One Of Our Buses Is Missing.

One Of Our Buses Is Missing.

One of the most memorable days in Corby Town’s FA Cup history was on October 16th 1982 when we travelled to Kidderminster for a Third Qualifying Round tie. This game happened during the infamous reign of Colin Clarke as Player/Manager. An inspired move by the board of directors, getting Clarke to leave Kettering and come here, smacked of ambition. A charismatic figure, bellowing like a bulldog, he certainly added a bit of colour to the place. He was assembling a half decent team, we’d gained promotion to the newly reformed Premier Division and the crowds were improving all the time. 

Player/Manager Colin Clarke bellowing once again..

The Kidderminster game came about as a result of knocking out Halesowen Town and Bedworth United and with only one defeat all season this game caught the imagination. A good following from Corby was guaranteed and on the day it seemed like hundreds had made the trek across to the West Midlands. Of course, Corby folk have never been slow to recognise when a good day out is in the offing. Buses were chartered by several watering holes around the town and with kick off time approaching the Corby crowd did their team proud. Topped up with ale, which helped, the Corby choir was in fine voice with various renditions of popular songs booming out of the cowshed of a stand. Two young police constables, obviously inexperienced in this sort of thing, panicked and nearly lost control. Although there was a lot of noise there was never a hint of any trouble but unfortunately one of the young officers couldn’t see that the crowd was only extracting the urine. Common sense happily prevailed and once the game was underway everybody calmed down a little and concentrated on the game. Corby’s team showed one change thanks to Billy Best being away on holiday and Richard Paterson took his place.  Team; Dick Dighton, Derek Walker, John Peacock, Andy McGowan, Richard Paterson, Colin Clarke, John Flanagan, Cass ‘Hamish’ Knight Roy Clayton, Elwyn Roberts and Charlie McGowan.

Dick Dighton showing how he became knows as The Flying Postman.

The game was only three minutes old when Kidderminster caught Corby cold, Phil Mullen heading home after the bellowing Clarke twice fumbled attempted clearances. Far from dampening the spirits of the travelling fans the noise intensified as Corby fought back. Efforts by Andy McGowan, Clayton and Paterson went agonisingly wide while Dighton was only called upon about twice. Advice was being given to the Corby team by many of the fans singing ‘Pass the ball down the left hand side’ - their version of of a reggae hit at the time. It was a reference to get the ball to John Flanagan and his famous left leg. At half time though, the score remained the same with Kidderminster having a 1-0 advantage. During the interval the talk was about the number of fans who had travelled from Corby. Remembering that this was the year of the Falklands War, a famous quote from one of the newsmen was  “I counted them all out, and I counted them all in”, referring to the number of Harrier jets leaving an aircraft carrier. A similar line was mentioned at Kidderminster but it referred to the number of buses to have left Corby. One was missing! It was during the half time that the biggest cheer of the afternoon went up. The rogue bus turned up to be welcomed by cries of ‘Is it a Flanagan’s?’ One of Murt’s charabancs. Reliable as ever it was once said that when a fleet of buses left Corby for Ireland to see the pope the roads were littered with broken down buses as most of them didn’t make it. ‘Enough to make a saint swear’ someone opined.

The second half got underway with Corby fighting for the equaliser. It duly came in the 66th minute. A free kick on the edge of the area usually resulted in a goal when ‘Flanny' was playing and this was no exception as a beautifully dipped shot sailed over the wall and the keeper. 

Thats's me and Gareth handing Flanny a cheque to get a couple of pints after scoring the goal that knocked the stuffing out of Kidderminster.

Just four minutes later Kidderminster keeper Parry fumbled an Elwyn Roberts shot and Cass Knight prodded the ball home to give Corby the lead.  The atmosphere was electric and the game was boiling up by the minute. Two minutes from time the game did finally boil over. Harriers’ John Horne climbed all over ‘Hamish’ Knight and they both went down in a tangle of arms and legs. The referee took drastic action and sent both of them off. It was soon forgotten though when a Charlie McGowan thunderbolt rebounded off keeper Parry and Roberts swept the ball home to kill the game stone dead. Corby had triumphed 3-1, a memorable afternoon that had everyone singing in the rain.

Elwyn Roberts

'Hamish'

On the following Monday there was an announcement that had ominous undertones, though on the face of it, it seemed a harmless enough statement. ‘Board members Arthur Pitcher and Mick York are seeking re-election at tonight’s AGM at the Supporters Club’.

The main topic though was to be; ‘How to trim the expenditure’, ‘How to cut back on expenses’ and ‘how to improve on the £14,000 accumulating deficit’. After the next round of the FA Cup was over ( the disastrous Holbeach game), we were all to find out. And so was Colin Clarke…