Football

Birthday bonus: ‘Rich Bach’ and the Holyhead Hotspur heroes of the late 1990s

Richard Jones (front row – third from left) is pictured with Holyhead Hotspur at the start of 1998-99. Included in the photo is the three trophies they won the previous season – Welsh Alliance League title, Alves Cup and Aluminium Môn Cup.
Pictured (back – left to right): John Rowlands, Stan Owen (physio), Martin Bohana, Steve Riley, Carl Hagan, Dylan Pritchard, Andy O Malley, Kevin Wallis, Andrew Cooke, Les Davies
Front row: Carl Nichols, Nigel Moore, Richard Jones, Karl Thomas, Dale Fleming, Chris Roberts, Colin Tatlock, Alan Doutch. Picture kindly supplied by Carl Nichols

On the day Ynys Môn football great Richard Jones celebrates his latest birthday, we’ll take a look back at one of his most successful seasons.

Back in 1997-98, Rich Bach was a key player in a Holyhead Hotspur side which won the Welsh Alliance League title at the first attempt.

Not only were they crowned champions, Les Davies’ Holy Islanders finished 16 points clear at the summit, winning 23 of their 26 games and scoring 102 goals.

Nigel Moore and Dale Fleming were the chief net-finders, but the likes of Richard Jones and Colin Tatlock also provided their share of goals and assists from midfield.

Hotspur landed a treble that season, adding the Alves Cup and Aluminium Môn Cup to their league title.

What made the achievement more remarkable for Hotspur was the fact they made it three league titles on the bounce as they rose the pyramid, having finished top of the Anglesey League in 1995-96 and the Gwynedd League in 1996-97.

ALL TABLES KINDLY PROVIDED BY THE WELSH FOOTBALL DATA ARCHIVE

With the Welsh Alliance also in the bag, next was promotion to the tier 2 Cymru Alliance, where Holyhead remained for 12 seasons before unluckily getting relegated in 2009-10.

Despite finishing eighth out of 17 clubs, the islanders were one of 10 sides to go down to tier 3 due to the FAW’s plan to cut the Welsh Premier from 18 to 12 clubs.

Rich Bach remained with Hotspur in that debut Cymru Alliance campaign of 1998-99, cementing his legacy as one of the finest players to represent the club.

A press cutting covering Holyhead Hotspur’s title success in 1997-98. Richard Jones is front row, second from left in the picture. The cutting was kindly provided by current Holyhead Hotspur manager Darren Garmey, who as a youngster attended every game that season and says Rich Bach was his favourite player.