The barbarian football club

It is probable that no other golf club in the world can boast of hosting such an array of great rugby players than The Glamorganshire Golf Club. Every Easter Sunday, except for the War Years, the Club entertained the famous BarbariansF.C. Between 1901 when it commenced and 1987 when it was discontinued, the annual Good Friday clash with the Barbarians was the highlight of the Penarth club season and together with the Sunday golf at The Glamorganshire Golf Club, the most significant annual event in town.

The ‘Baa-Baas,’ as they are nicknamed, call the town in the Vale of Glamorgan their ‘spiritual home.’ They were formed in 1890 by Londoner William Percy Carpmael. He decided to invite a group of players to join him on a tour to the north of England. He saw this as an opportunity to play with friends from various clubs who were normally opponents.

William Percy Carpmael

The idea took off and they have been playing matches all over the world ever since in their famous black and white hoops, though players wear the socks from their own club strip. You can only play for the club by invitation only and the club does not have a home stadium or clubhouse.

The Association of the Barbarians with the town of Penarth goes right back to 1901, that being the year when the celebrated Easter Tour expanded to its full and final format by the addition of both Penarth and Swansea to the old foes of Cardiff and Newport. It was to become ‘as much a part of the international matches between the home nations and the visits from the Southern Hemisphere countries.’ Penarth, or rather the Esplanade Hotel on its waterfront, was chosen as the perfect location to accommodate the team for the duration of this mini tour of southern regions of the Principality. Apart from the proximity to the match grounds, there was the added advantages of bracing sea air, a relaxing and a desirable relative isolation for the players to enjoy.

The annual Good Friday game against the Barbarians marked the start of their tour around south Wales, which also included playing Cardiff RFC on the Saturday, Swansea RFC on Easter Monday and thenNewport RFC on the Tuesday.

For a period until the First World War, `Penarth were as good as the Barbarians.

The legend of the Esplanade Hotel & the neighbouring Penarth Baths in 1901 when it became “home” to the wandering Barbarian tribe.

But apart from the enticing and relaxed atmosphere that the ‘Esp’ could provide, there was also a generous offer by The Glamorganshire Golf Club for members of the Barbarians to play their course free of charge on the Easter Sunday- the mid-pointin the touring schedule. The package proved irresistible to Percy Carpmael, the President of the Baa-Baas.

It just so happened that the Captain of The Glamorganshire Golf Club at the time of the first visit to Penarth was Alexander Duncan. Percy and ‘Alec’ knew each other well. Alec had been a Cardiff player in the late 1870’s and went on to become a regular committee member of the club and had only recently retired from his three years of its Presidency. He had also been a Welsh selector, a VicePresident of the WRU and a founder member of the International Rugby Board. He was hugely respected in rugby circles and his residence, Glenholme, was just a stone throw away from The Esplanade Hotel which he knew intimately. Although, there is no firm record as to who influenced Percy Carpmael to choose Penarth as his favoured location for the new tour, the spotlight must fall unerringly on Alec.

Alexander Duncan

Nigel Starmer Smith highlighted the warm association between the Barbarians and The Glamorganshirein his history of the former club published in 1977:

‘In addition to the institution of The Esplanade, the other factor that guaranteed the contentedness of the Baa-Baas in Penarth was the association that developed with The Glamorganshire Golf Club. Since Easter 1901 to1996 the Penarth club had allowed members on tour to play over their glorious links whenever they wish to do so. Barbarians had the use of their clubhouse and even the sacrifices of their members’ set of clubs. Such a wonderfully generous gesture had made this compulsory golf tournament a major part of the Barbarian legend and, in the eyes of certain ‘alickadoos,’almost of equal importance to the encounters on the rugby field!’

Barbarians at leisure at the Glamorganshire Golf Club	Sunday at the Glamorganshire Golf Club Percy Carpmael ( second from the right) with the young Barbarians keen to test their golfing prowess

In 1924-25 in recognition of the generosity of the Golf Club, ninety-five Barbarian members subscribed a total of £52.17.0d. for a 95-ounce perpetual silver cup called the Barbarian ChallengeCup, to be competed for annually. On Good Friday, 16th April 1925, Percy Carpmael, the then Barbarian President, made the presentation of the new trophy which was accepted on behalf of theClub by G.H.P. Redford.

1925-The presentation of the Challenge Cup.Percy Carpmael, sitting on the left, presents the cup to the Glamorganshire Golf Club.

The Barbarians were made eligible to compete for the trophy and in those first years of the competition the ‘real’ golfers did so. In fact, in the very first competition in 1925 appropriately the result was a tie between club member W.H. Guest and the Scotland and Barbarian player J.C. Dykes who each scored a net seventy-five off handicaps of 14 and 9, respectively.

Current members of the club remember the many happy Easters they had enjoyed in the company of the Barbarians, especially under the presidency of Brigadier Glyn Hughes and the legendary Herbert Waddell.

The 1976 Penarth side that beat the Barbarians 36-30

The fixture was played seventy-five times until 1986-with Penarth losing eleven times and drawing four games.

The bond between Penarth and the Barbarians remained and they continued to visit at Easter time and take part in the mysterious game which can be best explained in the following note which is issued to each Barbarian player: Rules and instructions regarding the annual Golf competition played at the Glamorganshire Golf Club on the Sunday of the Easter Tour.

1. Everybody goes to Golf Course. No lunch or tea served at Royal Hotel.
2. If weather doubtful take change of at least shoes, socks, and trousers.
3. No. I in each team responsible for providing golf clubs, balls and collecting weep money unless underlined in red.
4. All matches nine holes. Preferred lies on fairways (cannot move ball more than two feet). Can clean ball on greens and fairways. Cannot touch or move in bunkers.
5. Air shots do not count if ball not moved.
6. Play off yellow tee-boxes when driving.
7. No. 1 in five-man team drives at first and sixth. No. 1 in four-man team drives at first, fifth, ninth.
8. No. 2 in five-man team drives at second and seventh. No. 2 in four-man team drives at second, sixth, etc.
9. No. 2 will always follow No. 1. No. 3 will always follow No. 2 at each hole.
10. Winner of ‘A’ team versus ‘B’ team plays winner of ‘C’ versus ‘D’ over second nine holes, No.1 driving at the 10th, and so on with winner of ‘E’.
11. Please make a point of replacing divots and smoothing bunkers after play there in we are guests, and the Glamorganshire Golf Club are very kind and remarkably tolerant) to us.
12. Singing in the Club House afterwards at approximately 6.00pm. All Barbarians expected to attend.

The relationship between the Barbarians and Glamorganshire was best. summed up when the Baa-Baas presented the challenge cup that is still one of the club’s most prized trophies. Percy Carpmael, the Barbarians’ President, told the golfers: “Sportsmen I say sportsmen advisedly, because people who have stood Barbarian golf for twenty years are sportsmen of the first degree. We are not often golfers really, but gardeners. We are presenting this cup to the Penarth Club because they have stood our golf for so many years, and coming up the drive I thought of an appropriate rule which might be embodied in those governing the play for the Cup.

It is this, ‘No one must leave the green until the score has been properly settled’. If the problem is a big one, then all the players must sit down on the green and discuss the matter over a bottle of Worthington. I think on the Penarth links the bottle will be found in the hole. I have the greatest pleasure in handing over to such a fine body of sportsmen this cup which has been subscribed by many past and present players, some of whom are at the moment as far away as India and Shanghai.”

The reply by the club captain G.H.P. Redford was equally apt: “There ere is an old proverb which says, ‘Never trust a Greek when he is bearing gifts’, but of course it is quite unnecessary to say this because we are not dealing with Greeks, butBarbarians.

Although the Baa-Baas no longer frequent the links there are still significant mementos left behind. The Barbarian Room with its array of team photos on the walls; the magnificent Barbarian Challenge Cup donated by the Baa-Baas to The Glamorganshire in 1925 and the Springbok mounted head which reappears at the end of each rugby season to commemorate that glorious victory over South Africa in 1961.

Barbarian Room	The Springbok Head

The Springbok Head

By the time the 5th Springboks, captained by the young Transvaal lock-forward Avril Malan, reached Cardiff again at the beginning of January 1961, the South Africans had won 27 of their 28 matches (including their four matches against the Home Unions) and drew one, 3-3 with the Midland Countiesin Leicester on 5th November 1960. The South Africans must have been confident of bringing back home the Springbok Head, a symbolic trophy presented to the first opponents to beat them on their tour.

In the 29th match of the tour played in Cardiff, the Barbarians, a Lions selection in all but name, captained by the Ireland and Lions Captain Ronnie Dawson and defeated the visitors by 6-0 with tries scored by the back row Morgans–England’s No 8 W. G. D. Morgan and Wales open side flanker H.J. Morgan. The match entered the realms of legend for “that tackle,” the fierce shoulder charge of the full back Haydn J Mainwairing that brought the galloping South African Captain down with a shudder in the closing stages of an intensely fought match. South Africa lost the match and the Springbok Head.

The Springbok Head had made its maiden appearance at a photo-call at the beginning of the tour in October 1960. At the after-match dinner in Cardiff with Malan still in hospital the Springbok Head was presented by the South Africans to the Barbarian captain Ronnie Dawson who hand edit to Brigadier Glyn Hughes for the following morning’s photo-call, when the entire Barbarians party had their picture taken in front of the Esplanade Hotel. Legend has it, that to avoid any mischief, the Head spent the night under the bed of Mrs Mary King, the owner of the Esplanade Hotel. After some debate amongst the Barbarians, it was eventually decided to present the Head to their Penarth hosts in perpetuity.

This is why the Springbok Head spends the rugby season in Penarth RFC clubhouse moving, a day after Good Friday to The Glamorganshire Golf Club where it remains for the summer. The late Penarth club official Roy Gooding had over seen the Head’s logistics from the time of the first transfer in 1961 until 1991 when former Youth President, Yan Owens, took over the responsibility of ferrying the Head to the golf club in good time and good condition. This tradition carries till this day.

In 2012 the Barbarians visited Penarthas they prepared for their match against Wales at the Millennium Stadium. This was the climax of their summer tour, which also included matches against England this weekend and Ireland on Tuesday. The Barbarian party for the three-match tour included a star-studded line-up of players from ten countries, including World Cup winning SA captain Jon Smit, New Zealand’s fullback legend Mils Muliaina and Wales’s try-scoring wonder Shane Williams.

In 2011 captained by Italy’s Sergio Parisse, the Baa-Baas visited Penarth, when the club and its founder Percy Carpmael were inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame at a ceremony at the Pier, not far from the place where once stood the Esplanade Hotel–for 75 years the headquarters of the visitors during their Easter tour of South Wales.

“Penarth and the South Wales tour have played a huge part in the history of the Barbarian club and every time when there is an opportunity, we return to experience the hospitality of the Town folk and the rugby club,” said Barbarians club secretary Alan Evans.

The arrival of the visitors, with former Italy and Japan coach John Kirwan at the helm, is expected with excitement by the local rugby community, buoyed by the news that the Barbarians training session will be open to the public.

Many past and present Penarth RFC players are likely to attend the session, as well as members of the Penarth RFC Mini and Juniors Section.

“Every time the Barbarians come to Penarth, there is genuine excitement among the club members and supporters,” said club chair Mike Gooding.

“The great days of the Baa-Baas’ South Wales tour are long gone, but the excitement generated by their return to what was once their spiritual home is still here.

“There are many club members, including myself, who played against the Barbarians and treasure those moments as the highlights of our playing careers.

“Tradition in rugby is very important and this is why we welcome the Barbarians to Penarth with open arms.”

Former Penarth RFC Treasurer Roger Calrow (right) welcomes Ba Ba’s President Mickey Steele-Bodger	Mickey Steel Bodger (right) and Vice-President Geoff Windsor-Lewis in front of the clubhouse.

Then for those who can recall the raucous songs of the Baa-Baas ringing out in the former men’s bar who can forget Brian Henderson’s ‘The Baa-Baas in Wales’s to the tune of Messing about on the River.

‘For one day in six we take up golf sticks, No messing about playing Rugger; Club members that day just stay home and pray, That we’ll soon be back playing Rugger. We hack, duff and gouge, it’s a shocking disgrace, We don’t replace turf so they return the place, But in the clubhouse at night we set things aright, By singing them songs about Rugger.’

So, the legend will hopefully live on in the clubhouse and in the memories of the members.

Yan Owens with the new Barbarians Golf trophy

The Sunday tradition of the Barbarians playing golf at The Glamorganshire was revived in 1998 by the then Glamorganshire Club Captain Eirian “Yan” Owens launched a tournament to which all four rugby clubs involved in the Baa-Baas Easter tour. It now consists of twelve teams including Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, and Penarth entering sides with other rugby sides also entering. The Glamorganshire Captain also enters a side which includes the winner of the famous Barbarian Cup donated in 1925 and played for by the members of the club the previous day. This is followed up by a dinner on the Sunday evening which in true Barbarian tradition ends up in the Barbarian Room in the early hours.

This is an event which has proved extremely popular over the years, continued to this day by an ex-Barbarian and club member Richard Cardus. Between the Barbarian Cup played on the Saturday and the Barbarian Trophy played on the Sunday has combined to preserve the memories of what used to be the town’s greatest week of the year.