by Stan Bowles was once told that he spent all his money on gambling, booze and women, to which he replied, “Well, at least I didn’t waste it.” Bowles, who has died aged 75, was a midfielder with great pace and touch, a down-to-earth street genius with long flowing hair – he could win a game with one move.
He spent his golden years, in the mid-1970s, at Queens Park Rangers, when the badges for sale bearing the legend, “Stan Bowles and his amazing dancing feet” were a common sight outside the Loftus Road ground. Another common sight was Bowles, in his kit, 20 minutes before kick-off, in the betting shop up the road. Soon after the game he could be seen in one of the pubs near the stadium.
At Loftus Road he replaced club great Rodney Marsh, taking on the No 10 shirt that none of his new team-mates dared to wear. Bowles just shrugged and put it on, claiming he was from Manchester and had never heard of Rodney Marsh. While Marsh was the showman, the clown prince, Bowles was far more interesting, a star player almost entirely devoid of ego, a selfless team man who quickly established an almost telepathic relationship with Gerry Francis, the QPR and England captain.
He was a key part of QPR’s greatest side, the Don Givens, Frank McLintock, Don Masson and David Webb side, which came within a hair’s breadth of the 1975-76 league title when Bowles scored the winner against Leeds United. in their last game of the season. Liverpool, their rivals, needed just a point to become champions and, 10 days later, broke the euphoria with a goal explosion at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
In 1974 he made his international debut against Portugal. It was Sir Alf Ramsey’s last game in charge, and between then and 1977 Bowles made just four more appearances for England despite his exceptional talent and consistently outstanding performances in the league. His only international goal against Wales came in England’s 2-0 win at Ninian Park in 1974.
He was born just before midnight on Christmas Eve in a prefab in the Manchester area of Collyhurst; His father, who was a window cleaner, used to say, “If you had left it five minutes longer you might have been Jesus.” Despite the constant struggle to make ends meet, it was a loving family, and a rough but stimulating environment at Collyhurst that gave Bowles a lifelong joy in the company of spivs and miscreants.
He was briefly educated at a Church of England primary school, then at the local St Mary’s Catholic junior school, where his football talents were so far ahead of his teammates that he had to play in goal to ensure the games were evenly matched. .
At the age of 11 he moved to New Moston modern secondary school, where he was selected to play for the Manchester North Area team and later Manchester Boys. In October 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, his principal took him aside and said: “Look, Stanley, if nothing happens I think you’ll make it as a footballer.”
He left school as soon as possible to get a job in a raincoat factory, working in the press, for which he was paid £10 a week. It was so hot, he said, that he thought it was hell to come to life. He lasted three weeks, after which he joined his father on the window-cleaning round. He preferred to clean Dorothy Perkins’ windows, because he could “watch all the birds”. But the prophecy of his head was evident when, at 17, he signed for Manchester City as a professional apprentice and then, two years later, full-time.
He made his League Cup debut in September 1967 against Leicester City, coming on as a substitute for the injured Neil Young in midfield, and scored twice in City’s 4–0 win.
His first League game was against Sheffield United the following Saturday, when he scored twice again. But Bowles, a hapless, happy-go-lucky character with a fiery temper, soon fell out with Malcolm Allison, the first-team coach, and after a series of clashes during the 1969-70 season he was loaned out. Bury’s Third Division. After five appearances there he was sacked for breaches of club discipline.
That same season, Crewe Alexandra, in the Fourth Division, offered him a career. By this time he had to borrow the train fare to get there, but it was at Crewe that he found his hand and his desire for the game. After 18 goals in 13 months he was hailed as the best midfielder outside the First Division, and permanently cash-strapped Crewe snapped him up. In October 1971 he moved to Carlisle United, then in the Second Division, and within a year he was sold to QPR in September 1972 for £110,000.
Bowles paid as much attention to his exploits off the field as on it, but he was more successful at kicking a football around than he was at supporting horses and dogs. When he married Ann Kyte in 1968, his father paid for the marriage license because Bowles had spent his £20 a week salary.
Later, Jim Gregory, the late but hard-working chairman at QPR, had to provide advances on his salary to settle debts before the bailiffs came to the door. His mother used to tell him that if he ever bought a cemetery people would stop dying.
In 1979, after seven years at Loftus Road, Bowles left for Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest after falling out with the new QPR manager, Tommy Docherty. The move was unsuccessful – Bowles had always operated on the right but Clough tried to convert him to a left-back – and one season later he had spells at Leyton Orient and then Brentford, before he stopped playing in the ended in 1984.
During retirement there was work in the media, including betting columns in the national press. “People might think of me as a footballer who gambled too much,” he once said. “But I’m a gambling addict who happens to be a good footballer.”
In mid-2015 it was announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. In 2022 QPR renamed the Ellerslie Road Stand in his honour.
Ann is survived by his wife, Diane Bushell, and his children, Andria, Carl and Tracy, from his first marriage.
• Stanley Bowles, footballer, born 24 December 1948; he died 24 February 2024
