Ronnie Radford

[Jonty]

Good post pjdaly and all correct, let`s hope there is no insane decision at boardroom level regarding our ground facilities again that ends our league status in the same season Ronnie Radford passed away. About the Old Pals Act Barrow had finished bottom the season before, all the bottom four had to apply for re-election and the Non-League Clubs put their names forward league placings had no bearing on who applied. At the end of our first NPL Season 1972/73 when we finished 23rd we applied for election back to the league, the Club received Nil points when again the Club had been promised votes from Clubs according to board members.

Don't know how accurate it is but this site

http://www.nonleaguematters.co.uk/forum ... tt_id=3506

doesn't have Barrow down as applying in 1973.

I think Newport also hosted speedway which might account for their poor showing in 1969-71. If Bradford PA hadn't gone in 1970 then they might well have gone that year or 1971.

Noticed Crewe were re-elected no less than 7 times in the seasons after we dropped out. It does make you think that geography and speedway played a massive part in this.

[SKIPPER]

No surprise that Hartlepool were first in with a complaint about the ground. Applied for re-election five succesive seasons 1960-64 (the local mayor gave them a civic reception for escaping a sixth ! ) and again in 1970 and 1971 the two seasons before our demise. A whiff therefore of self-preservation, with us out of the way their chances of future survival were improved.

[xerxes]

Good post pjdaly and all correct, let`s hope there is no insane decision at boardroom level regarding our ground facilities again that ends our league status in the same season Ronnie Radford passed away. About the Old Pals Act Barrow had finished bottom the season before, all the bottom four had to apply for re-election and the Non-League Clubs put their names forward league placings had no bearing on who applied. At the end of our first NPL Season 1972/73 when we finished 23rd we applied for election back to the league, the Club received Nil points when again the Club had been promised votes from Clubs according to board members.

Don't know how accurate it is but this site

http://www.nonleaguematters.co.uk/forum ... tt_id=3506

doesn't have Barrow down as applying in 1973.

Not accurate at all. We did indeed apply, and got zero votes, as 'behind the goals' said.

[xerxes]

They did not vote us out. We did that to ourselves by making our ground a near unplayable rubble heap and by giving every Chairman in the Division (who had already voted to save us the previous season) and who hated having to travel up to us each year, a reason for voting to save a bit of money.

That's not correct. The 1st and 2nd division clubs each had one voting entitlement, whereas the 3rd and 4th division clubs had only 5 between them.

[andyg]

Don't know how accurate it is but this site

http://www.nonleaguematters.co.uk/forum ... tt_id=3506

doesn't have Barrow down as applying in 1973.

Not accurate at all. We did indeed apply, and got zero votes, as 'behind the goals' said.

We probably got a minus vote in 1973

[litefoot]

No surprise that Hartlepool were first in with a complaint about the ground. Applied for re-election five succesive seasons 1960-64 (the local mayor gave them a civic reception for escaping a sixth ! ) and again in 1970 and 1971 the two seasons before our demise. A whiff therefore of self-preservation, with us out of the way their chances of future survival were improved.

Depends how you look at it. On one hand there's potentially a strong non-league applicant out of the way and one team failing election might close the door for a few years. (Although Hereford got in purely because of the Newcastle game, unlike the likes of Peterborough who had clearly built up a head of steam before they got in) On the other, there's another regular re-applicant out of the way and they're potentially next in the firing line. If they'd had to re-apply between 1972 and 1977 they'd have been on thin ice because of geography and Yeovil and Kettering regularly get a decent number of votes for a few years in a row.

[Jonty]

Deffo seems an unfair way to do it and glad they scrapped it although it’s hard to argue that we were probably on thin ice for a few seasons. The speedway was the final nail in the coffin coupled up with Hereford being the FA cup darlings of that season.

[behind the goals]

Evening Mail Tuesday May 30th 1972
BARROW AFC ASK FL CLUBS TO AMEND MISTAKE
Strongly worded letter to the big powers from Holker Street which it was claimed there was a bit of a smell as to how Barrow came to lose league status. Club Chairman Sam Morgan & Director Bill Rogers travelled to London for the meeting on June 1st 1972.

Evening Mail Wednesday May 31st 1972
BARROW AFC CHAIRMAN SETS OFF FULL OF HOPE
Some have said will give us vote

Evening Mail Thursday June 1st 1972
Barrow AFC failed today in bid to get back into Football League. They did not get a single vote. The voting was Colchester 48, Northampton 43,
Crewe 36, Darlington 26, Yeovil 14, Kettering 12, Wigan 10, Chelmsford 4, Nuneaton 1, Cambridge 1, Telford 1.

[xerxes]

Evening Mail Tuesday May 30th 1972
BARROW AFC ASK FL CLUBS TO AMEND MISTAKE
Strongly worded letter to the big powers from Holker Street which it was claimed there was a bit of a smell as to how Barrow came to lose league status. Club Chairman Sam Morgan & Director Bill Rogers travelled to London for the meeting on June 1st 1972.

Evening Mail Wednesday May 31st 1972
BARROW AFC CHAIRMAN SETS OFF FULL OF HOPE
Some have said will give us vote

Evening Mail Thursday June 1st 1972
Barrow AFC failed today in bid to get back into Football League. They did not get a single vote. The voting was Colchester 48, Northampton 43,
Crewe 36, Darlington 26, Yeovil 14, Kettering 12, Wigan 10, Chelmsford 4, Nuneaton 1, Cambridge 1, Telford 1.

Those dates should all be 1973 - and the days of the week are wrong.

[behind the goals]

Evening Mail Wednesday May 30th 1973
BARROW AFC ASK FL CLUBS TO AMEND MISTAKE
Strongly worded letter to the big powers from Holker Street which it was claimed there was a bit of a smell as to how Barrow came to lose league status. Club Chairman Sam Morgan & Director Bill Rogers travelled to London for the meeting on June 1st 1973.

Evening Mail Thursday May 31st 1973
BARROW AFC CHAIRMAN SETS OFF FULL OF HOPE
Some have said will give us vote

Evening Mail Friday June 1st 1973
Barrow AFC failed today in bid to get back into Football League. They did not get a single vote. The voting was Colchester 48, Northampton 43,
Crewe 36, Darlington 26, Yeovil 14, Kettering 12, Wigan 10, Chelmsford 4, Nuneaton 1, Cambridge 1, Telford 1.

Those dates should all be 1973 - and the days of the week are wrong.

You are right just amended

[mulholland]

Good post pjdaly. Besides the speedway factor it was undoubtedly a geographical decision by the chairman
of the different league club boards as well as Workington and Southport also got voted out of the league in that era. We're doing brilliantly comparatively speaking, look where they are now! Take the positives!

[barrowaberdeen]

Great Post PJ.

Can anyone remember what the reasons advanced ,(if there were any) by the board for the speedway decision?

Was it just money issues as per?

[BillyBlue]

Purely a commercial decision as we were cash strapped and couldn’t turn any investment down. The Board were taken to a couple of grounds that had speedway and football, Ellesmere Port and Bristol Rovers? Trouble was these were big open grounds with much more space to accommodate a speedway track. The worst thing that happened was the season after the football pools money went up which would have stopped us having to accept the speedway offer. A lot of this information came out in a meeting in the Bluebird between the Board and supporters which ultimately removed the speedway. The best person to ask is Sid Blain who was probably the most vocal supporter against the speedway when we were going to be expelled from the Northern Premier League.

[behind the goals]

Purely a commercial decision as we were cash strapped and couldn’t turn any investment down. The Board were taken to a couple of grounds that had speedway and football, Ellesmere Port and Bristol Rovers? Trouble was these were big open grounds with much more space to accommodate a speedway track. The worst thing that happened was the season after the football pools money went up which would have stopped us having to accept the speedway offer. A lot of this information came out in a meeting in the Bluebird between the Board and supporters which ultimately removed the speedway. The best person to ask is Sid Blain who was probably the most vocal supporter against the speedway when we were going to be expelled from the Northern Premier League.

Good post BillyBlue all correct and yes Sid is the man to ask, we were forced or play our home game against Northwich away October 13th 1973 because of the state of the pitch, the Club were giving an ultimatum by the NPL Board removed the speedway or we remove you.

[blue nige]

7

Great Post PJ.

Can anyone remember what the reasons advanced ,(if there were any) by the board for the speedway decision?

Was it just money issues as per?

Just down to money the club were facing extinction, they previously had begged for local support and the then VIckers Armstrong offered to double any monies collected as soon as they started to rip down the steelworks end the ground seemed to lose it's soul .
Desperate times hopefully never to come back just wish I could win the Euros and I'd love to rebuild that end !