Holker Street Newsletter 21 - 3rd December 1997

Whilst Barrow didn’t have a game mid-week, there’s still quite a bit to report, most important of which is the FA Trophy First Round Draw, details on who we play in the Lancashire Cup, some more memorable games and another NPL table from the past.

By the way, I am reliably informed it is snowing in Barrow!


FA UMBRO TROPHY FIRST ROUND DRAW
BARROW v WORKSOP; Marine or Grantham v Bradford Park Avenue or Leigh RMI; Halifax v Blyth Spartans; Lancaster v Northwich; Hednesford v Gainsborough; Burton Albion v Great Harwood or Witton; Guiseley v Telford; Morecambe v Solihull or Emley; Hyde v Boston United; Altrincham v Runcorn; Stalybridge v Gateshead; Bishop Auckland v Colwyn Bay; Southport v Matlock or Winsford United; Gresley v Leek Town; Ashton United v Chorley; Kettering v Dorchester; Welling United v Slough; Dagenham and Redbridge v Billericay; Bashley v Wisbech or Raunds; Hayes v Merthyr Tydfil or Cambridge City; Kidderminster v Berkhamsted; Bath v Hastings; Stevenage v Chesham United; Woking v Corby or Margate; Rushden & Diamonds v Farnborough; Enfield v Cheltenham; Hereford United v Dulwich Hamlet; Boreham Wood v Chelmsford City; Purfleet v Dover; Yeovil v Yeading; St Albans v Sittingbourne or Abingdon Town; Basingstoke v Gloucester.

Ties to be played on 10 January.


LANCASHIRE CUP
Barrow will play away at Radcliffe Borough in the next round of the Lancashire Cup.

Thanks to Lee Hunt for that.


MORE IDEAS ON HOW TO HELP

Jim Whitton has had another brainwave concerning ways to help out the finances, when Barrow were in a financial mess in the 1960s, the club issued £1 shares and lots of people bought them in spite of knowing they were worthless, Jim still has four to this day, would a 1997 version be a feasible proposition?

If you have any ideas about to help the club, can you pass them on to me via the Newsletter, or direct to the club?

Richard Postlethwaite has asked about a rumour he’s heard of the club releasing a record to help raise funds, anyone confirm or deny this?

I read a piece on The Times web page that Farnborough of the Vauxhall Conference are also in financial difficulties, and the people behind the Thrust Car, they broke the world land speed record recently, had donated some memorabilia which was auctioned and raised UKP50,000 for the club. Is there anyone we can tap for such items?


GIVE ‘EM BEANS
The publishers of the Barrow fanzine, Give “Em Beans, will donate 20p per copy sold of the next issue (number 33) to the club. This should be on sale for the home game against Lancaster City on 1st January, or if Graham Murphy can get to Barrow’s away game at Lancaster on 27th December, it will be for sale there as well. If you would like to order a copy, or arrange for a subscription, email Graham Murphy on Graham.Murphy@sukm.sharp-eu.com


THESE ARE THE BEST OF TIMES ...............
David Ingham has pointed out Barrow have now played exactly half of their League fixtures with an excellent return of 46 points, and he would like to know anyone could let us know how many points the Championship sides of 1983/84 and 1988/89 had at the same stage.


MATCH REPORT (SOMEWHAT BELATED)
Richard Ingham has sent me a match report of the Barrow v Lancaster Cup tie gleaned from the Morecambe Visitor (Richard now works in the Library at Lancaster University):

Lancaster produced a scintillating display to reach the Third Round of the UniBond League Cup at the expense of League leaders Barrow. Despite having a number of players unavailable, City looked positive from the start and dominated for much of the game. City took the initiative after sixteen minutes when Gary Worthington collected the ball and played a perfectly weighted pass for Mark Dobie to fire home past Steve Farrelly.

The home side were stunned even further when City doubled their advantage on 25 minutes when Dean Martin took advantage of a poor clearance from Barrow’s Dave Higgins to score. Barrow then had their best spell of the game with Marc Coates heading just wide from a good position and Lee O’Keefe forcing a save from Thornley. City played with the confidence of a side in control in the second half as they soaked up Barrow’s desperate attempts to get back into the game. The only worrying moment for City was an injury to Dobie which forced him to leave the field to be replaced by Marc Goulding. Any hopes Barrow had of retrieving the game were ended after 72 minutes when Jimmy Graham played a cross from the left which found Martin in space and he calmly shot past Farrelly for his second goal of the night. The goal killed the game and City played out the remaining minutes in style, although City substitute Steven Creed was denied a penalty in stoppage time but it didn’t matter by then. City waited for the final whistle to celebrate one of their most satisfying results of the season.

Attendance 658.


NON-LEAGUE ACE GETS SIX-MONTH BAN
A while ago I featured a story on Tony Chilton’s (the ex-Barrow player) exploits at Workington, this follows up on this.

Striker Ian Blackstone has been handed an astonishing six-month ban by the Football Association for a challenge which sparked a mass brawl in a non-League game earlier this season. Former York and Scarborough forward Blackstone has been fined UKP100 and will be suspended from the 15th of this month to June 15 1998 for his misconduct because of the serious nature of the offence. Blackstone was playing for Harrogate Town in a UniBond League First Division game against Workington on October 18 when a challenge by Nicky Cranston led to a retaliatory tackle. The midfielder ended up with a broken leg. The incident led to a 21-man punch-up and the game being held up for eight minutes, with Blackstone eventually sent off along with Workington player-boss Tony Chilton. Blackstone and Chilton, who was the first to respond following the incident, have already served three-match bans for their dismissals, while Cranston was also given a three-game suspension for the initial challenge. Both clubs were also recently fined £250 by the FA for failure to control their players, with Blackstone learning of his punishment this morning. The 33-year-old has also been charged with grievous bodily harm by the police and is due before Harrogate magistrates later this month. Cranston, meanwhile, is also currently exploring the possibility of a civil case after losing his job in a biscuit factory following a long period of unemployment.


NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE 1977-78

Pl W D L F A Pts
1 Boston United. . . 46 31 9 6 85 35 71
2 Wigan Athletic . . 46 25 15 6 83 45 65 Elected to the Football League
3 Bangor City . . . 46 26 10 10 92 50 62
4 Scarborough . . . 46 26 10 10 86 39 62
5 Altrincham. . . . 46 22 15 9 84 49 59
6 Northwich Victoria . 46 22 14 10 83 55 58
7 Stafford Rangers. . 46 22 13 11 71 41 57
8 Runcorn. . . . . 46 19 18 9 70 44 56
9 Mossley. . . . . 46 22 11 13 85 73 55
10 Matlock Town . . . 46 21 12 13 79 60 54
11 Lancaster City . . 46 15 14 17 66 82 44
12 Frickley Athletic . 46 15 12 19 77 81 42
13 BARROW . . . . . 46 14 12 20 58 61 40
14 Goole Town. . . . 46 15 9 22 60 68 39
15 Great Harwood . . 46 13 13 20 66 83 39 Folded
16 Gainsborough Trinity 46 14 10 22 61 74 38
17 Gateshead . . . . 46 16 5 25 65 74 37
18 Netherfield . . . 46 11 13 22 50 80 35
19 Workington. . . . 46 13 8 25 48 80 34
20 Worksop Town . . . 46 12 10 24 45 84 34
21 Morecambe . . . . 46 11 11 24 67 92 33
22 Macclesfield Town . 46 12 9 25 60 92 33
23 Buxton . . . . . 46 13 6 27 60 95 32
24 South Liverpool . . 46 9 7 30 53 111 25
[2 points for a win and 1 for a draw]

New entrants for 1978-79: Southport, relegated from the Football League


MEMORIES

Phil Harding, who now lives in Dallas, has been in contact clarifying when Johnny Haynes played against Barrow, he believes it was Boxing Day 1967, and Fulham won 3-1. This was his first ever Barrow game.

Tony Kavanagh of Norwich has been raking through his old programmes and has come across the following which might be of interest to list members. On Thursday 4 May 1961 stars a plenty turned out to play in a benefit match for Barrow full back, Tommy Cahill. The match between a Barrow Select and a First Division XI kicked off at 6.30pm, the club didn’t have floodlights then. Tony asks if anyone knows if Stan Matthews kicked off as planned?

The programme had the teams as:
Barrow Select: Coglan, Moran (Liverpool - yes Ronnie), Cahill, Staniforth, McEvoy, White, Crowe, Thompson (Preston N.E.), Banks, Byrne, Kemp.

First Division XI: Gordon West (Blackpool - later Everton and England), Willie Cunningham (Preston N.E.), Tommy Garrett (Blackpool), Ronnie Clayton (Blackburn), Matt Woods (Blackburn), ? England (not mentioned in the "Pen Pictures" or included in the photos as others were), Stephen Hill (Blackpool), Ivor Broadis (Queen of the South and England), Peter Dobing (Blackburn and England U23), Chris Crowe (Blackburn), Alan A'Court (Liverpool and England).

Tony noted some programme changes, Cunningham and Moran swapped sides, White for McEvoy and Mitchell for White changes on the Barrow side. No changes (other than Moran for Cunningham) on the First Division XI. Apart from collecting an autograph book full of signatures, Tony can remember very little of the match or the outcome except Gordon West played a blinder and was Tony’s goalkeeping hero for many a year after that.

Although not strictly Barrow AFC, the Northern TV Stars XI played a Barrow XI at Craven Park (Rugby Ground) on Sunday 8 March 1964. Teams as per programme:-

TV Allstars: Colin McDonald (former Burnley and England goalkeeper), Bernard Ganley (ex Oldham and GB Rugby fullback), Graham Haberfield (then "Jerry Booth" of Coronation Street), Karl Denver (of "Whimoweh" fame), David MacBeth (singer: hit record "Mr Blue" -ex Newcastle United player), Bill Grundy (TV personality), Jimmy Tarbuck, Pat O'Hare (singer), David Hamilton (Diddy David - Disc Jockey), Brian Blessed (Z-Cars and now Shakespearean actor), Emile Ford (without the Checkmates, several hit records), subs: Henry Cockburn (former Man United and England), Stan Stennett (comedian and actor), Freddie Pye (ex-Manchester United), Allan Keefe (actor and Coronation Street script writer), Lionel Hampden (interviewer, "sports expert"), and Des O'Connor.

Barrow XI: B. Adams, J. Grundy, D.L. Leatherbarrow, T. King, P. Wilson, T. Fisher, F. Castle, A. Glover (presumably Alex - of Barrow FC), J. Lewthwaite, J. Armstrong, T. Smales.

Referee: J. Hindle.

Linesmen: W. Little W. (Bill?) Gordon (ex Barrow AFC coach).

Again Tony can’t remember much about the match except Allan O'Keefe played a blinder and after the match Emile Ford was mobbed by girl fans and was rescued by somebody who grabbed a hosepipe and turned it on them.

Anyone remember the scores for either of the games?


COWPERTHWAITE’S RECORD UNDER THREAT?
In a Swedish Juniors game earlier this week, a player scored the fastest goal yet in Swedish football (2.5 seconds). He scored directly from the kick off (which is now allowed, but wasn’t when Cowps took the record. I don’t know what legal standing the goal has, but we all knew Cowps’ record would be under threat eventually. Just to remind you, the fastest ever goal scored in British football was by Barrow AFC's Colin Cowperthwaite against Kettering Town in 1979 in the then Alliance Premier League; not only did Barrow whitewash their opponents 4-0, but all four goals were scored by the same person - Colin Cowperthwaite. The first of Cowperthwaite's four goals came after 3.58 seconds of play.


BACK ISSUES
If you’re missing any back issues of the Newsletter and realise you can’t function without the full set, let me know and I’ll email you a copy.


NEW MEMBERS
This Newsletter is free, so if you have any Barrow supporting friends on email who would like their own copy, send me their addresses and I’ll sort it out. We now have people from all over the world on this list, Australia, New Zealand, South America, the States, deepest Africa, Europe, goodness me there are even people living in Barrow on this list. I have a number of correspondents who kindly send me match reports and other bits and bobs for the Newsletter, but I could always do with more, so if you would be willing to put finger to keyboard for the cause, get in touch.


DID YOU KNOW
That there was an earthquake in South Cumbria in early October, this is from the Evening Mail:

The strength of the earth tremor that shook Ulverston at 9.37am on 8 October measured 2.1 on the Richter scale and was one of the area’s more notable shakes. The area is susceptible to tremors because of a geological fault in the Rampside area. The tremor was felt at many points in Ulverston and in areas to the east. The tremor was centred around the Osmotherley area.