Tuesday 27 December 2011

Josh Bell - are you ready?

Thought I'd share some of the snaps I've taken of the Barry Town boys in action so far this season.

Goytre 1-2 Barry Town (AET) Saturday 10th September 2011 - League Cup 1st Round
Barry Town walk out onto Goytre's Plough Road ground in their new strip.  Division 3 Goytre made us work hard for it, but the win for Barry came after the decisive 2-1 extra-time goal.  The extra time was actually a bit of a bonus for me - I hadn't figured on the 1.30pm kick-off and missed the majority of the 1st half.  The first photo of the boys walking out onto the pitch?  Taken shortly before the 2nd half kicked-off.






Merthyr Town 0-3 Barry Town - Saturday 1st October 2011 - Welsh Cup 1st Round

Much was said of the line-up Merthyr Town put out.  Less was said about the quality of the Barry Town performance.  We'll let the stats do the talking : 3-0 (ANET - After No Extra-Time).





Porth 4-0 Barry Town - Saturday 15th October 2011 - Welsh League Division One.

An unbelievably bad day at the office against a promoted Porth side who have proved to be the surprise package of the season so far.  I never did find out why Terry was being interviewed at the ground.  Fun photo, though.


Haverfordwest County 1-2 Barry Town (AET) - Saturday 5th November 2011 - Welsh Cup 2nd Round. 

A superb trip.  Okay, the supporters' coach could have had a few more supporters on it, but those who missed out... missed out.  Here's the handshake, and the extra-time free-kick preparation.  Josh Bell - are you ready?





Saturday 24 December 2011

Barry Town's Christmas Presence



The first...

Christmas Day 1914
Southern League
Pontypridd 2-4 Barry
Syd Beaumont (2)

Charlie Saunders (2)

The last...

Christmas Day 1957
Southern League
Barry Town 3-1 Merthyr Tydfil
Brian James (3)


The best...

Christmas Day 1919
Southern League Welsh Section
Barry 5-0 Porth
Davidson (2),
Charlie Saunders
Ernie Webb (p)
Billy Price


The worst...

Christmas Day 1939
Southern League
Barry 1-6 Lovells Athletic
Ernie Carless


Merry Christmas to Barry Town fans everywhere

Wednesday 21 December 2011

Rumours

No, not Fleetwood Mac.  The football variety.  AGAIN.

Sunday 18 December 2011

Der-der-d-der! der-d-der! Ohhhh-Akinfenwa!

Barry Town old boy reaches a ton (in league goals)


Akinfenwa came to Barry Town via FK Atlantas in January 2003.  Although he only played a few games for us, his class was immediately obvious and 'Bayo' proved a popular acquisition for the club. 

Having won the Lithuanian Cup with Atlantas a few months previously, Akinfenwa helped Barry lift the Welsh Cup and was part of the 'Treble Double' squad that also lifted the Welsh Premier League title for the third consecutive year.

Unfortunately, Akinfenwa was a victim of the financial collapse at the club following our Champions League exit and soon found himself out of football, albeit briefly.  Finding a berth at Boston United, Akinfenwa's League career was about to take off.

Akinfenwa has played for many clubs since he left Barry's golden sands, but his presence was most felt at Torquay United, Swansea City (of course), and Gillingham.  But it was at Northampton Town where he found most success, netting 37 goals in 88 appearances in his first stint for the Cobblers.  Bayo is currently enjoying a second stint at Northampton Town, and recently reached the happy total of 100 League goals scored.

Congratulations on the 100, Bayo.

Odd fact : Akinfenwa's 2002-03 Barry Town away strip was the same strip used by Northampton Town as their home kit that season.

This interview appeared in today's Football League Paper (iss no. 104)

"My ton is proof that you can be an achiever"

Scoring my 100th league goal last weekend was a sweet feeling.

Since I was five a lot of people have said that I was too big to play football, which makes me believe, 100 goals later, that if you believe in something, you can achieve it. Don't let anybody tell you what you can and cannot do.

If you believe in your heart of hearts, and keep the faith, you will achieve your goals in the end. Don't let people tell you otherwise.

But I wouldn't say that I have proved certain people wrong. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but i'm not bothered by what people say. The main thing is what you see in the mirror.

I say that but I do actually have a t-shirt to prove people wrong. I was approached to do a clothing line which is called the 'ha-ha' brand, which basically says ' don't let anyone tell you what you can't do'.

I wear a "Too big to play football, ha-ha" t-shirt under my kit!

It's just a bit of fun but at the same time it's to show that other people's opinions about me and my career don't really bother me.

But throughout the 100 goals, I have learnt that as you get older it does get harder to score goals and maintain your fitness.

When you are younger, you just think a goal is a goal, whereas now I know what to put in during a week to be sharper on a Saturday.

You need to get better as the game evolves. Younger players are getting better and better, so every time I score now, I do appreciate it more - 100% more - than I was when I was 21.

Maybe at the end of my career I will be able to look back on my 100 goals with fond memories and be able to say I achieved an aim.

But at the moment I am just trying to score as many goals as possible. The main thing is that the team does well.

Ultimately, if the team does well you do well individually. I enjoyed the first goal ever scored for Swansea at the Liberty Stadium, and I will probably be in one of those Trivial Pursuit questions for that!

Monday 12 December 2011

MCMLXXXIV

Barry Town Supporters News, Saturday 17th November 1984

Barry Town v Reading (FA Cup 1st Round)

Barry Town FC are the talk of Welsh football on this final day of the Town's Centenary week. We play an FA Cup 1st Round match for the first time in 23 years and for only the 5th time ever (behind 1929-30, 1934-35, 1951-52, and 1961-62).  With the whole of Wales egging us on, wishing us on to a famous victory as Canon League side Reading are visitors to Jenner Park.

Today's game should see the biggest crowd at Jenner Park since the 1961 clash with QPR when 7,000 watched the game.  It'll certainly beat the big crowds at recent games against Worcester (1977), Swansea (1983) and Merthyr within the last month. 

The tie today comes as a result of the epic battles with Merthyr in the 4th qualifying round, 3 games out of a run of 6 successive Cup-ties for Barry.  In fact, we're currently taking a very, very long break from Abacus Welsh League action, a break that's being prolonged by another three weeks.  Even our next scheduled League fixture (with Port Talbot on 8 Dec) is in doubt, as it falls on the day of the FA Cup 2nd Round, which we'll hopefully be involved in.

Belated congratulations to Paul and Sheryl Preece, and Bobby and Anne Smith, as second babies are due, both in February, and special congratulations go to Mike and Joanne Cosslett, as their baby due in April will be their first.

The first winners of the new 'Player of the month' award were Bobby Smith (for August and September) and Trevor Nott (for October).  Man of the match slips are available today, so don't forget to register your vote.

Publicity surrounding Barry has been at its greatest this week.  In fact, today's result will receive as much coverage, due to the fact that it will be the first to come through this afternoon.  With our game kicking off three quarters of an hour before all of the other 1st Round ties, our result will be announced at the half-time stage of other matches.  It's for that reason that there is an advantage in not having lights, but frankly, it is the only 'argument' in favour. 

For Barry to have 1,600 in each of the Merthyr replays and 3,000 for the Welsh cup tie with Swansea, all three being 2 or 2.25pm kick offs, Jenner Park is crying out for floodlights.  Just imagine how many would come to a good looking game at 7 o'clock in the evening.  It would be an investment to get lights.

One of the best stories seen in the newspapers this week was one that appeared in the Daily Express.  Our manager, Les 'Gold Top' Dickerson is apparently 'ready to sour Reading's chances', according to an article by a reporter amazed that our Manager is a milkman, while our three strikers are green-grocers. 

Barry Town : Trevor Nott; Mel Donovan; Derek Redwood; Ashley Griffiths; Mike Cosslett, Phil McNeil; Bobby Smith; Alan Sullivan; Ian Love; Phil Green; Paul Preece; Steve Williams.

Reading : Gary Westwood; Jerry Williams; Steve Richardson; Stuart Beavon; Martin Hicks; Steve Wood; Colin Duncan; Dean Horrix; Trevor Senior, Lawrie Sanchez, David Crown, Derrick Christie.

Saturday 8th December 1984

Barry Town 1 Reading 2

This is the first opportunity to congratulate all of the players on a tremendous display against the professionals, Canon League side Reading (was it really 3 weeks ago?!).  The performance, though excellent, still brings back bitter memories as everybody must still have a disappointed feeling when recalling the late, late winning goal from Reading's Trevor Senior.  Reading were completely outplayed, but all of that is history now, and we wish them every success in today's 2nd Round tie with Bognor Regis at Elm Park.

The Reading Cup tie produced the biggest crowd for football matches in Wales that day.  FA Cup crowds at Bangor City (2,130), Newport (2,452), Swansea (2,434) and Wrexham (2,527) were all lower than Barry Town's 3,839, while Cardiff v Carlisle in the Canon League Division Two, was watched by only 3,005 - their lowest League Division Two crowd since the Second World War.

Another troubled League Club is Swansea City, who this week sacked manager Colin Appleton.  It is the 3rd managerial change around this year -  a year in which Swansea have also had three different chairmen. Swansea are currently struggling in 23rd place in Division Three - 2 years after losing their First Division status. 

Welsh Cup 3rd Round : Newport v Barry

Somewhere

Friday 9 December 2011

Jenner Park : help or hindrance?


It's been stated more than a few times over the years (and only last week on Twitter) that Jenner Park, purpose built for Barry Town between 1912 and 1913, is now a noose around the Club's neck.

Why is this?

On the face of it, Jenner Park has to be Barry Town's biggest asset - aside from the Club's long, if somewhat patchy, history. Now, let's not forget (how could we?!) the events leading up what would turn out to be Barry Town's final European appearance in the Champions League qualifiers in 2003. The Club, under Chairman Kevin Green, had not been paying the council for its use of Jenner Park.

This came to a head in the summer of 2003 when the Vale Council threatened to lock out Barry Town and therefore damage its Champions League chances. To the fans, it was nothing short of a distasteful act of spite by a Council (or elements of it) who had courted us since the 1990s. However, we did owe them a lot of money!

Nevertheless, it completely knackered our pre-season build up, and the disappointing defeat to Skopje over two legs seemed inevitable. As a matter of fact, we actually won the final European game on the hallowed turf, but we were out on aggregate. Worse was to follow, of course, because within weeks the Club had collapsed, the 'Board' had departed and so had the entire playing squad. Former players were seen live on BBC Wales News irritatingly rattling the padlocked gates to the car-park.
 
And then there was the District Valuer.

In a beautifully executed manoeuvre of desperately bad timing, the bill worked out by the District Valuer, on behalf of the council, was some £42,000. Apparently, the TV revenue, exposure and facilities put us up there with English League sides such as Ipswich Town. By now the Club had gone bust, and sold for around £125,000 to a 'local property developer and barrister'.

From the get-go of the new owner's tenure at the helm was the spectre of the Jenner Park valuation and subsequent rent bill. In fairness, it must have been a massive kick in the teeth. In he walks, saves Barry Town from extinction and as thank you receives a £42,000 rent bill after only just forking out a 6 figure some to buy the place. There was nobody left from the old regime to blame other than the Supporters' Club. When the football club collapsed, the Supporters' Club did its best to fill the void.

The new owner's flat refusal to pay any rent to the council led to the club being forced out of Jenner Park, temporarily. At first it was somewhat of a novelty, playing at Port Talbot. Then as the disagreement continued we were banned from the Vale altogether and, because of this, the various levels of youth structure were disbanded. We were now stationed outside the county, just outside Pontypridd. It was utterly utterly depressing. Relations between the owner and the handful of remaining supporters were non-existent, the football was poor, and the fan-base (which had always been small) was decimated.

But Jenner Park was still there, sitting idly. Waiting it out.

When rumours began flying around about the council eyeing it for possible housing land, or far worse, a home for rugby, the remaining fans further divided themselves by voting to create a new club, out of Jenner Park, that would take the 'ideal' of Barry Town with it - as well as it's history and original shirt colour (green). "Barry FC" was created in no time, it had became 'primary user' of Jenner Park, and soon entered the Vale of Glamorgan AFL. Ultimately, Barry Town returned to Jenner Park in a ground-share agreement.

And now, present day, the owner has withdrawn all support of the football team, and it's the new Barry Town Supporters' Committee that's footing the rent bill for our home games. It's not cheap. It's our number one drain on funding. Yet, it's my personal opinion that Jenner Park, far from throttling Barry Town, could still one day be its saviour.

Jenner Park is Barry Town and Barry Town is Jenner Park. Now, that's not to say that if we had some other purpose-built for European football stadium to move to I'd turn down the offer, because I wouldn't. As much as Jenner Park is our spiritual home, if we had the chance of bettering ourselves, be independent from the council, then I'd jump at the offer.

This is fanciful. We are where we are. I'm proud to say that all payments to the council are being met - often in advance. The sooner we get the council - so long a supporter of Barry Town - fully back on board, the better. After all, the club was created with the old Barry Council assistance (if not direct financial help), and ties have been close through the decades - including Barry Town being allowed to adopt the official council crest as the Club badge. This is often overlooked in the more recent era of cartoon dragons and vague King Arthur motifs as club badges. We actually share the same crest as Barry RFC.  However, look at any photo of Barry Town club officials and players in their shirts and blazers, and there is the official Barry crest right there.

We currently find ourselves in the unhappy position of being a tenant to two different landlords, of a sort. We pay (good) money to the council for the privilege of playing at Jenner, and yet the actual owner of the club, and therefore the clubhouse (and its takings), still sits in some kind residency above us. We need to pay rent, we need money to pay the rent, the money to pay the rent should come from bar takings and social club events, but this is not happening because the club is not a football club. We are in the ludicrous position of looking for a home elsewhere around the town to hold our meetings and events. It's just... wrong.

So, why not just move out altogether, set up somewhere else, gain independence and flourish eventually. Well, firstly, we already tried that with Barry FC - now dubbed Cadoxton-Barry FC after an essential merger - and, frankly, we have aspirations (some say delusions) of once again providing European football for Barry Town supporters. Not any time soon, granted. But surely that has to be the ideal? Otherwise, why bother? For a club that lived it large for a while and fell on shockingly tough times, we are still blessed with having the use of some amazing facilities that could still one day provide Welsh Premier League football to the town, or one day maybe European football once again.

We'd be bonkers to give that up.

What other club in our league, at our level, has such facilities at its disposal? Very few, if any. Yes, there are plenty of clubs who are in a much better financial situation than ourselves. In fact, maybe they all are. Even the lowliest of clubs possibly doesn't have our perceived disadvantage of the financial burden that is Jenner Park. Right now though, we are happily solvent - and that's not to be abused. We still have a terrific opportunity to progress. Give up Jenner Park, and we put our progress back years, if not decades. If progress at all.  Lose Jenner Park, and we lose Barry Town Association Football Club.

Now, if we could only get that pesky match-day rent reduced by the council.

We warmly welcome any investors or potential purchasers to understand the facilities at Barry Town that we have at our disposal.

COMING SOON : DOGS, ELEPHANTS & DRAGONS : 100 YEARS OF JENNER PARK

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Over and out

Atif Bashir knows that his 94th minute attempt was the last throw of the dice for Pakistan.

Despite the draw to Nepal leaving Pakistan out of the SAFF Championship in India, Atif and his compatriots know they have had a good tournament, and they leave it undefeated after drawing with all 3 higher ranked teams in their Group.  For Atif, it means an early return to Wales and club duties for Barry Town.  The boy done good, but we look forward to having him back.

Monday 5 December 2011

So proud of our 'Alfie'

Barry Town's Atif Bashir is currently part of the Pakistan team that is taking part in the South Asian Football Federation Championship, which is this being staged by India.  Eight teams play in two groups of four.  The top two of each group progress to a semi-final, before the winners of those meet in the Final. 

Pakistan are in Group B along with tournament favourites Bangladesh, Maldives and Nepal.  Atif has featured in both games so far - against Bangladesh and the Maldives.  Both games have ended 0-0 in the cavernous 60,000 seater Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.  Unfortunately for the tournament and the promoters, around 58,000 of those seats have been unused in the groups stages thus far.  Should there be an India vs Pakistan final, however expect some more bums on seats for that one.

Atif has been picking up good plaudits for his solid efforts for Pakistan in the two games so far, and despite being subbed off on the hour in the second game, looks certain to again be in the starting line-up for the crucial tie with Group B leaders, Nepal.  Nepal's two games have yieleded 4 points for them, so a Pakistan win would guarantee a Semi Final spot.  Pakistan's previous best effort was 3rd place. 

Nepal are managed by ex-Spurs hero Graham Roberts, a man who had spent time last year working for the Pakistan side, so Roberts will be no stranger to the Barry Town midfielder.  Nepal are the favourites to beat Pakistan, but Pakistan have a rare Semi Final place in the offing should they pull out a remarkable victory against Nepal tomorrow. Their two back-to-back draws are already something akin to progress - Pakistan not being unbeaten in two games for some time.

Anyway, whatever happens, Barry Town supporters are already WELL pleased with their 'Alfie' (as pronounced by the guy on the tannoy at Carmarthen Town), and his exploits for the Dragons as well as the Greenshirts.

So focused on Barry Town is Atif that he apparently offered to play the first half of the recent Welsh League match against Cwmaman Institute before jetting off to join the rest of the Pakistan squad. The commitment to the colours (yellow and blue, as well as green!) is impressive - yet it's seen throughout the Barry Town squad, not just from Atif.  Should Atif and the Greenshirts progress in the SAFF Championship it's doubtful he will be available for the home match against Goytre United on the 10th.  But you never know. Best wishes, Atif.  You're doing yourself, your country, and your club proud!

Here are some screen-grabs from the action so far;








Saturday 3 December 2011

Barry's Cup Bid, April 1937



"Members of the Barry AFC discussing tactics with their trainer, Harry Mills, in preparation for their match with Kidderminster in the Seventh Round of the Welsh Senior Cup Competition to-day." (Western Mail, Saturday, April 2nd, 1937)

It looks pretty rudimentary, but they worked.  Town beat the Harriers 2-0 to set up a Welsh Cup Semi Final clash with... Crewe Alexandra

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Remove the O'Halloran Clique

The context :  Previously exiled Barry Town, playing under the guise of 'Barri' at Worcester in the Beazer Homes League, have controversially returned to Wales to play in the Abacus Welsh League - one of the feeder leagues for the new Konica League of Wales.  Jenner Park was still playing host to Barry Town in the Barry & District League. The Linnets, playing in the BDL, was mostly made up of local 'boys'. The Dragons, on its return from Worcester, wasn't.  Barry Town fanzine, The Nomad, performed a supporter survey.  Here were the results from November 1993.

The Nomad, Vol. 2 Issue 2

Survey Results

1. Were Barri Dragons right to leave the Beazer Homes League back in June?

Yes 10%, No 85%, Don't care 5%

2. Should the club have met with supporter reps before the decision was announced?

Yes 100%

3. Do you think that the supporters exert any influence over club policy?

Yes 10%, No 80%, What policy? 10%

4. After the events of the last two years, do you think that Barry should've joined the Konica when it was originally formed, rather than spend a season in exile?

Yes 10%, No 90%

5. Now that Barri have re-merged with The Linnets, will you be watching the new team in;
a) all games, home and away (28%)
b) all home games only (21%)
c) some home and away games (33%)
d) some home games only (11%)
e) none, or very few of either (7%)

6. If none, which teams will you watch instead?

Answers varied from the Barry Town Reserves, Cardiff City, Inter Cardiff, rugby, and 'anybody bar this Barry Town'

7. Do you think that Barry Town are nowe playing in a lower standard of football than they experienced in the Beazer Homes League last season?

Yes 97%, No 2%, Same 1%

8. Do you think that the standard of Konica League football is higher than the Beazer League?

Yes 5%, No 95%

9. Do you expect the standard of the Konica to improve over the next three years?

Yes 65%, No 35%

10. Where do you expect Barry Town to finish in this season's Abacus League

Top - 100%

11. Are you satisfied by the way the Club is being run at the moment?

Yes 14%, No 84%

12. If your answer was 'No', what improvements would you like to see being made?

Answers included;

Removal of the O'Halloran clique
New members on the Board
Bring in more ex-players to help with team development
Reduce prices for pensioners
Get a tea stall
Transfer majoriy of the Club's shares to the supporters
Sack the General and Commercial Managers
Make the Club wholly run by the supporters
Be more accountable to the few fans you have left.

13. Would you like to receive more info on the Club and players?

Yes 95%, No 5%

14. How would you to see the club better publicise itself?

Answers varied from better and more regular press releases to the Press, and a better programme.

Monday 21 November 2011

Jenner Park, pre-season, 1938.

We recently inducted Ernie Carless into the Barry Town Hall of Fame, and coincidentally enough, here is little Ernie in a Barry & District News photograph from 26th August 1938 I discovered while rummaging around my garage looking for the pre-season photo from 1937.   

There he is, front row, 2nd in from the right, next to the player in the striped shirt.  The player in the striped shirt looks all the world to be a fellah named Chris Mason.  His 1950 testamonial match programme is on this website somewhere.  Anyway, Mason was due to spend a few years as a P.O.W. during World War 2 a few years after this snap was taken, but happily returned to the fold in time for the 1946-47 season.  Good work, Chris!  What a fine looking bunch of lads they all are too - and they were destined to defeat Swansea in the South Wales Senior Cup later that season as well.

Sunday 20 November 2011

Dan Bradley - safe hands, hands off

Following the dramatic 2-1 victory over fellow Welsh Leaguers, Cardiff Corinthians, at Jenner Park yesterday, the Barry Town Supporters' Committee honoured long-standing goalkeeper Dan Bradley for his 200 appearances between the sticks. 

Dan played another pivotal role in yesterday's game, pulling off a stunning second half save that would mean the goal we scored afterwards would be the winner.  Dan came to Barry Town in time for the 2006-07 season, and since then, only the misfortune of being abroad when the Icelandic ash cloud was disrupting the airlines did he miss a pair of games. 

Other than that, he's been an ever-present for 5 seasons - a remarkable achievement at any level, but particularly at this club which has seen so many ups and downs.  A quarter of Dan's appearances have resulted in clean sheets.  Dan is extremely popular amongst the fans, and has won the Supporters' Player of the Year Award several times since his time here.


Supporters' Chairman Eric Thomas and Manager Gavin Chesterfield
award Dan Bradley his trophy for 200 appearances for Barry Town

In truth, Dan has also had the luxury of having pretty decent defenders in front of him but he is certainly one of the very best goalkeepers in our league, if not the best.  He has to be the most consistent, certainly.  We would prefer Dan to remain with us for as long as possible, but would obviously be proud if he went on to bigger and better things.  Well, bigger things anyway.  I doubt they'd be better!  Come on, we're Barry Town.  Dan IS for sale, though.  £250,000 (coincidentally the value of the club) made payable to 'Barry Town Supporters' Committee' should suffice.  If you don't have that much money on you, well, nice hearing from you, but see you around.

Congratulations, Dan.  It's been a pleasure to watch you in goals for us for the past 5 seasons, and we hope you'll be with us for another 200 more appearances.

And for those saying we concentrate too much on the history and not the present.  Here's two fingers and a loud raspberry.

Thanks.

Sunday 13 November 2011

Barry Town's first ever silverware

ASRS Cup Final, 1914
Barry 'A' 2-1 Cadoxton Old Boys
At Jenner Park, Barry
Keen rivalry existed between these two sides and when they met on Saturday in connection with the Final of the ASRS Cup there was a large attendance.  The proceeds of these games are devoted to the widows and orphans of the railwaymen.  The teams have met previously in other competitions and are about evenly matched.  In the first half, Farmer opened the scoring, and from a penalty Green also scored.  Cadoxton tried hard to decrease the lead in the second half and 'Nin' Jones, one of their forwards, landed a fine goal.  After the match, Councillor Felix-Williams presented the cup to the winning side in the presence of a large crowd, who congregated in front of the band-stand.

The ASRS was the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, a union which played a big part in the emergence of the Labour Party.  By 1913, the ASRS had merged with other railway unions to form today's National Union of Railwaymen.  However, the ASRS Cup is still played for in the town, and the 2011-12 season is the Cup's Cententary.  1911 saw the ASRS honour Barry's fund-raising activities for the union by holding its AGM in the town.  Later, a short-lived football team, Barry ASRS FC (!), competed in the Cardiff & District League.  Not that the Vale of Glamorgan League will be interested in all of course, oh no.  I have previously contacted them about centenaries and official programmes for the various cup finals and had received such a bad case of 'cold shoulder' I was treated for frostbite.  Never again.

The first ever Barry Cup fixtures

I am informed by Mr. A. C. Morrish, the energetic Secretary of the League, that he has been able to arrange with the Directors of Barry AFC for the first round of the Barry Cup Competition to be played at Jenner Park, Barry, on Saturday next when Barry Bohemians will meet Barry Centrals.  Some good football will no doubt result from the meeting of these teams, who proved themselves strong combinations so far this season.

Barry Dock News, Friday 5th November, 1920 

That 1st Round Draw in full was;

A. Cadoxton Old Boys v Cardiff Corinthians Reserves
B. Aberthaw & Rhoose v Splott Amateurs
C. Barry West End v Barry Y.M.C.A.
D. Barry United Churches v Penarth Y.M.C.A.
E. Penarth Parish Church v Barry Y.M.C.A. Athletic
F. Barry Bohemians v Barry Centrals

Byes : Penmark Rovers to play Winner of F, Sully to play Winner of D.

Ties played 1st November, 1920.

As it turned out, the eventual first ever Barry Cup Final, between Cadoxton Old Boys and the Barry YMCA, had to be replayed the following season following accusations of ineligible players on both sides.  Cadoxton O.B. won the original Final 3-2, at Jenner Park, and the re-match in September 1921 resulted in a more emphatic 3-0 win for Cadoxton. 

By then, Cadoxton Old Boys had changed their name to simply Cadoxton AFC and managed to get to the Barry Cup Final again in April 1922, this time swamping Barry Island's Whitmore Albion 7-1. 

This was the only time that, technically, two Barry Cups were played for in the same season.  Cadoxton AFC then went on to join the embryonic South Wales Amateur League.  So there.

Referee as an ornament

What might be called an excentric match was that played on Barry Island between the Island team (ed: Barry Island United) and Cardiff Riverside (ed: later Cardiff City).  The ground of the home team is not perfection, there being, besides many kopjes (ed: mounds of earth), a telegraph pole in the centre of the field.  It's not exactly in the centre, but is often in the way of the ball, as are the telegraph wires. 

The referee on Saturday's match was also an ornament, being a gentleman on crutches.  However, a man on crutches may be a good referee  The home team had it all their own way on Saturday, scoring seven goals to one.  The scorers were R & J. Flint, W. Brown, and J. Sharp.

Barry Herald, Friday 19th, January 1900

Get off my land - bloody footballers!

The Barry Milltonians v Barry Dock match - played at the Intermediate Ground - came to a rather abrupt conclusion just before half-time.  Through an oversight, permission had not been asked to play on the ground, and in the middle of the game the owner of the field put in a rather unwelcome appearance, and ordered referee, players, umpires, and spectators off his ground.  The Barry Dock XI had scored once to their opponents nil, when they had to leave the game unfinished.

(Barry Herald, Friday 5th March, 1897)

The Barry Dock News, Friday 27 January, 1922

Dear "Criticus",

A good deal of feeling is being caused at Barry Football Ground in consequence of the policy of the directors in persisting in giving Barry supporters the results of Cardiff City matches each Saturday.

Why is this?

Have we not a football team as well as Cardiff? Last Saturday for instance, the Reserves were playing at home, and although our first team were fighting for their lives at Mid Rhondda, no board was brought around giving the results of their efforts, but the City score was brought around twice. It is not necessary.

All the people who follow the City are at Cardiff, and the Barryites are not interested. Let's have Barry results please, when either the first or second teams are playing away.

And, by the way, what's happened to the band?

"Shareholder"

From the letters page, Barry Dock News, 27/01/22

--------------

This letter from Criticus struck a chord some 90 years later, when the Twitter accounts @BarryTownSC and @StandUpForBarry were created by like-minded fans. Thanks for the heads up, Criticus. Town fans now get almost instantaneous match updates from all over south Wales.

Saturday 11 June 2011

The single greatest Barry Town clip EVER!



According to our esteemed 'Chairman', Barry Town only has history. No future. The club is for SALE you muppet. You put it up for sale, remember? The history of Barry Town AFC - or at least the part before you arrived - is the club's greatest selling point. Use it, don't lose it.

Monday 30 May 2011

The BTSC and easyfundraising.org.uk

I'm really pleased to report that the folks at easyfundraising.org have approved the Barry Town Supporters Committee (BTSC) account details, and so raising funds for the BTSC couldn't be easier!

Here's some blurb from easyfundraising.org;

"We provide a FREE service where you can shop with your favourite online stores and at no extra cost raise funds for any charity, good cause or group you choose to support. You still shop directly with each retailer as you would normally, but simply by using the links from our site first, each purchase you make will generate a cashback donation to the cause you wish to support.

For example, spend £25 with WHSmith on Books and 2.5% will be donated. You will have raised £0.63, at no extra cost to your purchase. Make any purchase from Amazon and 2.5% will be donated. Insure your car with Aviva and raise £30.00, or purchase a mobile phone from O2 and earn £17.50, and so on.

You can shop with 2000+ Brand Name retailers and to raise funds you just use the links from our site first - it's that simple!

If you ALREADY shop online, why not help good causes at no extra cost from purchases you would make anyway."

So, what's the delay?  Please go to the BTSC's specific easyfundraising address 
http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/btsc and do all your online shopping from there.

Your page will look a little like;



The service is also used by local causes such as Wales Millennium Centre, Barry Arts Centre, Barry Wanderers Cricket Club, and the Cardiff City Supporters Trust.

For further details, please go to the site if you need convincing; http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/btsc 

I'd like to thank Ashford Town (Middlesex) FC for their assistance and support.  Thanks, fellahs.

Thursday 26 May 2011

Help fund the football

We've been receiving regular enquiries of how you can financially help the #SaveBarryTownFC campaign that has been running on Twitter.  Everyone associated with the campaign sincerely thank you for this.

We do not yet have the facility to have a credit card payment function, but what we can offer, for now, is the bank account details of the Barry Town Supporters Committee (BTSC). 

This is a registered company (Companies House Co. No. 06796885), and is normally used to assist in pitch rental and handling money for the BTSC's Lottery.

However, if you'd like to make any kind of monetry donation, it would be sincerely welcome.  Ideally, we'd love to raise enough to keep Barry Town AFC playing on the hallowed Jenner Park pitch!

Account details:
Barry Town Supporters Committee
Account Number: 61537938
Sort Code: 400915
Bank details: HSBC, Barry, Vale of Glamorgan.

If you'd like to send a cheque, please make them payable to 'Barry Town Supporters Committee', and send them to this address;

CLIFTON HOUSE
FOUR ELMS ROAD
CARDIFF
UNITED KINGDOM
CF24 1LE


Thanks again!

Monday 16 May 2011

A review of the official sales-pitch

Okay, so we've read the statement.  But it hides a painful truth.  Chairman Stuart Lovering has intentions to turn the Barry Town clubhouse, the Jenner Rooms, into a cocktail bar and restaurant.  Do away with the burden of football which has disinterested him since relegation in 2004, and concentrate on a bar with steady takings at the till.  The 100 year old football club can be done away with.  Fuck it.  Fuck you.  Fuck us.

As a business, fair enough.  But this is a FOOTBALL CLUB.  It has 100 years behind it, and it will die in 6 weeks unless it can be prized from the grip of the current chairman.

He has previously stated, in a matchday programme of all places just a few weeks back, that this could make him several thousands pounds per week.  He has asked supporters, via the matchday programme, to 'invest' in this opportunity.

The matchday programme is there to give football news to the long suffering supporters.  To give encouragement and backing to the players - who play for NOTHING.  The matchday programme should offer emotional investment in the football club, not a cocktail bar.

The recently released advert from Barry Town initmates that, without a buyer, the club will no longer support the Welsh League side.  I don't doubt it.  However, it will continue to run youth sides and adult sides at a lower level.

The current Barry Town Youth team is completely self-funding.  It is not run by the current owner.  It pays all expenses through player subs etc.  It too plays at Jenner Park.  It pays the rent.  Do not be tricked by the impression that there is a one-club ethos at Barry Town.  There isn't.

No, what exists, at a youth level, are people doing work for NOTHING to provide football for the kids proud enough to say they play for Barry Town.

Pride, that's what it's about.

I see no guarantee in this advert that ANY football will exist at Jenner Park, the home of senior football in Barry since 1913.

The advert also threatens that without a buyer, the senior side will fold.  That's like saying 'buy my house, or I'll burn the roof'.  A prospective buyer will not come in because the owner is threatening to pull the plug.

The owner knows full well that the threat is aimed at the weary fans, used to the fact that this BULLSHIT has been happening almost every year since the current owner came in.

Shortly, I will be listing, chronologically, every single threat to the existence of the club that has ever made it into the public domain.  This will not be an invention on my behalf.  It will be a simple listing, in chronological order, every threat of football extinction at Barry Town that has appeared in the press.

Aside from the fact that the advert skirts around the fact that the owner has publically stated his desire to develop a cocktail bar at the club, one is confused as WHY the first team is being pulled out of the League when there is, apparently, according to the adverts own figures, profits to be made at the football club.

So, let me get this straight?  I can't afford the football, i'm pulling the plug.  If you're interested in buying it though, it DOES make money.

It's all smoke and mirrors.  Just somebody please come in with the money, and save us from this utter utter lunacy.

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Fans of my Fathers. Whingers, 90 years ago.

Barry Dock News – August 27, 1920

Football Gossip by “Sphere”

No matter where we go, we shall always find those undesirables who are never satisfied, and whose aim in life seems to be to make everyone else dissatisfied. There were quite a number of these at Jenner Park on Saturday last, at the final trial match in connection with Barry AFC.


It was during the half-time interval that they made themselves most obnoxious, when everyone had to hear their opinions upon the abilities, or the short comings, of this player or that, opinions which no one wanted, and which everyone could have very well done without.

It would be beneficial both to team and spectators if these “boobs” would go
away and play marbles, or some other game more suited to them than football.

Greens 2 Clarets 0
Reynolds
Cowie (pen)

Kev, are you out there?

Now, this may be a little left-field, but I’m going to try it. 


8 years ago – in case you didn’t know – Barry Town went bust with, what, over £800,000 worth of debt?  The majority of which was owed to HM Customs and Revenue.   We’d been in debt for a while, of course.  I believe it was over £200,000 by the time Paula O’Halloran got the club off her hands.  But this was now an astonishing new level of debt.


It was a sticky situation.  It didn’t look great for Fash at the time, considering he came in and was meant to be our lord and saviour.  We’d had a bunch of problems for a while, so when Fash came in the outlook was pretty bright.  I think he was associated with us for about 6 months before the bubble was stretched too far.


Unfortunately, he never really got his fee under the table.  By the time he’d brought in Adebayo Akinfenwa and Abiodun Baruwa in the New Year in order to aid manager Kenny Brown take an unprecedented Treble Double of WPL titles and Welsh Cups, he was off in the jungle on some TV show.  He never did find Taribo West for us. 


He came out of that show, and the shit really hit the fan(s).  Our pre-Champions League  preparation in summer 2003 was a game against Barnstaple Town (wow, we’d take that nowadays!), and an infamously slovenly game against some touring Frenchmen which has become known as the ‘jumpers for goalposts’ game.  An absolute bloody shambles.  But there were reasons.


Nobody liked us.  There was an ugly end to the 2002-03 season after an off-field spat with Bangor City – not handled well by the club, but then, not handled well by them either.  The players didn’t really like us.  They loved Barry Town, yes, but they loved it more when their pay-check arrived.  Quite often, it didn’t.


The council really hated us.  Man, they wanted us out of Jenner Park even before the Champions League game.  Personally, I thought that was a disgrace.  Barry Town Football Club was the best thing that had happened to the town since the docks themselves were chiselled out of the Glamorgan coastline.  With maybe Butlin’s in-between.  European football in Barry, and the council wanted us out?  Poor.  All the world’s a stage, and the VoGons  wanted to close the curtains.  What was it, £3,000 for one fixture they wanted?  Fash was exasperated by their stance, but perhaps he was already preparing an exit strategy.


Not long after the heroic exit (another one!) from Europe, matters quickly came to a head.  Fash was in the national newspapers for something entirely different, and it was in everybody’s best interests that he left.  He did.  Sharpish.  This didn’t look good for Fash or Barry Town, and what later transpired at the club seemed to get thrown at Fash.  Now, I’m no Fash apologist, but I have it on good authority that sum that he put into Barry Town at the beginning, was all that he took out at the end.  And boy, what an end.


A supporter-run Steering Committee was established and everybody were chasing their tails.  Stories of bailiffs taking the furniture were rife.  Stories of the bailiffs not getting any answer at the club in order to take more furniture away were even more prevalent.  Fortunately, the fabulous framed photos of the O’Hallorans with all that booty earned in the 1993-94 season was rescued before that too disappeared.


Who was watching telly when Jamie Morallee was pictured dramatically shaking the locked Jenner Park gates for the benefit of the BBC Wales TV cameras?  All beamed live across Wales.  Oh, the humiliation.  I’m sure I heard one of the players say “all my stuff’s in there” which actually made me laugh at the time.  The bailiff’s had probably made that disappear as well.


But the biggest disappearance was that of Kevin Green.  What happened to him?  It was if the hullabaloo surrounding Fash’s exit was the perfect smoke-screen for Green’s quick exit stage left.  Nobody appeared to have given a shit.  There was no man-hunt, no comb-over detection vans going around – nothing.  The last I heard, he had some kind of holiday company selling trips to the Greek islands or somewhere.    


But out of the complete and utter misery of that period in 2003 (it actually got far FAR worse), Kevin Green appears to be the only one untarnished financially or emotionally by the whole thing.  I’d love to hear his side of the story.  I only bring this up now, because I see from my stats sheet that I’m getting hits from Greece.


It can’t be, can it?


Is that you, Kevin? Are you with Taribo West?

Sunday 8 May 2011

Classic Barry Town clips now available ONLINE!

You may not know this, but classic Barry Town clips are now available to watch online, via YouTube.

One industrious supporter has lovingly and painstakingly uploaded clips from down the years after trawling through the archives for weeks on end.

All the clips are to be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/BarryTownSupporters

And keep going back, because it's constantly being updated.  Word on the street is that the Barry Town vs FK Vardar Skopje game is being readied by the mysterious Webmaster as we speak.

Barry Town ruined his life, and he can't say it didn't, because it did.

The Barry Town Centenary

Yes, Barry Town is just about 18 months away from celebrating 100 years of football.  Or, about 90 years of ruined lives and sporting aspirations, depending on how grumpy you are from one day to the next.

A lot of literature has the year the club was formed as 1912.  In fact, all of the literature that I've seen quotes a date of 1912.  Well, this is down to the fact that the company that first created the football club was incorporated in 1912. 

Barry Town's first game came some time later, as part of the 1913-14 season where The Linnets were placed in the Southern League and the Welsh League.  For me, our Centenary therefore should come in the 2013-14 season.  Let's celebrate the football - not the company.

Any numpty can own a company, the fans own the football.  2013 it is, then.  See you there?