the fast lane of the motorway once, which was an interesting experience. Fortunately, I wasn't the one driving.
"We played Southampton away at The Dell one season. We struggled with traffic and diversions. A friend of mine was driving slightly over the speed limit, shall we say, with a road atlas in one hand and the steering wheel in the other, trying to get us to the game.
"We eventually just dumped the car, found a police officer and ran to the ground after he'd given us directions. We ended up sitting down just as the teams came out.
"There was the problem of Luton's ban on away fans in the 1980s, too. A group of us managed to get into the main stand at Kenilworth Road and an enclave of QPR fans sang "You'll never ban a Rangers fan," so that fixture was always a concern logistically."
This week's EFL restart talks mean that bit more to Chris, who is awaiting confirmation from QPR's club historian that the games he has seen in his run cover more than 25 per cent of all the matches Rangers have played in their history since formation in 1882.
The 'man-cave' at this home in Wanstead, East London houses his collection of more than 50 QPR shirts, hundreds of matchday programmes, framed pictures, signed photos, his complete set of all 872 Roy of the Rovers comics and other weird and wonderful mementoes from his years of dedication to the Superhoops.
Chris, who works for the prison service, reckons he's spent around £80,000 on tickets and travel alone as he trekked all over England and Wales watching QPR.
"I really started supporting QPR at the end of the 1975/76 season when Wolves were playing Liverpool, who needed to lose for QPR to win the league title," explains Chris, who grew up in Harrow, a few miles from the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium.
"I liked the sound of the team name and I had a vague recollection that they played in London, so I thought I'd make QPR my team. The first game I went to was in 1977/78 when we were at home to Newcastle.
"My dad absolutely hated football. I was actually taken by my nan's decorator, who knew I was interested in football and was a season-ticket holder at QPR.
"He took me along and sat me on a wooden stool to I could see above the concrete wall and out on to the pitch.
"My 1,500th game was away at Nottingham Forest earlier in the season. My last game was Preston away. We hadn't won there in 40 years."
Chris has been plunged into some compromising situations by his slavish devotion to Rangers. It means he schedules his arrival for three hours before kick-off to allow for delays when driving to away games with friends.
In 1998, he planned the birth of his daughter Nicola with his ex-wife in the hope that his first-born would arrive in pre-season to avoid missing games.
"This was 1998 and I didn't have a mobile phone," he said.
"Instead, I had a pager and the understanding was that my wife at the time would message me and wherever I was, I'd just leave and come home.
"At the time, we were in the second tier and we were making four hour trips all over the country. Realistically, there wasn't a cat in hell's chance that I'd be leaving the game. I just hope my ex-wife isn't reading this.
"We were playing two games in a week in November 1998 against Barnsley on the Wednesday, then Bolton on the Saturday - both at Loftus Road.
"I remember patting the bump and saying 'don't pop out just yet because daddy's going to football - but I'll let you know when it's safe to do so'.
"I came back from the Barnsley game, which we won - and mentioned to the bump that if he or she fancied popping out now, then all well and good.
"Sure enough, my ex-wife's waters broke on the Thursday morning, and Nicola was delivered at 3.06pm that day. Then the following Saturday, Kevin Gallen gave us the lead against Bolton at 3.06pm - and I felt that was an omen."
Chris has won multiple Supporter of the Year awards and has been presented with a signed shirt by QPR whenever he reached a major milestone.
In the week leading up to his 1,500th against Forest in February, he received a personal message of congratulations from manager Mark Warburton. He has a programme from every one of those games, although most of them are still in his ex-wife's loft.
Among the landmarks was witnessing Liverpool's last league championship triumph when Kenny Dalglish's side beat QPR 2-1 at Anfield in April 1990 to seal their 18th title.
Chris also saw Manchester City lift the Premier League with that dramatic Sergio Aguero winner against QPR in added-time at the Etihad eight years ago.
Understandably, it's the famous results by his own team that stand out most for Chris.
"The 2014 Play-Off final at Wembley as it was the first time I'd seen us win there," he said. "After having a player sent off, I didn't think we'd be in with a shout of winning, so to do it in the last minute was just amazing.
"There were other games like our first win at Anfield in 1991 and then nine months later beating Manchester United 4-1 at Old Trafford on New Year's Day 1992.
"We also won for the first time at Manchester City and Nottingham Forest during the run.
"There was a game at Port Vale in 1997 when we were 4-0 down, which should have been five as they had a goal wrongly chalked off. We came back to draw 4-4.
"A couple of years later we were 3-0 down at Stockport in midweek and fought back to draw 3-3 in the second half. Chris Kiwomya put an effort just past the post in the last minute, which would have completed the turnaround.
"I regret the fact that none of this run has been in Europe. That's a real shame as I would like to have at least tested my ability to reach foreign shores. I'm not sure Cardiff, Wrexham and Swansea really count!"
QPR's last game at promotion-chasing Preston on March 7 saw them record their standout result of the season when they won at Deepdale for the first time since 1980, coming from a goal down to win 3-1 with ten men.
It set Rangers up for what many at the club felt would be a late push for the Championship Play-Offs and a possible return to the top flight after a five-year absence.
Chris is an elite runner who has completed four London marathons - he was among many QPR fans who felt their team was hitting their stride at just the right time before coronavirus signalled the abrupt halt.
Chris has adapted his life without QPR for the time-being - so how exactly has he done it?
"My brain is telling me the hiatus hasn't gone on long enough for it to be a problem," he said.
"So I'm trying to keep my routine as regular as possible. I still wear a QPR shirt on a Saturday morning and I do my normal ParkRun which I'd usually do early on the morning of a home game.
"I've regressed back a bit towards my childhood and started reading old copies of my Roy of the Rovers magazines.
"QPR's official website have also been doing this amazing feature called 'Rangers Rewind,' where they're showing historic games or ones from earlier in the season.
"I still have a bite to eat before I do all that. Even after the games have finished, I spend a bit of time in the man cave."
And the one QPR-related thing Chris hasn't done in a while?
That'll be watching the R's live on TV - which he hasn't done since 1986.
