Bangor City FC may be moribund, with supporter-owned CPD Bangor 1876 picking up the baton, but 60 years ago this famous North Wales club captured the imagination of football supporters far and wide.
Tommy G. Jones, the former Everton and Wales centre-half had cut his managerial teeth at Pwllheli before moving to Bangor in 1957. He inherited full-back Iorys Griffiths – an engineer who was working at Gareth Pentir Williams’ TV shop. Five years later, Griffiths was the one locally-raised player and Welsh speaker in a team consisting largely of Jones’ captures from Football League and non-League clubs in North West England. Securing the Welsh Cup for the city in 1962 – the first time in the 20th Century – was ‘the dream’ for Iorys. The European adventure that followed was the icing on the cake.
TV cameras were at Farrar Road on 5 September to capture, for posterity, the Cheshire League part-timers put the Neapolitans to the sword in first leg of the European Cup Winners’ Cup tie. Roy Matthews and Ken Birch scored to send a raucous Farrar Road crowd into delirium – so much so that the Dutch referee threatened to abandon the match if pitch invasions were repeated. According to Iorys: ‘I’m sure the Italians had never seen anything like it before. The whole of Bangor was united with us in our victory.’ The incredible result at Farrar Road can overshadow the events three weeks later in the return leg at the cavernous Stadio San Paolo. But that match was no less remarkable.
The squad and directors boarded their Skyways Viscount aircraft, a few hours later checking into the Hotel Majestic in the sweltering southern Italian City. Iorys took a camera, loaded with color slide film, to record events on this trip of a footballing lifetime. Recently relocated by Iory’s son, Derek, and restored/digitised by the author, the slides give a unique insight into a special moment in time. They capture the players inspecting the stadium before the match, sunbathing on the hotel roof, having fun with the locals and getting down to the seafront, where team captain Kenny Birch gets to try out a police motorcycle.
When the match got underway, Bangor held their own ‘We had never played under floodlights before the Naples match. We didn’t feel crowded or in awe.’ When the hosts hit two quickfire goals, it was reasonable to expect a City collapse, but Jimmy McAllister shocked the home crowd by pulling one back (putting the Welsh side 3-2 ahead on aggregate). The small contingent of Bangor supporters were reported to have belted out hearty renditions of Sospan Fach and other favourites. A goal with just a few minutes remaining rescued Napoli and the tie ended 3-3 on aggregate. The aircraft was struck by lightning on the journey home – although the players were oblivious. Touching down at Liverpool’s Speke Airport, they were met by a coachload of family, friends and supporters.
Alas, there was no away goals to enable the North Walians to progress to the next round. After some toing and froing Highbury, North London, chosen as the venue for the replay. A chartered trainload of supporters made the trip south – through the foggy gloom they saw another battling Bangor performance, but the star-studded Italian outfit edged it 2-1 with a late winner.
This was the high-water mark for Tommy Jones and his City cohorts. The side would break up and no further honors followed but Iorys remained. Jones moved to rivals Rhyl in the summer of 1967 (an ill-fated switch), but continued to live in the Garth area, running a newspaper shop with his wife Joyce until 1996. Iorys, always a keen trainer, eventually became reserve team player -coach for the Farrar Road outfit, under manager Mick McGrath. He’d go on to serve as a club director. He was kept busy off the pitch, too. Married to Helen with three children, Meryl, Bryan and Derek, he would buy out the Williams TV shop business on Dean Street.
In the early 1990s, Hitachi invited retailers who had hit sales targets on a complimentary trip to Sorrento in Italy. Helen and Iorys, who had just handed over the reins of the business to their sons Derek, were taken as a token of thanks for their long connection with the company. Looking across the bay to Naples, Iorys wondered if a return visit to the city could be arranged. The hotel concierge advised Helen that the stadium was closed to visitors, and the trip by road or boat was not an easy one. However, a Hitachi rep overheard the conversation and a series of calls between company representatives in the UK and Tokyo and Italy were made, culminating in Helen being told to have Iorys ready at the hotel door at 09:00 the next morning. A limousine duly pulled up and took the Griffiths and a few other guests for a VIP tour of the stadium – much changed from 1962 as a result of improvements for the 1990 World Cup Finals. An old groundsman they were introduced to recalled the visit of the Bangor team.
Having stood down as a club director, this City stalwart’s football journey came full circle. Just as in his childhood, in retirement he was a match-going supporter. Ever-loyal to his city and its football club, Iorys was a familiar and unassuming sight behind the goal on the Farrar End terrace. He kept in touch with Tommy Jones – who he described as a ‘taskmaster’ but an excellent manager. The pair were photographed together by the local press, reminiscing forty years on from the that annus mirablis. He was a good friend to Tommy when he lived his final years with dementia. Sadly, this cruel illness also impacted Iorys in his later years, Fortunately, his dementia wasn’t an angry one, it brought out his boyish sense of humour. He was well enough to be a guest of honor when the club bid farewell to Farrar Road in 2011 and was taken by Derek to a couple of matches at Nantporth. He passed away in May 2020.
Bizarrely, Iorys never had a testimonial season at Bangor City—perhaps he was there so long that people wrongly assumed that he had already had one. This rock of Bangor City’s defense – who left us with these amazing photos from Naples – merits posthumous recognition for his contribution to the city he loved and served with such distinction. How about a new street, a civic building or a part of a future home for 1876 named after him? Here’s hoping…
With thanks to the Griffiths family
Photos: (1) Bangor City Players visit the stadium in Napoli Pre-match (2) Iorys Griffiths with the Welsh Cup (3) Players on the hotel roof