In the last magazine Michael Benyon
raised the subject of the difficulty of pinpointing an official date for the formation of
our supporters club. I agree with Michael that it would be nice to have a particular date
to focus our energies upon and maybe to have the official celebrations. As one who was
around at the time I feel a little responsible and to a degree guilty that Benny says in
his article "getting the date right is not that simple." However I do have
reasons for this and I also have an official date in mind and would like to put this
forward for consideration.
Looking around at the AGM attendances and our ever growing
membership over the years, it is totally mind-blowing to sometimes reflect upon the fact
that this organisation was born out of a nucleus of about half a dozen souls during our
last season in the then division one back in 1976. I often wonder how we would have fared
had we started the club earlier during our 1st division heydays, but I am not
sure we could have done any better. There was an ill fated attempt at a club in the late
sixties which arranged two trips by coach (Coventry 1-4, Southampton 1-5) and a couple of
newsletters, but in the summer of 1969 a mixture of lack of enthusiasm among members and a
serious car accident involving two of the committee spelt its demise. I believe membership
totalled about 25. On forming our club years later we were never able to trace any of the
members of this early attempt at organising the 'London Clarets'.
I had first attended Turf Moor on 30th January 1971 for
the game versus Newcastle. I made the journey alone, although I later discovered that
future Chairman of the club Clive Jennings made his first trip to Burnley on that day. I
made three more trips to Turf Moor that relegation season and on one of them I met the
small band that would form my travelling companions for a long time to come. Names such as
Simon Pettit, Michael Bullen, Ken Webb and Peter Benjamin spring immediately to mind.
Others such as Pete Hodson (Uri), Nigel Blackburn and of course Henry Lumley joined us
soon after.
1971/72 saw me take in 36 league games as Burnley finished the
season on a high of six straight wins, and the following season, despite the turmoil
caused by British Rail’s electrification of the London to Glasgow line, I managed a
100% record as the Clarets won promotion back to Division One. Further obstacles were
thrown in the way of trying to see the Clarets play over the next couple of seasons.
Miners strikes, train strikes and a ban on cheap day return travel to name but three, and
then came 1975/76, relegation year. (Again.)
I wrote an article for magazine number 101, which gave some of the
background to the formation of the club. In that article I suggested that I took some
persuading before going ahead with my part in the proceedings. What I didn’t say was
the motive behind me finally agreeing to arrange our very 1st organised trip.
It was of course SELFISHNESS!
Forming a club and joining APFSCIL would give us many
benefits, including sports and social activities, but to me the one thing offered was the
chance to continue to support the Clarets and get to the matches as cheaply as possible.
In fact, for a while in those early days, we were able to travel at a rate below the
prices of two or three years before.
Benny asks, "Can you have a club without a meeting or
something in writing?" I would suggest that on 28th February 1976, when
the train left Euston station for Preston and had on board a joint group of Burnley and
Aston Villa supporters travelling officially under the banner of Burnley London Supporters
Club, we had our 1st meeting, and the contract with British Rail contains the
proof that we as a club existed.
OK, more formal meetings followed, subscriptions were set,
committees formed, newsletters circulated, teams formed to compete in many competitions,
BUT the first and foremost reason for the club's formation and existence was to attempt to
get as many people along to Burnley matches as organised and as cheaply as possible.
During the dark days of the mid eighties when the travelling Clarets were down to mainly
Woody, Clive and Nigel, the club still existed, we still had our newsletters, sports and
social events and once a year met for the AGM, but I wonder how long it could or would
have continued in that manner? The fact it survived at all is great testament to those who
travelled at the time.
So there it is. There are no records, anything formal, or anything
official. It was all a gradual process driven by a selfish desire to see Burnley play and
it all came together on:
