THE pinnacle of Eddie Bowman’s 17-year professional career was playing in the 1977 World Cup for Great Britain in Australia.
A Kells lad, he signed for Whitehaven and later crossed the great divide to join Workington Town.
He played for Leigh and Wigan in the latter stages of his career, playing his last game in 1981, shortly before his 37th birthday.
If you could relive one day from your career, which would it be?
Two games in 1977 come to mind. Winning the Lancashire Cup with Workington against Wigan and playing for Great Britain in the World Cup Final against Australia.
You were raised in Kells. How big a part did Rugby League play in your childhood?
My brothers were into Rugby League. Harry played amateur and Alex was a top-grade ref who was a reserve at Wembley one year. I was a swimmer as a kid. I swam with a lad called Alan Galbraith from Carlisle, who was picked for the Olympics. He used to beat me, and I realised I wasn’t going to get any better. When I was 16, a schoolfriend persuaded me to join him at Kells Under-19s. I played centre. Boxer Walker’s dad, Duncan, got me a trial at Whitehaven when Jim Brough was coach. We played four 20-minute quarters and, in the last period, I played for the first team. Jim asked if I’d like to sign and after eventually convincing my dad, I did. I got £350 in my hand and another £450 to come. It was like winning the Pools! I got my mam and dad a three-piece suite and a carpet.
What are your early memories of the club?
I did three or four games for the ‘A’ team and was then drafted into the first team. I had a peg next to Alan Burns, a hero of mine, who later signed for Oldham. We beat Wigan one Wednesday night. Colin Tyrer put my teeth through my lips as I scored a try, but I wasn’t picked for the next game. A team-mate persuaded me to go and ask Jim why. I was panicking as I knocked on his door. “Who is it?” “It’s Eddie Bowman. I’m not on the teamsheet and wondered why.” “Who do you think you are?” I started crying!
Which players stand out from that era?
Alan Burns was a great forward. When he went to Oldham, he was 50-50 for a Great Britain spot. He was like Arthur Beetson, Bill McAlone, Peter Smethurst, Dennis Hartley and Brian McTigue – hard men, but they weren’t bullies who would pick on a kid. They would encourage you. But there were a few fellas who weren’t so nice! I had some battles with Mike Nicholas. I was told Alex Murphy and his assistant Tom Grainey would tell him to get into me in the scrums and stop me playing. In games against him, I think I was sent off twice and him three times, but I came out on top in a game at Warrington when he came in third man right onto my elbow and was carted off! Lots of us from that generation meet up and there’s total respect between us.
You made your Cumberland debut in 1969 and played 18 times for them. Can you pick any highlights?
We won the County Championship a couple of times. In the two games, you had those two chances to get on top of your opposite number. Props played 80 minutes back then, not 20 minutes on and 20 mins off like now. I remember sitting in the toilets at Workington before one county match, and I could hear the opposition saying, “Get into Bowman, stop him playing!” I loved hearing that.
What were derbies like back then?
They were real battles. Workington had a great pack and Brian Edgar was the best forward I ever saw. When Dick Huddart signed for St George, they said, “We have the jewel in the crown, now we want the crown, which is Brian,” but he would never leave Workington.
Why did you join Workington in 1970?
Bill McAlone, the great Whitehaven forward of the 1950s and 1960s, was married to my dad’s cousin. He said, “Don’t be a thick forward like me. Buy some spikes and do some sprint training,” but I tore a muscle sprinting against the wingers. I was out for five or six weeks. After a shift at the pit one day, there was a Workington director outside my house, but I turned him down. Then Bob Graves, second in command at Workington, turned up. I said there was no way I was signing. The next night, I took my wife to bingo, and when I got home, there was a Mustang outside my house. It was Tom Mitchell. “What’s this,” he said, “you won’t sign for Workington?” He asked what it would cost to get me. I said something stupid, and he said, “That’s no problem.” I knew my wife was adamant I shouldn’t go, but when I told her the money, her attitude changed! Tom knew how to charm her. He said, “If I get the player I want, then I also get Miss Rugby Leaguer,” which was a big thing at the time! Whitehaven hadn’t been helpful with my injury, but Tom got it sorted by sending me to a specialist in Edinburgh.
How good were Town in the 1970s?
Workington had had a great side in the 1960s and early 1970s with Brian, Spanky McFarlane, Frank Foster, Bill Kirkbride, Les Gorley and Paul Charlton, then Boxer Walker, Bill Pattinson, Peter Gorley, Geoff Fletcher, Steve Hogan, Derek Watts and Jim Mills joined when I was there. Tom built a great side that reached four consecutive Lancashire Cup Finals. Boxer was at the centre of everything. We played Widnes in the first final and lost to a late try.
What are your memories of beating Wigan in the second of those finals?
Bill Ashurst had put £100 on Wigan winning, and very time we tackled him, we said, “You’re gonna lose your money, Bill!” It was a close game, but we had so many good moves that worked, although some would be disallowed now for obstruction! It was brilliant when the hooter went because we knew we’d beaten a star-studded team.
Why did Town not kick on from that success?
I thought we were a great chance of getting to Wembley, but we lost a close game home to Leeds in the Challenge Cup in 1977. Then Castleford beat us in a second replay in 1978. It sickened me. It had taken Tom a couple of years to build a good side. Ken Goodall was the hottest property in Irish rugby union and he joined us. He was a good lad, but I think he got a bit disillusioned when we went to Salford one day and he found out what David Watkins was on compared to him. Our team soon started to break up over the next couple of years.
You had to wait until 1977 for international honours. Did you come close before that?
I got picked for England against France a few years earlier by Peter Fox, but I had back and stomach problems and couldn’t sprint. I was determined to play, but Brian Edgar advised me not to because so many reputations had been destroyed in France. I thought I would never win a cap, but I got my chance in the 1977 World Cup.
What do you remember of that tournament?
It was a great honour to be picked as a Workington player without having to move to a fashionable club first. I met Len Casey when we went to get our suits fitted and we agreed to room together. We’ve been best mates ever since. We had a great pack with Steve Pitchford, George Nicholls and David Ward. Roger had played in Cronulla, and they had a Rolls Royce for him to use! We beat New Zealand and France, and we were doing well. We played Australia in the group game. I caught the hooker a bit high, and he was taken off. The press made a big deal of it. Billy Thompson was the referee and he stopped us scoring a try by not playing advantage. That was very frustrating, but he was good enough to admit he was wrong.
Did you have any interest from Australian clubs?
When I was on tour in 1977, David Watkins was our coach, and he fixed me up with St George, but there was talk of English players being banned. I was told I’d have to play for a country club for 12 months first. I was 32 by them, and there was no way I was going to do that.
Why did you move to Leigh in the 1978-79 season?
I was in the pub one night after a game, and these four fellas walked in. Someone pointed to me. They were Leigh directors who had tracked me down. We went to a quiet room to talk, but I said I wouldn’t move and definitely not until I’d talked to my wife. They asked if we could have lunch the next day, so my wife and I met them. They agreed to pay travelling expenses. They asked if I’d be player-coach, but I said I couldn’t move to Leigh. They got Tom Grainey and Colin Clarke coaching instead, and it was one of the best moves I ever made. They were such a friendly club. The beauty of it was that I was playing with great young kids like John Woods and Des Drummond, which was a great experience. John was brilliant! Terry Bilsbury, Steve Donlan, Mick Stacey, Tommy Gittins, Alan Rathbone, Mal Yates, Derek Pyke and Alan Rowley were top players too. And we had a great chairman and secretary in Brian Bowman and John Stringer.
Why did you join Wigan two years later?
Widnes initially wanted me to play with Les Gorley, and they were willing to offer Brian Hogan, but he asked for too much money from Leigh, so it collapsed. They signed Brian Lockwood instead and made the next two Wembleys. Wigan had just been relegated when I joined them. George Fairbairn was player-coach. They signed Alan Hodgkinson and Gary Stephens, and we went back up. Maurice Bamford took over. We lost at York one day and Maurice was shouting and swearing at us. New signings were coming in. I was nearly 37 and I decided that was it for me.
Do you remember the Battle of Fartown in March 1981 when six players were sent off?
They had a player whose wife was a model. He was a bit of a muscle man. Someone kept making comments about her in scrums and at the third scrum it kicked off. That was the start of the red cards. Arthur Clues was commentating on the game. He came into the players’ bar afterwards and said, “Where’s Bowman? If you’d been sent off, it would have been a much better game!”
