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Barrow Raiders
Barrowraiderslogo.png
Barrow-in-Furness coat of arms
Club information
Full name Barrow Raiders Rugby League Football Club
Website http://www.barrowrlfc.com/
Colours Blue and white
Founded 1875
Current details
Ground(s) Craven Park
Competition Co-operative Championship

Barrow Raiders are a British professional rugby league team from Barrow-in-Furness.

Barrow's colours are blue and white.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Early years

Barrow F.C. were formed in 1875. It is thought that Tom H. Baynes, a shipping clerk, was the driving force behind the club's foundation. As well as being a player, he was probably also the first Barrow team coach. Games were mainly played at Cavendish Park but also (until 1880) at the Parade Ground.

In April 1897 the team switched from rugby union to rugby league. Barrow joined the Lancashire Senior Competition Second Division and became champions in their first season. However, they lost a challenge match against Morecambe, the bottom club in the First Division and they failed to gain promotion. They were finally promoted in the 1899/1900 season, by defeating Tyldesley in the challenge match.

In 1914, Cavendish Park was requisitioned by the authorities for the war effort. Barrow moved to Little Park, Roose, three miles from the centre of town. The league at this time was suspended and clubs were forced to arrange their own fixtures in an unofficial war league. Barrow were champions in 1917/18, losing just twice in 22 matches.

After World War I, Barrow had mixed fortunes and when the league resumed in 1919/20, they managed to finish 5th. However, over the next decade, despite having several county and national players, Barrow’s form suffered and its league position was poor.

In 1929, it had been realised that rugby league in Barrow was approaching a precarious period, as the attendaces at Little Park were gradually decreasing. This was in part due to industrial depression but also Little Park's location. The directors made an appeal to the town, and approached the mayor, Alderman John Whinnerah who was to be an ardent supporter. Commander G. W. Craven, a local war hero, started an appeal fund with a donation of £500. In a short time the club bought a central site, where the Jute Works stood for £2,500. Craven Park was built in 1931, largely as a result of the efforts of supporters, 500 of whom volunteered to construct the ground. The total cost of the building project came to £7,500 which was an unbelievable figure in those days.

1937/38 saw Barrow reach the finals of the Lancashire Cup for the first time, losing narrowly 4-8 to Warrington. That season was a time of great opportunity for the Barrow team but was to end in disappointment. After playing seven matches in just ten days, they lost 7-4 to Salford in the final of the Challenge Cup at Wembley; they also lost in the Championship play-off semi-final 13-7 against Hunslet.

[edit] Post World War two

Barrow dropped out of the wartime Lancashire league in 1940-41, they did not return to league competition until 1945-46. As many of the pre-war players had retired, this was an era of rebuilding and recruiting.

The 1950s were the club's heyday. The team was captained by Willie Horne and Barrow appeared no less than three times at Wembley. On May 5, 1951, Barrow made their second appearance at Wembley and were beaten 10-0 by Wigan. On Saturday 27 October, 1951 13,319 spectators were at Barrow to watch the home side beat New Zealand 9-5. On April 30, 1955, Barrow made their third appearance at Wembley. This time, they won the Challenge Cup 21-12 against Workington Town, later that year they added the Lancashire Cup after a 12-2 win over Oldham.

On May 11, 1957, Barrow played again in the Challenge Cup final at Wembley against Leeds and were narrowly beaten 9-7. 1957 signalled the end of the golden era of the club and most of the star players retired after this time.

The league split into two divisions in 1961-62 and because of a poor finish in the previous season, Barrow was forced to play in the second division.

Their last appearance at Wembley Stadium was in 1967, where they were strongly tipped to win the Challenge Cup final again, but were beaten by Featherstone Rovers 17-12. A crowd of 77,000 paid a then record £54,435 to watch the game.

1973 saw Barrow appoint former player, Frank Foster, as coach. He built a side which won the Second Division championship in 1975-76 and reached a John Player Trophy final in 1981 only to lose 5-12 to Warrington. Phil Hogan was transferred to Hull KR in 1978 for a then world record fee of £33,000. Latterly with good 'hard' forwards and fast talented 'union' backs this team were known as the 'Harlem Globetrotters' of rugby league, always trying to keep the ball alive and exciting to watch. The only problem was inconsistency and stabilising the club in the 'Premier league' was too difficult to achieve.

Barrow fluctuated between divisions but had three consecutive years in the top flight between 1980 and 1983. Frank Foster was eventually replaced by Thomas "Tommy" Dawes in 1983.

The season 1983-84 saw Barrow win the Second Division title and the Lancashire Cup against favourites Widnes 12-8. Tommy Dawes, despite his initial success, was sacked in 1985.

In 1988-89, Australian Rod Reddy took on a player-coach role at Barrow in 1987. Barrow earned promotion to Division One but that campaign saw Barrow manage only one league win and suffer a club record 90-0 defeat at Leeds. Reddy was sacked and Denis Jackson took over as a caretaker coach for the rest of 1989-90.

After relegation in 1990, Barrow appointed a new coach in Steve ‘Knocker’ Norton but finished 17th out of 21 in Division Two.

[edit] Summer era

Barrow Raiders' logo

In 1996, the first tier of British rugby league clubs played the inaugural Super League season and changed from a winter to a summer season.[1] When the Super League competition had been proposed, part of the deal was that some traditional clubs would merge. Barrow were down to merge with Whitehaven, Workington Town and Carlisle to form a new club called Cumbria based in Workington which would compete in the Super League but ultimately this did not happen and Barrow were not part of the new competition.

Until 1995 the team was simply titled Barrow RLFC, but they adopted the nickname Barrow Braves to coincide with rugby league’s switch to a summer season. Peter Roe was head coach for an 15-month period, ending in January 1996.

In 1997 they merged with Cumbrian rivals Carlisle to form Barrow Border Raiders. Carlisle's Paul Charlton became coach of the new team. The new team played all its matches in Barrow; the merger was essentially a financial arrangement only.

Barrow enjoyed mixed fortunes under Charlton with two top-ten finishes in the Northern Ford Premiership in 1999 and 2000, before the club's fortunes took a turn for the worse in the 2001 season, which resulted in Charlton not being offered a new contract.[1]

In 2002 the "Border" part of the name, which was never that relevant to Barrow, which is in south Cumbria, was dropped.

Under Peter Roe's second spell at Craven Park, they were National League Two champions in 2004, their first trophy for 20 years. They were promoted to National League One. However, they were relegated back to National League Two at the end of the 2005 season after winning just one of their 18 matches.

The financial situation at the club forced a review of the coaching structure and the position of head coach was made part-time and the club parted company with Peter Roe. In October 2005 local ex-player Paul Crarey was appointed as head coach. In his first season as coach of the Raiders he guided them to the National League Two play-offs on a very limited budget. After the end of the 2007 season Paul Crarey controversially resigned from Barrow Raiders, after guiding them to a second succsesive play-off position.

Barrow initially had lined up former Widnes coach Steve McCormack to take over but after receiving a better position with struggling Super League club Hull KR. On Thursday 2 November, 2007 Barrow Raiders announced that former player Welsh-born Aussie David "Dave" Clark would take over, with Dean Marwood as his assistant. On the 23rd August, 2008, Raiders gained automatic promotion from National League Two by beating Swinton 12-32 to clinch second place in National League Two.

On 5 April, 2009, Barrow will play Wigan of the Super League in one of the biggest matches to be played at Craven Park. On 21 July Despite the club being 2nd in the league and having made The Northern Rail Cup Final coach Dave Clark stepped down and became assistant to new head coach Steve Deakin

On 31 August 2009, after just 6 weeks in charge, Steve Deakin left the club and Dave Clark reclaimed the head coach role, leading the club to the 2009 Co-op Championship league leaders trophy and a grand final appearance versus Halifax.

In the 2009 Co-op Championship Grand Final, a closely matched game was fought between Barrow and Halifax, but a try in the 77th minute settled the game once and for all in Barrow's favour. The final score was Barrow 26-18 Halifax.

[edit] 2009 Season: Fixtures and results

See Barrow Raiders 2009.

[edit] 2009 squad

No. Position Player
Niue FB Zebastian Lucky Luisi
England WG Mike Backhouse
England WG Liam Harrison
England WG James Nixon
Fiji FE never played
England HB Liam Campbell
Fiji HK Waisale Sukanaveita never played
No. Position Player
Croatia PR Ned Catic
England PR Lee Dutton
Fiji SR Sevania Koroi never played
England SR Andrew Brocklehurst sacked for gross misconduct June 2009
Wales LK Andy Bracek

8. Brett McDermott 9. Andrew "Andy" Ellis 14. Paul Noone 15. Christopher "Chris" Young 16. Jamie Butler 17. Scott Kaighan 18. James Finch 19. Christopher "Chris" Larkin 20. Nicholas "Nick" Beach 21. Joseph "Joe" McKenna 27. Darren Holt 28. Michael Darby 29. James Gordon 30. Brett Carter 31. Andrew Cairns 32. Ruairi McGoff

[edit] Players earning international caps while at Barrow


  • Robert "Bob" Ayres, for England while at Barrow 1938 Wales, France; 1945 Wales
  • William "Bill" Burgess, for England while at Barrow 1923 Wales; 1924 Other Nations; 1925 Wales x 2; 1926 Wales, Other Nations; 1928 Wales; 1930 Other Nations, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1924 Australia x 3, New Zealand x 3; 1926-27 New Zealand x 3; 1928 Australia x 3, New Zealand x 2; 1929-30 Australia x 2
  • William "Bill" Burgess, for England while at Barrow 1962 France; 1969 Wales, France, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1962 France; 1963 Australia; 1965 New Zealand x 2; 1966 France, Australia x 3, New Zealand x 2; 1967 France, Australia; 1968 France; while at Salford 1969 France


  • David Cairns, for England while at Barrow 1984 Wales, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1984 France x 2
  • Chris Camilleri, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1980 2-caps?
  • Charles "Charlie" W. Carr (#3), for England while at Barrow 1924 Other Nations; 1925 Wales x 2; 1926 Wales, Other Nations; 1927 Wales; 1928 Wales, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1924 Australia x 2, New Zealand x 2; 1926-27 New Zealand x 3
  • Frank Castle, for England while at Barrow 1951 France; 1952 Other Nations x 2, Wales; 1953 Other Nations, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1952 Australia x 3; 1954 Australia
  • Val Cumberbatch, for England while at Barrow 1938 France
  • John Cunningham, for England while at Barrow 1975 France, Wales
  • Roy Francis, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1947 1-cap?
  • Harry Gifford, for England while at Barrow 1908 Wales; 1909 Australia x 3, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1908-9 Australia x 2
  • Dennis Goodwin, for England while at Barrow 1955 Other Nations, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1957 France x 2; 1958 France, New Zealand x 2
  • John "Jack" Grundy, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1955 New Zealand x 3; 1956 Australia x 3; 1957 France x 4, Australia, New Zealand (World Cup 1957 3-caps, 1-try)


  • Philip "Phil" Hogan, for England while at Hull K.R. 1979 France, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1977 France, New Zealand, Australia x 2; 1978 Australia (sub); while at Hull K.R. 1979 Australia, Australia (sub), New Zealand, New Zealand (sub)
  • William "Willie" Horne, for England while at Barrow 1945 Wales x 2; 1946 France x 2, Wales x 2; 1947 France, Wales ; 1949 Other Nations; 1952 Other Nations, Wales; 1953 France, Wales, Other Nations, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1946 Australia x 3; 1947 New Zealand; 1948 Australia; 1952 Australia x 3
  • Phil Jackson, for England while at Barrow 1955 Other Nations, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1954 Australia x 3, New Zealand x 3; 1954 France x 2, Australia, New Zealand; 1955 New Zealand x 3; 1956 Australia x 3; 1957 France, New Zealand; France x 5; 1958 France, Australia x 2, New Zealand (World Cup 1954 4-caps 3-tries, 1957 2-caps, 2-tries)
  • Keith Jarrett, for Wales (RU) while at Newport RFC (RU) 10-caps, for British Lions (RU) while at Newport RFC (RU) ?-caps, for Wales while at Barrow ?-caps
  • Joseph "Joe" Jones, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1946 New Zealand (from Wigan)


  • Bryn Knowelden, for England while at Barrow 1944 Wales; 1945 Wales ; 1947 France, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1946 New Zealand
  • James "Jimmy" Lewthwaite (#2), for England while at Barrow 1952 Other Nations
  • William "Billy" Little, for England while at Barrow 1933 Other Nations; 1934 Australia, France
  • Reginald "Reg" Parker, for England while at Barrow 1955 Other Nations
  • Edward "Eddie" Szymala, for England while at Barrow 1979 France (sub), for Great Britain while at Barrow 1981 France (sub), France
  • Edward "Ted" Toohey, for England while at Barrow 1952 Other Nations x 2, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1952 Australia x 3
  • Alec Troup, for England while at Barrow 1934 Australia, France; 1935 Wales; 1936 Wales, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1936 New Zealand x 2
  • John "Jack" T. 'Tank' Woods, for England while at Barrow 1930 Other Nations; 1930 Wales; 1933 Other Nations, for Great Britain while at Barrow 1933 Australia

[edit] Other notable players





The club launched their Hall of Fame in 2001 with 1950s legends Willie Horne, Phil Jackson and Jimmy Lewthwaite its inaugural inductees.

[edit] Honours

[edit] External links


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