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New Brighton Tower FC

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I have just listened to a radio programme about a short lived Merseyside football club in New Brighton. They built an 80,000 capacity ground and invested in an impressive range of players. However, the club never really attracted large crowds (averaging a 1000) and they didn't manage to achieve much on the field either. The club eventually disbanded in 1901, as the owners couldn't afford to fund the club.

The programme is really interesting and features a short interview with Robert Elstone. My main concern is that a Merseyside club built a large stadium outside Liverpool and they were unable to fill it due to poor displays on the field. I love Everton and I'm ecstatic about our recent success, but we don't always win and what if that effects gate receipts at Kirkby?

Here are the links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Brighton_Tower_F.C.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/longview/index.shtml
Peter Getkahn, Croxley Green     Posted 17/02/2009 at 06:46:59

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Paul Thompson
1   Posted 17/02/2009 at 14:59:26

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I listened to this too - very good programme and Robert Elstone makes some interesting points.

However, to link the (ill) fortunes of a club that folded 108 years ago to the Kirkby ground issue is preposterous. Give it a rest.
Andrew Fletcher
2   Posted 17/02/2009 at 15:12:41

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Straws at Clutching

Re-arrange into a sentence.
Alan Rodgers
3   Posted 17/02/2009 at 16:25:39

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Quite interesting post but not really relevant to the Kirkby situation. A hundred years ago many clubs could boast huge capacity grounds e.g. Charlton, Stoke, Port Vale, Burnley as well as the obvious top clubs. Even Odsal Stadium ,Bradford held 102,000 in the 1950s . Under modern safety regulations the true capacity of the Tower ground would be about 25,000. New Brighton itself rivalled Blackpool as a resort in those days.

I?ve stopped worrying about Kirkby anyway. It?s not going to happen.

Peter Eastoe
4   Posted 17/02/2009 at 17:48:43

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I?m sure you are wrong about when New Brighton folded. I remember as a child in the sixties crawling through a gap in a fence behind the old Tower building and coming out into a really impressive ghost stadium. It was circular and covered on all sides. Like a mini Wembley ! I also had a programme for the first game under floodlights against Liverpool in the early 50s.

I think I?m correct when I say that New Brighton were a football league team until the 40s and then drifting into non league before going bust. I think you?re about 50 years out at least.

Peter Eastoe
5   Posted 17/02/2009 at 17:56:09

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Just looked it up. New Brighton emerged from the ashes of New Brighton Tower which, as you say, folded in 1901. In effect they carried on at The Tower Ground and were indeed a league club until 1951. They left the Tower Ground in 1981 when they went bust.

A pity Merseyside has so few league teams compared to Gt Manchester. New Brighton, Southport and Bootle were all football league teams once!
Ric Carey
6   Posted 17/02/2009 at 18:24:46

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Intresting post, but I don't think it has any thing to do with Everton and Kirkby. Seeing as we are a devolped club with a fanbase, whereas (from my ideas from the post) this team was formed when the stadium was built. Very interesting post but im afraid has nothing to do with Kirkby.
Karl Masters
7   Posted 17/02/2009 at 18:33:05

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Very interesting. What happened to the Ghost Stadium that ?Peter Eastoe? mentioned crawling into in the 60s?

Fascinating. Although I had heard of a team in New Brighton, I have never heard of this ?massive? stadium of theirs before.
Tom Campbell
8   Posted 17/02/2009 at 19:24:37

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Is the stadium still around today ? Maybe we could use it haha?
Ray Williams
9   Posted 17/02/2009 at 19:09:19

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To say that The Tower Grounds was a "ghost stadium" and comparing it to Wembley is stretching the imagination somewhat! The pitch was surrounded by a concrete banked cycle track & it had two covered sheds down each side! Throughout the 1960s it was used for stock car racing.

Although my dad first took me to Goodison in September 1962 (when I was 8), I?d had about 5 years of regularly watching "The Rakers" prior to then. In fact, I remember them playing Wigan Athletic in the Cheshire League and look where Wigan have got to!

My late dad loved The Rakers as much as I now love Everton. In fact, somewhere in the loft I?ve got his share certificates issued in 1959 for two 10/- shares (that?s 50p for you kids).

And Peter, you?re right, their first game under floodlights was against the RS but I think it was in 1962 just after they?d been promoted and not in the early 1950s. I don?t remember much about the game, other than it was a New Brighton all-stars team and it absolutely threw it down, so much so that the dye from my jeans ran onto my legs!.

My dad brought me up correctly though as prior to watching them play the RS I knew that there were 2 teams on Merseyside. One wore blue and were called Everton. The other wore red and were called New Brighton!
Happy days.

Simon Bradley
10   Posted 17/02/2009 at 20:42:39

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Yes, there is still a pitch on the same area at the Tower Grounds in New Brighton, but no stadium any longer.

My lad played junior football there a couple of years ago, and I proceeded to bore him with the story that I played there (just before the stadium was demolished) in the Wallasey Cubs Final in 1972 (aged 9) in which the mighty orange machine ? the 9th Wallasey ? beat the 10th Wallasey 2-1 (aet).

See, I?m boring you lot now as well.... I?ll get me coat.
Dick Fearon
11   Posted 17/02/2009 at 22:01:34

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If everyone had the same pessimistic outlook as Peter Getkahn, nothing would be built anywhere.
Ian Kearney
12   Posted 17/02/2009 at 22:53:23

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I played there myself Simon, one of the better pitches on the Wirral
Peter Hall
13   Posted 17/02/2009 at 22:58:40

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I used to follow New Brighton ("The Rakers" they were always called after their original pitch in Rake Lane) when Everton were away or I couldn?t afford the boy?s pen (remember that guys?).

Ray Williams's description of the ground was spot on but I find it hard to believe the description about New Brighton Tower FC building the ground. I believe the Tower ground was built as a cycle track and I remember it being said (I have no proof) that the largest ever sporting attendance in Britain was 150,000 for cycle-racing at the Tower.

Also don?t forget that New Brighton Tower ? demolished as unsafe in the 1920s I think ? was once the tallest building in Britain, taller than Blackpool Tower. In those days huge crowds came from the Lancashire towns for their holiday day trips.

And right up to the 1960s The Tower Ballroom was a major entetrtainment place ? it had upturned columns which had once supported the Tower.

I once saw a group there who you may have heard of...

Finally, I went by train in (I think) 1966 to support Rakers at Bangor in N Wales in the FA Cup 4th QR. Me and my friend Norman Joughin got our train times wrong and arrived 15 min late. Rakers were 3-0 ahead by then. Half-time 6-1. Full time 6-6. Replay under the aforementioned lights at the Tower ? lost 1-0.

But I?ll forget all this when we win this year ? and I don?t mean the Rakers!
Peter Hall
14   Posted 17/02/2009 at 23:15:07

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Only correction to Ray - we played Wigan in the Lancashire Combination. Rakers later moved to the Cheshire League where the top teams were Altrincham and Macclesfield. Runcorn was always a special derby.
Richard Lum
15   Posted 18/02/2009 at 00:04:07

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80,000 capacity ground in late 1800s? And club average attendance is only 1,000. The transportation must be bad. Not enough stables for horses... and manure all over the places. There is a lesson to be learnt. Elstone need to look at the transportation issue again for Kirkby.
Gavin Ramejkis
16   Posted 18/02/2009 at 06:48:01

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Build it and they will come?
EJ Ruane
17   Posted 18/02/2009 at 10:34:36

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"Build it and they will come"?

?Rupert? definitely will! (don?t think he?ll actually go there though)
Peter Davis
18   Posted 18/02/2009 at 12:01:00

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I was a boy when I used to go to The Tower Ground. I can remember the Rakers playing Burnley, who were then a top club and drawing in the FA Cup. It was a very exciting game. Unfortunately, the replay at Turf Moor ended 9-nil to Burnley! Wish I could rembr the year! Maybe someone else can? They played in red and white stripes with white shorts.
Jack Rippar
19   Posted 18/02/2009 at 14:22:15

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Like Liverpool, Chelsea and Thames, New Brighton Tower were formed to play at an already-built stadium, with a massive capacity of 80,000. The owners of the New Brighton Tower, a seaside attraction built to rival the Blackpool Tower, decided there was a need to provide winter entertainment, and had built a stadium adjacent to the tower. The football club was formed in 1896 to provide the entertainment, and joined the Lancashire League at the start of the 1897-98 season. After finishing as champions in their first season, the club were elected to the Second Division of The Football League when the League was expanded by four clubs. The team were very poorly supported averaging gates of 1,000.

The club signed a number of new players, including some who had played international football, and was reasonably successful, finishing 5th (out of 18) in its first season, and 4th in their third season. However, the cost of maintaining a professional football club became too high for the Tower’s owners, and the club was disbanded in the summer of 1901, and replaced in the League by Doncaster Rovers.

In 1921, a new club was formed, New Brighton, who would also play in the Football League from 1923 until 1951.

The tower was taken down during WWI, and the rest of the complex destroyed by fire in the late 1960s.
Jack Rippar
20   Posted 18/02/2009 at 14:32:16

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Worth a read and the pics are cool:

http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~dstewart/tower.htm

Peter Hall
21   Posted 21/02/2009 at 20:01:03

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Thanks Jack, I enjoyed that link

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