Castletown Metropolitan Football Club recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Castletown Sports Stadium.

Fred Faragher, who was a police inspector in the old capital, had a great interest in sport - in particular football - and was a member of the football committee.

At a committee meeting of the club on December 15, 1947 he put forward a proposal to buy a site and build a stadium. A provisional scheme was laid before the committee on January 5, 1948 and was unanimously adopted.

Land was subsequently purchased at a cost of £730 and costings for the work were then sought. It was agreed to call an extraordinary general meeting on January 22, 1948 and place before it the proposed scheme, which was accepted.

Raising funds to finance the project then had to be considered. One of the first ideas was to have a large plan of a football pitch prepared and divided into squares representing square yards.

This was exhibited in a shop window in Malew Street and the townspeople and businesses were invited to buy any number of square yards. These were then coloured and inscribed with the name of the purchaser.

Various fundraising activities including dances were arranged. There were also football matches at various venues in the south of the island between Castletown Brewery Wanderers, Qualtrough’s Timber Yard Loafers and Billown Lime Quarry’s Scroungers.

Work then started and the foundation stone was laid by the president of the club, Captain George Woods, on August 25, 1949.

The club later presented the Woods Cup to the Football Association in memory of Captain Woods. This cup is now the knockout cup for Division Two clubs.

Work on the building of the stadium and preparing the pitch continued and arrangements were then considered for a grand opening. An approach was made to South Liverpool, a semi-professional team which played in the then Cheshire County League, to play against an Isle of Man team.

The IoM side was chosen by the readers of the Green Final, the island’s sports newspaper of the day, published every Saturday during the football season.

The match was played on Tuesday, May 2, 1950 with the Lieutenant Governor Sir Geoffrey Rhodes Bromet performing the kick-off in front of a crowd of 3,600.

The match ended in a draw 2-2, with the scorers for the Green Final team being Ken Gilbertson (DHSOB) and Billy Corris (Castletown).

The referee was W.H.E, Evans who was an English League official, while the linesmen were both from the Isle of Man, Jack Gair and CJS Hughes.

Admission to the match was 1s. 6d. (7 ½p) with an additional 1s. 6d. (7 ½p) for the covered grandstand or 1s (5p) for the uncovered grandstand.

After the match, the teams and officials attended a celebration dinner at the Derbyhaven Hotel.

Fred Faragher was the inspiration behind the stadium and the entrance to the stadium is the Fred Faragher Memorial Gate.

CELEBRATION

To celebrate the anniversary, a family quiz night took place in a marquee at the Stadium on Friday, May 2.

The following day there was a display of memorabilia of photographs, programmes and newspaper cuttings with tea, sandwiches and cakes provided.

This event was attended by players who have played for the club over the years up to the present time. A number of those present had played in finals and league matches in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

On the Saturday evening there was a hot pot supper and live music held in the marquee.

RON RONAN