Tony Clemo's Leaving Do - a review
Tony Clemo was Chairman and owner of Cardiff City during a difficult period of the club's history. He later commented that the pressure of being at the helm at City during this time was like 'being in prison'. He later retracted this statement after being in prison.
Cardiff City chairman Clemo built a club capable of
attracting as many as 3,000 fans to Ninian
Park
Surprisingly, as
bad as this seems, worse was to come until Clemo sold the club to Rick Wright
for a pound in 1991. Wright later described the club as 'over valued'.
Rick Wright was
no better in the end. Initially thought to be 'reasonable and good natured' and
then later reclassified as 'nasty and demented'.
Tony Clemo was not a popular man in Cardiff. To increase his personal popularity, and at great personal risk, Clemo invited supporters to an Open day at Ninian Park. Fans got to wander about on the pitch, meet players and score goals at the Grange End. Clemo walked amongst the crowd greeting and talking to supporters. In all, the Open Day went better than anticipated - Clemo wasn't murdered.
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| Obviously not flying but falling with style |
During the 1987
election, the Natural Law party had more support in Cardiff
In retrospect,
perhaps some credit should go to Clemo for keeping the club going when it could
have folded; which is a bit like praising Hitler for keeping the war going from
his bunker in Berlin
But the fact
remains, City were effectively a non-league club masquerading as a professional
one during his spell in charge. There was little or no real infrastructure. It
was rumoured the kit bag at Ninian
Park
Surprisingly, as
bad as this seems, worse was to come until Clemo sold the club to Rick Wright
for a pound in 1991. Wright later described the club as 'over valued'.Tony Clemo was not a popular man in Cardiff. To increase his personal popularity, and at great personal risk, Clemo invited supporters to an Open day at Ninian Park. Fans got to wander about on the pitch, meet players and score goals at the Grange End. Clemo walked amongst the crowd greeting and talking to supporters. In all, the Open Day went better than anticipated - Clemo wasn't murdered.
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| Clemo |
Rick Wright, not wishing to prolong Tony's agony made his final remarks brief and to the point. He thanked Clemo for his tireless efforts during his 20 years at Ninian Park then told him to get out. "But remember Tony. there will always be a seat reserved for you at Ninian Park." He said pointing to a toilet door.
When Tony surveyed Ninian Park for the last time he thought about his greatest achievements there. Then he thought about the football for a moment.
But this wasn't quite the end, for later that same evening at a derelict B&B in Newport Road a special celebratory dinner and dance was held in his honour.
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| Mayed to go |
And, yes, it was a glittering occasion. Scores of ex-managers and players sent their apologies but several first team regulars and then current manager Eddie May were forced to attend.
The showpiece of the evening was, of course the Welsh Cup, passport into Europe and the reason for a trip to MFI for a knockdown trophy Cabinet (which was erected by non other than ex-City favourite Jim Eadie). There was some consternation when the trophy went missing. But it turned up when the waiter returned with some ashtrays he had been emptying.
The evening kicked off with something different, a three hour video of the aggro at Ashton Gate in 1990 plus police photographs of the damage caused to Red Dragon Travel in Church Street - the only media coverage of Cardiff City during the last three years of Tony Clemo's tenure of office.
Next came the Cabaret spot. Radio and TV personality Roy Noble introduced some male strippers courtesy of the Majestic Holiday camp; indicative of Rick Wright's commitment to 'family entertainment'.
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| Fatuous |
Stan Stennett made a brief appearance but the bouncer at the door managed convince him that there was nothing going on inside relating to Cardiff City and he went away again.
There was a momentary moment of unpleasantness when Clemo's wife Linda accussed him of being 'unromantic' because he refused to drink champagne from her shoe. "I cannot handle that amount of alcohol", Clemo later explained.
Ex manager, Jimmy Andrews made a surprise appearance and described Clemo as a 'useless git'. Words echoed by fellow former Bluebirds boss, Richie Morgan, who was also fair in his assessment of the outgoing chairman.
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| Junior Bluebirds |
To end the evening, Rick Wright made a brief speech outlining the achievements of Tony Clemo over the past 20 years. Unfortunately, at that moment, Paul Millar dropped his pint and his kind words were missed in the momentary hubbub this aroused.
Clemo was then invited up on stage to receive a special commemorative Junior Bluebird membership card and the bill for the evening.
He received these mementos to a rising crescendo of cat-calls, hoots and farts. The party finally finished at 3 am. (The players left at 2 am as there was a match the next day.) The whole shebang was scheduled to finish at 10.pm but was gate-crashed by bunch of rugby supporters who forced the bar to stay open at knife-point and tried (and failed) to get off with the male stripper.
At 3 am the police were called and after a heated argument and a scuffle the police finally got their way and the bar stayed open till 4 am.
Tired and somewhat bedraggled (some say pissed), the ex-City supremo made his way to the carpark only to find that, in display of good-natured teasing, his car had been vandalised. The tyres and seats were slashed and a swastika and the word 'twat' had been daubed on the windscreen.
He didn't have to look far for the culprits, he smiled, perhaps for the first time that evening because he knew, yes he knew, that he was at last one of the boys.
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Bobbing Along Issue 1
