Taxes, early QPR cup exits and death are the certainties of life, and each year we lose many life-long R’s fans, who are displayed on the Videotron at Loftus Road each January.
All are to be honoured, some are best known only to smaller groups of family and friends, but others are very well known.
Such a person is the QPR fans legend that is Alan Barnes, who has also sadly joined them.
Alan was born in November 1948 and lived in Third Avenue on the Queen’s Park Estate, literally just a stones-throw from Rangers’ birthplace in Droop Street. He inherited his love of QPR through his father.
Alan was part of a group of fellow well-known R’s fans on the estate, like Jim Mellins, Doug Soar, Keith Davies, Steve Edwards and Jeff Ledwidge. Sadly only Jeff is still with us.
They followed Rangers from the Division Three South days, trekking up and down the country to such salubrious places as Workington, Accrington, Darlington, Newport, Exeter and Torquay.
There was no glory at that time, but that is what one does to support their local team, regardless of success, unlike the modern fans who demand success NOW!
I saw my first QPR game in April 1965 just before Rangers found success, with the aid of a British Rail Family Member Privilege Card (paying only one-quarter of the fare).
I started travelling to away matches and on such a trip to Sheffield Wednesday in September 1970 (lost 0-1), that I and Jim Mellins (my later Best Man), travelled together and first met Alan (and others). And from that day we became good friends.
As Rangers’ status improved, they were invited to many Continental pre-season matches and the Queen’s Park Estate boys would be there at many of them including, Go Ahead Eagles. NEC Nijmegen, Utrecht, Liege, Bruges, Essen, Borussia Monchengladbach and Dortmund.
Apart from some of the bigger European clubs QPR played, there were also various other Dutch and German non-league as well, plus major trips to European Competitions in Bergen, a five-day coach trip to Bratislava, Cologne, Athens and Belgrade.
Alan and I would go and watch the Reserves and the South-East Counties Youth team as well, and although I was a very good attender, he was something else!!!
Thinking nothing of travelling to Reserve games at Plymouth, Hereford, the Bristol clubs and various others in South Wales. And it was well known that often the Club would bring him back on the team coach.
He was a confirmed bachelor but by pure chance Alan met the love of his life Zena, who was a part-time barmaid at the sorely missed Narrow Boat pub in Ladbroke Grove.
Alan and Zena just hit it off and as they say: “opposites attract”, they were like chalk and cheese. He was the working-class lad from the estate and Zena was the well-educated teacher lady from Hampstead.
They married and had twenty-plus years together until Zena’s sudden death clearly shook Alan, but he carried on.
Then he suffered life-changing injuries getting off the coach before the Forest away game some years ago, but he continued attending home and away matches.
But his legs were struggling and even getting to home games was becoming increasingly difficult!
Alan lost a leg in February 2024, but he was still determined to get back to Loftus Road which he managed by May 2024. He continued coming in spite of experiencing some difficulty.
His last game was the recent Hull City thriller, after which he said that it was so, so hard to get to Loftus Road, that he planned to skip matches until he felt better.
Sadly, Alan then suffered a heart attack whilst being out to buy a newspaper for a neighbour, and despite the best efforts of the NHS, he sadly passed away on January 6th this year.
I will look back at 55 years of friendship fondly forged by our love of QPR and the good times we had together.
And I hope Alan is in “a better place” now, meeting up with those previously named and that they are all looking down on us and cheering the Rangers.
Goodbye, my dear friend.
Joe English
(Top photo shows Alan & I in Utrecht on 1st August 1974, whilst the bottom one features Alan with Brian McCarthy at Norwich’s training ground in May 1994 when the Youth team secured the league title)