Alan John Dowie (Roper's 1970-75)

 5 October 1956 – 8 July 2021

When our mutual good friend Scott Wilson rang me on the morning of Friday 9 July, to give me the horrible and tragic news about Alan, it was like a hammer blow and I confess that I felt completely devastated, with this feeling lasting for several days. Indeed, it still has not completely subsided. As I write I can feel the tears welling up inside me, just as they have done for the last three weeks or so. All of his many friends and colleagues will acknowledge that he was one of those larger than life characters that always has a positive impact on you and for me, having known him for 53 years, he was someone in my life that I just believed would always be there. I first met Alan in September 1968. I was entering the 3rd Year at Alleyn’s (what they now refer to as Year 9) and having just completed a school football team training session, I was walking down from the athletics track pitch when I bumped into David Dowie, Alan’s older brother, who I had been playing Sunday football with for two years (Colwall FC) and, appearing quite incongruous, David explained that his baby brother had just joined the school and was participating in a 1st Year (Year 7) football team trial. That was when and where it all began!! For the next half Century, our paths crossed regularly, in a number of areas and much more often than not, with great joy and laughter. Indeed, our great friend Ian ‘Stoker’ Stewart wanted me to say that his great memory of Big Al is that every time he saw him, whether for football or in couples or for a boys’ night out, we always had great fun and Ian stated that Alan had a good heart and I have to agree. As I write, I have reminded myself that I need to be very careful about my grammar, punctuation and spelling, something that I like to pride myself on and something that Alan took great joy in, when pointing out my errors. We would also ridicule each other, sometimes mercilessly, all of the time but it was always given and taken entirely in a spirit of good fun. Our main areas of coincidence were Alleyn’s and school team football, Bruce Porter’s Idmiston Road Youth Club, Norwood Strikers FC, The Park Tavern, the Bon Bonne, AOBFC Strollers, South Bank Polytechnic, where we were both trainee surveyors, the RICS and, more latterly (for me), the Puerto Banus Posse, of which Alan was a founder member. There were also the various and numerous house parties in and around the West Norwood Area. I was also amazed to learn, some years ago, that he was such a good and long-term friend of Scott, who I have also known well, quite independently and coincidentally, for 47 years. Football clearly had a big role in both of our lives and Alan was a keen Crystal Palace supporter, while I am an Arsenal fan, which was much to Alan’s disgust.

Over the years we played in various teams together and Alan was a more than competent centre half and a very keen and fair competitor and you always knew that you could rely on him to make that last ditch, match winning tackle. Alan did play for Alleyn Old Boys for a few seasons but drifted away for a while, presumably to focus on his family and his fledgling construction business. However, in 1990, when I took over management of the AOBFC ‘Strollers’ I began courting him to try and persuade him to return and after a few seasons, he finally relented and rejoined us to participate in three or four very successful and enjoyable seasons, bringing with him his own particular brand of good humour. Once Alan committed himself to something, you could be secure in the knowledge that he was truly committed. During my five years as manager of the Strollers, we re-introduced the Easter tour but it was strictly with the proviso that wives and girlfriends would be invited too. Some of us had a deal of trepidation about this but we really shouldn’t have worried as every year the tour proved to be a great success. My memory here gets a little hazy but I believe that it was in Easter 1994 that we all travelled down to Bridgend and, on this particular occasion, the Parkers and the Dowies each brought their new baby girls, Stephanie and Lianne, with them. Some might have thought that this could have proved to be a hindrance but nothing could have been further from the truth. All of the tourists made a real fuss of them which gave Jackie the opportunity to be crowned ‘Ompty Pomp’ champion, which she completely deserved. I believe that it was also on this tour (although some might argue) that Alan really showed his true colours and his wonderful and admirable nature.  As part of the tour proceedings, on the Sunday evening after the game, we would have our ‘gala dinner’ and in preparation for this, I would spend an hour or so in the local shops, selecting the various tour awards. From the moment that Alan arrived on the Friday evening he demonstrated that he was in a particularly boisterous mood and this persisted for the whole weekend. My task was simple then – to provide him with an appropriate and fitting award. I confess that I don’t recall the actual form that the award took but the moment that I presented it to Alan will live with me forever. The title of his award was the ‘most obnoxious player on tour’ and, as I gave it to him, far from being angry or even a little miffed, he accepted it both with pride and great jollity. Indeed, he wore it as a badge of honour and I believe that he continued to treasure it. In fact, when the Puerto Banus Posse visited Torquay last year, he reminded me about it and it was still making him (and me) laugh. On the subject of Torquay last September, the six of us enjoyed a very relaxing and fun-filled long weekend and I realised that it was probably the closest that I had ever felt to Alan. In fact, at one point during the weekend, I don’t remember exactly where or when, Alan approached me and we gave each other a proper man hug, with real emotion and that is something that I’ve thought about continually, ever since Scott’s terrible phone call. A friend has just reminded me that two or three years ago we drove down to Hove to spend the afternoon and evening with Alan and Jackie and she has fond memories that this

culminated in Alan and her, both in a slightly inebriated state, dancing the night away together, while I chatted with Jackie. I’m afraid that Alan (and not Jackie) definitely got the better end of the deal!! That is another thing about Alan – he wasn’t judgemental – there were no hidden agendas with him – he was just a good friend.  Like me, all of the Strollers and their partners have been deeply affected by this and some wanted to offer their thoughts. John Smith observed that Alan was such a party animal and was, in fact, the life and soul of the party. Dave Hebden went further with the following: ‘I just remember Alan as a towering figure in our Vets team. He was always ready to give 100% in every situation and was someone who played a huge part in building the gr eat team spirit that we enjoyed over so many years. I can’t remember ever looking at him and not seeing a big broad smile on his face.’ I think that Dave’s words can be echoed by all of us. I know that Alan was very popular with all of the Strollers group, as he was with almost everybody that he came into contact with but he also didn’t suffer fools gladly or bow down to what he regarded as petty rules and regulations and I suspect that this was the reason why he finally resigned his membership of the RICS but in my view, that was their loss. We worked together on several build contracts, all of which were completed very successfully but sadly, circumstances dictated that this didn’t happen anywhere near as much as we both would have liked. He had a tendency to be ‘excitable’ at times but these were very rare aberrations. Alan was truly loyal, honourable, caring, trustworthy and genuinely good fun to be with and I, for one, am missing him and will continue to miss him very much and my heart goes out to Jackie, Lianne, Rachel and Little Alan.

John Parker (Brading’s 1968-73)