The Curious Case Of New Brighton Towers FC

A brand spanking new ground with an eighty thousand capacity, rich owners of a 20 acre leisure complex, on site cowboys and lions and fair (oh my!), this team was destined for greatness.

This greatness was to begin in 1896 and along with other teams such as Liverpool (who where in their infancy at the time) and Chelsea a team was manufactured to play in a purpose built stadium in the New Brighton Tower leisure complex, this was primarily done to bring in visitors and tourists during the winter months.

The complex was a bold venture which consisted of the New Brighton Tower which was the tallest structure in England, a Ballroom, Fair, Theatre and even a small zoo with two very special star attractions, Prince and Pascha where the resident lions, they even had an Wild West show which consisted of Cowboys and Indians (who where notoriously bad on the Firewater, so much so that the Native Americans where prohibited from being served alcohol in the New Brighton and Wallasey area, Sitting Bull would not have been impressed!) and had a five hundred strong cast of performers in the show.  It had vast gardens complete with man made canals and Venetian Gondolas and the theatre boasted the biggest stage in the world at seventy six foot deep.  It would be most comparable to a modern day Las Vegas resort and Casino.

The teams first season started successfully with silverware as they won the Lancashire League with apparent ease in the 1897-1898 season and applied for election to the Football League, at this point the Football League only had two divisions so this was a huge deal to this new club barely two years old and they where no slouches in making plans for the big time, Home Nations international players were brought in to bolster the squad, the plan was going well.

Business was booming for the leisure complex, top acts where playing to huge crowds, the seaside resort was truly becoming the place to be in the North West, the affluent flocked there to see this truly stunning structure that looked down upon the promenade, the River Mersey and the Irish Sea.

In their first season in the Football League the success continued with a fifth placed finish and followed that with a fourth place finish the following season, success on the pitch was astronomical with the club looking at the very real possibility of top flight football surely not too far away in their future.  Off the pitch things where very different, in that giant stadium and athletic ground that at the time was state of the art there was at least seventy nine thousand unsold tickets for each and every home game.

The Towers folded in 1901 after the owners saw the business of running the football club no longer financially viable, thirteen years later the demise of this bold, brave and grandiose complex followed suit.  In 1914 the First World War broke out and the tower was requisitioned for military use, this may be due to the fact that from the top of the tower military personnel could see as far down as the Great Orme in Llandudno right out to the Isle of Man and as far up as the Lake District.  Whilst the Military where in situ during the war years due to lack of maintenance the steel of the tower became rusty and dangerous and when the war was over the owners decided that they would dismantle the structure as the cost of renovating would be much more than they could afford after losing so much business because of the war.

Boom and bust the story of New Brighton Tower and the Football Club, in a different time the story could have been so very different, but alas it was not to be, New Brighton did have a team that brought the Football League back to Wallasey but this club was born out of the ashes of South Liverpool FC who went bankrupt and they filled the void in the Lancashire Combination League and where not connected to the Towers FC or their owners.

Next time you are ambling down New Brighton prom, think to yourselves how impressive the complex and the sports ground must have been but be careful…….there is a lot of rat-arsed Indian’s roaming around looking for a rogue cowboy.

@TheBullensUltra

A CALL TO ARMS: AN OPEN LETTER TO EVERTONIANS

A CALL TO ARMS: AN OPEN LETTER TO EVERTONIANS

by The Bullens Ultra

"The seed of revolution is repression"

Woodrow Wilson

Goodison Park, The Grand Old Lady is full of electric energy, you can feel it, the enthusiasm, the hope, the Goodison roar, Gwladys Street sucking the goals in, we all know that feeling because despite whatever our financial situation a great majority of us get to the game whenever we can and every now and then these great days and nights come along and live long in the memory.

In recent times I feel we have fell behind slightly, we may not have grasped the new age quite as well as we might have, whilst we certainly don't want to become the dog and pony show that has festered itself at certain 'soccer' clubs (one maybe not a million miles away from ourselves) I think there are things that we can do to make our match day experience that bit more enjoyable.

A friend of mine was discussing Everton's form over the last few seasons and how it improves after Christmas with a West Ham supporter who described Everton as being "a fine old Bentley, a little slow to start but once it kicks in it is a refined, stylish & classy ride". I think that is a great analogy, we are a 'proper' football club, we applaud the oppositions keeper when they approach the goal, we are known in football circles as a knowledgeable, well liked set of fans.

As we all know we have a rich history, founder members of the football league & premier league, players have turned into legends here, silverware (although not in recent years) has adorned the clubs trophy cabinet, our reputation is known worldwide, our sister team in Chile these are major selling points that as fans or as a club we are not exploiting as well as we could.

A quick example of us not exploiting the internet as well as we could:- Go to youtube and type in 'Johnny Heitinga' you will see that the top 6 videos are tribute videos from Ajax fans, a funny short video where Phil Neville interrupts an interview Johnny is doing and then finally we get to a proper Everton related one where Heitinga shoulder barges Ashley Cole on his way to take a penalty against us in the FA Cup........THAT WAS UPLOADED BY A MAN UNITED FAN!!!!! Now whether or not you are a big fan of Johnny Heitinga or how good a player you consider him to be you can tell he is passionate about the club and his place in it, he always comes over to thank travelling fans when we play away win, lose or draw. There must be talented people amongst us who can knock up little videos like that, there is a youtube user called Susiehood who does great season reviews with a good soundtrack that is relevant to the action that is being played by the video.

Celebrating Our Icons

Go to Arsenal's fantastic ground, they have banners up all year around that celebrate their legendary players, even though that is a new ground you feel a great sense of the history of Arsenal, they have a banner of Dennis Bergkamp that has a picture of his face and reads "Why fly when you can walk on water?" (making light of his fear of flying).

How many Iconic images do we have? Sharpy's derby goal, Alan Ball with the league championship, Duncan Ferguson swinging his shirt over his head, Alec Young, Ratcliffe winning so many honours and too many more to mention. The famous quotes from Alan Ball, Brian Labone etc.

Why not get permanent banners up around the ground? Where the advertising board on the Upper Bullens is empty why not fill them?

Power In A Union

A supporters union, where we can have an open dialogue for new ideas, but where we can respect each others opinions. A new venture called Trust Everton has been launched with a view to providing sustainable long-term funding for the real-estate assets of the football club. The two that spring to mind are the training ground and the stadium. What a great thing for Evertonians to get behind no matter whether they side with The Blue Union or the current board or have no opinions either way.

What I have put foreword is just a brief letter with a few points on it, you may agree or disagree with these points but I think there is far more we can do as both fans and as a club to further help ourselves and further our enjoyment of our club.

Anyone who would wish to look at helping create a more visible online presence or those who have any further ideas in how we can assist the club in moving forward I would be most interested in hearing from.

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Twitter - @TheBullensUltra

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Email - thebullensultra@googlemail.com

I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues - Jelavic & Manolas

We where all expecting a quiet deadline day, Kostas Manolas maybe coming in from AEK Athens may have been the only bit of business with whisperings of Kevin Doyle and Hugo Roddellega but not really expecting that to happen.

We then find that Nicoka Jelavic is at Finch Farm and having a medical, what a signing I suspect he will be if that goes through without a hitch, the 6 foot 1 inch Croat certainly has an eye for goal  with a ratio of 0.66 goals every game for Rangers, but also a very respectable amount of assists. 

The boy Manolas looks like a good prospect but is very much unproven with only 14 senior games under his belt, a good punt for £500,000.

If as part of transfer deadline day we lose Louis Saha then so be it, he will be no great loss in the form that he has been in this season 2 goals in twenty games as a first choice striker is just not acceptable.  Far fetched reports of a loan for Pienaar would be welcomed but really we need a long term solution, I would like that to be Royston Drenthe but insiders state that Moyes is concerned with his attitude he probably wont last past May.

The Bullens Ultra