Stan Bowles' First England Cap Up For Sale

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"UPDATE" SEE Stan Bowles Cap for Sale Also See AuctionersCap Description Photo of Cap


£6,000 for Stan’s cap

News and Star - 25 October 2007 - Bowle-r hat: Stan Bowles’s England cap is going under the hammer

THE first England cap won by one of Carlisle United’s most colourful and talented players is expected to fetch up to £6,000 when it is auctioned next week.
The light green velvet cap was awarded to Stan Bowles when he made his debut for England against Portugal in Lisbon on April 3, 1974, not long after leaving Brunton Park. It will be auctioned at Bonhams in Chester next Wednesday.
The signing of Stan Bowles, from Crewe for £14,000 in October 1971, was one of the best bits of business in Carlisle United’s history.
For less than a year later,in September 1972, Carlisle sold him to Queens Park Rangers for £112,000.
Carlisle needed someone who could score goals after selling prolific striker Bob Hatton – 38 goals in 93 league appearances – to Birmingham for £90,000. So manager Ian Macfarlane swiftly moved for Bowles, who made his debut for Carlisle, alongside John Gorman,Stan Ternent and Chris Balderstone, in the 2-1 win against Oxford United at Brunton Park on October 30, 1971.
He went on to become Carlisle’s joint top scorer that season.
At QPR, Bowles scored 71 goals in 255 league appearances and became a legend. In 2004, QPR fans affectionately voted him the club’s greatest ever player.
It was at Manchester City that Bowles started gambling and it was an addiction that nearly wrecked his promising football career before it really started.
Bowles admitted: “I’ve never tried to stop the gambling.It’s part of me and has been pretty much all of my adult life.I was an apprentice at City earning £7 a week,but I’d run the bets across the town for a Manchester gang, from pub to pub, when it was illegal to do that. I was earning more doing that than I was from football.That’s how I got myself into trouble at City, because I wasn’t turning up for training.”
One of the final straws was when he failed to turn up at Manchester airport to join City team-mates as they set off for a friendly against Ajax in Holland. He claimed later that he had over-slept.
Years later he admitted : “I had everything going for me and tossed it out of the window.”
He became a friend of George Best, who starred for City’s arch rivals, Manchester United. Bowles said : “I used to enjoy a drink with George Best.
“He was telling me one day about the statue of him they had put in Belfast. I told him there was one of me outside Ladbrokes.”
During his career Bowles frequently clashed with authority and fell out with several managers, including Malcolm Allison, Brian Clough and Tommy Docherty.
Stan Bowles won five England caps, but his fans think he should have won more.
Next year he will celebrate his 60th birthday. News and Star

Also: SEE

SPORTING MEMORABILIA AUCTION
QPR Official Site - Thu 11 Oct 2007

Football Heroes are organising the auction of a very rare item indeed - one of just five of Stan Bowles' England caps.
Stan being Stan, the whereabouts of three of the caps are unknown, so this is probably one of only two caps that will ever be available.
Football Heroes have entered Stan's debut cap against Portugal in 1974 into Bonham's next Sporting Memorabilia Auction on his behalf.
The auction will be held at New House, 150 Christleton Road, Chester, Cheshire, CH3 5TD on Wednesday 31st October at 11am.
All proceeds from the sale will be split between Stan and his family and it is estimated this rare International cap will sell for at least £5,000 - and ideally Stan would love the cap to go to a QPR fan, which he still sees as his Club.
Catalogues can be ordered from Bonhams on 01244 313 936 or alternatively the sale items can be viewed at www.bonhams.com.
You can bid on the auction in a number of ways:
-The lots can be viewed on Sunday 28th October (10 - 1) Monday 29th October and Tuesday 30th October (10 - 4) and of course you are more than welcome to attend the auction to bid in person.
-You can register to bid by phoning 01244 313 936 and asking for the bids office. You can then either leave absentee bids or register for telephone bids on the day of the sale.
-You can email steveforey@football-heroes.com with a 'sealed / confidential' bid.
*For further details, please contact Steve Forey on 020 8930 4114. Stane Bowles Cap

Sale 15165 - Bonhams - Sporting Memorabilia, 31 Oct 2007
Lot No: 428
Stan Bowles first England Cap
Awarded to Stanley Bowles for his debut game for England v Portugal in 1974. Light green velvet 6 panel cap with silver braid and tassle, English Football Association badge to front with 'Portugal' underneath. 1973/74 to peak.

Estimate: £5,000 - 6,000
Footnote:
Stanley Bowles (born 1948) began his career at Manchester City, although his fiery temper resulted in him being released after a series of off-field incidents. After a brief and unsuccessful stay at Bury, he was signed by Crewe Alexandra, then in the Fourth Division where his skill caught the eye of a number of bigger clubs. In October 1971 he was signed by Carlisle United, at the time a Second Division club, scoring 13 goals in 36 appearances for the Cumbrians. After a managerial change at the club, he joined Queens Park Rangers (QPR) for £112,000 in September 1972. He replaced in the team another QPR folk-hero, Rodney Marsh, who had been transferred to Manchester City six months before (ironically to Bowles' first club). He took over Marsh's number 10 shirt which other players had been reluctant to wear in fear of being compared to Marsh but Bowles had no qualms about taking the shirt as he said that coming from the North, he had never heard of Marsh! With his flair and undoubted natural ability it was inevitable that international recognition would soon come. He made his international debut against Portugal in April 1974 in Sir Alf Ramsey's last match in charge. Overall he only won five caps for England.

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