Barry Ratcliffe

1941-2023

      It was with deep regret that we learned of the passing of Barrie Ratcliffe, a member of the F.A. Youth Cup winning side of 1959 who went on to make fifty senior appearances for the club.

      Although a Blackburn lad, Barrie joined Bolton Wanderers as an amateur in May 1957 before joining his home town club twelve months later. In joining Rovers, Barrie was following in his brother Brian’s footsteps who was registered as an amateur with the club in May 1955.

      Like Brian, Barrie was a promising cricketer but whilst Brian found his sporting strengths lay on the cricket field, more specifically at the Meadows with East Lancs., Barrie was to go on and establish himself in the winter game.

      Barrie was a winger of the orthodox variety.  As befitting a boy who had had excelled at sprinting in athletics, Barrie used his pace to good effect on the football field. During the triumphant youth cup campaign of 1958-59, Barrie was used on the right-wing although his preference was to play on the left – where he would operate in senior football.

      Barrie appeared in all nine F.A. Youth Cup-ties in 1958-59 and scored three goals. Although slightly on the frail side, in terms of build, he refused to be intimated by full-backs who adopted a more robust approach. He received some particularly rough treatment in the semi-final replay against Manchester United at Ewood Park but, nonetheless, scored one goal and had a hand in helping to create the winning goal.

     Barrie played on the right-wing in both legs of the Final against a West Ham United youth team that included future England World Cup captain Bobby Moore. The Rovers enjoyed a narrow 2-1 win to lift the trophy for the only time in the club’s history.

     It was during the latter half of the 1958-59 season that Barrie began to feature for the reserve side and on the 19th March 1960, Barrie made his first team debut against West Ham United at Upton Park.

     Barrie had to bide his time with Ally MacLeod being the automatic choice for the outside-left spot. However, he did appear in a friendly at Ewood Park, against the Dutch side VVV Venlo on 5th April 1960.

     Barrie’s breakthrough season, in terms of first team football, came in 1961-62. The summer of 1961 had seen the departure of MacLeod and when his replacement – Joe Haverty, the experienced former Arsenal winger – failed to live up to expectations, Barrie was given his chance. Barrie went on to appear in 22 League games that season and scored three goals, including the goal in a 1-0 win over Burnley at Turf Moor. He also appeared in five F.A. Cup-ties and four League Cup games as he seemed to have secured the outside-left spot.

     Barrie was a winger who relied on speed rather than trickery on the ball to beat his opponent and once he had got past a full-back he looked to deliver the ball into the danger area.

      However, the arrival of Mike Harrison from Chelsea, in September 1962, resulted in Barrie being again relegated to the position of understudy.  Although a regular in the Central League team, first team opportunities proved far and few between. Barrie made ten League appearances and four League Cup appearances in the 1962-63 season whilst the following season he was restricted to just three League appearances.

      In May 1964, Barrie left Rovers, in search of first team football, and joined Scunthorpe United. During his time at with Rovers Barrie had appearance in 50 League and Cup games and scored 8 goals.  He spent one season with Scunthorpe, in which he made 27 League & Cup appearances, scoring seven goals, for the club, before a move to Rochdale in July 1965 brought another 17 League and Cup appearances with one goal scored.

      On leaving football, Barrie continued to work in the family butcher’s business – Bernard Ratcliffe and Sons – which had a stall on Blackburn market.

      Sadly, in his final years Barrie lived with dementia and moved into Castleford Care Home with with wife Barbara, who passed away in 2018.

      A family man, one of his grandchildren is Grace Davies who came second on X Factor and went on to a career in the music industry.

The Blackburn Rovers Former Players Association wish to express their deepest sympathy to Barrie’s family and friends at this sad time.