Barrington Gerard Hole (16 September 1942 – 25 March 2019) was a Welsh professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. A

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

international, he began his career with

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

and made his professional debut as a teenager.

Career

Hole's father

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had been a professional footballer and played for Swansea Town before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, making over 400 appearances and playing in the club's first ever fixture in

The Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

. His older brothers Colin and

Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *A ...

had also both played for their hometown club Swansea, although Colin never made a first team appearance. Barrie did not initially follow the family tradition and instead joined their rivals

. He made his league debut as a seventeen-year-old during a 4–3 victory over Luton Town in February 1960 during a season when Cardiff gained promotion to the first division. Soon establishing himself in the Bluebirds side, even playing as an emergency striker on occasions, he was a vital member of the side, including being ever present during the 1964–65 season. During his time at Ninian Park, Hole made his debut for the

Welsh national team ) , Association = Football Association of Wales (FAW) , Confederation = UEFA (Europe) , Coach = Rob Page , Captain = Gareth Bale , Most caps = Gareth Bale (111) , Top scorer = Gareth Bal ...

in 1963 in a

British Home Championship The British Home Championship * sco, Hame Internaitional Kemp * gd, Farpais lìg eadar-nàiseanta * cy, Pencampwriaeth y Pedair Gwlad, name=lang (historically known as the British International Championship or simply the International Champio ...

game against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

which Wales won 4–1. Hole had become a regular for the national team when he was signed by Blackburn Rovers in July 1966 for £40,000. After just two years at Blackburn he moved, this time to

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

for £60,000 in September 1968. In 1969, Hole won the Aston Villa Lions Club Terrace Trophy for the best player at Aston Villa as decided by the fans. In May 1970, Hole was signed to

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

by then manager

Roy Bentley Roy Thomas Frank Bentley (17 May 1924 – 20 April 2018) was an English football player and manager. A former forward, Bentley played 367 games for Chelsea and captained the club to their first League Championship in the 1954–55 season. He ...

for £20,000. It was during his time here that Hole played his last match for Wales, a

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qualifier against

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which was a 0–0 draw. Hole played for Swansea for two years before fully retiring from football in May 1972. After retiring from football he ran a newsagents in Swansea before selling it in 2004. Barrie died in March 2019 aged 76.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hole, Barrie 1942 births 2019 deaths Footballers from Swansea Welsh men's footballers Wales men's international footballers Wales men's under-23 international footballers Cardiff City F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players English Football League players Men's association football midfielders