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A Brief History of Albion Rovers AFC |
Messrs Reg Tipping, Cliff Orphan, Ken Woodford and Bobby Weaver formed the club in 1937. They played their first season in the Newport and District ex Schoolboys League, which they won at their first attempt. Albion was mostly made up of Railwaymen during the War years where they won numerous League and Cup honours under the captaincy of George Masters and the then Chairman of the club J. Rawlinson, who with his brother Sid gave many years service to the club.
In 1947 we entered the Monmouthshire Senior League and went on to win the Amateur, Challenge and Senior Cups before capturing our first League title in 1953, led then by Albion’s longest serving Captain Jack Reynolds. The most notable player to have represented Albion Rovers in the early years was Roy Clarke who later played for Cardiff City and Manchester City, making 22 full Welsh International appearances. Roy’s brother Bill also played and their parents Mr and Mrs Arthur Clarke were members of the clubs committee for 34 years.
During the 1960’s the clubs members built their own dressing rooms at Crindau Park (aka Kimberley Park), after construction of the M4 forced them to vacate The Old Transport Ground.
Albion formed a baseball section to keep players fit during the summer months. The team won the Monmouthshire Division 1 title at their first attempt and during the Festival of Britain they beat Newport by a large margin to take the cup, thanks to some outstanding bowling by Chris Cross. The team went on to win the Welsh League 2nd Division Title in 1952 and during the 60’s built up an excellent young side that won various Monmouthshire titles and proved to be a strong force in the Welsh Premier League Division.
Albion provided several full internationals including Les Smith, Freddie Manship, Dave Cook, Ken Nicholas and Les Orphan who was one of the few Newportonians to represent Wales at Baseball and Amateur Soccer. Further honours followed in the 70’s, but with the soccer section of the club expanding and seasons getting longer the baseball teams tended to suffer.
In 1965 another team was formed with other clubs joining Albion such as St Anne’s, St Mary’s and Brookside. This team went from strength to strength winning the Newport and District Premier Y title 7 times and capturing the Senior Bowl in 1969 and 1975.
Albion continued to expand adding a third team in 1972, a fourth team in 1975 and even a fifth team for a couple of seasons. The 3rd team lifted the Newport and District Junior Cup in 1983 and against all odds the 4th team won the Division 2A Title in 1985.
The first team won their second Monmouthshire title in 1972 and then the Gwent Challenge Cup for the second time in 1974. Then in 1980 we qualified for a place in the newly formed Gwent County League Division 1 of which they finished Champions in 1983. Albion then went on to achieve what no other side has done in the Gwent County 1st Division, they won league and cup 5 times in a row between 1987 and 1991. Throughout those successful years the side was managed and trained by John Campbell who previously played over 500 games for the club. He had the valued support from two other long serving members in Keith Davis and Dennis Whelan.
The 2nd team also joined in on the success by winning the Premier Y League a further 6 times and also the Newport and District Challenge Cup twice. They also won the newly formed Gwent Combination League in 1995 before it was scrapped.
The 3rd team won their league for the first and only time in 2002 lifting the Newport and District Division 1 Title under the management of Bobby Armstrong and Andy Inson. The other teams were managed by Bobby Williams, Henry Morgan, Allan Lloyd, Steve Bowyer and Robert Ellul.
Off the pitch Albion has built up an even stronger social side, including annual tours, Gentlemen’s Dinners, Race Nights etc. Here are a few of the committee men at the fore front of these occasions: Lyndon Mort, Peter Ellis, Phil Beckett, John Scannel, Ray Smith, Dave Couch, Mike Lyons, Neil Denbury, Bill Dowselll, Graham Jackson, John Smith, John Thorne, Mark Rowlands, Neil Swift, Mike Desmond, Andy Inson and our longest serving chairman Terry Wilkins plus many more.
In 1993 Albion won the Gwent County 1st Division enabling us to apply for Welsh League Football. We had failed to gain access for many years, as Crindau Park did not meet the correct ground criteria. This time however the application was a success as the first team home games were to be played at the newly built Spytty Stadium. We stayed in Division 3 of the Welsh League for 4 years eventually gaining promotion to Division 2 in 1997. After a few tough years in Division 2 we started to struggle for the quality of players required to push on up the league, we also struggled with not having the resources of other clubs and in 2001 we were relegated back to Division 3. We battled for a further 4 seasons but in 2005 our luck finally run out and we were relegated to the Gwent County 1st Division. The team was managed by Michael Chick, Nicky Newell, Martin Elwick, Kevin Davis, Gary Spinks, Mark Price, Adrian Smith, Richard Howells, Jason Tyler and Terry Wilkins. Martin Elwick returned to the helm as 1st team manager for the third time in 2006/07, assisted by Jason Tyler. They took them to the County Motors Cup Final and a 7th place finish.
To be continued…………………
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TEAM CREST
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