We're the Casuals... David Bowell

Few Corinthian-Casuals supporters can boast a connection to the club as deep as David Bowell, who began coming to games when we played our home fixtures at the Oval and is a near ever-present at King George’s to this day…
 
Tell us how you became a Corinthian-Casuals supporter.
 
The story begins at the Oval in the 1956. My dad, Lawrence, who worked at Battersea Town Hall, took me along to watch Corinthian-Casuals. That was the year we got to the FA Amateur Cup final, and the thrill of being at Wembley among more than 80,000 people was really exciting.

My first real memory is the semi-final against Dulwich, at Stamford Bridge, and in those days the kids got pushed down to the front so they could see – I was about seven years old and I remember that well. I also remember my dad had to work Saturday mornings, so we were late for the final!

But I have a lot of happy memories of the Oval. I got to know the players because they had to walk around the outside of the field as they weren’t allowed to walk across the sacred turf. After the game, you could chat to the players and get their autographs, and I just remember the smell of the embrocation and the sight of these big footballers going by.

One of them, Jack Laybourne, took a shine to me because I was in hospital a lot as a kid. I was in St Thomas’ Hospital for three-and-a-half months, and after I got out he invited me to a tour of the cricket museum at Surrey. He gave me a diary every year for three or four years, with J.S.L., for Jack Sylvester Laybourne, on it. That was a treasured possession. He was and Olympian, and he was in the team when we had Micky Stewart playing, with Doug Insole – an Essex and England cricketer – on the wing.
 
How did you support develop over time?
 
My dad and I followed the team through the days playing at Dulwich, then Tooting. I have strong memories of the Watford game in the FA Cup in 1965, when we lost 5-1 in the first round.

There was one season, 1966/67, when I left school and had a year before college, and I went to every single game. I was working up in London that year and I could just hop on a train or tube and go to Clapton for a lovely Tuesday evening at the Spotted Dog Ground. If you were lucky, you’d get a stale cheese roll and a pint of beer!

I’ve got lots of happy memories. I used to keep all the programmes, and I used to write down the teams and the goalscorers in little notebooks for every season. I loved it.

Then our loyalty wavered a little bit when we played at Molesey. I was at college and doing other things as I got older, and I kind of drifted out of it for a bit, but when I found out we’d got our own ground after all those years, I started coming with my dad again. It wasn’t long before he died, but he had the joy of seeing us play at Tolworth.

He had been secretary to the supporters’ club, and he used to sell scarves, ties and badges that you would stick on the front of your car bumper plate. I’ve still got a scarf and tie from when he ran it! We used to begin the season by reciting the Amateur Cup final team together, from Paul Ahm to Jack Kerruish.
 
What have been your highlights since we moved to Tolworth?
 
I’ve got strong memories of the Manchester United game in 2004. I just felt that, now we had our own ground, as a club, there was a community atmosphere. I met people like Rob Cavallini, who was writing a book about the club, and I leant him all my programmes, and got to know some of the other supporters too.

Then, in the James Bracken years, I just felt so passionate about the club. I remember hugging Roger behind the goal after the game down at Hythe, when we reached the play-offs. And the sheer atmosphere of standing behind the goal for the penalty shoot-out in the play-off final, and the game at Greenwich in the semi-finals.

I knew all the players’ names then, and it was no surprise who was playing, and so those last two years when we were relegated and I couldn’t identify who was playing, it was quite sad. But this season that’s coming back again – I recognise most of them and I just feel more associated again. Brian Adamson asked me if I’d be an ambassador for the club, and now Brian Chantry and I help on matchdays, with the teas and coffees. It’s a friendly little club now.
 
You have made some good friends through Casuals, haven’t you?
 
I used to stand behind the goal, leaping up and down, and all the rest of it. But as the years went by, my eyes weren’t as good and I couldn’t see down the far end. So I started to sit in the stands and that’s when I met Brian Chantry and this lovely old chap called Ted, whose joy was Casuals.
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He was a great character, Ted. Once he wrote out all his ideas on how James Bracken could improve the team’s play, and my advice was not to give it to James! In the end he did, and James was very good with him. Ted spent his 90th birthday in the clubhouse with about 50 or 60 people, and James came along with one or two of the players to support him.

I’ve still got the passion. There have been a lot of rough times, but my enthusiasm didn’t seem to dwindle. That’s loyalty. And it is my club – the last couple of years I could’ve gone to watch Sutton or Carshalton, because I live over that way, but I just couldn’t.