May 14 2006

Bobby Bowry

Jamesey recalls a bibulous (on his part anyway) afternoon in the company of former CPFC midfield stalwart, Bobby Bowry.

A minor sports news item caught my eye recently. It recounted that the former Palace, Millwall and Colchester player, Bobby Bowry, had been appointed player/coach of Rymans Premier Division club, Bromley.

I have exchanged many nods, hellos and brief dialogues with many Palace players and management types in many locations over the decades, but the only one that you could really call a conversation was with the aforesaid Mr Bowry.

Bobby, born in Croydon in 1971, came to Selhurst in 1992, making 61 appearances and was sold to our dear friends in Bermondsey for £220,000 in the "relegation summer" of 1995.

A few years later I attended the marriage of my nephew, Paul, at Croydon Town Hall and afterwards, at the reception, who should be a fellow guest but Bobby Bowry and his girlfriend.

Fortified by a couple of glasses of punch, I soon buttonholed him and unsuccessfully tried to make him badmouth Millwall and spill any dirty beans about his time at Palace.

To his credit, Bobby dealt politely and diplomatically with my tactless questions and sipped his orange juice with dignity.

We had a longish conversation during which I discovered nothing that I didn't know already.

When, eventually, he passed by on his way out, even more buoyed up by the punchbowl, I caught his eye and said: "Bobby, I'll never forget that goal you scored against Aston Villa at Selhurst and won us the game."

"Well, you've got a better memory than me, mate," he responded, "I can't remember it at all."

I took his remark at face value over the years until I decided to pen this little piece.

Looking at Bobby's Palace statistics, I discovered that he had only scored one goal in three seasons with CPFC.

And he couldn't remember scoring it?

He really was 'avin' a larf...

Email Jamesey with any comments to Jevans3704@aol.com

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