AMATEURS TAKE CHARGE

I drove 125 miles north, towards Penrith today to meet friends for lunch and they had tavelled from the Scottish Border. When I got home the post had delivered me an envelope from the relations of Baishe Bower, an Old Carthusian (old boy of Charterhouse School)footballer, Corinthian and England captain in his career.

The envelope contained a series of old photographs showing Bower and his team mates ready for various games. I chose this one (below) from 1920-21, when he, as captain, tossed the coin in an annual match against Queen's Park, an amateur club, from Glasgow, at Queen's Club in London. The match was played on the 21st March 1921, a 4,000 crowd turned up to watch what were two amateur teams contesting a friendly, that ended 0-0. Such was the attraction of “pure” football.

In January the two teams had met at Queen's Park in Scotland and played in front of 20,000 people!

Having been on a New Year tour and winning against the Scottish Universities and the Scottish Amateur League XI, they were comfortably beaten by Queen's Park 1-5. The extraordinary thing is that the club plays at Hampden Park and have done pretty much since their origin, though there have been three Hampden Parks. They now play in the Scottish Third Division. See previous blog!

A few weeks later the Corinthians played Manchester City at Hyde Road losing 0-2 to what was a full professional team.

Baishe Bower did not win his team colours at Charterhouse School and only came to attention as a fine footballer with the Corinthians, the famous amateur team. He won 13 England amateur caps and 5 full international caps, captaining the England team 3 times. In those days the FA tried to rely on a character who would keep his team in order and they often chose an amateur rather than a professional!

Bower last played for England in a 3-3 draw with Wales in February 1927, with Dixie deam scoring 2 goals. Dean was a prolific centre forward who played for Everton-a professional through and through.

Bower was born in 1895 and died in 1970. Bower is on the right.