Five years ago Berwick Rangers Football Club invited their greatest-ever goalscorer back to Shielfield Park, Berwick and introduced him to the crowd at half-time in a home fixture.

What is interesting about this player is that prior to joining Berwick Rangers for the 1963-64 season he had done most of his goalscoring in the Northern League, and had started his footballing career as a goalkeeper with Newcastle Juniors.

Ken Bowron is the mystery man and he recalled his early days at Newcastle United. "I was goalkeeper for the Juniors at St.James's and understudy to Chris Harker.

When Chris moved up the pecking order at St James's I thought I would take his place. That didn't happen because the Junior coach Ted Hughes brought in someone else and I was demoted to the Junior Reserve team.

However I was keen as mustard and one Saturday turned up to watch the Junior's First team playing Grimsby. They only had ten men so Ted threw me the number nine shirt and said, 'Use your pace and run about up front.'

I did exactly as he said and scored 4 goals. So that was the start of my career as a striker and in the 1956-57 season I scored 41 goals in 29 games for Newcastle Juniors."

Ken, who was blessed with speed off the mark, (he had been Northumberland and Durham Schoolboy champion over 100 yards and 220 yards) went on to make a habit of scoring hat-tricks on his debut.

Sept 22, 1956

Three goals on debut for Durham City at Penrith in a 1-3 away win in the Northern League.

August 2nd, 1960

Three goals on debut for Willington in a 4-0 home win over Spennymoor in the Northern League.

February 11, 1961

Four goals on debut for Crook Town in a 1-5 win at Whitby in the Northern League.

ON Saturday April 29 1961 season he hit another hat-trick for Crook in a 2-3 win at Tow Law and then at the start of the following season, while at Whitley Bay, Ken hit 6 goals in a 12-0 win over Willington, Alan Milroy making his debut in goal for Willington.

Former team-mate Neal Walton said, "Ken was very much a penalty box player, and if the team needed a goal, all you had to do was feed the ball to Ken in the box and he would do the rest."

Having said that Ken's greatest ever goal involved a run from the half-way line. It came in a Scottish League Cup semi-final for Berwick against the mighty Glasgow Rangers at Hampden Park at the start of the 1963-64 season. Ken said, " We were 1-0 down at the time and it was approaching half-time when the ball was played to me just inside our half. I had my back to the Rangers goal and their centre half Dave McKinnon was right behind me. I flicked the ball to the left with my left foot but turned right to run round McKinnon. He did not know whether to follow me or the ball and I soon left him trailing. As I approached their penalty area Shearer, the Rangers right back, came across to close me down so I just hit the ball as hard as I could with my weak foot, the right one, and it flew past goalkeeper Richie into the net. However, although we gave Rangers a good fight we lost 3-1."

Another goalkeeper Ken has always remembered was Harry Sharratt of Bishop Auckland. "When I played against Harry he would sometimes try to dribble the ball out of the box and shout to me, 'Come on son try and get it' I did once and thumped it into the net."

Ken's only regret is that he signed professional forms with Berwick. "If I had signed Amateur forms I'm sure I would have won an England Amateur cap."

Ken Bowron scored a club record 50 goals for Berwick Rangers in the 1963-64 season and altogether finished with 114 goals in 136 games for the Scottish club.

John Phelan