Corinthian-Casuals were deeply saddened by the news that Chris Joy, our former captain and long-serving defensive lynchpin, had passed away on 24 November.
Joy (pictured above in a 1962 team photo, fourth from the left in the back row), joined the club in 1958 and made 415 first-team appearances, most of them at the heart of our defence. He was described by our Vice President and club historian Norman Epps as “a mountain of a man, a real leader.”
David Harrison, our Vice President and former Chairman, played alongside Joy during his own days in the Casuals side and spoke warmly of his one-time team-mate.
“Chris was a real stalwart for Corinthian-Casuals,” said Harrison. “He was a defender of some renown and kept our defence together during the difficult times when we were struggling in the lower positions in the league. As a fellow defender I remember playing many times with Chris, feeling somewhat dwarfed by both his height and by his talent – but also enjoying many years of friendship.”
Joy – who worked in the Stock Exchange – broke into the first team in 1961, originally as a full-back, before switching to centre-half following the retirement of Reg Vowels. He established himself as our regular No5 and skipper in the 1962/63 campaign and was a mainstay in the middle of the backline for a decade to come.
He spanned two distinct chapters of our history, playing for us during our days at the Oval and at Dulwich Hamlet, becoming our first-team captain in the season that we made the move to Champion Hill. It was a period of struggle, on and off the field, as we finished bottom of the Isthmian League in 1962/63, but were re-elected by our fellow competitors, as was the process in the days before relegation had been introduced to the league.
Even in tough times, Joy was a towering figure in the side, and his loyalty to the club was greatly valued, as long-time supporter David Bowell recalls.
“He was a wonderful player, who put so much into the club, and who always stood out in defence,” said Bowell. “Now, this isn’t doing Chris credit but one of my first memories was a very early game he played against Wimbledon, at Plough Lane. He was up against Eddie Reynolds, who was a fearsome, big centre-forward – a great goalscorer – and he had a nightmare of a game that day. But then he just developed into such a commanding player, who held the defence together for years.
“There were years when we were bottom of the table, losing game after game, and he just put so much in. Other players left but he was someone who stuck with the club, and I really admired him for that. We were fortunate to have some very good goalkeepers in those days – Brian Wakefield and John Swannell – and Chris was the one defender in front of them who just… kept it going.”
Things began to look up in 1964/65 as we moved up the league table and entered the FA Cup for the first time since the war. Joy – whose performances earned him representative honours for the FA amateur XI and the London FA XI – was in his element.
“We had an extremely good side, and everyone was friends and socialised” he said of that period of uplift in an interview for Rob Cavallini’s book, Corinthian-Casuals, The First Seventy Years: 1939-2009. “There was a tremendous team spirit which showed in the results.”
We also reprised the Sheriff of London Shield for the first time since the 1930s, playing Arsenal at Highbury in a game that would have meant much to Joy, given that his father, Bernard, won the First Division title with Arsenal in 1937/38, two years after winning the FA Amateur Cup with Casuals. Sadly, the professionals handed out a 7-0 thrashing to the amateurs on the competition’s return.
The following year we reached the FA Cup first round proper, something we have only achieved once since. Joy was a mainstay as we progressed through the qualifying rounds before being rewarded with a home tie against Watford, then of the Third Division. A 5-1 defeat was a sobering reality check, but the Cup run made history and a poster for that first-round tie adorns the clubhouse wall at the King George’s Arena today.
We also took up an invitation to return to Highbury for the Sheriff of London Shield and acquitted ourselves far better this time around, twice leading Billy Wright’s Arsenal and going in level at 2-2 at half-time. Joy was in fine form with his father in the stands, but tired legs among the Casuals side led to a drop-off in the second half and we went down 5-2. Chris never forgot the occasion, telling Cavallini: “I heard later that at half-time in the Arsenal dressing room, things became heated and Wright was saying to his team, ‘You cannot lose to amateurs!’”
Bernard Joy, who watched his son with pride on those occasions at Highbury, held the distinction of becoming the last amateur to earn a full cap for the England national team, when he played against Belgium in May 1936. His stamp on this club could hardly be more pronounced, as he represented the Corinthians, the Casuals and the amalgamated Corinthian-Casuals, before becoming one of the country’s most renowned football writers after he hung up his boots.
Chris’ time at the club was equally enduring. Even as the late Sixties marked the beginning of another period of perennial struggles on the pitch for Casuals, Joy was repeatedly singled out as an exception in reports of the decline in quality among the team. Mind you, he recalled one occasion when he missed the first few minutes of a game against Kingstonian after forgetting his boots! After leaving the team to kick-off with 10 men, he returned with a pair of boots in time to join them during the first half, and we drew 3-3.
In Joy’s time here, he joined the club on several tours to France and the Channel Islands, and another to Denmark. In remembering them, he highlighted the importance of the social side of representing Corinthian-Casuals, fondly recalling a trip to Jersey in 1962 in his conversation with Cavallini.
“It was a very social tour,” he said, “but one incident that amused me was a long jump competition, which was held over a fishpond. Dick Joyce failed miserably and fell in twice!”
Although he departed for a brief spell at Hendon during the 1968/69 season, Joy returned to Casuals and continued to represent us with distinction until his last game in October 1973.
The news that he had passed away was met with great sadness by everyone at the club, particularly among those who recall his time here. However, the name Joy will live on in the annals of Corinthian-Casuals forever, thanks to the immense contributions of both Bernard and Chris.