Smart Arridge

Smart Arridge's parents were both English, his father was from Lincolnshire and his mother from Durham. Smart himself was born in Southwick (Sunderland).
The family moved to Bangor in north Wales and Smart, along with his brother* played for Bangor City. Smart played at left back.
In 1892 Smart joined Bootle ( then in Division 2). The following season he joined Everton, for whom he made 56 first team appearances up until his move to New Brighton Tower in 1898. In 3 seasons at Tower Arridge made 88 appearances and scored his only 2 League goals. In 1901 he moved on to Stockport County (67 appearances). in 1903 he returned to Bangor City (he was employed as a ticket collector on the pier).
Under the international qualification rules of the time Smart was only eligible to play for England (the Goodall brothers provide a good illustration of these rules in action). However, between 1892 and 1899 he played 8 internationals for Wales (w 1 d 2 l 5 ) , captaining the side on one occasion (a 4-0 defeat to England in 1899) .

* The Bangor City website confuses the 2 brothers, claiming 'Smart' as a nickname for W.G. Arridge. I have viewed Smart Arridge's baptismal record- Smart was his given name ( he also named his own son Smart). Census records show his brother, William, to be 4 years his senior.

Gone but not forgotten- New Brighton Tower

It's like something from a landscape of dreams- a Lancashire League side playing in a stadium capable of holding 80,000 in the shadow of  a 173 m tower...

New Brighton Tower was the tallest structure in England. It was built as New Brighton emerged as a popular resort in the 1890s. As a means of further income generation the company responsible, The Tower and Recreation Company, also built a multi sport stadium called the Tower Athletic Ground. The Tower and Recreation Company was a consortium of primarily Manchester based businessmen. They speculated that the football stadium would generate a great income. All they needed was a team.
New Brighton Tower FC was assembled in 1897 and was admitted to the Lancashire League. Having won the Lancashie League in their fist season the club were elected to the newly expanded Division 2 for the 1898-99 season.

season	League	FA Cup
1898-99	Div.2 5th	Q2
1899-1900	Div.2 10th	Q3
1900-01	Div.2 4th	R1

Sam Raybould  featured for Tower in 1899-1900, bagging 10 goals in 13 appearances, leading to Tom Watson signing him for Liverpool. 

The club also employed the services of proven stars such as Scotsmen Jack Bell (Everton), Bob Petrie (Gainsborough Trinity, The Wednesday, Southampton), and England international Alf Milward (who had made 200+ appearances for Everton). 

Another former Evertonian to serve was the splendidly named Welsh international Smart Arridge.

As can be seen from their League positions, it wasn't results that were a problem for Tower, but finances. It wasn't a case of build and they will come- the ground capable of holding 80,000 attracted numbers in the region of  2-3,000.

A visit of Manchester City drew a gate of 10,000, otherwise attendances were nowhere near those of their Merseyside neighbours. During the 3 seasons that New Brighton Tower were in the Football League Everton and Liverpool were established in the top half of the first division, with Liverpool winning the title in the year that New Brighton Tower disbanded.