Burnley FC - 25 Years of The London Clarets

Some of those Saturdays in the close season are a little tricky to fill aren't they? That's not true, of course, as there is a lot of summer drinking to do, but it sort of explains how I was recently tidying out some cupboards at home and came across my pile of historical London Clarets material. I have kept everything since I joined in October 1977 so it is a very large pile indeed! Then I thought, why not write an article for the newsletter; for some of the many old timers (you know who you are) it may invoke memories; for the newcomers the history may prove interesting. First off I sent my findings to Danny West (a founder member) for him to add some of the early stuff. Thanks are due for his help.

The first 'newsletter' seems to have been an item dated June 1976 and actually headed 'a circular letter to Southern based Burnley supporters'. This is the earliest item Danny has. He thinks there were two more of these circulars before a missive headed 'Newsletter no. 4’ (the first one given that title) was issued in February 1977. This was followed by no. 5 (it would be wouldn't it!) in April 1977, no. 6 in June 1977 and so on, thus establishing the every two months format which has continued, with hiccups, to this day. In the early years the newsletter was composed of typed and duplicated A4 sheets and not until issue no. 28, March 1981, was the current booklet style adopted. The first issue I have is no. 8, so if anyone has 1-7 that they don't want I will be pleased to take them off their hands.

It was the policy in the early years to hold informal meetings in Central London, usually on Saturday evenings after Burnley had played in town. The first of these, which was reported on in newsletter no. 4, was held on 20^th January 1977 (a Thursday) at the New Savoy Tavern, Savoy St, WC2. Some 26 members attended, the subscription was increased to Ł1 and it was decided to start a sports and social section - something I think we've done with great success!

Further meetings were held at the same venue on 19^th March 1977, 14^th May 1977 and 25^th August 1977. The fifth and sixth informal meetings were held at the Black Horse, Rathbone Place, W1, on 5^th November 1977 and 25^th February 1978. The last one was poorly attended and these gatherings ceased.

In place of them came the much grander sounding AGMs, and the first one to be actually called this was held at the Oporto, High Holborn, WC1 on 30^th October 1978. This so far has been the only non-summer AGM. It was later called the 2nd AGM, even though none of the earlier meetings had this title bestowed on them, so I assume the 20^th January 1977 meeting was deemed to be the first AGM.

In 1979 we moved to a summer date of June 9th and again met at the Oporto, which was also the venue for our darts matches in the early years. It was the first AGM I attended and I had the great pleasure of beating our newsletter editor in the individual knockout darts tournament held after the meeting. Since then I have been to all the AGMs and found them excellent social occasions over the years. For connoisseurs of lists they have been held as follows:

4^th AGM	19^th July 1980	Oporto, High Holborn, WC1
5^th	13^th June 1981	Oporto
6^th	12^th June 1982	Marquis of Granby, Rathbone Place, W1
7^th	11^th June 1983	Cock Inn, Phoenix Road, W1
8^th	30^th June 1984	Cock Inn
9^th	6^th July 1985	Bishop's Finger, West Smithfield, EC1
10^th	12^th July 1986	Bishop's Finger
11^th	11^th July 1987	Bishop's Finger
12^th	16^th July 1988	Hemingford Arms, Offord Road, N1
13^th	1^st July 1989	Hemingford Arms
14^th	7^th July 1990	Hemingford Arms
15^th	6^th July 1991	Rugby Tavern, Rugby Street, WC1
16^th	11^th July1992	Sekforde Arms, Sekforde Street, EC1