BERNARD JOY

 On this day in 1936, Bernard Joy, the last amateur footballer to play for England's full side, lined up with the Three Lions in Brussels when England played Belgium. It was Bernard's only cap and he was on the losing side 2-3! Bernard Joy OBE (29 October 1911 – 18 July 1984) was an English footballer and journalist. He is notable for being the last amateur player to play for the England National team (the full one!)

Joy was born in Fulham, and educated at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School. He studied at the Univeristy of London, playing in his spare time for the university football side at centre half. After graduating, he played for Casuals, where he eventually became club captain. He also won ten caps for the England Amateur  team and was captain of the Great Britain football side at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where they played China and Poland. 

While still registered as a Casuals' player, Joy also played for several other clubs. He played 29 games for Corinthians between December 1933 and October 1936 including on Corinthian's Easter Tours of France (1934) and Germany (9-14 April 1936) and in Denmark (26 April 1936) for a game to celebrate KB Copenhagen's 60th Anniversary. This last game was between playing for Casuals in the FA Amateur Cup Final (18 April) when his team drew 1-1 with Ilford and the 2-0 replay win at Upton Park, on 2nd May, that was necessary before overcoming Ilford. 

In the Summer of 1937, he went on a tour of New Zealand, Australia and Ceylon with an FA Amateur XI. The tour lasted 10 weeks and the FA Amateur X1 played 22 games including playing Australia three times and New Zealand twice, but these games not being recognised as amateur internationals. As an amateur, Joy played for professional clubs Southend United (1931–33) and Fulham (1933–34). In May 1935 he joined Arsenal, then First Division champions. Joy mainly played as a reserve, only playing two games in his first season – he did not make his debut for Arsenal until 1 April 1936 against Bolton Wanderers. Arsenal won the FA Cup that season but Joy played no part in the final.

However, he did gain recognition at international level soon after, when on 9 May 1936, he played for England in their 3–2 loss against Belgium, making him the last amateur to play for the national side; given the gulf in quality between the professional and amateur games in the modern day, it is exceedingly unlikely Joy's record will ever be taken by another player. Although Joy was playing for Arsenal at the time, he was still registered as a Casuals player and he is recorded in the England history books as playing for them at the time, not Arsenal.

Joy continued to play for Arsenal, mainly deputising for the Gunners' established centre-half Herbie Roberts. Roberts suffered a broken leg in October 1937 and Joy took his place in the side for the remainder of the 1937–38 season, winning a First Division winners' medal, and then, with Roberts having retired from the game, on through the 1938–39 season (earning a 1938 Charity Shield winners' medal in the process).

With the advent of World War II, Joy signed up to join the RAF where he was an PE instructor, though he still turned out for Arsenal (playing over 200 wartime matches) and won an unofficial wartime England cap. In June 1940, he was one of five Arsenal players who guested for Southampton in a victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage. He also appeared as a guest player for West Ham Utd, later in World War II making two appearances.

When peace broke out and first-class football resumed, he played the first half of the 1946-7 season before deciding that his age (35) was counting against him; he retired from top-flight football in December 1946, though he carried on playing for the now merged Corinthians and Casuals team until 1948. In all, he played 95 first-class (i.e. non-wartime) matches for Arsenal, though he never scored a goal.

Before the war Joy was a teacher, but afterwards he decided not to return to the profession and moved into journalism. Joy began his career in journalism as a football writer on The Star, one of three London evening papers published in the 1940s. He later moved to the Evening Standard and the Sunday Express as football and lawn tennis correspondent until retirement in 1976. He also wrote one of the first histories of Arsenal Football Club, Forward, Arsenal! (1952), and several other football books.

Joy was appointed an OBE in the 1977 Silver Jubilee and Birthday Honours. He died in 1984, aged 72 of cancer. He often held dinner parties at his house in Osterley which many footballing celebrities would attend.

Football On This Day – 9th May 1951 England played their first international against foreign opposition at Wembley, beating Argentina 2-1 in front of 60,000 fans. Since 1924, England had only played Scotland at Wembley. The match kicked off at 3 o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon - it would be another 4 years before floodlights were installed at the National Stadium.