By David Harrison
Norman “Flash” Kerruish, sportsman, mathematician and university lecturer has died aged 92. He was one of Corinthian-Casuals’ most distinguished players in the 1950’s. In the F.A. Amateur Cup Final against Bishop Auckland in 1956 in front of 80,000 spectators at Wembley he was credited with getting the last touch for the Casuals’ goal in the 1 – 1 draw, heading in a corner from cricketer Doug Insole. In the semi-final against Dulwich at Stamford Bridge he’d scored a hat trick.
He was born on 15 Jan 1928 in Hindley, just outside Wigan, His father William was the manager of the local Co-op insurance. His mother Mabel was a seamstress. Norman won a scholarship to the local grammar school where he was outstanding at sport and maths. At 17 he won another scholarship, this one to St Johns College, Cambridge, a young student among veterans returning from the war. He won blues for football against Oxford in 1945 and 1947. In the second game, won 2 – 0 by Cambridge, he scored the second goal. He went on to play nine games for the newly formed Oxford and Cambridge side, Pegasus, in their first two seasons in 1948/9 and 1949/50.
Graduating with a First in Maths he was invited to join the engineering firm British Thompson Houston, in Rugby, as an engineering mathematician and spent much of his time teaching maths to engineering graduates at the local technical college.
In April 1950, aged 22, he played his first game for Corinthian-Casuals against Sutton United. Over the next eight seasons, soon nicknamed “Flash” because of his speed, he averaged over 30 games a season making a total of 257 appearances and scoring 104 goals. Micky Stewart, now club President and another of Casuals’ cricketers – he was captain of Surrey and manager of England - remembers playing inside left with “Flash” on the left wing in the 1955/56 team. “Norman was right footed. He would often cut inside to get the ball on his stronger foot. That’s how he scored a lot of his goals”. At the Oval in December ‘55 he scored four goals in the 7 - 2 defeat of Barking. He also played and representative football for the Isthmian League and the London F.A. and later some games with his local club Rugby Town F.C.
In 1950 Norman had also married his childhood sweet Marion and they had two children. He took the train every Saturday from their home in Rugby to play for Casuals despite suffering from travel sickness on virtually every trip. During this period he attracted interest from two Football League clubs, Spurs and Aston Villa, but didn’t take them up. The maximum wage, of course, was only £20 a week. As the Rugby Advertiser reported, “That wasn’t a viable option for Norman with a young family.”
At the age of 30 he decided to retire from senior football, inspiring a nostalgic note in the Corinthian-Casuals’ Newsletter: “Norman is still a fine player and we very much hope he may change his mind about wrapping up. We base our hopes on several factors. Marion (his wife) is bound to get fed up with having him home all day. Flash himself may miss the abuse from behind the goal. We don’t know, but we can hope”.
Career
But Norman had a serious career away from football. In 1965 he left his job with British Thomson Houston when he was appointed Reader in Engineering Mathematics at what became Aston University in Birmingham. Commuting daily from Rugby he taught Maths over a 20 year period to both undergraduates and postgraduates and supervised PhD students. He was elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers and also Fellow of the Institute of Maths.
Soon after the death of his wife Marion in 1980, Norman took early retirement, but was still very active, playing golf and squash to a high standard. Daughter Alison remembers him playing three times in the British over 55s section of the British Open Squash Championship. including winning a match against the great Hashim Khan, eight times British Open Champion. At golf, with a handicap of 4, he was club captain and a regular competition winner at Rugby Golf Club. He played for and captained the mid Warwickshire League team and won the Warwickshire foursomes in 1978.
Although not in the best of health in recent years, with doubtful knees after so much contact sport, “Flash” still got around at high speed on his wheeled zimmer. He had a special 90th birthday celebration with son David and daughter Alison, four grandchildren and three great grandchildren. He died peacefully on 15 May with son David at his side. Among the tributes grandson Jamie wrote: “His accomplishments sound like a work of fiction really.” Another on-line tribute read: “He was a charming and self-effacing chap, who hid his academic and sporting prowess to build open friendships with all around him”. At Corinthian-Casuals we remember him with great affection, a long time member of the club and a man whose prowess on the field and intellectually was certainly anything but flash.
Norman “Flash” Kerruish, sportsman, mathematician and university lecturer has died aged 92. He was one of Corinthian-Casuals’ most distinguished players in the 1950’s. In the F.A. Amateur Cup Final against Bishop Auckland in 1956 in front of 80,000 spectators at Wembley he was credited with getting the last touch for the Casuals’ goal in the 1 – 1 draw, heading in a corner from cricketer Doug Insole. In the semi-final against Dulwich at Stamford Bridge he’d scored a hat trick.
He was born on 15 Jan 1928 in Hindley, just outside Wigan, His father William was the manager of the local Co-op insurance. His mother Mabel was a seamstress. Norman won a scholarship to the local grammar school where he was outstanding at sport and maths. At 17 he won another scholarship, this one to St Johns College, Cambridge, a young student among veterans returning from the war. He won blues for football against Oxford in 1945 and 1947. In the second game, won 2 – 0 by Cambridge, he scored the second goal. He went on to play nine games for the newly formed Oxford and Cambridge side, Pegasus, in their first two seasons in 1948/9 and 1949/50.
Graduating with a First in Maths he was invited to join the engineering firm British Thompson Houston, in Rugby, as an engineering mathematician and spent much of his time teaching maths to engineering graduates at the local technical college.
In April 1950, aged 22, he played his first game for Corinthian-Casuals against Sutton United. Over the next eight seasons, soon nicknamed “Flash” because of his speed, he averaged over 30 games a season making a total of 257 appearances and scoring 104 goals. Micky Stewart, now club President and another of Casuals’ cricketers – he was captain of Surrey and manager of England - remembers playing inside left with “Flash” on the left wing in the 1955/56 team. “Norman was right footed. He would often cut inside to get the ball on his stronger foot. That’s how he scored a lot of his goals”. At the Oval in December ‘55 he scored four goals in the 7 - 2 defeat of Barking. He also played and representative football for the Isthmian League and the London F.A. and later some games with his local club Rugby Town F.C.
In 1950 Norman had also married his childhood sweet Marion and they had two children. He took the train every Saturday from their home in Rugby to play for Casuals despite suffering from travel sickness on virtually every trip. During this period he attracted interest from two Football League clubs, Spurs and Aston Villa, but didn’t take them up. The maximum wage, of course, was only £20 a week. As the Rugby Advertiser reported, “That wasn’t a viable option for Norman with a young family.”
At the age of 30 he decided to retire from senior football, inspiring a nostalgic note in the Corinthian-Casuals’ Newsletter: “Norman is still a fine player and we very much hope he may change his mind about wrapping up. We base our hopes on several factors. Marion (his wife) is bound to get fed up with having him home all day. Flash himself may miss the abuse from behind the goal. We don’t know, but we can hope”.
Career
But Norman had a serious career away from football. In 1965 he left his job with British Thomson Houston when he was appointed Reader in Engineering Mathematics at what became Aston University in Birmingham. Commuting daily from Rugby he taught Maths over a 20 year period to both undergraduates and postgraduates and supervised PhD students. He was elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers and also Fellow of the Institute of Maths.
Soon after the death of his wife Marion in 1980, Norman took early retirement, but was still very active, playing golf and squash to a high standard. Daughter Alison remembers him playing three times in the British over 55s section of the British Open Squash Championship. including winning a match against the great Hashim Khan, eight times British Open Champion. At golf, with a handicap of 4, he was club captain and a regular competition winner at Rugby Golf Club. He played for and captained the mid Warwickshire League team and won the Warwickshire foursomes in 1978.
Although not in the best of health in recent years, with doubtful knees after so much contact sport, “Flash” still got around at high speed on his wheeled zimmer. He had a special 90th birthday celebration with son David and daughter Alison, four grandchildren and three great grandchildren. He died peacefully on 15 May with son David at his side. Among the tributes grandson Jamie wrote: “His accomplishments sound like a work of fiction really.” Another on-line tribute read: “He was a charming and self-effacing chap, who hid his academic and sporting prowess to build open friendships with all around him”. At Corinthian-Casuals we remember him with great affection, a long time member of the club and a man whose prowess on the field and intellectually was certainly anything but flash.