QPR's "Greatest" Stan Bowles Enters His Sixtieth Year

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Stan Bowles, turns 59: Born December 24, 1948...

Stan Bowles in Photos

It's almost thirty years since Stan Bowles played his last professional game for QPR, and still the memories linger on. The man who, in the eye of fans, superceeded Rodney Marsh as THE greatest at QPR!
Say QPR and #10 and the shirt belongs to either Marsh or Bowles....
For anyone old enough to remember the early 1970s: The despair at QPR/The End of the World: When Rodney left QPR in March 1972....And then six months later, the signing of Bowles joining (an already rampant) QPR under Gordon Jago...
Bowles made his QPR debut versus Nottingham Forest - September 16, 1972 after QPR paid a record transfer fee of 110,000 pounds.....Made the first; scored the second
Gordon Jago signed Forward/Midfielder Stan Bowles for QPR in September 1972 paying Carlisle 110,000 pounds (a then-record for QPR). Bowles played 250+ games scoring 70 league goals. Tommy Docherty sold him to Nottingham Forest in December 1979 for 250,000 pounds.
Bowles helped QPR to promotion in his first season and of course was an integral part of the 1975/76 "Championship" Side.
The only question for QPR fans is who was QPR's greatest-ever: Stan Bowles or Rodney Marsh...
Recent fan surveys give that title to Bowles. In a recent PFA Poll of fans, fans of each club were asked to vote for the best player in their club's history. For QPR fans, the vote went to Stan Bowles. (For Brentford fans, the vote went to...Stan Bowles!)

September 1972: Bowles Joins QPR
Bowles made his debut at home to (pre-Brian Clough's) Nottingham Forest, September 16, 1972, two or three days after signing from Carlisle for a club-record 110,000 pounds. Bowles, wearing from that very first game, HIS #10 shirt. Within an hour, he had made the first goal for Don Givens...and scored the second...as Gordon Jago's QPR won 3-0 (Andy McCulloch getting the third). And QPR, of course, went on to promotion.
QPR's team that day.
Parkes
Clement Evans Hazell Watson
Venables Francis Busby
Givens Bowles Mcculloch
Sub: Salvage

From Bowles' autobiography "Stan The Man"
"I was 23 years old when I joined Queens Park Rangers in September 1972, for a then club record fee of 112,000 pounds...
"Rodney had made the No. 10 shirt his own, and, since he moved, no one wanted to tough the thing....The shirt thing didn't seem a big deal to me. I hadn't really heard of Rodney Marsh. So I just shrugged and said: "If no one wants it, I'll wear it."...
"...[A]s luck would have it, I scored one and made another for Don Givens in my first game - against Nottingham Forest on September 16th, 1972. We won 3-0, and the fans seemed to take to my style of play; which, to them, was a bit like Rodney's"(Stan The Man, page 33)

Seven Years later, Bowles finally left QPR - ironically for Nottingham Forest (by then managed by Brian Clough).

See Also:

Bowles

Bowles Record II

Bowles England Profile

See: Dave's Queens Park Rangers - Bowles
See Bowles QPR Cult Hero BBC-Bowles

Bowles Book Reviewed - WSC - Bowles

Bowles -Wikipedia

Profiled as an ex-Crewe Player - Bowles

RIAN VINER INTERVIEWS - Stan Bowles: 'Clough, Brooking, Eriksson
Brian Viner, The Independent, October 13, 2005

Recent Profile: 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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