from Clifton to Ipswich and from Wembley to Radford

by Stephen Howard, Jan 2024

Over the last couple of years we have got to know, if only a little, one of the officials who runs the line at Radford FC games. His name is Barry Polkey and he has has been officiating football games since 1978 and because of his age he has had one or two nicknames thrown at him. Our gang call him “Dr Who” or William Hartnell (the actor who played the first Dr Who in the early sixties) because of a slight likeness and the grey hair. The Radford Bell End Boys sometimes call him Mr Grace, the character from the 70’s/80’s sitcom “Are you being served” after a similar likeness. You know how nicknames work, they just stick.

It is not uncommon at the lower non leagues to see regular faces officiating games. They are mostly local to the area and Baz is one of them. He has joined in our occasional banter from the touchline in a way that has endeared him to us. He just seems like a salt of the earth sort of bloke and it turns out he has an interesting career to his name.

Born in 1953, Barry lived in Clifton and as many Nottingham football fans will know Clifton was fertile ground for youth football in the 1960’s and 70’s providing a lot of talent probably best exemplified by Viv Anderson who became part of Forest’s glory team of the late seventies. Playing football from the age of five, Barry played for both Fairham Comprehensive School and the Clifton Youth club. He was an inside forward and prolific goalscorer. On Saturday November 9th 1968 he scored four goals against Bilsthorpe YC during a 14-0 win and at the end of that season he had notched up 106 goals for both school and youth club.

Leaving school in April 1969, although he had been training at Notts County for a couple of years, he had a trial at Nottingham Forest but to no avail. Writing letters to other clubs including Derby County he eventually got offered a trial at first division Ipswich Town. They had finished 12th in the league during 68/69, the season Leeds Utd won the title for the first time. He played in a trial game and scored and in a second trial game he scored a hat trick which clinched his signing as an apprentice. He was featured in a Nottingham Evening Post article titled “Now Barry breaks into the big time“.

His first game for “Ipswich A” was against Arsenal A on the morning of Saturday 9th August 1969 watched by his father Dennis. They both went to Portman Road in the afternoon to watch Ipswich Town’s first home game, coincidently, against Forest. Both being ardent Forest fans it was difficult for them to know which team to shout for and maybe conveniently it was a 0-0 draw.

Playing against the youth teams of the likes of Charlton Athletic and Crystal Palace in the South East Counties League of 1969-70 some of his team mates were I Finch, Steve Homewood, David Cook, Barry King, Ken Sharpe, Philip Trenter, D Peachey, Phil Addo, D Seymour, Stephen Buttle, L Seeley, Brian Talbot, Roger Verdi, Terry Shanahan and Ken Sharpe. Brian Talbart went on to win honours with both Ipswich and Arsenal and played for England.

During the 1970-71 season Barry who was hit with injury was released by Ipswich Town and in January 1971 he found himself training at Field Mill, home of Mansfield Town. It wasn’t long, however, before he found himself a club and he joined Sudbury Town FC in Suffolk who played in the Eastern Counties League. With roots as far back as 1885, Sudbury were a good fit, and in good form it wasn’t long before Barry was scoring again.

The 1971-72 season saw Barry scoring against the likes of Soham where he scored a first half goal in a 3-0 away win playing as a left winger. When bottom of the league Newmarket visited “The Priory” Barry was brought down in the box and the penalty added to the 5-0 win. Sudbury Town would eventually amalgamate with Sudbury Wanderers to form modern day AFC Sudbury.

After a season at Sudbury Barry returned to Nottingham and got married to Pauline. He worked as an insurance agent which he did for the next 23 years. On the football field he joined Boots Athletic and during the 1972-73 season would play for either the first team or reserves. Still scoring goals he netted against City and Sherwood Hospitals and got a couple against Netherfield Reserves with fellow team mates Eddie Lambley and John Peet also scoring.

In the 1973-74 season Barry was playing for Weir Athletic and scored three in a thrashing over Linby Athletic 10-0. With family and work commitments Barry hung up his boots in 1976. With a daughter already, his son was born in 1977 and another daughter followed a couple of years later.

Barry was in no way disillusioned with the game, however, and he kept his interests alive in two area’s. One was in management at Sunday League level and one was becoming an F.A. official. He first ran the line in 1978 and in Barry’s 46 year FA career, within which he is still active, his main role, at higher levels at least, has been as a linesman. Having moved to Wilford, in the mid eighties he was refereeing many games at youth level, for example taking charge of games like Mansfield A v Stoke A and Notts County A v Aston Villa A.

In 1986, Barry was to play once more at a competitive level when he was managing Trinity Goldsmiths FC in the Premier Division of the Nottingham Combination Sunday Section. With his side short of players he signed himself on and played in an away game at Burton Joyce scoring a hat trick in a 5-0 win. The Football Post headlined it “A Stunner! Boss hogs limelight“.

By 1990 Barry was refereeing Notts County Reserves v Manchester Untied Reserves at local level. While still refereeing games between Bolehall Swifts v Tamworth and United v City in the Lincoln Challenge Cup Barry was always on hand to help out in a good cause and was happy to take part in the Cerebral Palsy European Football Championship staged at Clifton being pictured in the Evening Post with Great Britain physiotherapist Francs Wetherall.

In the Northern Counties league Barry was refereeing Borowash Vic v Parkgate but his linesman duties had been taking him to many grounds in the league. It was in the league at Maine Road, Manchester where he was involved in an incident that made the national press in February 1997. A division one (now league one) match between Man City and Southend had Southend manager Ronnie Whealen and assistant manager Theo Foley sent off by referee Graham Laws after a foul by Georgi Kinkladze on Phil Gridlelet. Theo Foley in particular vented his anger on Barry Polkey and was reported and ultimately sacked by his own club Southend whose chairman made a strong statement in defence of the officials.

Only a few weeks later Barry was the linesman at a game between Chesterfield and Plymouth Argyle that ended in a mass brawl in the last minute after Plymouth goalkeeper Bruce Grobalar was flattened. In the melee that followed four players were sent off to add to the one already and Barry had his work cut out trying to diffuse the situation.
Later in 1997 Barry ran the line in the FA Women’s Cup Final, Millwall Lionesses 1 Wembley FC 0 at West Ham United’s Upton Park in London on 4 May 1997.

During February 1998, Barry was running the line at Doncaster Rovers v Torquay United when referee John Kirkby was injured and Barry took the role of the man in the middle at half time but it was in March 1998, however, that Barry achieved his highest honour as an official. It was his last season in the professional game, officials can only take part up to the age of 44, and he was rewarded with a trip to Wembley as one of the linesmen for the Coca-Cola League Cup Final between Chelsea and Middlesbrough. Again, Barry was featured in the Evening Post as “Our man at Wembley“. The game was won by Chelsea 2-0 and featured plenty of name players of the era. Gianfranco Zola, Dennis Wise, Frank Leboeuf and Paul Merson were all in action and Gazza came on half way through the second half in his return to the English game.

Barry was happily surprised to hear that he was going to run the line at Wembley again when he was chosen to officiate at the Division Two Play off final between Northampton Town and Grimsby just a couple of months later. Barry was lucky to get both his visits to Wembley when he did because his birthday was within four days of the cut off point to be eligible. This was to be his 182nd and last time running the line in a professional game.

One of Barry’s colleagues Phil Joslin from Newark, himself chosen to run the line at the 1998 FA Cup final, spoke highly of Barry. “In 1992 I got on the Football League linesman list. My first game was Rotherham v Bolton at Millmoor. Alan Wilkie was the referee and Barry Polkey, from Clifton, was on the other line. Alan was injured and Barry took over in the middle. I was delighted for him when he was appointed referee’s assistant at the Coca-Cola Cup final between Chelsea and Middlesbrough in March. Two people from Notts running the line in the same season in Wembley cup final’s, that’s great“.

Barry said himself, “I am the right side of the deadline by four days, so I think I am quite lucky. When I first started refereeing 20 years ago I never thought I’d get to officiate in a match at Wembley – so this is a double bonus. To do so in one season is fantastic for me, I could not think of a better swansong. Wembley is Wembley and I cannot believe I am going again. For me this is the second best thing to playing there myself, but I do owe a lot to my family who have always backed me, my wife Pauline and daughters Nicloa, 23 and Hayley, 15 have been really supportive while my 20 year old son Garry is already a grade two referee and is hoping to follow in my footsteps. Who knows? I might not be the last Polkey to appear at Wembley. That would be great“.

In another article published in the Evening Post in May 1998 written by Dave McVay celebrating the youth football of Clifton in the sixties and seventies he chooses Barry as the embodiment of those memories in glowing praise.
“……. If ever this tour became official and a guide was appointed he must be someone with a feel for the past, a good sense of humour and be utterly barmy. There can only be one choice, Barry Polkey.
As a youngster, the Clifton lad graced Farnborough as a youth team player before injury cut short the promise of a career while on the books at Ipswich Town.
He switched to refereeing (hence the barmy) and just the other week was on the line at Wembley for the Coca-Cola Cup final, watched by about 80,000 spectators.
Just the other night, he was the man in black again, in charge of an under-15s Youth League game at Clifton in front of ten men and that faithful dog. How utterly barmy. But utterly pleasing to know the refreshingly true and amateur spirit of football at even the soggiest of grass roots level has not deserted Barry and Farnborough Road Playing Fields“.

After the play off final Barry carried on his role as an official in the lower leagues refereeing such games as Notts County Youth 5 v 1 Wrexham Youth in 1999 and running the line in a multitude of games. After his working career in insurance he became a postman for 11 years which will endear him to our crowd even more. Myself (now retired) and about half a dozen other posties often make the trip to Radford for a game and so the next time we see Baz he will get the extra thumbs up from the lads.

After he left the Royal Mail Barry became a driver with Nottingham City Transport in 2010. In 2012 NCT announced the winner of its annual ‘Driver of the Year’ award for 2012 and it was Barry.

“Barry Polkey, from Clifton was crowned the winner at an awards dinner which included one of the last performances of this year’s Theatre Royal Pantomime, Cinderella. Adam C Booth, the actor who played Buttons, presented Barry with his Driver of the Year shield and certificate which he receives alongside £1000 and an extra week’s holiday.

Barry, who joined Nottingham City Transport in June 2010 and drives the L53 from Clifton to Arnold , was one of five finalists who had each won a Seasonal Driver Award throughout the year. To qualify for the Seasonal Driver Award, drivers needed to have had 100% attendance, always turn up on time, have no live disciplinary awards or blameworthy accidents on file and have a clean driving licence.
“The Seasonal Driver and Driver of the Year initiative was launched to recognise and celebrate the continual hard work and professionalism of our drivers,” explains NCT Marketing Manager, Anthony Carver-Smith. “Winners are decided wholly by mystery travellers who measure customer service, driving standards and overall competence over numerous random trips. Barry achieved outstanding marks of 91%, making him the ‘best of the best’ and this is a fantastic achievement he should be really proud of.”
“I’ve been driving this route for two years now and the best part of my job is interacting with the passengers,” said Barry. “To know I’ve won this award thanks to their feedback really means a lot to me, and puts an extra spring in my step. My friends and family know Nottingham City Transport well and are really proud of me – it’s a great way to start 2013.”

Barry was also Runner-Up Top National Bus Driver in 2013. NCT had a bus named “Barry Polkey” and there was also a full photo of Barry adorning the back of the bus with his awards.

Although Barry’s time as a linesman in the professional game was curtailed in 1998 he has carried on officiating in the lower leagues until the present day. He was, however, able to officiate in 7-a-side matches at the Para Olympics in Atlanta in ’96, at the Sydney games in 2000 and in Athens in 2004.

In 2017 Barry Polkey played in a charity match for the “City Boys Pro Stars” versus “Nottingham Legends” at Notts County FC in celebration of the 125th Anniversary of the Nottingham Schools Football Association. The City Boys had in their squad two friends of mine, Tracey Beeby and Jamie Brodie, both postmen, facing a team that would include Garry Birtles, Mark Crossley and Gary Mills.

Running the line has kept Barry fit although not immune to injury.
“The NSL wish assistant referee Barry Polkey, who slipped and possibly broke his wrist whilst running the line at Ruddington, a speedy recovery. A massive thank you to Ruddington for taking him to hospital and taking his car home. Superb gesture”.
From a Nottinghamshire Senior League Twitter Post, 28 Apr 2018.

At the last Radford home game on 13th January 2024 we saw Barry running the line again which we acknowledged in our own jokey way but among many others, there is no doubt that Barry has been a great servant to the game and in an era when they are crying out for officials who have played the game it is possibly one of the reasons Barry has lasted so long in what can be a difficult role. His undoubted love for the game and coping with the broken dream he once had as a teenager of becoming a professional footballer hasn’t stopped him moving forward with his sporting career and most importantly enjoying it.

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Match photo’s captured from the following YouTube clips

Chesterfield v Plymouth Argyle 22-02-1997
Nationwide Round Up 15-02-97 inc Charlton 2 Barnsley 2 & Ronnie Whelan (Southend)
Chelsea 2-0 Middlesbrough 1998 League Cup Final Highlights
Grimsby Town vs Northampton Town Division 2 Play Off Final 24-05-98

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Busman of the year text and quotes from:

Coach and Bus Week & Nottingham City Transport.

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Newspaper cuttings

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