Barmy Army
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The Barmy Army is an organised group of cricket fans which organises touring parties of its members to follow the English cricket team on all of its overseas tours. The group acquired its name during the 1994 - 1995 Test series in Australia and has represented the England fans on every tour since.
The Barmy Army has the stated goal "To make watching cricket more fun and much more popular". The group uses flags, banners, songs and chants to encourage the team and crowd participation in their activities. Australians, both players and supporters, serve especially as foils for their "wit". [neutrality disputed][citation needed]
In contrast to the reputations of some sports fans for hooliganism, the Barmy Army organises itself thoroughly and actively discourages any unsavoury behaviour. The group engages in charity work, and has a good reputation among cricket administrators and among some other fans. However, some cricket followers find the loud, repetitive chanting of the Barmy Army to be annoying, lowbrow and disruptive. Veteran cricket writer and commentator Christopher Martin-Jenkins has accused the Army of "demeaning English cricket".[1]
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[edit] History
Originally, "Barmy Army" was a Sheffield Wednesday football song sung by fans at Hillsborough Stadium from the late 1980s to early 1990s, and can still occasionally be heard at Hillsborough today. It later came into wider usage with other northern English football clubs during this time. In conjunction with the increasing appearance of English football shirts at cricket grounds in the early 1990s, the song's repetitive cry of "Barmy Army, Barmy Army, Barmy Army" transferred to domestic cricket arenas at Old Trafford and Headingley. It was particularly apparent during the 1993 Ashes tour. Throughout the 1990s, increased spending power enabled fans to take the song overseas when following tours of the English national cricket team. Because of that particular song, and the fact that it seemed to represent English fans' activity of standing in the hot sun drinking lager all day, it became a description as well as a song. Both David Lloyd and Ian Botham used the tag to describe them whilst commentating for Sky Sports during England's tours from 1993 to 1995. Only in the mid 1990s was the tag recognised as an official title for English touring cricket fans and adopted by what is now recognised as the official Barmy Army.
It was perhaps the Australian media's description during the 1994-95 tour that created the name; the original name given to them was not printable, however. The word Barmy was used because the fans were considered to be spending a lot of money supporting a side that was unable to win; England not only lost to Australia and their second team, Australia A, but also suffered the indignity of losing to Zimbabwe and, to cap it all, the Australian Academy youth team. The word Army referred to the gatherings of hundreds of singing and partying fans at each match. "Atherton's Barmy Army" soon became established as the fans' theme song.
As English cricket results got worse the intensity of the Barmy Army's support increased, and it soon became firmly established at the centre of public and media attention. Eventually the fans' passion and dedication were rewarded with an unlikely victory in the fourth test in Adelaide and it was there that the Barmy Army merchandising business was started.
During the last ten days of the series they sold in excess of 8,000 items of merchandise, the profits of which were spent on trademarking the name Barmy Army in both Australia and England. Barmy Army has been a registered trademark since March 1995 and its company name is Barmy Army Limited.
The Army holds the view that it verbally "conquered" (despite usually losing on the field) the Aussies with the use of songs, chants, irony (see below) and wit. Since its first foray into Australia it has travelled on all of England's subsequent tours, and the same popularity and media attention has been enjoyed by supporters in South Africa, New Zealand, Sharjah and the Caribbean. During this time they have accumulated a mailing list of around 25,000 names who receive regular updates on travel tips for upcoming tours, reunions and merchandise.
The Barmy Army represents a style of supporting. At each game a different Barmy Army is created by the particular group of people in attendance. This ever-changing nature may, in part, explain the very different perceptions of the Army amongst cricket followers and writers (see links below for examples). The stated aim, however, is to encourage pro-team support and help the England team to do well, particularly on away tours where it can be intimidating to play in front of opposition fans.
The Barmy Army's current leader is Vic Flowers, nicknamed "Jimmy Savile" because of his resemblance to the former disc jockey.
[edit] Timeline of notable events
[edit] 1990s
January 1995: Barmy Army 1,000 strong in Sydney
March 1995: England achieves victory in Adelaide. First Barmy Army T-shirt design created.
Summer 1995: Reunion of the Barmy Army on home soil at Edgbaston. England loses to the West Indies on day 3.
January 1996: First Barmy Army Cricket Club game is lost to a Soweto XI, but raises R5,000 (approximately £900) for charitable causes.
Summer 1996: Barmy Army reunions at India and Pakistan test matches.
October 1996: One-day international against Zimbabwe results in a tie; the Army faces goading by opposition fans.
January 1997: Notable Barmy Army celebrations follow a series win over New Zealand.
Summer 1997: Ashes series at home. Barmy Army releases the single "We are England" two months too late, just after England loses the series 3-2. A reunion at Edgbaston saw England achieve a 1-0 lead; a match which captain Mike Atherton believed saw the most enthusiastic support at any home game in his experience.
January-March 1998: Caribbean tour, during which the Barmy Army were rivalled in their singing and partying by the Trini Posse, a Trinidadian supporters' group that was backed by the West Indies Cricket Board.
Summer 1999: The Barmy Army's World Cup anthem, "Come on England", attracts support from many celebrities and sports personalities who appear in the promotional video.
[edit] 2000s
Summer 2000: Areas set aside for the Barmy Army at Test match weekends. The Barmy Army Cricket Club plays six games in the South West, winning two of them.
March 2001: Barmy Army numbers thousands for international matches in Sri Lanka.
Summer 2002: Barmy Army Cricket Club plays fixtures against Lashings World XI and Bunbury Cricket Club in aid of the Leukaemia Research Fund.
Summer 2003: Barmy Army Cricket Club extends its fixture list and expands to include a youth section under Mark Stear at Shenley Cricket Centre. A three-day festival takes place for Under 9, Under 10 and Under 11 teams.
Winter 2003: The Rugby World Cup in Australia draws many fans away from cricket, but cricket die-hards tour Bangladesh with England.
March 2004: Tour of West Indies, with controversially high ticket prices causing problems for many fans.
Winter 2004-2005: Tour of South Africa. Barmy Army receives very positive comments from the South African media and public.
Summer 2005: After ten years, the Army is delighted to watch England achieve their goal of winning the Ashes. Following the draw in the final test at the Oval that clinched the series, thousands flock into Trafalgar Square to celebrate.
Winter 2006-2007: During the 2006-07 Ashes series, ultimately lost by England 5-0, it was reported that heavy-handed policing restricted the Barmy Army's activities.[2] Despite this and the poor performance, the greatly outnumbered Barmy Army was reportedly more vocal than Australian supporters. One Australian fan was given the task of travelling with the Army and sharing their experiences; the journey was covered in the television programme An Aussie Goes Barmy.
On 9 December 2006, it was reported in The Sydney Morning Herald that the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service would destroy a delivery of British Indian takeaways ordered by Barmy Army cricket fans for delivery to Australia.[3]
[edit] Barmy Army Cricket Club
Barmy Army Cricket Club (BACC) played its first fixture against Soweto Cricket Club in Johannesburg in January 1996. The game was organised in order to raise funds for the Soweto club. First National Bank doubled the game's charitable pledges, and the equivalent of £900 was raised. Demand to play in the game was very high and, after the difficult selection process was managed by Dave 'The General' Peacock and Paul 'Leafy' Burnham, the 40 overs saw Soweto score well over 300 runs. In reply, BACC batted badly (with the exception of a 50 score from 19-year-old Darren Stevens, now a Kent regular), making less than 100 runs. When their 10th wicket went down Soweto started to leave the field, thinking they had won. However, BACC continued to send in batsman after batsman, and indeed batswoman, until 25 people had been in and out fairly quickly. Only when BACC ran out of players was the game over, with 5 overs still remaining.
Since this inaugural match, BACC has played mainly charity fixtures both overseas and at home. Competitive players have played for BACC, but the club's main aim is to encourage participation rather than achieve high levels of performance.
From 2005, BACC has been sponsorsed by PartyPoker.com.
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The neutrality or factuality of this article or section may be compromised by weasel words. You can help Wikipedia by improving weasel-worded statements. |
[edit] External links
- Barmy Army official web site
- Barmy Army Headquarters in Brisbane, 2006
- Article praising the Barmy Army's behaviour on tour in Australia
- Letter challenging the view presented in the article above
- Barmy Army official merchandise
- Barmy Army official ticket exchange
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