Geraint Parry, Wrexham’s longest-serving member of staff, has always loved Boxing Day.
A bumper crowd for a home game the day after Christmas can usually be guaranteed, even back when the north Wales club were struggling more on the pitch than they have in recent seasons. Supporters are usually in a happy mood, too, after enjoying plenty of family time over the festive season.
Sheffield United are the December 26 visitors this year, and Parry is not alone in eagerly looking forward to a game in the second-tier Championship that will be broadcast live on both sides of the Atlantic.
What will be different for the 65-year-old this time, however, is that, for the first time in a generation, he will not be the man everyone turns to if a Yuletide crisis befalls the home team.
Earlier this season, Parry stepped down from his role as club secretary to become Wrexham’s official historian.
Age and a few health issues over the summer were behind his decision, which means Conor Barry, the new football administration manager and effectively Parry’s successor, is now the go-to man if there’s a repeat of the kind of unexpected problems that can strike over the Christmas period.
“We’ve had all sorts go wrong,” says Parry, who spent 21 years as secretary after previously working as a volunteer for the club he first watched as a fan in 1974. “Such as the years when we lost games on Boxing Day to the weather. We didn’t have many staff back then, so most of us had to be in on Christmas Day. (There’d be) Me, Phil Bennett (stadium ops), Paul (Chaloner) the groundsman, all looking at the snow and realising the implications of losing a big Boxing Day crowd.”
Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground, as seen in 2011 (John Walton/Getty Images)
Christmas 2010 stands out as a less-than-merry one for Wrexham, with a cold snap claiming a lot more than the Boxing Day meeting with Altrincham.
“Temperatures were down to -10 C (14F),” adds Parry, grimacing at the memory. “Our water pipes were an old system, to say the least, and they couldn’t cope.
“These were the days when the (Crusaders) rugby-league team played at The Racecourse, and their staff were in on Boxing Day. I got a call from the rugby club’s physio to say, ‘I think you better get back here quickly’.
“A thaw was underway and the pipes, which were up high and had zero insulation, were bursting left, right and centre. I’ll never forget getting to the players’ entrance, opening the door and this torrent of water came rushing out. If you look closely, you can actually still see how high the water got. It doesn’t matter how many times the walls are painted over, the marks still come through. What a Christmas that was.”
As with all the other major headaches — ranging from threats to the club’s very future to running out of toilet paper on a matchday — to befall Wrexham during the days before Hollywood ownership came to town, Wrexham muddled through back in 2010.
“A friendly local plumber and his apprentice spent the best part of a week sorting it out,” adds Parry. “He’d fix one pipe, put the pressure back on and another pipe elsewhere would pop. Poor fella must have been sick of this place by the end of that week.
“We were at home again in the New Year (against Bath City). We desperately needed to play and get some money in through the turnstiles. Eventually, we got the game on by only opening the two side stands. Behind the goals had to stay shut. But at least we got the fans in.”
Parry’s successor is unlikely to face such problems.
Much has changed a lot since the days when every pound coin at Wrexham had to do the work of a fiver, with the stadium infrastructure having been upgraded substantially under the celebrity ownership of Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac.
Improvements include a new £1.6million ($2.1m at the current rate) pitch, complete with undersoil heating, laid last summer, making future weather-related postponements unlikely. Nevertheless, Parry, whose matchday role now involves meeting and greeting hospitality guests, will be ready if required to help out should any problems occur over the festive season.
“I’ll still muck in if they need me,” he adds. “That’s just how it is at a club like this.”
Parry’s first two decades on the Wrexham staff couldn’t have been more contrasting to the promotion-laden years that have followed the 2021 takeover by Reynolds and Mac (formerly McElhenney).
He lived every minute of the battle for survival as a going concern, be that dealing with creditors banging on the door demanding overdue payments or helping oversee the Herculean effort by supporters to raise £100,000 in just 24 hours to avoid expulsion from the National League (the two divisions below the EFL that make up the fifth and sixth tiers of the English league system).
Those dark days help explain why Parry still gets a sense of wonderment when flicking through the visitors’ book that can be found in the club shop.
“It’s not just the English-speaking world coming to visit Wrexham, but all over,” he says. “Loads from Honduras, Poland, Croatia…
“I’m old enough to remember us getting promoted in 1977-78 and then competing in what was the Second Division. We’d go to Chelsea or West Ham and take just one supporters’ bus — maybe 100 away fans behind the goal at Stamford Bridge. Now, thousands travel to our away games. Doesn’t matter whether it’s a Tuesday night in Leicester or a Saturday lunchtime at Southampton, there’s a full away end.
“I never thought I’d see us back at this level. My only hope was that we could one day get back in the Football League. Nothing more.”
As club secretary, Parry has enjoyed the charge up through the leagues under Reynolds and Mac via three promotions in the past three seasons from a front-row seat. He still goes into the office every day in his new role as Wrexham’s official historian, but things are slightly different.
“I do miss the day-to-day involvement,” adds the 65-year-old. “Everything comes through you (as club secretary), you’re at the heart of things. Doesn’t matter what it is. Might be someone wanting a taxi, or a visa needs sorting for a player. But it all tends to go across your desk.
“A real 24/7 job, but I loved it. Never really felt like a job, more a way of life. So, yes, I do miss that side of it. But, as anyone who has reached a certain age will know, it is nice to step back and pass the baton to the next generation.
“I’m not getting any younger. I turned 65 just before the end of last season and had a few health problems over the summer. I came back from those to the transfer window, which, as we all know, was a busy one with 13 new faces and quite a few going out.
“The club was great with me but the stress is always there during a transfer window. My body was telling me I’m not 21 anymore so I just thought, ‘I need to step back’.
“The plan was to expand the department anyway. There was a new gentleman, Conor, coming in towards the end of September from Wolves (of the Premier League). He’s now taken over and will get a couple more staff as we go along.”
Parry spent 21 years as Wrexham’s club secretary after previously working as a volunteer (Richard Sutcliffe/The Athletic)
Parry’s new role is a busy one, too, in other ways.
“We’re trying to sort out all the club artefacts,” he adds. “At some stage, we’d like to establish a club museum. That’s a bit down the line but to get to that stage, we need to catalogue exactly what we’ve got that’s of historical interest.
“This includes what’s out there in private hands. We don’t have to take it in-house, just photograph it and then keep it on file. Then, if and when the museum gets off the ground, we can approach the family of an ex-player and say, ‘Could we borrow the Welsh Cup medal that your dad won?’
“I’m also dealing with a few internal messages. People wanting to put murals up and asking who should be included from a certain era. We’re also putting together a little club booklet, detailing the history for young scholars who join the club, so those coming from outside the area will have a better understanding of the club’s history. They’ll probably know about the modern days, through the (Welcome To Wrexham) documentary but there’s a lot of history that happened before that.”
Wrexham’s past may be occupying much of Parry’s time but he’s also determined to enjoy the present.
Phil Parkinson’s side have adapted well to life in the Championship, opening up the possibility of a tilt at the play-offs in the spring, and maybe even a fourth straight promotion and top-flight football for the first time in the club’s 161-year history.
If that proves to be the case, there’s one headache that will pass from the club’s longest-serving member of staff to others.
“We’re very fortunate that all three promotions were achieved at home,” says Parry. “It allowed everyone to be part of things. Mind, as I watched the pitch invasions after each promotion, I knew I’d be the one dealing with the Football Association later that following week, sending letters to explain what measures we’d taken to try and prevent fans coming on.
“They’re not killjoys (at the FA), and they did understand how we’d tried to manage things, ensuring we got the opposition players off safely and so on, but it was still something extra to deal with.
“Now, if we do go up again in the future, it won’t be my problem. I can literally just enjoy the scenes… while also feeling a bit sorry for the extra work it’ll cause Conor during the week.”