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Barnstaple Town Crisis


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According to The North Devon Journal -The Barnstaple club have called a make or break meeting for next Thursday .

With no new volunteers or financial support they may withdraw with immediate effect from the Western League Premier .

Full story in The North Devon Journal newspaper if someone can paste onto the CS Forum.

They are due at St.Blazey for a F A Vase tie soon? (2 days later on the 13th.Oct.)

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Really sad story . Always thought of Barnstaple Town as one of the traditional old names of non-league football in Devon and Cornwall . I did overhear a local Plymouth defender boasting about how much he was getting to play up there a couple of seasons ago . He was either exaggerating , or it was , in the light of this story ,completely unsustainable .

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They were very keen on having Parkway join the league when they applied a couple of seasons ago. It is sad, but this is the reality of the economic situation that Clubs are facing at the moment. Unemployment is rather high in the area with a couple of companies closing in the area. Best if luck to them for the season. They may apply to join the SWPL

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With gates of less than 100 the future looks bleak for Barnstaple, especially with Bideford, (only 10 miles away), playing Southern League football. In the long term I wouldn't be surprised to see a merger between Barnstaple and Bideford In order to preserve a high standard of football in North Devon.

Generally, with financial pressures and not enough younger volunteers coming forward in clubs I expect there will be several clubs merging across Devon and Cornwall over the coming years. Might not happen over the next 5-10 years, but it will happen.

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With gates of less than 100 the future looks bleak for Barnstaple, especially with Bideford, (only 10 miles away), playing Southern League football. In the long term I wouldn't be surprised to see a merger between Barnstaple and Bideford In order to preserve a high standard of football in North Devon.

Generally, with financial pressures and not enough younger volunteers coming forward in clubs I expect there will be several clubs merging across Devon and Cornwall over the coming years. Might not happen over the next 5-10 years, but it will happen.

Agreed . One or two clubs may have to think the unthinkable in years to come . Especially clubs that are in the same town/city .

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Very sad times for a club such as Barnstaple. That is the unthinkable though, I Can't imagine the likes of St Austell/Blazey or Newquay/Godolphin merging.

The problem certainly is a shortage of young blood stepping into the shoes of the stalwarts who have overseen the running of these clubs for years. What accelerates the downward slides of these clubs however are certain younger blood individuals who think they can take on the running of these clubs and consequently put the final nail in the coffin. No different to our present world economy state of affairs really!

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Very sad times for a club such as Barnstaple. That is the unthinkable though, I Can't imagine the likes of St Austell/Blazey or Newquay/Godolphin merging.

The choice will be merge or fold!

The main problem is that people, other than those playing, find other sports / leisure activities more appealing than football and who can blame them when you see some of the behaviour of the players and managers. Football, years ago, needed to find a way to attract the whole family to a game. It still does, but it will take a long time!

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Very sad times for a club such as Barnstaple. That is the unthinkable though, I Can't imagine the likes of St Austell/Blazey or Newquay/Godolphin merging.

The choice will be merge or fold!

The main problem is that people, other than those playing, find other sports / leisure activities more appealing than football and who can blame them when you see some of the behaviour of the players and managers. Football, years ago, needed to find a way to attract the whole family to a game. It still does, but it will take a long time!

And you dont need me to tell you that some folk would stubbornly prefer to allow their club to fold rather than put their pride to one side and merge to salvage their respective club.

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If you look at Barnstaple website their officers are all also named as committee members - take them out and the club seems to be being run by a very small hard core and that rarely works. Not been to Barnstaple since the early 90s in the Vase or FA Cup (famous trip when the St.Austell coach broke down right outside a pub in Launceston :drink: ) but really liked the club and hope they survive and would welcome them in the CSWPL.

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refereed at barnstable many years from what i remember nice ground and a well run and friendly club.its sad to say that there will many more clubs following the demise of clubs like truro penzance could follow.ihope that barnstable will get there problems sorted.it all goes back to a former article some time ago on the forum titled who,s to blame.its simple clubs spending money on players they can,t afford.clubs spend money on overated players.the good old days of players playing for there local teams for the pride of it are long gone.i hope everthing works out at barnstable'we cannot afford to lose clubs like them

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With gates of less than 100 the future looks bleak for Barnstaple, especially with Bideford, (only 10 miles away), playing Southern League football.

I wonder if they have people going on about how that's 'good for Devon football' as we have with the Truro situation and how that is good for the Cornish game? Sad situation for Barnstable.

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