Ray Barlow's death closes chapter on glorious days

Albion lost one of their greatest players when Ray Barlow passed away. Steve Madeley looks back on a special midfielder who graced The Hawthorns

The death of Ray Barlow left Albion mourning an icon – and closing a glorious chapter in Hawthorns history.

The passing of a man regarded by a generation of Baggies fans as their club's finest-ever player was sad enough in its own right.

But Barlow's loss also severed the final living tie with the greatest moment for, quite possibly, Albion's best team.

When supporters gather at The Hawthorns and honour Barlow on Sunday week, only a minority in the crowd will have witnessed him in action or travelled to Wembley on May 1, 1954, to see his Baggies side win the FA Cup.

Yet the majority will have grown up with tales from parents and grandparents of Barlow and his contemporaries in what became dubbed 'The Team of the Century' – a group of men who were within a whisker of winning the 20th century's first League and Cup double before neighbours Wolves pipped them to the 1954 First Division title.

The stylish defending of Joe Kennedy, the elusive wing-play of Frank Griffin and the irresistible front-running of Ronnie Allen helped prompt one national newspaper to advocate the blanket selection of Baggies players for England's 1954 World Cup campaign.

And half-back Barlow was the team's creative heartbeat with a sure touch and a range and accuracy of passing that even left team-mates star-struck.

Wolverhampton-born Don Howe signed for Albion in the early 1950s and his subsequent 379 appearances would make him a Hawthorns hero.

But the 76-year-old recalls well the awe with which his young self regarded Barlow.

"Ray was a wonderful player," said Howe. "As a young player you are always told not to be distracted by admiring your team-mates, but with Ray you couldn't help it.

"Often I couldn't believe what he'd just done. He used to take the ball in really difficult areas, get it under control and then just ping it 40 or 50 yards into somebody's feet.

"He would play it perfectly into the feet of George Lee wide on the left, or into Frank Griffin on the right wing. And, of course, he had Ronnie Allen in front of him.

Those three used to score or make a lot of goals and Ray would be the man who was feeding them.

"Ronnie was a terrific player and he would make his clever little runs away from defenders and Ray would know precisely where to put the ball so the defender couldn't get to it.

"Ray was a man who just took everything in his stride. He would play in the hardest football matches against the hardest teams and nothing ever bothered him.

"He was one of the best passers of the ball I have ever seen and in a quiet way he was one of three players who ran that team. He and Ronnie were such great players that they ended up running the team, in a way.

"And the third one was Joe Kennedy, who was such a great defender that, if we ever got into trouble, we knew we could rely on Joe to sort it out.

"The manager, Vic Buckingham, was such a great man and he used to encourage us to play entertaining football. There was rarely any shouting or bawling before a game in our dressing room. Vic would just say: 'Go out and do what you do, get the ball down and pass it.'

"We often used to hear people say the crowd had gone away from The Hawthorns smiling at how we'd played. That's what we aimed for and Ray was a huge part of it."

Barlow's 16-year career at The Hawthorns would bring him 482 appearances and 48 goals for the club, but – inexplicably in the eyes of Baggies supporters – just one England cap. It also allowed him to forge lifelong friendships in football, both inside Albion and beyond.

After retirement, when he ran first a tobacconist and sweet shop in West Bromwich and then a Post Office in Brettell Lane, Amblecote, he would become a close friend and twice-weekly golf partner of Roy Swinbourne, the Wolves striker whose 24 goals helped the Molineux club deny Barlow and Co. their historic double.

"Ray was a great player," said the 82-year-old today. "He was one of the best. We have been great friends for years. He came to live near to where I live in Stourbridge and we used to play golf regularly.

"He was a very quiet man but a good man and a great friend."

It is as a footballer, however, that the wider Baggies public will remember and revere Barlow, who remains the ultimate Albion idol for those who first watched the game in the years after the Second World War and saw their side emerge as England's most stylish outfit in the mid-50s.

Former Albion director Joe Brandrick was one such youngster and has vivid memories of his first sighting of Barlow almost seven decades ago. "I saw him in 1944 as a young lad, when he was still in the Army," he said. "I remember getting his autograph as a young lad.

"I remember us beating Swansea at The Hawthorns and Ray scored a typical Barlow daisy-cutter.

"I recall thinking then that he was a good player. What I didn't realise was that he would go on to be better than good. He became a great player.

"As all-round footballers, he and Ronnie Allen are the two best I have seen for Albion – and I've seen some greats over the years.

"He was a great player who will never be forgotten by me, or by any of us who saw him."