A Sporting Obituary – Gordon Howarth (1938-2023)

Gordon Howarth was a five-foot four inch athletic powerhouse, small in stature but a giant in sporting status. He majored with double honours – in association football and in cricket, the former ticking his first box.

Born in Prescott, a small town now absorbed into Liverpool, Gordon was signed by the Anfield club aged 15 and played as an amateur for the next three years. In 1956/7 he became a semi-professional for Bury FC followed by five seasons, first with Netherfield FC and then on transfer to Morecambe FC. A pound a week football pay then was petrol money for a week.

The 1961/2 season in particular encapsulates the footballing prowess of Gordon Howarth. It was his first with Morecambe and was to be the Shrimps’ best since their move to Christie Park in 1921/2. All out attack was the game plan which suited Gordon down to the ground as a prolific scorer from his outside left position. He ran as fast as a whippet skinning his marker, his speed matched by balance, ball control, dribbling skills, and the gift of timing. He could kick one of those old hard and usually soaked leather case balls with fierce power and accuracy.

The season ended with Morecambe as Lancashire Combination Champions. Gordon contributed 22 goals and countless assists. But it was in the FA Cup that Gordon carved his name into FA Cup folklore. Drawn away to Football League outfit Chester City in the Second Round of the Cup an early header by Gordon was cleared off the line, but bounced straight back to him and he expertly steered it into the net. The BBC Radio 2 Sports Report duly read out Chester City 0 Morecambe 1.

The press was merciless on Chester saying that they had looked like the non-league team, but Morecambe were lauded. Gordon was feted and received a national award of an engraved cigarette lighter sponsored by the Sporting Record. Gordon didn’t smoke, but 80% of the male population did in the 1960s.

The Third Round tie against Southern Premier Division Weybridge was played in front of a record Christie Park crowd of 9383. Unfortunately, as far as the Shrimps were concerned it was a damp squib with the visitors running out 1-0 winners.

After his Morecambe days and marriage, Gordon took a two-year sabbatical before being enticed back to play for the all powerful Galgate team from 1965 before finishing his footballing days with two seasons at Trimpell from 1967. “Have goals, will travel” was his motto and his outstanding performances included a seven-goal bag against Bulk St. Anne’s in December 1967. Still capable of outrunning a blowing wind and leaving for dead hapless defenders, work commitments ended his footballing days in 1969. In 2010, local football historian Terry Ainsworth conducted a poll of contemporaries and Gordon was chosen by his peers as the crème de la crème in the North Lancashire League for the period 1960-1970. This was not a surprise to anyone who had seen him play.

It was work commitments and his semi-professional football career that cost Gordon many a season of the summer game. With no cricketing background he was first persuaded to give it a go at the Arnside club in 1958 at the expense of an Athletics career as a sprinter. Needless to say, duck and water combined, although his progress was stuttering as he missed five full seasons between the 1967 and 1971. If he had played these years, he would have achieved the career milestone of 1000 wickets, the milestone that all bowlers strive for. Gordon made the move from kicking a football to spearing a cricket ball seamlessly. His run up was short, economical and with a fast right arm action could skid off the wicket with laser accuracy. He took 856 wickets and with Jack Baldwin, forged a legendary opening bowling partnership in the Westmorland Cricket League. Gordon’s 48 wickets in the Championship year of 1986 were central to the cause. In his 1972 comeback season he had two 9 wicket hauls, against Trimpell and Silverdale. He did have a sense of occasion!

Gordon also takes with him what is believed to be a Westmorland League batting record. Although he admitted to little pretention of prowess with the willow, he had 110 career not outs which crucially included two which secured losing draws against Shireshead in 1986. Those draws won Arnside the title by 2 points. In the first game at Arnside, he blocked out 18 overs, refusing to run preferring to remain at one end. In the second game he held out for 11 overs. Resolute forward defence, Championship won.

Two years after Gordon was born, Winston Churchill on assuming the office of Prime Minister told a country at war that he had “…nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” Gordon gave all those and more to Arnside during peace time on and off the cricket field. Assuming the office of Club Secretary in 1980 he sank himself into the toil of the job, metaphorically shedding blood, tears and sweat. The opening of the new pavilion in 1980 had consumed much of that effort and much more was to follow.

In 1993 in his mid-fifties Gordon retreated from playing and from the administrative frontline, but not from Arnside CC where he was omnipresent rarely missing a game. A one club man in every sense. The death of Gordon Howarth is a double blow to Arnside Cricket Club this season. It is only thirteen weeks ago they lost the keystone of the club in Kenny Shepherd. Both men were revered and joined at the hip in their devotion to the club. They are irreplaceable as characters and factotums but replaced they will be because the Arnside club has a soul. It will continue to prosper because of the likes of Gordon Howarth and his yoke-mate Kenny Shepherd.