LONDON: Wednesday 3 August 2005. Uncertain times.
- The Piccadilly line reopened after the London Bombings 26 days previous had rocked the capital like never before (or at least until the pubs opened).
- Despite bowling the Australians out by tea on the first day at Lord’s, the England cricket team had gone 1-0 down in the series. On the eve of the second test at Edgbaston the question on everyone’s lips was whether they could win the Ashes back after 17 years.
- Edgar Davids joined Tottenham Hotspur on a free transfer from Inter Milan.
In the midst of these extraordinary circumstances, a group of eight distinguished gentlemen congregated at a pub near the site of the original Temple Bar, on the westernmost border of the City of London. Onlookers would have regarded these souls as unremarkable, but over the next four hours they went on to found what will be known in years to come as one of the capital’s most enduring institutions.
Under the auspices of the ‘Fleet Street Fantasy Football League’, this group of pioneers shed the tyranny of mass media fantasy competitions, of whose corporate wiles they’d all grown weary and disaffected, and created a pure format of the game, auctioning off top-level footballers over pints of Belgian Lager and branded ashtrays.
Little did they know, that 39 competitive weeks, two league name changes and one transfer window later, the Barry Norgrove Football League has all but come to the end of its first season; an emotional rollercoster of blood, sweat and avant-garde banter that will be remembered more fondly by history than the day Stanley rumbled Dr Livingstone interfering with the natives.
Four of those early tacticians are still managing teams in the Kenna this season. Over the years others have come and gone, left and stayed, but the central tenets of those events eight years ago still remain at the heart of the league: one of the managers can win and they don’t have to spend every Friday lunchtime making transfers and picking a bloody captain.
In the first of series of rose-tinted reviews, the Kenna will look back at it’s roots and those previous seasons. Most expensive summer signings, manager of the month charts, top points scorers and, of course, the final table will be featured.
Most expensive summer signings
| Player | Team | Value | Points scored | |
| 1 | T Henry | Stockwell Stockwell | £29.5m | 274 |
| 2 | W Rooney | Thieving Magpies | £28m | 245 |
| 3 | F Lampard | Thieving Magpies | £27m | 203 |
| 4 | S Gerrard | Barking Hoxton | £26m | 230 |
| 5 | H Crespo | Park Ji Sung’s Allstars | £20.5m | 107 |
| 6 | J Defoe | Dynamo Stockwell | £20 | 54 |
| 7 | C Ronaldo | Bashers FC | £18.5m | 101 |
| 8 | J Terry | Vasco De Beauvoir | £18m | 182 |
| 9= | R van Nistelrooy | Bashers FC | £17.5m | 176 |
| 9= | R Ferdinand | Fat Ladies | £17.5m | 83 |
As experimental as the first prototype of a homemade chastity belt, the initial auction rules were not the honed article of today. The customary £100m budget was established, but managers were able to pick two players from each Premier League outfit.
With only eight managers and a wealth of talent, even the most sought after players didn’t reach £30m. At 18, Wayne Rooney was already a prized asset. Stevie Gerrard and Frank Lampard would also go on to dominate shopping lists.
A certain Czech West Ham defender quickly become synonymous with being the type of player no one wanted to buy, but back in those chivalrous days the Titus Bramble ruling wasn’t even a twinkle in Tomas Repka’s eye.
A full list of teams bought that night can be viewed here.
Story of the season
Thanks to a stingy back five of Paul Robinson, Steve Finnan, Kolo Toure, John Terry and Wes Brown, Vasco De Beauvoir dominated the league from September and were hard to catch from there, picking up five MOTM awards and becoming champions.
Stevie G and The Yak spurred on a spring assault for Barking Hoxton, who made second place their own for a large part of the season and finished there.
The Dynamo Stockwell manager did not enjoy the best of debuts. With a midfield built around Stelios Giannakopoulos, Dynamo’s pre-season prediction of a mid-table finish was woefully over ambitious. They came last.
Final league table
The top five individual performers have largely remained popular signings throughout the league’s history. As he would continue to do over the next few years, The Yak crept onto the high scoring charts.
The surprises were Vasco’s Steve Finnan and £500k Darius Vassell. They would both go on to discover, much to the detriment of future managers, this was the pinnacle of their careers.
Highest scorers
| Player | Team | Value | Points scored | |
| 1 | T Henry | Stockwell Stockwell | £29.5m | 274 |
| 2 | W Rooney | Thieving Magpies | £28m | 245 |
| 3 | S Gerrard | Barking Hoxton | £26m | 230 |
| 4 | F Lampard | Thieving Magpies | £27m | 203 |
| 5 | J Terry | Vasco De Beauvoir | £18m | 182 |
| 6 | The Yak | Barking Hoxton | £7m | 180 |
| 7 | R van Nistlerooy | Bashers FC | £17.5m | 176 |
| 8 | J Riise | Fat Ladies | £10.5m | 164 |
| 9 | S Finnan | Vasco De Beauvoir | £8.5m | 155 |
| 10 | D Vassell | Vasco De Beauvoir | £0.5m | 150 |
How the league administration summed up the season:
“So there you have it. Vasco are champions of the inaugural Barry Norgrove Football League. They’ve led since Week 3, and apart from a period when Mr Robben was at his most theatrical, haven’t looked like slipping. “I think I’ll have a tumbler of pink gin tonight to celebrate,” exclaimed the ever-inebriated Vasco manager. “The boys have done good, and now I can spend the next couple of months immersed in blackjack and hookers.“Barking Hoxton put up a spirited final stand, with the redoubtable Stevie G saving the final yet again. The much-jostled for third spot finally falls to those winged kleptomaniacs, so it’s Europe for them and Dio-calm for the Allstars. Despite a late spurt from the Fat Ladies (what an image) they remain in fifth spot. Stockwell Stockwell (Henry top scored the entire league) and Bashers (who posted the lowest weekly score of the season of -6) will recharge to fight again next season.“And finally Dynamo Stockwell. What can one say? Hapless? They aimed for mid-table and failed to fulfill their mediocre ambitions. Only time will tell if they’ve historically posted the worst score ever in the Norgrove, but with more transfer windows promised for next season one would conjecture that only the Black Cats could do worse. One would also think that the manager has taken a long hard look in the mirror, contemplating leaving the gas on for a split second, and is now preparing himself for the muckiest of pints at the awards evening.”
