[Albion] Barrie Rees

[severnside gull]

Lovely article here about former player Barrie Rees.
Sadly I’m old enough to remember seeing him play and recall the Argus headlines when he died.

The Life of Barrie Rees

Turning pro in 1961, the versatile Rhyl-born player made his senior bow for the reigning Champion Toffees during the 1963-64 season before leaving for Brighton and tragically losing his life not long afterwards

www.toffeeweb.com

 

[smiler]

Lovely article here about former player Barrie Rees.
Sadly I’m old enough to remember seeing him play and recall the Argus headlines when he died.

The Life of Barrie Rees

Turning pro in 1961, the versatile Rhyl-born player made his senior bow for the reigning Champion Toffees during the 1963-64 season before leaving for Brighton and tragically losing his life not long afterwards

www.toffeeweb.com

Great player with a lot of potential. So sad. Remember him well

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Walked up Sackville Road with him for his last game. I still think of him often. So sad. It is indeed a great article.

 

[The Oldman]

A lovely player for us in those glory days of Division 4.

 

[Binney on acid]

Fabulous player. Only god knows how good he could have been.

 

[goldstone]

He had the potential to be something special. So sad.

 

[papajaff]

I remember we had a signed photo of Barrie in our house and there was always sadness around it. My brother and two sisters were much older than me and one of them got the photo.
I was just approaching 4 years old when he died and my first game at the Goldstone was the following year.
I am sure my brother still has the picture, would be nice to see it again.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Before my time, but my Dad raved about him.

 

[Brovion]

He died just before I moved to Sussex so I never saw him play, but people were still raving about him in 1966. At the time (I was just a boy) he was probably just 'a man who died', now of course I realise he was tragically young.

Our Duncan Edwards.

 

[Dun Lurkin]

Great player with a lot of potential. So sad. Remember him well

So do I. Was looking forward to seeing him develop. At the time he was probably the best Albion player I had ever seen. I always thought that his death made us more determined to win the title as a tribute to him. In his 12 appearances we only lost twice.

As an aside in those heady days six of our players scored at least 10 goals, and we only dropped 5 points at home, losing none. wouldn't it be wonderful if our current team could emulate that feat.

 

[Lenny Rider]

John Vinicombe told me he was something else, and Sir Norman Gall said he would have gone on to have a long international career with Wales.

Sadly died as a result of drink driving, although it wasn't a criminal offence back then.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

John Vinicombe told me he was something else, and Sir Norman Gall said he would have gone on to have a long international career with Wales.

Sadly died as a result of drink driving, although it wasn't a criminal offence back then.

Source? This is the first I had heard this.

 

[Lenny Rider]

Source? This is the first I had heard this.

John Vinicombe said on Southern Counties Radio years ago, its been common knowledge for years.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

John Vinicombe said on Southern Counties Radio years ago, its been common knowledge for years.

Shame Vinicombe had such a big mouth - I’ll continue to remember the positives.

 

[severnside gull]

In fairness Vinicombe would know - he could sink a few himself

 

[Gwylan]

Before my time but my dad praised him to the skies.

Nice article: I knew some of his history but didn't know he had a kid

 

[ewe2]

The two loses I remember Barry Rees and John White …..

 

[AnotherArch]

I remember that day. We had played at home to Southport on the Friday night (due to Grand National next day), so Barrie was free for the weekend.We had been to London on the Saturday to see a game (the old First Division was on another planet to us back then) and got back to Brighton to get the bad news in the Argus.

 

[Lenny Rider]

Shame Vinicombe had such a big mouth - I’ll continue to remember the positives.

He actually said how tragic it was that his career and life was ended by such a stupid mistake.

You're old enough to remember that England's non qualification of the 1974 World Cup was partly due to drink driving.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

John Vinicombe said on Southern Counties Radio years ago, its been common knowledge for years.

Never heard this before either.

My understanding was that he fell asleep at the wheel, driving back after a game. Obviously, more of a drinking culture then though, so may be true.