50 YEARS ago

Extracts from the Barry & District News on March 23, 1967:

Will Barry be joined to Penarth in the not so distant future to form a local government unit of about 70,000 with part of the Cardiff Rural District area (Dinas Powis and Sully)?

This is the question which immediately arises following the provisional recommendation for Parliamentary constituency boundaries published yesterday by the Boundary Commission for Wales.

A united chorus of "For he's a jolly good fellow" reverberated through a flower-bedecked Memorial Hall on Monday on the occasion of the mayor's ball.

After the successful visit of the Barry Male Voice Choir to Fecamp last autumn, the mayor of Barry's twin town in Normandy wrote an account for the mayor of Rheinfelden in South Germany, with which Fecamp also has a link.

Four-a-side soccer is enjoying a new popularity recently at the YMCA. The boys have made a set of metal goal posts with nets, have marked out the gym floor, and Tuesday and Friday's are four-a-side nights.

The St John's Ambulance Brigade, Dyfan Division, was praised for the service it renders at Barry Island, when its annual presentation ceremony was held in the St John's Hall, Gladstone Gardens on Thursday.

There was an increase of 12 in the number of unemployed in Barry on March 13 compared with the February figures. The total of 696 unemployed comprised 596 men and 100 women. This indicates a decrease of six men and an increase of 18 women over the previous figures.

In the first home game at Jenner Park for seven weeks, Barry's soccer-starved fans had to be content with below-standard football, combined with the fact that in the last 10 minutes the defence caved and allowed Stevenage to grab two points which may prove valuable in their bid for promotion.

Playing with a near gale-force wind at their backs, Barry attacked strongly at first, only to be pushed back by relentless kicks from the Treherbert scrum half, who had a field day.