title: Beach volleyball

text: In following years the tour expanded nationally and was renamed the Pro Beach Volleyball Tour. It consisted of five events in California and tournaments in Florida, Colorado, and Chicago. By 1984, the Pro Beach consisted of 16 events around the country and had a total prize purse of US$300,000. At the end of the year, however, Event Concepts was forced out of the sport by a players' strike at the World Championship and the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) was founded.


title: Beach volleyball

text: At the professional level, the sport remained fairly obscure until the 1980s when beach volleyball experienced a surge in popularity with high-profile players such as Sinjin Smith, Randy Stoklos, and Karch Kiraly. Kiraly won an Olympic gold medal in beach volleyball in its first Olympic appearance in 1996, adding that to the two Olympic golds he won as part of the USA men's indoor team, In the 1980s, the sport gained popularity on the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 1986, the first international beach volleyball exhibition was held in Rio de Janeiro with 5,000 spectators.


title: Beach volleyball

text: In 1987, the first international FIVB-sanctioned tournament was played on Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro, with a prize purse of US$22,000. It was won by Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos. In 1989, the first FIVB-sanctioned international circuit, called the World Series, was organized with men's tournaments in Brazil, Italy and Japan. The FIVB and its continental confederations began organizing worldwide professional tournaments and laid the groundwork for the sport's Olympic debut in 1996. The first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour were held the following year. By 1998, the sport had been added to other multi-sport events including the Pan American Games, Central American Games, Southeast Asian Games, Goodwill Games and Universiade. In 2001, the FIVB began organizing the annual FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships, with the annual FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships beginning the following year.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) is the international governing body for the sport. The FIVB publishes the Official Beach Volleyball Rules every four years, as approved by the FIVB congress, which provides the framework for how beach volleyball is played internationally. The rules have changed through the years: the court size became smaller, side out scoring was replaced by rally scoring and let serves were allowed. Beach volleyball differs from indoor, especially in requiring "clean hands" while setting.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Beach volleyball is played on a rectangular sand court. The court is long and wide, surrounded by a clear space, which is at least wide on all sides. The minimum height clearance for beach volleyball courts is . The sand should be as leveled as possible and free of potential hazards such as rocks that could cause injuries to players.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The court is divided into equal halves by a net that is long and wide. The top of the net is 2.43 m (7 ft 11 11⁄16 in) above the center of the court for men's competition, and 2.24 m (7 ft 4 3⁄16 in) for women's competition, varied for veterans and junior competitions. An antenna, long and in diameter, is attached to each side edge of the net.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The antennae are considered part of the net and extend above it, forming the lateral boundaries within which the ball is allowed to cross.


title: Beach volleyball

text: FIVB regulations state that the ball must be spherical and made of water resistant, flexible material, such that it is appropriate for outdoor conditions. A beach volleyball ball has a circumference of 66–68 cm, a weight of 260–280 g and an inside pressure of 0.175–0.225 kg/cm. In 2022, the official ball of the AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) tour is the Wilson OPTX AVP, and the official ball of the FIVB (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball) beach volleyball tour is the Mikasa VLS300.


title: Beach volleyball

text: A team is composed exclusively of two players, who must always be in play and who cannot be subjected to any substitutions or replacement. At the moment the ball is hit by the server, each team must be within its own court (with the exception of the server), but there are no determined positions on the court, such that no positional faults can be committed.


title: Beach volleyball

text: A team scores a point when: the ball lands on the opposing team's court; the opposing team hits the ball "out"; the opposing team commits a fault; or the opposing team receives a penalty. The team that won the point serves for the next point. The ball is considered "out" if it: lands on the ground completely outside the boundary lines (a ball is "in" if any part of it touches a sideline or end-line); touches an object or person (who is not a player) outside the court; touches the net's antennae; does not cross the net's lateral boundaries (within the antennae) during service or during a team's third contact; crosses completely under the net.


title: Beach volleyball

text: A set is won by the first team to reach 21 points (15 points in the deciding final set) with a two-point advantage. Thus, if the score is 20–all (or 14–all in a final set) or at any tie beyond it, whoever scores two straight points wins. A match is won by whoever wins two sets.


title: Beach volleyball

text: A fault is committed when a referee judges that a team has made a playing action that violates the rules. When a team commits a fault, the opposing team receives a point and gains the right to serve. If both teams commit a fault simultaneously, the point is replayed. Common faults include:


title: Beach volleyball

text: In the 1990s, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball reduced the standard internal pressure for a beach volleyball ball from the indoor standard of 0.30–0.325 kgf/cm to 0.175–0.225 kgf/cm, and increased the standard circumference of the beach volleyball ball from the indoor standard of 65–67 cm to 66–68 cm.


title: Beach volleyball

text: In the 2001 season, the FIVB began testing rule changes to the court size and scoring system. The beach volleyball court dimension was reduced from the indoor court size of to , and the scoring system was changed from sideout scoring, wherein only the serving team can score a point, to rally scoring, wherein a point is scored on every serve. The Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) adopted the FIVB's rule changes that same year, which upset many of the sport's purists at the time. The new rules were officially adopted by the FIVB in 2002.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Beach volleyball is fundamentally similar to indoor volleyball. However, there are several differences between the two games that affect players' strategies, gameplay and techniques.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The main differences in the rules of beach and indoor volleyball for international competitions governed by the FIVB include:


title: Beach volleyball

text: The teams start on opposite sides of the net. One team is designated the "serving" team and opposing team is the "receiving" team. A coin toss is conducted by the referee before the warm-ups to determine which team serves first and which sides of the court the teams start on for the first two sets. If a third deciding set is needed, another coin toss will be conducted prior to the third set. The service order decided at the coin toss before a set is maintained throughout the set.


title: Beach volleyball

text: For each point, a player from the serving team initiates the "serve" by tossing the ball into the air and attempting to hit the ball so it passes over the net on a course such that it will land in the opposing team's court. The opposing team must use a combination of no more than three contacts with the ball to return the ball to the opponent's side of the net, and individual players may not touch the ball twice consecutively except after a block touch. The three contacts usually consist first of the "bump" or "pass" by the receiving player, second of the "set" by the receiving player's teammate so that the ball's trajectory is aimed towards a spot where the receiving player can hit it, and third by the receiving player who "spikes" (jumping, raising one arm above the head and hitting the ball so it will move quickly down to the ground on the opponent's court) or "shoots" to return the ball over the net. The team with possession of the ball that is trying to attack the ball as described is said to be on "offense".


title: Beach volleyball

text: The team on "defense" attempts to prevent the attacking team from directing the ball into their court: a player at the net jumps and reaches above the top (and if possible, across the plane) of the net to "block" the attacked ball. If the ball is hit around, above, or through the block, the defensive player positioned behind the blocker attempts to control the ball with a "dig" (usually a forearm pass). After a successful dig, the team transitions to offense.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The game continues in this manner, rallying back and forth, until the ball touches the court or until a fault is committed.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Teams switch ends of the court after every seven points (sets 1 and 2) and five points (set 3) played. There is a technical time-out when the total points of both teams add up to 21. Each team may also request one additional time-out per set.


title: Beach volleyball

text: While there are no fixed positions, competitive players generally have specialized defensive and offensive roles.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Some competitive teams have no specializations, with the two players taking turns blocking and playing defense. This style of play is known as split blocking and allows teams to conserve energy since the demand for energy on the sand is higher.


title: Beach volleyball

text: On offense, players tend to specialize in playing on either the right side or left side of the court. This allows for greater consistency in receiving serve and shot selection. Left-handed players generally prefer to play on the right side while right-handed players generally prefer to play on the left side, as it is easier to spike a ball that has not passed across the line of one's body. A player who is playing on the opposite side of their handedness is said to be playing on the on-hand side, while a player playing on the same side as their handedness is playing on the off-hand side.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The ball may touch any part of the body (except during the serve, when only the hand or arm may make contact), but must be hit, not caught or thrown. During a hit, a player may only make contact with the ball one time. When two players from the same team contact the ball simultaneously, it is counted as two hits, and either player may make the next contact. When two players from opposing teams contact the ball simultaneously over the net, in what is known as a joust, the team whose side the ball ends up on is entitled to another three contacts.


title: Beach volleyball

text: When receiving a ball overhand with fingers from a hit that is not hard driven, the ball must be contacted "cleanly". If a player receives the ball open-handed, the contact of each hand with the ball must be exactly simultaneous. In practice, this means that serves are never received open-handed. When receiving an opponent's hard-driven attack, a double contact (provided both contacts occur in a single action) and/or a slight lift of the ball is allowed. In particular, in defensive action of a hard driven ball, the ball can be held momentarily overhand with the fingers.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Attack-hits using an "open-handed tip or dink" directing the ball with the fingers are illegal, as are attack-hits using an overhand pass to direct the ball on a trajectory not perpendicular to the line of the shoulders (overhand passes which accidentally cross over the net are an exception). These differences between the rules of indoor volleyball and beach volleyball strongly affect tactics and techniques.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Beach volleyball players use hand signals to indicate to their partners the type of block they either intend to make (if they are the designated blocker) or that they want their partner to make (if they are the designated defender). Block signals are important so that both the blocker and defender know which area of the court is their responsibility to cover. Block signals are made behind the back to hide them from the opposing team. They are usually given with both hands by the serving player's partner prior to the serve, with the left hand referring to the type of block that should be put up against the left-side attacker, and the right hand similarly referring to the right-side attacker. A player may also "wiggle" or "flash" one block signal to indicate which opponent to serve to.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Note: For some teams, closed fist and open hand signals have the opposite meaning of blocking. If the partner is showing the closed fist the blocker should block "ball" and open hand means that the blocker should "pull off" the net.


title: Beach volleyball

text: There are several basic skills competitive players need to master: serving, passing, setting, attacking, blocking, and digging.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Serving is the act of putting the ball into play by striking it with the hand or arm from behind the rear court boundary. It can take the form of an underhand serve or an overhand serve, and examples include: float serve, jump-float serve, top-spin serve, jump serve, sky ball serve and reverse sky ball serve. As beach volleyball is usually played outdoors, the direction and speed of the wind and the position of the sun are considered when choosing which serve to use. Wind can significantly affect the trajectory of a serve and so players can employ different serving strategies to take advantage of the wind conditions. For example, players may choose a top-spin serve when serving into the wind, causing the ball to drop short in front of the passer. Players can also take advantage of the position of the sun. For example, a sky ball serve is especially effective at high noon, because the sun gets into the passer's eyes and can cause the passer to become disoriented.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Another factor the server considers is choosing which of the two opposing players to serve the ball to. Because of the three-contact rule, the player who receives the serve will likely also be the attacker, and serving strategies can thus target an opposing player's relative weakness in passing, setting or attacking.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Although the serve can be used as an offensive weapon, most rallies are won by the receiving team, as they have the first attack opportunity.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The pass is the first of a team's 3 allowed contacts. In indoor volleyball, passing involves two main techniques: forearm pass, or bump, where the ball touches the inside part of the joined forearms or platform, at waist line; and overhand pass, where it is handled with the fingertips, like a hand set, above the head. However, unlike indoors you may not double contact the first ball using overhand with fingers action on the beach. In practice, this means that bump pass is much more popular in beach volleyball; similarly, beach players rarely use an overhand passing motion as the first (except on a hard driven attack) or last of the three allowed team contacts. Digging is a similar skill to passing, but the term is not used to describe receiving the serve or a free ball, but rather refers to an attempt to prevent an opponent's attack hit from touching the court.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The set is the second team contact, and its purpose is to position the ball for an attack on the third hit. Similar to a pass, the ball can be set with either a forearm pass technique, known as a bump set, or an overhand pass technique, known as a hand set. Due to the environmental factors that make it harder to hand set a ball "cleanly", the bump set is more common in the beach game. When hand setting, the player's hands must contact the ball simultaneously. If a referee determines that a double-hit has occurred, the point will be given to the other team. Excessive spin after a ball has been set is often used as an indicator of a double contact fault, but causing a ball to spin while setting is not explicitly prohibited. After completing the contact, the setter typically turns his attention to the defense and communicates to his partner whether a blocker is up and which area of the court is open. The second contact can also be used to attack the ball, known as an "over-on-two" attack.


title: Beach volleyball

text: A beach volleyball attack can be categorized as either a spike or a shot. A spike involves hitting the ball hard with one open hand on a downward trajectory from above the top of the net. A shot is a relatively soft attack used to place a ball into an open (undefended) area of the court. Unlike indoor volleyball, a wide variety of shots are utilized in beach volleyball due to the fewer defenders on court. Common shots used in beach volleyball include: roll shots, in which the attacker puts a lot of topspin on the ball so that it has an arcing trajectory that will go over the block then drop quickly; cut shots, in which the shot crosses the net at sharp angles; pokeys, in which the ball is contacted with the attacking player's knuckles; and dinks, in which the ball is directed very softly low over the net.


title: Beach volleyball

text: A block can be used to: score a direct point by directing an attack back into the opponent's court; channel an attack to the defender by "taking away" part of the court; or slow down the ball so the defender has time to chase it down. At the competitive level, blockers will often reach across the net and "penetrate" the opposing team's side as much as possible to take away more hitting angles. Blockers may also attempt a shot block, where instead of maximum penetration across the net, the blocker reaches with their hands as high as possible to achieve maximum height above the net.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Players often decide against blocking (if the opposing team's pass and set are not in a good position to produce a spike attack) and instead opt to retreat and play defense. This skill is known as peeling, dropping or pulling off the net, and is almost exclusive to beach volleyball.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The primary international governing body for beach volleyball is the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB). The regional governing bodies are:


title: Beach volleyball

text: In the United States, USA Volleyball is the governing body for beach volleyball, as well as indoor and sitting volleyball.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is the international professional tour for both men and women organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB). The inaugural tour was held in 1997, replacing the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Series that began in 1989 for men and 1992 for women. World Tour tournaments are ranked from 1 to 5 stars, with 5-star tournaments offering the most prize money. The 2018 World Tour has 47 international tournaments with a total prize purse of over US$7 million. Competing in the World Tour as well as other FIVB-recognized tournaments such as the Summer Olympics allows players to earn FIVB Ranking Points, with higher-star events being worth more points. The World Tour concludes with the World Tour Finals at the end of each season.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The FIVB also organizes the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships every two years, held since 1997. The World Championships have a 48-team main draw and prize purse of US$500,000 per gender.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Players can only participate in the Continental Tour that their national federation is a member of. In addition to prize money, Continental Tour events award players with FIVB ranking points and their national federations with National Federation ranking points. The latter determines how many teams a national federation can send to the World Championships and the Summer Olympics.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Some countries also have domestic professional tours, but only FIVB-approved national tours can award FIVB ranking points. As of 2017, there are 21 FIVB-approved national tours.


title: Beach volleyball

text: In the United States, the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) is the main domestic professional tour, organizing tournaments annually such as the Manhattan Beach Open. The AVP tour is not FIVB-approved and has had conflicts with the FIVB in the 1980s and 1990s over regulations and sponsorship, leading to an initial boycott of FIVB events by the top American players.


title: Beach volleyball

text: In Germany, the Techniker Beach Tour, previously known as the Smart Beach Tour, is the top domestic tour and is FIVB-approved. It is the organized by the German Volleyball Association and each season ends with the German Beach Volleyball Championships.


title: Beach volleyball

text: In Brazil, the FIVB-approved Brazilian Beach Volleyball Circuit () is the main national tour. It has been organized by the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation since 1991. The tour consists of the main Open Circuit


title: Beach volleyball

text: Men and women's beach volleyball has been contested in the Summer Olympics since 1996. It is also contested in other international multi-sport events, including the Commonwealth Games (since 2018), Pan American Games (since 1999), Central American and Caribbean Games (since 1998), Asian Games (since 1998), Pacific Games (since 1999), African Games (since 2011), and Asian Beach Games (since 2008).


title: Beach volleyball

text: In the 2010–2011 academic year, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) began sponsoring women's beach volleyball as an "emerging sport". Initially, it was sponsored only for Division II, with Division I added the following academic year. NCAA competition follows standard beach volleyball rules, with competitions involving five doubles-teams from each participating school. For a sport to classify as a championship, at least 40 schools must sponsor it. In 2015, sixty schools had teams, allowing it to become NCAA's 90th Championship sport. Beach volleyball became a fully sanctioned NCAA championship sport in the 2015–2016 school year, following votes by leaders of all three NCAA divisions to launch a single all-divisions national championship.


title: Beach volleyball

text: In 2019, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) approved women's collegiate beach volleyball as an "emerging sport" with 16 NAIA institutions fielding teams in the 2019–2020 school year.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Beach volleyball is a men's and women's championship sport in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP). In the NCAA, it is contested at both the high school and college level.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The European Universities Beach Volleyball Championships are held annually as part of the European Universities Championships.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The FIVB organizes the annual U19 and U21 World Championships. World Championships for the U17 and U23 age-groups were previously held as well. Teams are awarded FIVB ranking points at these Championships, but not prize money. Instead, the winning U19 teams get a direct main draw entry into the next U21 World Championships, while the winning U21 teams get a direct main draw entry into a World Tour 4 or 5-star event of their choice.


title: Beach volleyball

text: In 1999, the FIVB standardized beach volleyball uniforms, with the swimsuit becoming the required uniform for both men and women. Women were required to wear two-piece bikinis, while men were required to wear shorts that were no longer than above the knees. This drew the ire of some athletes.


title: Beach volleyball

text: According to current FIVB rules, female beach volleyball players have the option of playing in shorts or a one-piece swimsuit. Most players, however, prefer the two-piece bikini. Competitors such as Natalie Cook and Holly McPeak have confirmed the FIVB's claims that the uniforms are practical for a sport played on sand during the heat of summer, with McPeak saying that the two-piece is more comfortable and allows for a greater range of motion while the one-piece has the further problem of trapping sand. British Olympian Denise Johns claimed that the regulation uniform is intended to be "sexy" and to draw attention. Other players have argued that the bikini is tied to the sport's "beach culture".


title: Beach volleyball

text: During the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, a study was conducted on the camera angles during the beach volleyball games. 20% of the camera angles were focused on the chest area and 17% of the angles were focused on the buttock area. The study concludes that this implies the look of the players is having a greater impact on fans than their actual athleticism.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Some conservative cultures have expressed moral objections to the swimsuit as a uniform. At the 2007 South Pacific Games, rules were adjusted to require less revealing shorts and cropped sports tops. At the 2006 Asian Games, only one Muslim country fielded a team in the women's competition, amid concerns the uniform was inappropriate.


title: Beach volleyball

text: In early 2012, the FIVB announced it would allow shorts (maximum length above the knee) and sleeved tops at the London 2012 Olympics. The federation spokesman said that "many of these countries have religious and cultural requirements so the uniform needed to be more flexible". In fact, the weather was so cold for the evening games at London 2012 that the players sometimes had to wear shirts and leggings.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Beach volleyball culture includes the people, language, fashion, and life surrounding the sport of modern beach volleyball. With its origins in Hawaii and California, beach volleyball is strongly associated with a casual, beach-centric lifestyle. As it developed nearly in parallel with modern surfing, beach volleyball culture shares some similarities with surf culture. The beach bum archetype is one such example. Professional beach volleyball matches often have a "party atmosphere", with loud music, announcers and dancers in between points and during time-outs.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Fashion often extends from the clothing worn during play, like the bikini or boardshorts. And much like surfers, beach volleyball players are at the mercy of the weather; patterns of play often develop based on weather conditions like sun and wind.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Naturists were early adopters of the game. Records of regular games in clubs can be found as early as the 1920s. Given the outdoor nature of naturism, a beach version of volleyball was naturally adopted. By the 1960s, a volleyball court could be found in almost all naturist clubs. A large (over 70 teams) nude volleyball tournament has been held each fall since 1971 at White Thorn Lodge in western Pennsylvania, and several smaller tournaments occur each year throughout North America.


title: Beach volleyball

text: The most common injuries in beach volleyball are knee, ankle, shoulder and finger injuries. Pain due to overuse of the knee, lower back, and especially shoulder is common as well, but is less prevalent than in indoor volleyball due to the soft landing surface. Acute lost-time injuries are also relatively rare in beach volleyball compared to other team sports. Many players use kinesiology tape. Interest in this tape has surged after American beach volleyball player and three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh wore it at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.


title: Beach volleyball

text: 4x4 beach volleyball is a variant of the regular two-man beach game that is popular in the United States and Brazil. FIVB-sanctioned matches are best of 3 sets played to 21 points (15 points in a third set tie-break), with four starting players and up to two substitutes in a team. 4x4 is contested at the World Beach Games.


title: Beach volleyball

text: Snow volleyball is a winter sport played by two teams on a snow court divided by a net. Originating as a variant of beach volleyball, the rules of snow volleyball are similar to the beach game, with the main differences being the playing surface, the scoring system and the number of players. As in the beach version, matches were originally best of 3 sets played to 21 points, with two players in a team. In December 2018, the FIVB approved new rules for snow volleyball which changed the scoring system to a best of 3 sets played to 15 points, and the number of players to three starters and one substitute in a team. Another difference is that unlike beach volleyball, a touch off block does not count as one of the three allowed touches, and any player may make the subsequent touch after the block.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Newport County Association Football Club () is a professional football club in the city of Newport, South Wales. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club's usual home colours are amber shirts and black shorts.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Formed in 1912, the club began life in the Southern League before being invited to become founder members of the Football League Third Division in 1920. They failed re-election in 1931, but were elected back into the Football League the next year. They struggled for the next few seasons, but went on to be crowned Third Division South champions in 1938–39. World War II meant they had to wait until the 1946–47 season to take their place in the Second Division, though they were relegated at the end of the campaign. They were relegated out of the Third Division in 1962. In the 1979–80 season, under manager Len Ashurst, they secured promotion out of the Fourth Division and won the Welsh Cup for the first time. They reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup Winner's Cup the next year. In the 1980s they suffered financial difficulties with a double relegation costing them their Football League place in 1988 and the club went out of business in February 1989.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: The club reformed but were initially unable to play at their home ground at Somerton Park, so picked up the nickname of the "Exiles". They immediately won the Hellenic League in 1989–90 and were promoted out of the Southern League Midland Division in 1994–95. While playing at Newport Stadium, they were relegated from the Premier Division in 1997, before winning promotion out of the Midland Division again in 1998–99. Placed in the Conference South in 2004, they went on to be crowned champions in 2009–10 and after moving to Rodney Parade in 2012, they returned to the Football League following a 25-year absence after winning the Conference National play-off final in 2013 under manager Justin Edinburgh.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Newport County, originally nicknamed The Ironsides due to Newport being home to Lysaght's Orb Works steel works, started out in the Southern League in 1912 at Somerton Park. The official name of the club was The Newport & Monmouthshire County Association Football Club, although the shorter "Newport County" was soon adopted. The club were reformed in 1919 and were first elected to the Football League in 1920. They were not re-elected after the 1930–31 season but rejoined for 1932–33. After almost 20 years in the Third Division South, the club finally clinched promotion to the Second Division as champions in 1939 under manager Billy McCandless.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Hopes were high that the championship-winning side could prosper in the Second Division, but only three games were played of the 1939–40 season due to the outbreak of World War II. Newport County managed a 1–1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur and a 3–1 win over Southampton, finishing joint ninth out of 22 in the abandoned season. The War League operated for the remainder of the 1939–40 season and County finished 10th in the South-West Division.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: After the war, the club reformed and competed in the temporary Football League South for the 1945–46 season. On the resumption of national league football for the 1946–47 season Newport resumed their place in the Second Division but the reshaped team suffered a host of defeats – including a joint Football League record 13–0 defeat at Newcastle United. Newcastle player Len Shackleton remarked "they were lucky to get nil". Despite victories over Coventry City, Sheffield Wednesday and Fulham, the club needed four wins out of the last four games to have any hope of safety. Despite a revenge victory over Newcastle United, defeats to Birmingham City, Luton Town and Manchester City sealed their fate. County finished bottom of the Second Division and were relegated.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Newport reached the fifth round of the 1948–49 FA Cup under manager Tom Bromilow, the furthest they have gone in the competition, later equalled in 2019. They only narrowly lost the game 3–2 away to Portsmouth, the eventual FA Cup semi-finalists and First Division champions that season.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: After 11 further seasons in the Third Division South, the club narrowly avoided another effective relegation with the creation of the Fourth Division for the 1958–59 season. The bottom 12 teams from the Third Division North and South were placed in the new division, with the remainder forming the revived Third Division. County avoided this fate by a mere four points. However, in 1962, with only seven wins all season, the club were relegated to the Fourth Division – their home for the next 18 years.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Billy Lucas had the first of three spells as Newport County manager from 1953 to 1961. County reached the fourth round of the 1956–57 FA Cup losing 2–0 to Arsenal in front of 20,000 spectators at Somerton Park. In the 1958–59 FA Cup County faced Tottenham Hotspur in the fourth round. The game was played in heavy snow away at White Hart Lane, and although County lost 4–1 their goal came from an incredible 35-yard effort by defender Ken Hollyman. This made the score-line 1–2, giving County the hope that they could force an upset upon Bill Nicholson's men (who were double winners a year later). However, two late goals for Tottenham ended County's hopes of pulling off a shock result. County faced Tottenham again in the 1959–60 FA Cup third round at Somerton Park in front of a cup record 24,000 crowd, this time losing 4–0.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In January 1964 under Billy Lucas in his second spell as manager, County took on another high-profile side – Burnley, the 1960 Division One champions and 1962 double runners-up – in the FA Cup fourth round, but again suffered defeat 2–1.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In the 1970–71 season the Newport team managed by Bobby Ferguson set an unwanted Football League record by not winning any of their first 25 matches, losing 21 in the process. In the same season Newport equalled the worst defeat of a Football League club by a non-league club when they lost 6–1 to Barnet in the FA Cup First Round. Results improved in the following season under Billy Lucas in his third spell as manager and in the 1972–73 season Newport missed out on promotion only on goal average.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: For the 1976–77 season the team managed by Jimmy Scoular changed their playing strip to light blue and white striped shirts, light blue shorts and white socks akin to the Argentina national team in an attempt to turn around their fortunes. However, the team continued to struggle until Colin Addison took over in January 1977. The season became known as "the great escape" as County avoided relegation with a 1–0 win at home to Workington in the last game of the season.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: The 1980s heralded both the brightest and darkest moments in Newport County's history. Len Ashurst was manager from 1978 to 1982, the club's most successful period in its history and under the chairmanship of Richard Ford. In the 1978–79 FA Cup County beat West Ham United 2–1 in round three before losing 1–0 to Colchester United in a fourth round replay. In 1980, promotion was finally achieved from the Football League Fourth Division, the club being only five points from being crowned champions although never being in contention to win the league and never being top. County sealed promotion in the last match of the season with a 4–2 win at high-flying Walsall. Walsall finished second in the league and were also promoted.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: The team included a young John Aldridge who later became one of the most prolific goal-scorers in English football history, most famous for helping Liverpool win the First Division title in 1988 and FA Cup in 1989, as well as helping Oxford United win two successive promotions and the Football League Cup.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Also in the promotion-winning team was Tommy Tynan, one of the leading lower-league strikers of his era, who scored the all-important goal that sealed County's promotion. Dave Gwyther completed the trio of prolific goalscorers whilst captain Keith Oakes provided strength in central defence. Youth team products Steve Lowndes and Nigel Vaughan went on to attain international caps for Wales. This was also the year that County won the Welsh Cup, entitling them to play in the 1980–81 season European Cup Winners' Cup.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: The 1980–81 European Cup Winners' Cup turned out to be quite eventful – the first round against Crusaders of Northern Ireland was won 4–0 on aggregate (4–0 at home and 0–0 away). The second round against SK Haugar of Norway was even more convincing: after a 0–0 draw away, the home leg was won 6–0, taking the club into the quarter-finals against Carl Zeiss Jena F.C. of East Germany. Aldridge was injured for both matches against Carl Zeiss Jena, though he was a non-playing substitute in the 2nd leg. The quarter-final away leg was drawn 2–2 with Tommy Tynan scoring both goals, including his equaliser in the 90th minute. However, despite dominating the home leg, Newport lost 1–0 in front of 18,000 fans at Somerton Park, denying them a high-profile semi-final with S.L. Benfica. Carl Zeiss Jena went on to be the eventual cup runners-up, losing the final to Dinamo Tbilisi of the Soviet Union.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: The Newport County squad for the first leg was: 1 Gary Plumley, 2 Richard Walden, 3 John Relish, 4 Grant Davies, 5 Keith Oakes (Captain), 6 Tommy Tynan, 7 Nigel Vaughan, 8 Steve Lowndes, 9 Dave Gwyther, 10 Karl Elsey, 11 Kevin Moore, 12 Neil Bailey, 13 Steve Warriner, 14 Dave Bruton, 15 Bobby Ward, 16 Mark Kendall.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In the 1982–83 season Colin Addison, in his second spell as manager, led Newport County to their highest post-war league finish – 4th in the Third Division, just four points behind third-placed Huddersfield Town. Huddersfield were promoted to the Second Division, along with champions Portsmouth and local rivals Cardiff City. County had actually gone top of the table in early April after a 1–0 win over Cardiff in front of 16,052 fans at Somerton Park, but a return of only four points from the last seven games meant County missed out on promotion. County faced First-Division team Everton in the third round of the 1982–83 FA Cup. After a 1–1 draw at Newport, Everton won the replay 2–1.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In 1986 County reached the FA Cup third round under manager Bobby Smith, losing 2–0 to Sunderland. Newport appeared in the Welsh Cup final again in 1987 under manager John Lewis, this time losing 1–0 to Merthyr Tydfil after a replay.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Despite reaching the Welsh Cup final, County were relegated from the Third Division in 1987 and in 1988 finished bottom of the Fourth Division with a mere 25 points, meaning that their 60-season stay in the Football League was over. They failed to finish their first season in the Conference and finally went out of business on 27 February 1989 with debts of £330,000. They were then expelled from the Conference for failing to fulfil their fixtures. Their record (four wins, seven draws and 19 points from 29 games) was expunged.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: The BBC Wales current affairs programme "Week in Week Out" broadcast a documentary in 1989 about the winding up of Newport County and its controversial owner at the time, American Jerry Sherman.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In June 1989 the club was reformed by 400 supporters, including David Hando as chairman and, later, club president. Former manager John Relish was re-appointed team manager and they were elected to the Hellenic League (then four divisions below the Football League). The club's main aim was to regain the Football League status lost in 1988. The club took on the name "Newport A.F.C." and adopted the nickname The Exiles, as a result of having to play home matches for the 1989–90 season at the London Road ground in the north Gloucestershire town of Moreton-in-Marsh, north-east of Newport. Newport Council considered the new company to be a continuation of the old, and refused it permission to use Somerton Park on the grounds of unpaid rent.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Newport won the Hellenic double, gaining promotion to the Southern League. After the 1990–91 and 1991–92 seasons back home in Newport at Somerton Park, the Football Association of Wales (FAW) consigned them to a further two seasons of exile in England, ground-sharing at Gloucester City's Meadow Park stadium for 1992–93 and 1993–94. The club was forced to resort to legal action to protect themselves from being forced out of the English football league system by FAW secretary Alun Evans, who was promoting the first national League of Wales formed for the 1992–93 season. That litigation proved successful, with a landmark High Court verdict enabling them to have a permanent home in Newport at the then newly built Newport Stadium.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: The club's first season back in Newport, in 1994–95 under manager Graham Rogers, saw them promoted to the Southern League Premier Division, after winning the Midland Division Championship by a 14-point margin. On the way to that championship, the club set a then record for the Southern League by winning 14 successive league matches.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In the 2001–02 season the team managed by Tim Harris reached the first round proper of the FA Cup for the first time since the club was reformed, drawing Second Division side Blackpool. Holding them to a 2–2 draw away, County lost the home replay 4–1 after extra time. The following season, then managed by Peter Nicholas, Newport reached the final of the FAW Premier Cup beating Swansea City and Cardiff City along the way before losing 6–1 in the final against Wrexham.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Subsequent reorganisation of the upper divisions of non-league football saw County take their place in the 2004–05 inaugural season of Conference South, one of the two feeder divisions into the Football Conference. Peter Beadle was appointed manager in October 2005 and in the 2006–07 season Newport again reached the first round proper of the FA Cup but lost 3–1 to Swansea City. In the same season, Newport reached the final of the FAW Premier Cup for the second time, beating Wrexham along the way but losing 1–0 to TNS in the final. In 2006–07 Newport finished just one position below the playoffs after losing 2–1 to Cambridge City on the final day of the season.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In the 2007–08 season, Newport won the last-ever FAW Premier Cup beating Llanelli 1–0 in the final, making a total of one win out of three finals. For the second consecutive season a last-day defeat prevented County reaching the Conference South playoffs. In April 2008 Peter Beadle was sacked as club manager, and was replaced by Dean Holdsworth.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In his first full season in charge, Holdsworth led Newport to a 10th-place finish in the league, despite a poor start.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Newport went top of the league in September of the 2009–10 season and held onto the top spot for the rest of the season. The league title was won in March 2010 after beating Havant and Waterlooville 2–0 at Newport Stadium with seven league games remaining. The win made them the first team in the English football leagues to achieve promotion in the 2009–10 season. County finished the season with a Conference South record 103 points, 28 ahead of nearest rivals Dover Athletic. Craig Reid was the league's top scorer with 24 goals in the season.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Newport County were promoted to the Conference Premier for the 2010–11 season, the level they had played at prior to bankruptcy in 1989. Dean Holdsworth left Newport County to become team manager of League Two club Aldershot Town on 12 January 2011 with Newport County in fifth place in the Conference Premier table. Tottenham Hotspur reserve-team coach Anthony Hudson was announced as the new manager on 1 April 2011. The team finished their first season back in the Conference Premier league in ninth place.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: After a poor start to the 2011–12 season with the team last-but-one in the table after picking up just a single win out of the first 12 games, Hudson was sacked on 28 September 2011. He was replaced on 4 October 2011 by Justin Edinburgh with the task of saving County from relegation. Under Edinburgh, County finished in 19th place and so maintained their Conference Premier status. They also reached the 2012 FA Trophy Final and their first Wembley Stadium appearance coincided with the 100th anniversary of the club. County lost the final 2–0 to York City who went on to secure promotion to the Football League a week later in a Wembley play-off match.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In May 2012, Newport County announced that they had agreed a deal to move to the city's rugby stadium, Rodney Parade. In August 2012 EuroMillions lottery winner Les Scadding succeeded Chris Blight as club chairman. In February 2013 a further 10-year lease to play at Rodney Parade was signed.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: The centenary 2012–13 season saw Newport County finish third in the Conference Premier league, reaching the play-offs for the first time. A 2–0 aggregate win over Grimsby Town in the two-legged play-off semi-final saw Newport County reach the 2013 Conference Premier play-off Final at Wembley Stadium. The final versus Wrexham was the first Wembley final to feature two Welsh teams, and Newport County won 2–0 to return to the Football League after a 25-year absence with promotion to League Two.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: County were awarded Freedom of the City of Newport on 17 August 2013 in recognition of this achievement.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: On their return to the Football League in the 2013–14 season, Newport County finished a creditable 14th in League Two. On 7 February 2015, with Newport County in sixth place in League Two, it was confirmed that Justin Edinburgh had been appointed manager at Gillingham. Jimmy Dack stepped up from assistant manager at the club to caretaker manager and was later appointed manager until the end of the 2014–15 season. On 29 April, Dack stated he had been offered the manager's job beyond the end of the season but he had decided he would move on after the final game. Newport finished the 2014–15 season in ninth place in League Two. Terry Butcher was appointed team manager on 30 April 2015. On 18 June 2015 Les Scadding resigned as Newport County chairman and director.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: On 1 October 2015 Newport County Supporters' Trust took over ownership of the club. Butcher was sacked on the same day, with Newport bottom of League Two after gaining just five points from the first 10 matches of the 2015–16 season. John Sheridan was appointed team manager on 2 October 2015 until the end of the 2015–16 season and results improved. Sheridan resigned on 13 January 2016 after just 14 league games to take up the manager's job at Oldham Athletic. Assistant manager Warren Feeney was promoted to team manager on 15 January 2016. On 18 January 2016 County lost 2–1 to Championship team Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup; the first time Newport had reached the third round of the cup since 1986. A good start saw Feeney gain 21 points from his first 12 games but results then worsened. Newport finished the season in 22nd place in League Two, avoiding relegation.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Feeney and Todd were sacked by Newport on 28 September 2016 with Newport County bottom of League Two having gained just six points from their first nine matches of the 2016–17 season. First team coach Sean McCarthy and goalkeeping player/coach James Bittner were appointed joint caretaker managers. Effective from 10 October 2016 Graham Westley was appointed team manager with Dino Maamria his assistant and Mccarthy released by the club. On 9 March 2017 Westley and Maamria were sacked with Newport 11 points adrift at the bottom of League Two.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Following the departure of Westley, first team coach Michael Flynn was appointed caretaker manager for the remaining 12 league matches of the 2016–17 season and Wayne Hatswell returned to the club as assistant manager. A remarkable recovery saw Newport avoid relegation, sealed by a final day of the season 2–1 victory at home against Notts County.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: On 9 May 2017 Flynn was appointed permanent team manager on a two-year contract. On 7 January 2018 a 2–1 home win over Championship club Leeds United in the FA Cup third round meant Newport progressed to the FA Cup fourth round for the first time since the 1978–79 FA Cup. In the following round, the club was drawn at home to Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. On 27 January 2018 Newport achieved a creditable 1–1 draw to force a replay at Wembley Stadium. Tottenham won the replay 2–0. County finished the 2017–18 season in 11th place in League Two.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Newport began the 2018–19 creditably, securing 23 points from their first 10 games, losing only twice. On 6 January 2019, County won their home FA Cup Third Round tie against Premier League club Leicester City 2–1. The subsequent Fourth Round drew Newport in an away match against Championship club Middlesbrough on 26 January 2019, in which they achieved a 1–1 draw, going on to a home replay victory 2–0 on 5 February 2019. County progressed to the most high-profile fixture in their modern history, the FA Cup fifth round which they had not reached since 1949. The Exiles were rewarded for their success with a home fixture against reigning Premier League champions Manchester City on 16 February 2019. County lost the match 4–1 with striker Pádraig Amond scoring a late goal. Amond finished the competition as joint-top scorer with City striker Gabriel Jesus. Newport finished the 2018–19 season in 7th place in League Two, thus qualifying for the League Two play-offs. In the semi-final against Mansfield Town, Newport drew the first leg 1–1 at home, drew the second leg 0–0 at Mansfield but then won the subsequent penalty shoot-out. In the League Two play-off final at Wembley Stadium on 25 May 2019 Newport lost to Tranmere Rovers 1–0, after a goal in the 119th minute.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: On 27 August 2019, Newport County faced West Ham United of the Premier League in the EFL Cup, losing the tie 2–0. Newport also reached the semi-final of the EFL Trophy for the first time on 19 February 2020, losing to Salford City on penalties. The 2019–20 season was suspended on 13 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, with Newport in 15th place in League Two. The club furloughed the players, management team and most staff to "protect the long-term financial viability" of the club. The League Two season was formally terminated on 9 June 2020. Points per game was subsequently adopted to determine the final League Two table with Newport County rising one place to 14th in the league. Club chairman Gavin Foxall stated that they expected to lose 40% of their income as a consequence of continued COVID-19 constraints.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: On 22 September 2020 Newport County beat Championship club Watford 3–1 at home in the third round of the EFL Cup to reach the fourth round for the first time in the club's history. Newport were drawn at home to Premier League club Newcastle United in the fourth round and after drawing 1–1 in normal time, Newcastle won the penalty shoot-out. Newport again reached the third round of the 2020–21 FA Cup to face Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion at home and lost to Brighton on penalties having drawn 1–1 after extra time. On 19 January 2021, goalkeeper Tom King scored the first goal of his career with a wind-assisted goal kick in the 12th minute of Newport's 1–1 League Two draw at Cheltenham Town. His goal was confirmed to have broken the Guinness World Record for longest football goal, with a distance of 96.01 metres (105 yards), a record previously held by Asmir Begović. In March 2020 Newport were permitted by the EFL to move two home matches to Cardiff City Stadium due to the poor condition of the Rodney Parade pitch. Newport finished the 2020–21 season in 5th place in League Two and qualified for the play-offs. Newport beat Forest Green Rovers 5–4 on aggregate to reach the play-off final for the second time in three seasons. On 31 May 2021, Morecambe beat Newport 1–0 in the final at Wembley Stadium after Carlos Mendes Gomes converted a penalty in the 107th minute, earning the Shrimps promotion to League One, the third tier of English football, for the first time in their history. On 7 June 2021 Darren Kelly was appointed as Newport County Sporting Director to work in conjunction with Michael Flynn who retained the team manager role.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: On 25 August 2021 Newport County faced Southampton of the Premier League in the second round of the 2021-22 EFL Cup but they lost heavily 8-0. Michael Flynn resigned as Newport County manager on 1 October 2021 after nine league matches of the 2021-22 season with Newport 15th in League Two.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Following Michael Flynn's departure, Newport County's Assistant Manager Wayne Hatswell was appointed as caretaker manager for five games. On 19 October 2021 it was confirmed that the club had appointed Cardiff City First Team Coach James Rowberry as permanent manager with Newport 13th in League Two after 13 league games. Hatswell was retained as assistant manager to Rowberry and Hatswell signed a contract extension in November 2021 until the end of the 2023-24 season. In February 2022 Hatswell resigned his position at Newport and on 22 February 2022 Hatswell was appointed assistant head coach to Michael Flynn at Walsall. On the same day, Cardiff City coach Carl Serrant was appointed assistant manager to Rowberry at Newport County. Newport finished the 2021-22 League Two season in 11th place. On 10 October 2022 Rowberry and Serrant were sacked with Newport in 18th place in League Two after 13 league matches of the 2022-23 season season. Sporting Director Darren Kelly took the role of caretaker manager. On 20 October 2022, Graham Coughlan was appointed manager on a two-and-a-half year contract with Newport in 19th place in League Two after 14 league matches of the 2022-23 season. Joe Dunne was appointed assistant manager to Coughlan


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In 2015 following the sale of the club by majority shareholder Les Scadding to supporters, Newport County AFC Supporters Society Limited was established with guidance from the UK Government backed charity Supporters Direct. The Society is established as a trust with an elected board, yearly elections, regular AGMs, and fee-based supporter ownership.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: As a Registered Society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014) the group acquired a majority shareholding in the football club's trading body, Newport Association Football Club Limited.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: As a result of this model, the supporters trust members elect a board of between 6 and 12 Directors. The board has established that it will aim to operate with 9 directors, with a mixed model of elected and co-opted (unelected) directors. Directors are elected to three-year terms. In 2017 Peter Madigan and Mark Crook were co-opted to serve as unelected directors.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In 2017 a leaked resignation letter by director Charlie Hopkins made allegations against some serving directors which were refuted by the Trust Board.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Newport County draws its main support from the city of Newport but also from the wider surrounding historic Monmouthshire area, as reflected in the original club name of "Newport & Monmouth County A.F.C". The club's supporters refer to themselves as the Amber Army, in reference to the traditional club colour, and the sporting colours more widely associated with Newport. The club operates the 'ifollow' match day voice and video commentary service for supporters.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: The supporters' unofficial anthem is "Come on the County", written by Ken Buck and Eric Thomas. Originally released in 1973, it was re-recorded in 1999 and 2010. The 1999 release included the song "Carl Zeiss Jena" by Newport band Flyscreen, celebrating County's 1981 European campaign. The 2010 release included reworkings of "Come on the County" by The Tenants Supermen, who are ardent County fans. For the 2012 FA Trophy final, singer-songwriter Tracey Curtis wrote and released the song "A Hundred Years of Football (And We're Off To Wembley)".


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In the 1970s and 1980s comedian Frank Carson was appointed as a director and vice president in order to raise the profile of the club. Newport-based rappers Goldie Lookin' Chain are supporters of the club and were the team's shirt sponsors for the 2004–05 season FAW Premier Cup matches


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: County fans consider their main rival to be South Wales rivals Cardiff City, however, the two sides have rarely met since the 1980s due to the league gap between them. Other rivals, to a lesser extent, include Welsh rivals Swansea City and Wrexham as well as relatively local rivals Bristol Rovers, Cheltenham Town and Forest Green Rovers. A 2017 match against Swindon Town saw opposing fans clash before and after the game in Swindon town centre. Before a match at Rodney Parade in January 2020, Swindon fans were filmed throwing toilet paper and drinks containers outside a pub in Newport city centre.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: During County's days in the non-league pyramid, Merthyr Tydfil and Bath City were considered rivals. County also used to maintain a rivalry with Hereford United. However, the club went out of business in 2014 and a new club, Hereford FC was formed.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In August 2018 the club's Supporters Trust took over the nearby Ivy Bush Inn on Clarence Place. In June 2018 the pub had become free and had its licence revoked for an illegal cannabis farm found in the upstairs floors of the building. The venue became a busy spot for club supporters to enjoy match days, as well as hosting other community events. It features memorabilia and decorations related to Newport County, as well as the Dragons and Newport RFC rugby teams. All profits from the bar went to the Newport County Supporters Trust and the upkeep of the football club.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Glyn Jones was appointed director of the Newport County Youth Academy in 1997. In 1998 Newport County established a partnership with Newport City Council and the club has a youth development programme with around 50 students based at Llanwern High School.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: The team competes in the Under-18 Football League Youth Alliance. A number of the academy graduates have progressed to the senior squad including Andrew Hughes, Lee Evans, Regan Poole, Aaron Collins, Tom Owen-Evans, Kieran Parselle and Lewis Collins.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In the 2001–02 season County's youngsters won the English Schools' Football Association under-19 trophy under the banner of Hartridge High School. In the 2004–05 season they won the FAW Youth Cup.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: In May 2014 Glyn Jones was succeeded after 17 years as academy director by Michael Flynn. In 2015 the academy organisation was restructured to comply to FA requirements and in June 2015 Grant Kalahar was appointed to the senior role of academy manager. Kalahar left the academy at the end of the 2015–16 season with Byron Anthony appointed academy manager.


title: Newport County A.F.C.

text: Byron Anthony resigned in November 2018. Stevenage coach Jorden Gibson was appointed Newport County Academy Manager in June 2019 but he resigned 11 September 2019 following an internal investigation after an altercation with a youth team player. In December 2019 Damien Broad was promoted internally to academy manager. In November 2022 Luke Hussey was promoted internally to academy manager.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Naval Conference, held in Washington, D.C., from November 1921 to February 1922, and it was signed by the governments of Great Britain, the United States, France, Italy, and Japan. It limited the construction of battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers by the signatories. The numbers of other categories of warships, including cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, were not limited by the treaty, but those ships were limited to 10,000 tons displacement each.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The treaty was concluded on February 6, 1922. Ratifications of that treaty were exchanged in Washington on August 17, 1923, and it was registered in the "League of Nations Treaty Series" on April 16, 1924.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Later naval arms limitation conferences sought additional limitations of warship building. The terms of the Washington Naval Treaty were modified by the London Naval Treaty of 1930 and the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936. By the mid-1930s, Japan and Italy renounced the treaties, while Germany renounced the Treaty of Versailles which had limited its navy. Naval arms limitation became increasingly difficult for the other signatories.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Immediately after World War I, Britain still had the world's largest and most powerful navy, followed by the United States and more distantly by Japan, France and Italy. The British Royal Navy had interned the defeated German High Seas Fleet. The Allies had differing opinions concerning the final disposition of the Imperial German Navy, with the French and Italians wanting the German fleet divided between the victorious powers and the Americans and British wanting the ships destroyed. The negotiations became mostly moot after the German crews had scuttled most of their ships.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: News of the scuttling angered the French and the Italians, with the French particularly unimpressed with British explanations that the fleet guarding the Germans had then been away on exercises. Nevertheless, the British joined their allies in condemning the German actions, and no credible evidence emerged to suggest that the British had collaborated actively with the Germans with respect to the scuttling. The Treaty of Versailles, signed soon after the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet, imposed strict limits on the size and the number of warships that the newly-installed German government was allowed to build and maintain.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The Americans, the British, the French, the Italians, and the Japanese had been allies during World War I, but with the German threat seemingly finished, a naval arms race between the erstwhile allies seemed likely for the next few years. US President Woodrow Wilson's administration had already announced successive plans for the expansion of the US Navy from 1916 to 1919 that would have resulted in a massive fleet of 50 modern battleships.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: In response, the Japanese Diet finally authorised construction of warships to enable the Japanese Navy to attain its goal of an "eight-eight" fleet programme, with eight modern battleships and eight battlecruisers. The Japanese started work on four battleships and four battlecruisers, all of which were much larger and more powerful than those of the classes that they were replacing.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The 1921 British Naval Estimates planned four battleships and four battlecruisers, with another four battleships to follow the subsequent year.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The new arms race was unwelcome to the American public. The US Congress disapproved of Wilson's 1919 naval expansion plan, and the 1920 presidential election campaign caused politics to resume the non-interventionalism of the prewar era, with little enthusiasm for continued naval expansion. Britain also could ill afford any resumption of battleship construction, given the exorbitant cost.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: In late 1921, the US became aware that Britain was planning a conference to discuss the strategic situation in the Pacific and Far East regions. To forestall the conference and to satisfy domestic demands for a global disarmament conference, Warren Harding's administration called the Washington Naval Conference in November 1921.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The Conference agreed to the Five-Power Naval Treaty as well as a Four-Power Treaty on Japan and a Nine-Power Treaty on China.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: At the first plenary session held November 21, 1921, US Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes presented his country's proposals. Hughes provided a dramatic beginning for the conference by stating with resolve: "The way to disarm is to disarm". The ambitious slogan received enthusiastic public endorsement and likely abbreviated the conference while helping ensure his proposals were largely adopted. He subsequently proposed the following:


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The proposals for capital ships were largely accepted by the British delegation. However, they were controversial with the British public. Britain could no longer have adequate fleets in the North Sea, the Mediterranean and the Far East simultaneously, which provoked outrage from parts of the Royal Navy.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Nevertheless, there was huge demand for the British to agree to the limits and reductions: the risk of war with the Americans was increasingly regarded as merely theoretical as there were very few policy differences between the two Anglophone powers; continued naval spending was unpopular in Britain throughout the empire; and Britain was implementing major budget reductions due to the post–World War I recession.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The Japanese delegation was divided. Japanese naval doctrine required the maintenance of a fleet 70% the size of that of the United States, which was felt to be the minimum necessary to defeat the Americans in any subsequent war. The Japanese envisaged two separate engagements, first with the U.S. Pacific Fleet and then with the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. It calculated that a 7:5 ratio in the first battle would produce enough of a margin of victory to be able to win the subsequent engagement and so a 3:5 ratio was unacceptable because a 3:5 total fleet size ratio would imply a 6:5 ratio in the first battle. Nevertheless, the director of the delegation, Katō Tomosaburō, preferred to accept the latter to the prospect of an arms race with the United States, as the relative industrial strength of the two nations would cause Japan to lose such an arms race and possibly suffer an economic crisis. At the beginning of the negotiations, the Japanese had only 55% of the capital ships and 18% of the GDP of the Americans.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: His opinion was opposed strongly by Katō Kanji, the president of the Naval Staff College, who acted as his chief naval aide at the delegation and represented the influential "big navy" opinion that Japan had to prepare as thoroughly as possible for an inevitable conflict against the United States, which could build indefinitely more warships because of its huge industrial power.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Katō Tomosaburō was finally able to persuade the Japanese high command to accept the Hughes proposals, but the treaty was for years a source of controversy in the navy.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The French delegation initially responded negatively to the idea of reducing their capital ships' tonnage to 175,000 tons and demanded 350,000, slightly above the Japanese limit. In the end, concessions regarding cruisers and submarines helped persuade the French to agree to the limit on capital ships.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Another issue that was considered critical by the French representatives was the Italian request of substantial parity, which was considered to be unsubstantiated; however, pressure from the American and the British delegations caused the French to accept it. That was considered a great success by the Italian government, but parity would never actually be attained.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: There was much discussion about the inclusion or exclusion of individual warships. In particular, the Japanese delegation was keen to retain their newest battleship "Mutsu", which had been funded with great public enthusiasm, including donations from schoolchildren. That resulted in provisions to allow the Americans and the British to construct equivalent ships.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Hughes proposed to limit secondary ships (cruisers and destroyers) in the same proportions as capital ships. However, that was unacceptable to both the British and the French. The British counterproposal, in which the British would be entitled to 450,000 tons of cruisers in consideration of its imperial commitments but the United States and Japan to only 300,000 and 250,000 respectively, proved equally contentious. Thus, the idea of limiting total cruiser tonnage or numbers was rejected entirely.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Instead, the British suggested a qualitative limit of future cruiser construction. The limit proposed, of a 10,000 ton maximum displacement and 8-inch calibre guns, was intended to allow the British to retain the "Hawkins" class, then being constructed. That coincided with the American requirements for cruisers for Pacific Ocean operations and also with Japanese plans for the "Furutaka" class. The suggestion was adopted with little debate.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: A major British demand during the negotiations was the complete abolition of the submarine, which had proved so effective against them in the war. That proved impossible, particularly as a result of French opposition, which demanded an allowance of 90,000 tons of submarines, and the conference ended without an agreement to restrict submarines.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Article XIX of the treaty also prohibited the British, the Japanese and the Americans from constructing any new fortifications or naval bases in the Pacific Ocean region. Existing fortifications in Singapore, the Philippines and Hawaii could remain. That was a significant victory for Japan, as newly-fortified British or American bases would be a serious problem for the Japanese in the event of any future war. That provision of the treaty essentially guaranteed that Japan would be the dominant power in the Western Pacific Ocean and was crucial in gaining Japanese acceptance of the limits on capital ship construction.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The treaty strictly limited both the tonnage and construction of capital ships and aircraft carriers and included limits of the size of individual ships.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The tonnage limits defined by Articles IV and VII (tabulated) gave a strength ratio of approximately 5:5:3:1.75:1.75 for the UK, the United States, Japan, Italy, and France, respectively.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The treaty also detailed by Chapter II the individual ships to be retained by each navy, including the allowance for the United States to complete two further ships of the "Colorado" class and for the UK to complete two new ships in accordance with the treaty limits.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Chapter II, part 2, detailed what was to be done to render a ship ineffective for military use. In addition to sinking or scrapping, a limited number of ships could be converted as target ships or training vessels if their armament, armour and other combat-essential parts were removed completely. Some could also be converted into aircraft carriers.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Part 3, Section II specified the ships to be scrapped to comply with the treaty and when the remaining ships could be replaced. In all, the United States had to scrap 30 existing or planned capital ships, Britain 23 and Japan 17.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The treaty marked the end of a long period of increases of battleship construction. Many ships that were being constructed were scrapped or converted into aircraft carriers. Treaty limits were respected and then extended by the London Naval Treaty of 1930. It was not until the mid-1930s that navies began to build battleships once again, and the power and the size of new battleships began to increase once again. The Second London Naval Treaty of 1936 sought to extend the Washington Treaty limits until 1942, but the absence of Japan or Italy made it largely ineffective.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: There were fewer effects on cruiser building. The treaty specified 10,000 tons and 8-inch guns as the maximum size of a cruiser, but that was also the minimum size cruiser that any navy was willing to build. The treaty began a building competition of 8-inch, 10,000-ton "treaty cruisers", which gave further cause for concern. Subsequent naval treaties sought to address that by limiting cruiser, destroyer and submarine tonnage.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Unofficial effects of the treaty included the end of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Although it was not part of the Washington Treaty in any way, the American delegates had made it clear that they would not agree to the treaty unless the British ended their alliance with the Japanese. The 1921 Imperial Conference earlier in the year had already decided not to renew the Alliance.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: In 1935, the French Navy laid down the battleship ; combined with the two s also under construction, which placed the total tonnage over the 70,000-ton limit on new French battleships until the expiration of the treaty. The keel laying of in December 1936, albeit less than three weeks before the treaty expired, increased the magnitude of France's violation by another 35,000 tons. The French government dismissed British objections to the violations by pointing out that Britain had signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement in 1935, which unilaterally dismantled the naval disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. German naval rearmament threatened France, and according to the French perspective, if Britain freely violated treaty obligations, France would similarly not be constrained.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Italy repeatedly violated the displacement limits on individual ships and attempted to remain within the 10,000-ton limit for the s built in the mid-1920s. However, by the s in the late 1920s and early 1930s, it had abandoned all pretense and built ships that topped by a wide margin. The violations continued with the s of the mid-1930s, which had a standard displacement in excess of . The Italian Navy nevertheless misrepresented the displacement of the vessels as being within the limits imposed by the treaty.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: The naval treaty had a profound effect on the Japanese. With superior American and British industrial power, a long war would very likely end in a Japanese defeat. Thus, gaining strategic parity was not economically possible.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Many Japanese considered the 5:5:3 ratio of ships as another snub by the West, but it can be argued that the Japanese had a greater force concentration than the US Navy or the Royal Navy. The terms also contributed to controversy in high ranks of the Imperial Japanese Navy between the Treaty Faction officers and their Fleet Faction opponents, who were also allied with the ultranationalists of the Japanese army and other parts of the Japanese government. For the Treaty Faction, the treaty was one of the factors that had contributed to the deterioration of the relationship between the American and the Japanese governments.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Some have also argued that the treaty was one major factor in prompting Japanese expansionism by the Fleet Faction in the early 1930s. The perception of unfairness resulted in Japan's renunciation of the Second London Naval Treaty in 1936.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: Isoroku Yamamoto, who later masterminded the attack of Pearl Harbor, argued that Japan should remain in the treaty. His opinion was more complex, however, in that he believed the United States could outproduce Japan by a greater factor than the 5:3 ratio because of the huge American production advantage of which he had expert knowledge since he had served with the Japanese embassy in Washington. After the signing of the treaty, he commented, "Anyone who has seen the auto factories in Detroit and the oil-fields in Texas knows that Japan lacks the power for a naval race with America." He later added, "The ratio works very well for Japan – it is a treaty to restrict the other parties." He believed that other methods than a spree of construction would be needed to even the odds, which may have contributed to his advocacy of the plan to attack Pearl Harbor.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: On December 29, 1934, the Japanese government gave formal notice that it intended to terminate the treaty. Its provisions remained in force formally until the end of 1936 and were not renewed.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: What was unknown to the participants of the Conference was that the American "Black Chamber" (the Cypher Bureau, a US intelligence service), commanded by Herbert Yardley, was spying on the delegations' communications with their home capitals. In particular, Japanese communications were deciphered thoroughly, and American negotiators were able to get the absolute minimum possible deal that the Japanese had indicated they would ever accept.


title: Washington Naval Treaty

text: As the treaty was unpopular with much of the Imperial Japanese Navy and with the increasingly active and important ultranationalist groups, the value that the Japanese government accepted was the cause of much suspicion and accusation among Japanese politicians and naval officers.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: Late Night with David Letterman is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on NBC, the first iteration of the "Late Night" franchise. It premiered on February 1, 1982, and was produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated, and Carson Productions. Letterman had previously hosted his own morning talk show on NBC from June to October 1980. The show's house band, The World's Most Dangerous Band, was led by music director Paul Shaffer. In 1993, Letterman announced that he would leave NBC to host the "Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS, and the final episode of "Late Night" aired on June 25, 1993. Since then, Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers have each reformatted the series.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: In 2013, this series and "Late Show with David Letterman" were ranked No. 41 on TV Guide's 60 Best Series of All Time. During its run, the show was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series 11 times. It was also nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series 14 times, winning 4, and won one Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series out of 7 nominations.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: In the wake of his short-lived NBC morning show being cancelled in October 1980 after only 18 weeks on the air, David Letterman was still held in high enough regard by the network brass, especially NBC president Fred Silverman, that upon hearing the 33-year-old comedian was being courted by a first-run syndication company, NBC gave him a US$20,000 per week ($1,000,000 for a year) deal to sit out a year and guest-host "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" on multiple occasions. Earlier that year in May, after significant acrimony, NBC and Carson had reached an agreement on a new contract, which—among other concessions to Carson—granted the powerful and influential host the control over the time slot immediately following "The Tonight Show".


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: From late fall 1980 until the end of 1981, in addition to guest-hosting 22 episodes of the "Tonight Show", as outlined in his one-year holding deal with NBC, Letterman also appeared five times as Carson's guest on the highly-rated program as the network groomed the 34-year-old for a new project.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: Finally, on November 9, 1981, NBC and Carson's production company Carson Productions (as well as Letterman's own newly-established production company Space Age Meats Productions, forerunner to today's Worldwide Pants Incorporated) announced the creation of "Late Night with David Letterman", set to premiere in early 1982 in the 12:30 a.m. time slot Monday through Thursday, with occasional specials every few Fridays, all aimed at young men. The network wanted to capitalize on catering to young males, feeling that there was very little late-night programming for that demograph. The newly announced show thus displaced the "Tomorrow Coast to Coast" program hosted by Tom Snyder from the 12:30 slot. NBC initially offered Snyder to move his show back an hour, but Snyder, already unhappy with being forced to adopt changes to "Tomorrow" that he detested, refused and ended the show instead. The final first-run "Tomorrow" episode aired on December 17, 1981.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: The staff responsible for preparing the launch of "Late Night" included Merrill Markoe in the head writing role, seasoned TV veteran Hal Gurnee as director, Letterman's manager Jack Rollins as executive producer, and a group of young writers — most of them in their early twenties, along with the somewhat more experienced 29-year-old Jim Downey who had previously written for "Saturday Night Live" and 27-year-old Steve O'Donnell. Markoe stepped down as head writer after a few months, and was succeeded by Downey who was in turn succeeded by O'Donnell in 1983. O'Donnell would serve as the head writer through most of the rest of the show's run while Downey went back to "Saturday Night Live" in 1984. Also on board, initially as a production assistant in charge of the "Stupid Pet Tricks" segment, was 21-year-old Chris Elliott. Elliott would quickly be promoted to writer and a recurring featured player.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: The plan from the start was to resurrect the spirit of Letterman's morning show for a late-night audience, one more likely to plug into his offbeat humor. The show also got a house band, hiring NBC staff musician Paul Shaffer to lead the group. They were informally dubbed "The World's Most Dangerous Band" in early episodes, but this was then dropped for several years; through much of the show's run, the band existed without a formal name. The moniker "The World's Most Dangerous Band" was reinstated in 1988, and continued through the rest of the show.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: Realizing that NBC executives exhibited very little desire to micromanage various aspects of the show, the staff felt confident they would be allowed to push outside of the mainstream talk-show boundaries and thus set about putting together a quirky, absurdist, and odd program. Snyder's "Tomorrow" re-runs continued until Thursday, January 28, 1982, and four days later on Monday, February 1, 1982, "Late Night" premiered with a cold opening featuring Larry "Bud" Melman delivering lines as an homage to the prologue of Boris Karloff's "Frankenstein", followed by Letterman coming out on stage to Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1" behind a group of female dancers — the peacock girls who had also opened the finale of "The David Letterman Show". After a brief monologue, the very first comedy segment was a sarcastic tour of the studio. The first guest, 31-year-old comedian and actor Bill Murray, came out in confrontational fashion, throwing jibes and accusations at the host as part of a knowing put-on. He remained for two more similarly sardonic segments in which he first presented footage of a Chinese zoo baby panda as a supposed home video of his recently adopted pet, before expressing newfound love for aerobics and pulling a crew member onstage, making her do jumping jacks along with him to Olivia Newton-John's "Physical". The second comedy piece was a remote titled "The Shame of the City"; taking a general format of a local news action segment, it featured Letterman touring several New York locations pointing out various civic problems with righteous indignation. The second guest was Don Herbert, TV's "Mr. Wizard", and the show ended with a young comic named Steve Fessler reciting aloud the script of the obscure Bela Lugosi film "Bowery at Midnight".


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: The reviews were mixed — "Los Angeles Times" wrote: "Much of Letterman's first week did not jell" — but more importantly, the show drew 1.5 million viewers, 30% more than had tuned in for Snyder's "Tomorrow".


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: On the third night, after baseball great Hank Aaron finished his interview segment with Letterman, a camera followed him backstage, where TV sportscaster Al Albert conducted a post-interview chat with Aaron about how it had gone. Eccentric and awkward, the show immediately established a sensibility that was clearly different from "The Tonight Show".


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: The show was produced by Johnny Carson's production company, as a result of a clause in Carson's contract with NBC that gave him control of what immediately followed "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson". Carson, for his part, wanted "Late Night" to have as little overlap with his show as possible. In fact, most ground rules and restrictions on what Letterman could do came not from the network but from the production company itself. Letterman could not have a sidekick like Ed McMahon, and Paul Shaffer's band could not include a horn section like Doc Severinsen's. Letterman was told he could not book old-school showbiz guests such as James Stewart, George Burns, or Buddy Hackett, who were fixtures on Johnny's show (the fact that "Tonight" had long moved to Hollywood and "Late Night" was taped in New York helped minimize guest overlap). Letterman was also specifically instructed not to replicate any of the signature pieces of "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" like "Stump the Band" or "Carnac the Magnificent". Carson also wanted Letterman to minimize the number of topical jokes in his opening monologue.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: "Late Night" originated from NBC Studio 6A at the RCA (later GE) Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. The program ran four nights a week, Monday to Thursday, from the show's premiere on February 1, 1982, until June 4, 1987. Friday shows were added on June 12, 1987, although the show still only produced four new episodes a week. Monday's shows were re-runs. NBC previously aired "Friday Night Videos" in the 12:30 a.m. slot on Saturday morning, with occasional "Late Night" specials and reruns. "Friday Night Videos" was reduced to an hour's length and moved up an hour to 1:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: Starting on September 2, 1991, "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" was pushed back from 11:30 p.m. to 11:35 p.m., with Letterman starting at 12:35 a.m., at the request of NBC affiliates who wanted more advertising time for their profitable late newscasts.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: Like "The Tonight Show" in the 1980s and early 1990s, "Late Night" aired annual anniversary specials. They aired on or about February 1, first in its own timeslot (albeit on a Friday, preempting "SCTV"). From 1984-1987, episodes of "Saturday Night Live" were preempted for the special. Finally, from 1988-1990 and in 1992, the special aired in prime time, after "Cheers". There were no anniversary specials in 1991 and 1993. (Letterman would leave NBC later in 1993.) "David Letterman's Holiday Film Festival" also aired in "Saturday Night Live"'s timeslot over Thanksgiving weekend in 1985, before a second and final installment aired in prime time the Friday after Thanksgiving in 1986. The festivals were a collection of shorts starring, directed and/or written by celebrities.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: On September 30, 1991, A&E, a U.S. cable channel partly owned by General Electric—the same corporate entity that also owned NBC—began airing "Late Night" repeats in an effort of monetizing the show's vast accumulation of old episodes. The repeats would end up airing for less than a year, until July 24, 1992. The syndication deal had been done without Letterman's blessing, and he frequently made his displeasure known on-air, feeling that having reruns air five nights a week, earlier in the evening on cable, diluted the value of the nightly first-run shows on NBC—fearing people would not be willing to stay up late for the first-run if they could watch the show at a more reasonable time. Because of Letterman's opposition, the syndication run was ended early and not attempted again until he had left NBC.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: In November 1993, E! Entertainment Television purchased syndication rights to "Late Night with David Letterman". The network aired complete shows from various years five days per week from 1993 until 1996. Then, Trio: Popular Arts Television (owned by NBC/Vivendi Universal Entertainment) picked up reruns and showed them from 2002 until the channel went off the air in 2005.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: A number of programs were sold by GoodTimes Entertainment in 1992–93. These episodes were stripped of the series theme, open and close. No DVD release is currently scheduled (GoodTimes went bankrupt in 2005; the company's assets are now owned by Gaiam, which does not typically distribute general-interest programming). Clips from the series are available on YouTube through Letterman's official channel, the result of a licensing agreement between NBC and Worldwide Pants.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: Letterman, who had hoped to get the hosting job of "The Tonight Show" following Johnny Carson's retirement, moved to CBS in 1993 when the job was given to Jay Leno. This was done against the wishes of Carson, who had always seen Letterman as his rightful successor, according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally, a onetime producer for both men. Letterman announced the move on January 14, 1993. On April 25, 1993, Lorne Michaels chose Conan O'Brien, who was a writer for "The Simpsons" at the time and a former writer for Michaels at "Saturday Night Live", to fill Letterman's old seat directly after "The Tonight Show". O'Brien began hosting a new show in Letterman's old timeslot, taking over the "Late Night" name on September 13, 1993.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: When Letterman left, NBC asserted their intellectual property rights to several of the most popular "Late Night" segments. Letterman easily adapted to these restrictions for his CBS show: The "Viewer Mail" segment was continued under the name "CBS Mailbag," and "Late Night" fixture Larry "Bud" Melman continued his antics under his real name, Calvert DeForest. Similarly, the in-house band (now free to add horns) was unable to use the name "The World's Most Dangerous Band," so the name was changed to "Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra". The name "CBS Orchestra", approved by CBS (who retained rights to the name after Letterman retired in 2015), was Shaffer's idea. Notably, however, "Stupid Pet Tricks" originated on Letterman's 1980 early morning show "The David Letterman Show", to which Letterman, not NBC, owned the rights. This meant "Stupid Pet Tricks" was able to cross over to the CBS show with its name and concept unchanged. With Carson retired, Letterman was also granted free use of some of Carson's sketches, and in due time, "Stump the Band" and "Carnac the Magnificent" (with Shaffer as Carnac) entered the "Late Show" rotation.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: Like most other late-night talk shows, the show featured at least two or three guests each night, usually including a comedian or musical guest.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: Letterman frequently used crew members in his comedy bits, so viewers got to know the writers and crew members of the show. Common contributors included bandleader Paul Shaffer, Chris Elliott, Calvert DeForest as "Larry 'Bud' Melman," announcer Bill Wendell, writer Adam Resnick, scenic designer Kathleen Ankers, stage manager Biff Henderson, producer Robert Morton, director Hal Gurnee, associate director Peter Fatovich, stage hand Al Maher, camera operator Baily Stortz, production manager Elmer Gorry as NBC President Grant Tinker, and the "production twins," Barbara Gaines and Jude Brennan. The cramped quarters of 30 Rockefeller Plaza also often played into the humor of the show.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: Letterman's show established a reputation for being unpredictable. A number of celebrities had even stated that they were afraid of appearing on the show. This reputation was born out of moments like Letterman's verbal sparring matches with Cher, Shirley MacLaine and Harvey Pekar.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: Because of the creativity of staff writers like Merrill Markoe, Letterman's NBC show, in its first few years especially, had innovative segments and theme shows that were new and different from other talk shows of the time. Some were visual gags that owed a debt to pioneers like Ernie Kovacs and Steve Allen. Among the highlights were:


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: The show was nominated as Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series for 10 consecutive seasons, from its second full season in 1983–84 through its final season in 1992–93. Including the nominations for the CBS "Late Show" variant, the Letterman team was nominated 26 consecutive times in this category.


title: Late Night with David Letterman

text: In 1991, the show's three production companies—Carson Productions, Worldwide Pants, and NBC Productions—were awarded a Peabody Award, which cited the following:


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: Acanthosis nigricans is a medical sign characterised by brown-to-black, poorly defined, velvety hyperpigmentation of the skin. It is usually found in body folds, such as the posterior and lateral folds of the neck, the armpits, groin, navel, forehead and other areas.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: It is associated with endocrine dysfunction, especially insulin resistance and hyperinsulinaemia, as seen in diabetes mellitus. This activates the insulin-like growth factor receptors, which leads to proliferation of keratinocytes, fibroblasts and other cells in the skin. Activation of other growth factor receptors such as fibroblast growth factor receptors or epidermal growth factor receptor can also be responsible.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: Acanthosis nigricans may present with thickened, velvety, relatively darker areas of skin on the neck, armpit and in skin folds.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: It typically occurs in individuals younger than age 40, is associated with insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, obesity or endocrinopathies, such as hypothyroidism, acromegaly, polycystic ovary syndrome or Cushing's disease, and may be genetically inherited.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: Familial acanthosis may arise as a result of an autosomal dominant trait, presenting at birth or developing during childhood.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: Endocrine syndromes associated with acanthosis nigricans can develop in many conditions, particularly:


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: Acanthosis nigricans associated with endocrine dysfunction is more insidious in its onset, is less widespread, and the patients are often concurrently obese.


title: Acanthosis nigricans

text: In young persons, acanthosis nigricans is a visible marker which strongly suggests insulin resistance. Higher than normal insulin levels in the blood stream cause the growth of darkened skin over certain areas of the body. No skin treatment will get rid of AN. Acanthosis nigricans may lighten up and possibly go away by treating the root cause, insulin resistance, but it can take months or years to do so. Insulin resistance syndromes may be divided into type A (HAIR-AN) and type B syndromes.